SAN FRANCISCO ART GALLERIES OPENINGS
FIRST THURSDAY; 08.06.09
(with assistance from Laura Chenault, Kathryn Arnold,
RWM, DeWitt Cheng and Pakayla Biehn)

General comment by AB: I happen to be out of town this time around and would like to thank all involved for keeping the concern going. The images are entirely courtesy of Kathryn Arnold and Laura Chenault (except for DeWitt Cheng's of SomArts) and the reviews are authord by Chenault, Arnold, RWM and Cheng. The layout and photo-editing is the work of Pakayla Biehn. Thank you all! And now off we go to the creative races...

***

Toomey Tourell Fine Art: Works on Paper.

Artists: Josh Keller, Jeesoo Lee, Michael Russell, Brant Vest.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: This exhibition is marked by four artists working with various media all on paper. I will take you on a quick walk-through of the exhibition, beginning along the left side of the gallery as you walk in.

Michael Russell's very subtle works incorporate an almost minimalist sensibility and bring to mind the works of Agnes Martin. However Russell's works take the contemplative idea a step further as he mirrors his moments in time with his process, including disruptions, creating a more accurate and true recording.

Brant Vest's art is along the back wall-- I love it when the tangled tan ribbons form into shapes that resemble cartoon text blocks set against unified and repetitious striped pastel backgrounds. The inferences created by this combination are grand and I feel as though I am looking at a profound contextual moment. I like it when this happens.

Jeesoo Lee's works are along the right wall and Josh Keller's directly to the right of the entry door as you come in. The immediate area is so crowded the evening of the opening that I will need to go back and examine these works further. Also very subtle in color range and use of materials. Looks good!

Review by Laura Chenault: Brian Vest's large triptych immediately catches the eye because of its scale and large gold ribbon-y shapes in the middle of each piece. Their muted metallic sheens stand out from backgrounds filled with quiet stripes. Closer examination reveals small very textured altars on the floor. The detail in Jeesoo Lee's pieces is inviting. Looking like topographical maps or cityscapes, both the large-scale pen drawing and the smaller stitched pieces are intriguing because of the intimate, repetitive marks. Rows of Michael Russell drawings share this repetitive marking, but with much more subtle results and a very different outcome. They become faded texts or dot matrix graphs. Josh Keller's blurry photographs feature series of drawers filled with household items. Tools, utensils and plastic wrap are changed from the mundane to the ethereal in soft colors on soft paper.

***

George Lawson Gallery: Lorene Anderson - Invisible cities; Quentin Morris - Black Drawings; Chris Ashley, Roger Herman, David Maxim and Ward Schumaker - Selected Drawings (in the front room).

Review by Laura Chenault: Black tornados swirl in black ink in David Maxim's work. Ward Schumaker's pieces are layered paper, pigment and drawing on small cardboard rectangles.

Quentin Morris fills the Room for Paper with black, textured circles. With the exception of one massive circle the rest are exactly the same size and are perfectly installed. He works on found paper and the pieces are all about texture and layers of black highlights and shadows.

Large paintings fill the main gallery space (Room for Painting) in soft colors with organic marbled fields of color. They become landscapes seen from above. The amount of intricate detail draws you in close revealing fractal like versions of the whole.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: The gallery is quite crowded as I walk in to view these multiple shows all in one space. Greeted by drawings in the first room, I examine them to the best of my ability. I want to go back to view them more closely, give myself more time with them and to see the process the gallery is working with. According to their website, they pursue the concept of a group installation founded on theme-based ideas amongst multiple artists. Intrigue!

The back room displays the black works of Quentin Morris. The installation of the works enhances the quality (which is also gratifying-- just saying I appreciate how they are installed). And I am surprised to know that they are on paper. The black hole/circle briefly reminds me of Anish Kapoor's blue pigment hole/circle I saw years back on the gallery floor of the La Jolla Museum, a work that I felt I could enter into. The gallery space here almost feels like a submerged device that I am standing in and looking out on as the black circles evenly line both sides of the gallery walls. The surface quality on these works is mesmerizing and the photos from the opening highlight the scale of these black dots.

Lorene Anderson's intuitive process paintings are in the large room and incorporate a variety of materials including casein, acrylic, ink, and mica pigments. The works take on characteristics of underwater blooming flowers, spewing volcanoes and multiple additional interpretations based on this organic imagery. The colors are soft and pastel, rococo-like yet with seemingly explosive content defying the sense of pure pleasure, and the colors and activity are a stark contrast to the work in the adjacent room. The artist is a master at working with materials and the surfaces-- lush. I enjoy the literary references and am now interested in reading the novel of the same name, "Invisible Cities," to gain a deeper relationship with these works.

***

Caldwell Snyder: Art of Oaxaca.

Artists: Jose Villalobos, Alejandro Santiago, Guillermo Pacheco.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: Great collection of paintings on view, filled with color, line, images creating strong sense of feeling, emotion and more. These three very individual artists from Oaxaca hold strong their place alongside each other and contemporary art. Each are given a specific location in the gallery space.

Santiago's mixed media works on canvas contain loads of linear iconography-- figures, palms, animals form non-linear space and timelines. Strong chaotic expression fills the canvases and the viewer is immersed-- purely immersed. Like roughly drawn cave paintings, Santiago overlaps pictorial elements. He uses bright hues mixed with blended tones to develop color compositions that have a "stay with you" effect.

Villalobos' paintings use subtly shaded shapes in usually all-over compositions. Some feel like butterflies suspended in mid-air and are more organic in nature while others develop a strong structural sense, and when combined with the colors, create sensations of architecture. These are large abstract works, oil on canvas.

Pacheco's often uses compartmentalized pictorial devices in his art-- almost like containers with additional images superimposed. In some pieces, the artist combines elements of text and recognizable imagery, flat 2D shapes with linear motifs. Enticing surfaces are a part of his repertoire.

***

Sandra Lee Gallery: