Miles of Art to See: Art Market SF 2015

Last Friday I visited San Francisco's annual Art Market.  I had heard about it but had never been, so I didn't really know what I was getting in to.  Art Market SF reminds me of other expo type events.  If you have ever been to the Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco or an event like WonderCon (I use this as an example because I used to attend it when it was still at the Moscone Center), it's that same kind of experience.  It's a full immersion in the subject, with people who are excited about the same subject excitedly talking about it and snapping pictures.  Purely on appearance, though, it is more like a really large gallery.  And in essence, I suppose that is what it is.

There was quite a lot to see and I am dismayed to realize I did not see all of it.  It is a whirlwind of art that I would have loved to appreciate and contemplate on, without the seas of people.  But there is a certain energy in the room when everyone is interested in the same thing, and are excited about that thing, so that was interesting too.

Electric Works, San Francisco, CA.

There were white gallery-esque walls that were erected in the space, creating cubicles for each gallery.  The galleries at the event were from all of the major art center of the United States, and some from other countries.  In the center of the large building was a lounge area and in the back, a bar.

Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

Most of the gallery spaces were organized in a very typical way, sometimes with a theme but often not.  However, I was really impressed by the space pictured above.  Though the works were by different artists and were in different mediums, they were all somewhat color-coded which I thought gave the space an interesting synergy.  I would be interested in visiting the gallery to see if this sort of creative placement of the works carries to the actual gallery space.  It is also interesting to think about whether or not this kind of organization detracts from the individual works of art.  Personally, I find it compelling and my mind wants to take these art objects and puzzle them together. 

Brett Amory, Johnny at Hollywood Center Hotel, 2015.

It's hard to miss Johnny, pictured above, since the installation is placed right next to the bar, creating a sort of interaction between the art and life in the room.  The installation seems to recall Edward Hopper's imagery, but instead of the flatness of paintings, Amory creates a compelling three dimensional scene.  The walls of the outside of the hotel room are made from wood panels that expand back into the space and the portion of the work that shows the inside of the room is painted on a flat piece.  The formal concepts of the work add to the theme of isolation.  Johnny is both in our world and not.  

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: Harem Beauty #1, 2008.

I was also drawn to Lalla Essaydi's work and the allusion it draws to the work by Shirin Neshat.  If there is a link between these artists I am interested in the connotations of the combination of this woman being written on and over with henna, a common wedding tradition in Moracco, the title of Harem Beauty and the feminist themes of Neshat's Women of Allah.  Very much like Neshat's Women of Allah series, this work is from a series titled Les Femmes du Maroc, or The Women of Moracco.

Lalla Essaydi, detail of Les Femmes du Maroc: 

Harem Beauty #1, 2008.

Chris Dorosz's Stasis pieces from the Scott Richards Contemporary Art Gallery in San Francisco were fascinating.  The pieces consist of small plastic rods with drops of multi-colored acrylic paint on them that when shown together create small scenes of people.  It's incredible how lifelike and real the figures look, like they are actually in stasis on these plastic shelves.  When looking at them from different angles, the figures seem to go from full bodied and life-like to barely-there which brings up questions of permanency and even human existence.

Chris Dorosz, Stasis 08 and Stasis 97, 2015.

Below are a selection of photographs by Albert Delamour from the Michele Marimaud Gallery in New York.  These photographs are very whimsical in nature and bring up themes of freedom.  The entire selection in the gallery's space was whimsical.  Projections of fairies hovered in jars, robots made up of famous landmark buildings and puffy cartoon-like metal clouds covered portions of the walls.  It was definitely a fun space to be in. 

Michele Mariaud Gallery, New York, NY.

I very much enjoyed the time I spent at Art Market SF and I will gladly return next year.  I only wish that I was able to see everything there was to see and really look at the works like I wanted to.  

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Emerging Legacies: The 19th Annual New Generations Student Showcase

In the same trip as South of Market and Botticelli to Braque, I came across a really wonderful exhibit. Divergence: Emerging Legacies was a three day juried new generations student showcase that included student work from northern California art schools and universities.  The event also included an undergraduate art history symposium which I would have loved to attend, but sadly could not make it to.  I was blown away by the inventive spirit and energy in this small exhibit.  It was crowded, the artists bunched together around their works to take pictures on what I am sure was a momentous day for them.

The piece below, Mass of Dignity, is what initially drew me to the room.  The painting is captivating, yet I haven't been able to figure out exactly why.  The figure is staring blankly out at the audience, yet I feel like it is also imploring.  Paint runs down the canvas, over the composition starting from the figure's left eye, which strongly reminds me of the work of Hung Liu.  Without context I can ponder, but I wonder if there is a link between Hung Liu's theme of making good work and the "dignity" expressed in the title.

Yi Shin Chiang, Mass of Dignity, 2014, Oil on Canvas.

Another work that really interested me was the sculptural work by Alyssa Eustaquio, pictured below.  On a tall, pink, sparkly base small, silver high heeled shoes lay inside a clear box. The heels are cast silver, and as the artists titled her work, Barbie I Can Be...Standard Heels, the heels represent the standard heel of the american Barbie. The artist is literally putting these tiny heels on a pedestal and behind glass.  (Though the work does not actually note whether the clear box is made from plastic or glass, the symbolism is still there.  In fact, if the box is actually made from plastic, that could say something interesting about the idea of the female ideal.)  Putting the Barbie shoes on a pedestal glorifies them, gives them the importance the idea of "Barbie" often has for young girls.  If Barbie represents the female ideal, then this artist is showing that in all of its absurdity.  It's even more interesting to me that these shoes were cast, hand made, in metal, making them even less attainable.  But perhaps that is why the artist puts the shoes on this girly pedestal behind a glass box, to show the complete nonattainability of Barbie and all that she represents.

Alyssa Eustaquio, Barbie I Can Be...Standard Heels, 

2015, Cast Silver, sparkle and pink.

Jizhi Li exhibited extraordinary face adornments at the show.  I noticed on her business card that she is listed as a jewelry designer, which I think is interesting considering the relatively unwearable nature of her pieces.  Truly wearable or not, they are quite magnificent.  Pictured below is her eye adornment, which resembles a steampunk-looking fractured masquerade mask, from her Look at my Face set.  The other piece is a teeth adornment that covers the mouth.  While fascinating on a purely visual level, the title of the work also makes me wonder about feminist ideas connected to the pieces.  

Jizhi Li, Look at my face:  Eye adornment, 2014, Silver, brass, bronze.

Another piece that attracted me was Junyan Huo's Rorschach Hou Test I.  This piece is obviously meant to resemble a Rorschach Test, but what interested me the most was how all the figures look like women flailing or dancing around.  The intensity of the contrast of the black and white adds to the appeal of the piece, making your attention completely hone in on the black composition.  I do not know what Huo is saying with this piece, but if a Rorschach Test is supposed to show your inner self and how you perceive the world, I think this piece could speak of the artist's desire to be free.

Junyan Huo, Rorschach Hou Test I, 2015, 

Archival pigment inkjet print.

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Janet Delaney at the de Young

This weekend after a disastrous attempt to attend a lecture at the San Francisco Art Institute, I visited the de Young hoping to view the museum's featured Botticelli to Braque: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland and Janet Delaney's South of Market exhibit.  Botticelli to Braque was exquisite, a wonderful survey of the major periods of art in the renaissance to modern eras.  I highly recommend seeing it while it's so readily available.  South of Market is very much worth seeing as well.  Janet Delaney deals with the issues of gentrification in a very interesting, observational and often subtle way.

I first became aware of Janet Delaney through a lecture at this year's Art History Symposium, held at Sacramento State.  When I realized that one of the works that was heavily referred to in the talk by Bridget Gilman was being featured so close to home, I had to see it for myself.

South of Market explores the South of Market district in San Francisco in the late seventies and eighties.  During this time period, South of Market was under redevelopment.  Delaney documents the effects of gentrification on the people living and working in the South of Market area during this time.  Delaney photographed new buildings that were built, like the office building pictured below, and the massive Moscone Center.  The Moscone Center displaced people from their homes, and had a large impact on the people who lived in the region.  It seems to me that the issues surrounding the Moscone Center, built in 1981, reflect some of the same issues the citizens of Sacramento have had about the new downtown Sacramento Kings arena.  Though, of course, a difference is that in 1981 people were being kicked out of their homes, but there's still a connection to be made there.

First Office Building in the Redevelopment Zone, Lapu-Lapu Street, 1980.

Delaney's series of photographs also depicts small businesses and business owners, like the photograph below, which shows an all-female car repair shop.  These photographs seem to glorify the small business owner somewhat, while also showing businesses that would not be allowed to thrive in a big-business situation.  The photographs are clear, crisp with a more muted color palette, which seems to give them a seriousness and an importance.  

Labyris Auto Repair, "Complete Car Care by Women," 240 Sixth Street, 1982.

Another major theme of the work is evictions.  In Eviction, a family is being forced to leave their home, while a crew of painters makes the house look new, high class even.

Eviction, 158-160 Langton Street, 1980.

The wall in the photograph below reads, "Tim O'Shea: How many people are you evicting this month? How many next month?"  It clearly shows the distress of the people in the region and the effects that gentrification was having on the public.

Saturday Afternoon, Howard between 

Third and Fourth Streets, 1980. 

South of Market is a really interesting way to experience this time period in San Francisco's history.  It also makes the viewer aware of and question the merits of tearing down something in order to build something else up.  Overall, the series of photographs is not overly pessimistic or hopeful.  Whether Delaney was trying to get something across to the viewer about gentrification as a whole or not, the work comes across as mostly purely observational.  Any conclusions drawn are up to the viewer.

South of Market will be on view at the de Young in San Francisco through July 19th.   

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Revisiting the Feet of Pistoletto

Last month I reviewed Lumpen, an installation by Julia Couzens and Ellen Van Fleet.  Julia Couzens' work, Standing on the Feet of Pistoletto, Memory Conspires to Mobilize a Blanket of Dreams was still yet unfinished at that point, according to the artist.  On April 15th, the day before the exhibit closed, I revisited the gallery to see how the installation by Couzens had changed.

Standing on the Feet of Pistoletto, 

Memory Conspires to Mobilize a Blanket of Dreams.

In my previous review I theorized that the objects were climbing the wire and binding themselves together, to create this blanket of dreams flying off.  But, in Couzens' revised installation, the items seem to create some sort of vehicle.  The shape of the installation reminds me of some sort of air craft, the stacks of covered bricks and wooden planks acting as wings.

Detail of Standing on the Feet of Pistoletto, 

Memory Conspires to Mobilize a Blanket of Dreams.

Julia Couzens uses many of the same objects as she did earlier in the installation, but there seems to be a different kind of energy exuding from the piece now.  There is something more joyful and free to the installation now, which I feel fits with title.

Detail of Standing on the Feet of Pistoletto, 

Memory Conspires to Mobilize a Blanket of Dreams.

The way that the bricks are stacked here brings them more to the focus of the piece, instead of just being the foundation of the 'bed'.  They still act as foundation, as they underlying ground pieces.  But, the higher stacks and mix of brightly colored bricks brings more life to them.

Detail of Standing on the Feet of Pistoletto, 

Memory Conspires to Mobilize a Blanket of Dreams.

One of the newest and most fascinating features of the installation are the bundles attached to the wall, pictured below.  They are anchored to the piece by chains, but their attachment to the wall makes them appear to be floating in the air instead of being weighed down.

Detail of Standing on the Feet of Pistoletto, 

Memory Conspires to Mobilize a Blanket of Dreams.

I am very intrigued by Couzens' revisions to her piece and I would be very curious to know whether the artist believed that the work was done and if she was happy with the results, if she felt like it had revealed itself to her.

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Here As Everywhere, Sac State's 11th Art History Symposium

On April 11th, the art department at Sacramento State held it's eleventh annual Art History Symposium.  This year's symposium, titled Here as Everywhere: Art of the Sixties and Seventies in Northern California, dealt with re-looking at regional art in Northern California in the post World War II decades and the relation of Northern Californian artists to the entire world of art.  The symposium consisted of five speakers, including a keynote by Michael Schwager.


The keynote speaker, Michael Schwager of Sonoma State University, spoke on the fifties and early sixties in a lecture titled Don't Hide the Madness: Bay Area Art in the 1950's and 60's, named after the Allen Ginsberg poem, On Burrough's Work.  For much of his talk, Schwager concentrated on the California School of Fine Arts, now San Francisco Art Institute, and specific artists who he thought were paramount to understand art in the bay area at this time.


After talking about some of the stereotypes of the 1950's, Schwager started off by speaking about the widespread peace movement in art at the time and how San Francisco artist, Wally Hedrick, painted Peace Flag in 1953, a year before Japer Johns' famous Flag.  Hedrick took the fatalities of the Korean War personally, according to Schwager, and was vehemently anti-war.

Wally Hedrick, Peace Flag, 1953.

The California School of Fine Arts, Schwager explained, was the center of abstract expressionism in the bay area.  It was also home to some prominent female artists, notably Deborah Remington, Jay DeFeo, Joan Brown and Sonia Gretchoff, and African American artists, like Hayward King, making it seem more accepting of diversity in the fifties, unlike its New York counterparts.

Schwager emphasized artists like Peter Voulkos, the revolutionary ceramic sculptor, Bruce Connor, Richard Diebenkorn, Manual Neri, and Joan Brown.  These artists were of the Beat generation and often dealt with isolation, depression, and fears of nuclear destruction.



Dr. Makeda Best, an associate professor at California College of the Arts, gave a talk on political posters during the sixties and seventies, titled Radicalizing the Artistic: Production Models, Techniques, and Forms of the Political Poster in the 1960s and 1970s.  Dr. Best spoke about the history of using posters to show concern, for college students to protest, and for civil rights activists to promote their message.  She concentrated on the posters by Garcia and Montoya, two artists of the Chicano Movement.  Best is interested in how these artists work in with print work on a national scale, opposed to a regional one.

Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan, Cornucopia, 1974.

Next on the roster was Bridget Gilman who spoke about responses to gentrification through art in the late seventies in San Francisco in a lecture titled Urban Transformation and Aesthetic Experimentation: Responses to Gentrification in 1970s San Francisco.  Gilman concentrated primarily on billboards that represented the shifting landscape of San Francisco.  Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan experimented with billboards as shown in their Cornucopia from 1974 and their Oranges on Fire billboard that resulted after their billboard was covered by a Sunkist advertisement in 1975. Their Ties billboard, 1978,  moved to the financial district after being in a more industrial area representing the shift in San Francisco. Gilman also focused on artist, Janet Delaney, who worked against the ideas of gentrification.  Gilman sees landscapes as a complex, critical tool.

Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan, Oranges on Fire, 1975.

Matthew Weseley spoke on Robert Colescott's Search for Identity.  After a trip to Egypt, Colescott fully realized his non-European identity and began to paint satirical, comic inspired paintings on the theme of racist stereotypes.  Paintings like The Green Glove Rapist and Aunt Jemima's Pancakes featured minstrel figures and dealt with sexual harassment, racism, and commercialism. 

The final speaker of the event was Nicolas Rosenthal, who spoke on Native American art in a talk titled, Painting a Cultural Resurgence: California Indian Artists in the 1960s and 1970s.  According to Rosenthal, New Mexico and Oklahoma are most well known for being the narrative of Native American art, but there was a vibrant scene in Northern California in the sixties and seventies as well.  California art was less hindered by the idea that Native American art had to be what was considered traditional Indian art.  Rosenthal discussed artists like Frank Day, Frank LaPena, Jean LaMarr, Brian Tripp, and Harry Fonseca to show California's colorful, rich history of Native American art. In Frank LaPena's Bear Dancer, Native American oral history and research was interpreted.  In Harry Fonseca's Coyote works, the artist commented on modern culture and Native Americans.  According to Frank LaPena, who was in the audience, the message of Indian art is universal to all indigenous peoples on a global scale.

Frank LaPena, Bear Dancer, 1983.

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Award Winners: Sac State's Student Purchase Awards

Currently on view in the Union Gallery at Sacramento State are the results from the university's Student Purchase Awards.  The artworks selected for the awards are chosen by art professionals and then are purchased by the university to put into the gallery's collection.  The artworks are not united in theme, method, or style but in quality.  Some of my favorites and discussed below, but I hope you will go see the exhibition for yourself.

Dawn Kwan-Nam Chan, Van Gogh's Blue Period, 

Acrylic on Canvas.

Van Gogh's Blue Period is quite obviously a homage to Van Gogh's famous portraits.  However, Dawn Kwan-Nam Chan seems to be connecting Van Gogh to Picasso's highly melancholic Blue Period through the title. The painting seems to be bleeding paint.  There is a smudge off-white, peach colored paint over his ear, which could be a reference to Van Gogh famously slicing off his ear.  The dark blue paint dripping off the canvas invokes blood, but it also reminds me of Van Gogh's dependent relationship with paint.  It is like the paint has become his blood.

Angelina Sorokin, detail of Topographic Map of Heaven, 

Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas.

The colors and movement of Angelina Sorokin's painting are fascinating, but it is even more so when combined with the title, Topographic Map of  Heaven.  This is a case when the title gives a rich context for the mind to play in.  

Evan Purdy, detail of Apache Man, Charcoal on Paper.

Apache Man, which holds third place in this year's awards, is incredibly detailed and emotional.  I was first struck by the look on this man's face.  It is something like sadness, or maybe dejection.  The size and monochrome nature of the artwork adds to the overall melancholy of the drawing.  I was shocked to find that this drawing was in charcoal.  This drawing must have been very difficult, yet it transcends just technical expertise and relays powerful emotion.

Caiti Chan, detail of Anonymous, House Paint on Canvas.

In my previous post on Commune, a previous exhibition in the Union Gallery, I  discussed Caiti Chan's Grandmother.  The technique is very similar in Anonymous, but the way the paint is packed on seems to refer to a different sort of person and personality than that of her grandmother.  I really enjoy the way Chan's paintings are both abstract and representational.  Though there is a face, the character of the individual is not shown so much in expression but in the color and application of paint.

Catherine Suan, detail of Transcendence, Oil on Canvas.

I really respond to Catherine Suan's portrayal of this young girl in Transcendence.  It is abstract in a way, overlaying these cubist shapes over her portrait.  But the triangular shapes seem to act more like ice or glass breaking away from the girl.  It is as if the girl was encased in ice and she is finally breaking free, transcending.  The colors of the painting make this transcending process feel light, gentle, and ultimately illuminating.

Mustafa Shaheen, Omar F., Oil on Canvas.

Of what I've seen of the artist's work so far, Mustafa Shaheen consistently makes these incredible, multi-color portraits.  In Omar F., the subject is shaving his face, a simple, everyday task made reverent.  The bright colors and luminous shine to the lighter color values brings the beautiful to the mundane.  Omar F. placed first.

Steven Berroteran, The Body, Ink Set Photos.

The Body, by Steven Berroteran and second place winner, is utterly fascinating.  Different parts of the nude body are photographed and displayed, but the contortions, the views and the crops are done in a way that distorts the body.  All that is visible then is the beauty of line, texture and movement.  You can look at the photographs and try to map out what each photograph is portraying (is it a knee, a hip, an arm?) but when it comes down to it, that is not what is of true importance here.  The beauty of the human body is at its peak here.

The Student Purchase Awards will be on view at the Union Gallery at Sacramento Sate until April 23.

Me, gazing at Green Spring by Tammy Helenske.

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