artMRKT & ArtPadSF opening this week.

Hung Liu, The Sewer, 2013, oil on canvas, 72 x 72 inches. Nancy Hoffman Gallery

This is certainly proof of the old adage that when it rains, it pours. Two huge art fairs, opening in the same town, in the same week. 7x7SF has a game plan for those who are already overwhelmed: http://ht.ly/l48ZQ

artMRKT San Francisco, the Bay Area’s premier contemporary and modern art fair, opens today, May 15, at the Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason. The show will feature 70 galleries from around the globe, bringing some of the world’s most intriguing artists and galleries

Walter Robinson, Capitol Hill Billy, 2012; Plywood, steel, polyurethane plastic, rubber, digital print on tyvek; 32.5 x 32 x 21 inches. Catherine Clark

Regular hours: Friday, May 17, 2013 - 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.. Saturday, May 18, 2013 - 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sunday, May 19, 2013 - Noon to 6:00 p.m.

http://www.art-mrkt.com/sf

Daniel Green. Smell Sumo Feet Wrestlers. 2002. Creativity Explored

ArtPadSF, a smaller but edgier art fair opens tomorrow. Located in San Francisco Tenderloin district, the area is a bit rough around the edges but full of hidden treasure for the adventurous art seeker. The Phoenix Hotel closes to the public and turns 44 rooms for the creative and traveling into an art benefit for SF MOMA.

Over the course of the weekend, art patrons will be given the run of the hotel including the tropical courtyard. That's just for starters. The 4-day weekend promises more of the same, with screenings, panels, performances, access to a wide range of galleries and opportunities to talk to the artists.
http://artpadsf.com/

http://www.examiner.com/article/art-pad-and-artmrkt-opening-this-week-san-francisco

Jose Ramon Lerma at ArtZone 461. A 60-year retrospective

Lerma's paintings and collages, now on view at ArtZone 461, contain all the various threads of 60 years of art making in the Bay Area, including Abstract Expressionism, Funk Pop, and Conceptualism. The show is a slice of art history but it is also a tribute to the son of migrant workers who managed to live the life of an artist without compromising his integrity.

 Born in Hollister in 1930, Lerma was a long time Californian, a Chicano and the first in his family to attend college.

His 4th grade teacher was the first to recognize his talent and from then on, he painted constantly, copying Renaissance art from 10-cent books. Later, in 1949, another teacher helped him to get a scholarship to the California School of Fine Arts  (now SFAI).

The Korean War interrupted his schooling but when he returned to San Francisco, he continued his studies, studying under such Bay Area notables as Hassel Smith, Edward Corbett and James Budd Dixon.

The artist commented on his early years at the school as having, “…the most impact on my life and art.  The art world of the fifties was free of the market and its temptations.  There was a certain purity about it.”

He showed at the small galleries that came and went in the San Francisco of the 50’s – Sparas, the “Six” and even Ubu. He was part of a scene that included Alan Ginsberg's 1955's public reading of "Howl.' Lerma was part of the culture which valued making art over making a career as an artist.

“We were rebelling against some of the things that were going on in the city, “Lerma explains. “We wanted to be ourselves, to express things that were unique about the West Coast. We were not interested in following what was happening back East…It was a very spirited thing without much money... We were all outsider’s and we knew it, but we still wanted to show everybody what we were doing.”

Lerma lived the life of a Bohemian artist, painting as much as he could and not that interested in a career. At various times, he worked as a live-in baby sitter and later worked at Macy’s.  There he collected what would have been swept out the door – paper, fabric, and iconic images.

In the 70’s, he developed an allergy to oil paints and began making collages, constructions and the occasional installation. Some of the more interesting pieces in the show are his construction/collages, made from bits of yardstick and other building material from long lost SF landmark businesses such as Goodman Lumber.

Lerma experimented fearlessly across genres and avoided categorization.  The retrospective shows a representative example of his work but the show is confusing because the works are not all hung chronologically. The strongest visual piece in the show is a figure drawing in black and white while his collages and assemblages reveal a quirky, questioning look at American icons such as Mickey Mouse and art goddess Frieda Kahlo. The abstract pieces are less successful, showing but not integrating influences as widely diverse as Jackson Pollock’s drip pieces and the stylized Zen landscapes of Mt. Tam. According to gallery owner, Steve Lopez, their matt surface is due to the use of inexpensive oil paint, a frugal choice made necessary by Lerma's finances.

Lerma’s fierce independence and refusal to play the art game have impacted his visibility. He lived his life as a seeker after his own truth, not looking for financial security or career success. He lived without compromising his principles and has never regretted it. For that reason alone, his art is worth recognizing and respecting. If Diaogenes were alive today and looking for an honest man, he would recognize a kindred spirit in José Ramón Lerma. (all images courtesy of the gallery).

http://artzone461.com/gallery_/home.html

http://www.examiner.com/list/jos-ram-n-lerma-at-artzone-461-a-60-year-retrospective

Isabelle de Borchgrave at Serge Sorokko, Suhas Bhujbal at Dolby Chadwick:

Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave, whose "Pulp Fashion" exhibition of historical gowns made of paper was the Fine Arts Museums most-attended show in 2011 is back in San Francisco with a smaller show of Fortuny pleated dresses, textile-like paintings and new bronze clothing sculptures at the Serge Sorokko Gallery.

Isabelle de Borchgrave began her studies at the age of 14 at the Centre des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels.  She went on to establish her own studio designing dresses, jewelry, and accessories, and later specialized in designing fabrics. Following a 1994 visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, she dreamed up the idea of paper costumes, for which she has become world renowned. 

Isabelle de Borchgrave: "New Paintings and Sculptures" is a departure from the work shown at the Legion. Instead of the monochromatic palate of the earlier show, the works at Sorokko feature pieces in vibrant colors, tribal patterns, and ethnic textiles

Borchgrave. Petite Chapeau

Works on paper are meticulously hand painted with bold patterns and then folded into an origami-like, accordion-style canvas. Elaborately painted life-size kimonos pose across from de Borchgrave's paper pleated Grecian dresses modeled after Fortuny's famous pleated silk Delphos gowns. And across from those fragile forms are dense corsets of worn patinas. Small scale sculptures of jewelry-like neckpieces are juxtaposed with larger-scale bronze works.

In de Borchgrave's art, the starting point is almost always the same: sheets of paper one meter by one and a half meters (3.3 feet by 4.9 feet), which she sets to work on with her brushes and paints on an enormous linen-covered table in her studio in Brussels. "Her colors, reports The New York Times, "are very much inspired by her travels: reds from the roses of Turkey, earth hues from Egypt, blues from Greece...Borchgrave produces astonishing effects of scintillating color, weight, transparency and texture. Her renderings of diaphanous gauzes are especially astonishing."

The exhibit is an expertly curated display of the artist's range and unique ability to transform a common medium into the otherworldly. Givenchy puts it beautifully, "Isabelle is one of a kind. She plays with paper as a virtuoso plays an instrument."

Best of all for those with a bit of spare change -you can now buy the dresses at a mere $45,000 per item.

Exhibit on view through Sat. April 20 at Serge Sorokko Gallery, 55 Geary St., sorokko.com

Suhas Bhujbal at Dolby Chadwick: The Indian born artist, more known for his geometric compositions, has new work which fuses his previous fascination with urban landscape with luminous figurative works.

 Bhujbal. Getting Ready for the Day

During a 2011 trip to Cat Island in the central Bahamas, artist Suhas Bhujbal found something he craved: peace and quiet. The island's lifestyle -- one in which people gather on the beach and enjoy each other's company -- reminded him of his childhood in India. "I appreciate the simplicity in life," he comments. "I paint what I see, experience, and feel. It is really about falling in love in that moment and bringing that on the canvas in a visual form."

Bhujbal. Hanging Out.

 Suhas Bhujbal: "Dialogues" from 
April 4 -- 27, 2013
. Dolby Chadwick Gallery. 
10 Post Street
San Francisco. http://www.dolbychadwickgallery.com

http://www.examiner.com/list/isabelle-de-borchgrave-at-serge-sorokko-suhas-bhujbal-at-dolby-chadwick

Museum of Craft & Design reopens, Misrach's 'Cancer Alley' at the Cantor

After losing their space in 2010, the Museum of Craft and Design has finally found a new home in the old American Can Company factory on the edge of Dogpatch, San Francisco's latest trendy district. The public opening kicks off tomorrow, Saturday April 6, 2013, with a community celebration of the new museum and inaugural exhibits.
The new location is at 2569 Third Street in San Francisco. For more information, go to sfmcd.org.

At the Cantor: Revisiting the South: Richard Misrach’s "Cancer Alley"

Like the Western landscapes for which Misrach is best known, these photographs challenge viewers with environmental, political and social concerns while engaging them with evocative and lyrically beautiful large-scale prints. In focusing on the delicate state of the Mississippi River, Misrach signals not just the environmental challenges facing the South but also the larger costs of our modern world at the dawn of the 21st century. His photographs are a stark commentary on the concentration of petrochemical complexes located along this 100-mile stretch of the Mississippi River.

For the 85 miles between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the haunting swamplands of the Mississippi River corridor—called America’s wetland for its biological value to the nation—bump up against the sprawling refineries and paraphernalia of the petrochemical industry. Industry leaders call this stretch of the Mississippi, sandwiched between 150-plus oil and gas plants on both sides of its devastated banks, Chemical Corridor. But locals—who blame the millions of pounds of toxic chemicals pouring out of industry smokestacks every year for high rates of miscarriages, cancer, respiratory ailments and other serious diseases—have another name for it. They call it Cancer Alley.

Looking through Misrach’s lens, the viewer comes to realize that Cancer Alley’s industrial corridor—which produces almost one-third of America’s gasoline, plastics and other chemicals—is generating a lethal combination of pollutants that is quietly deteriorating local communities and watersheds, leaving behind only cryptic relics of what was once a richly diversified past.

Hazardous Waste Containment Site, Dow Chemical Corporation, Mississippi River, Plaquemine, Louisiana, negative 1998, print 2012

But his images do more than hint at pollution and death: The petrochemical industry reveals itself as an omnipresent and brazen specter through the photographs’ rusted pipelines, mammoth tankers and tangles of steel, concrete and smokestacks belching noxious fumes and toxins into the air and water.

The exhibition “Revisiting the South: Richard Misrach’s Cancer Alley” highlights the severe environmental degradation of the Mississippi River corridor from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. The show, which includes 19 large-scale color photographs and 14 contact sheets, is on view from March 27 to June 16, 2013 at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford.

http://www.examiner.com/article/museum-of-craft-and-design-reopens-misrach-s-cancer-alley-at-the-cantor?CID=examiner_alerts_article

The week ahead: Modernism, Walt Disney, RayKo Photography Center Show

Kraemer's work, now up at Modernism, is stunning. The range of work in the current exhibition dates from 1993 to 2013, with the older work just as fresh as the current batch. The exhibition announcement features “This Much,” a large (74” x 95 ½”) breakthrough work in pastel, acrylic and charcoal on paper from 1993.

The "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" show at the Disney Museum was more interesting that I thought it would be. I think that "Peter Pan" was the first cartoon that I remember seeing, which lead to some interesting experiments in thinking that I could fly. Hey, I was only 7. But the show was a revelation to see how skillful and detailed the early cartoons were.

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-week-ahead-modernism-walt-disney-rayko-photo-centerhttp://www.examiner.com/article/the-week-ahead-modernism-

Drop In Jazz

Sometimes you just want to sit down and listen to live jazz. Starting at 6:30PM many nights, you can drop in and listen to student jazz concerts at The Jazz School in Berkeley.

The basement concert room of the school is adjacent to the Jazz Cafe, about a half block from the Addison/Shattuck exit of the Berkeley BART station, right near Berkeley Rep.

The night I was there, I enjoyed hearing a piano player accompanying a procession of young jazz singers. I left during the set break, after which a jazz ensemble was to perform.

Most nights are free, including a special event this Sunday, Jazz Search West 2013 talent search.

The FBI has new leads on the 1990 robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Govaert Flinck’s Landscape with an Obelisk (1638)

On Monday, March 18, the art world was galvanized by the information that the FBI has  identified the perpetrators in the $500 million art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. Investigators have long been baffled for decades over the theft.

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990 the robbers entered the museum and tied up two night watchmen. Once in, they roamed the galleries with impunity, picking off the cream of the fabulous collection. The robbery was not discovered until the next morning. 

 Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633)

The stolen works include: Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), A Lady and Gentleman in Black (1633) and a Self Portrait (1634), an etching on paper; Vermeer’s The Concert (1658–1660); and Govaert Flinck’s Landscape with an Obelisk (1638); and a Chinese vase or Ku, all taken from the Dutch Room on the second floor. Also stolen from the second floor were five works on paper by the Impressionist artist Edgar Degas and a finial from the top of a pole support for a Napoleonic silk flag, both from the Short Gallery. Edouard Manet’s Chez Tortoni (1878–1880) was taken from the Blue Room on the first floor.

A decade ago, an attempt was made to sell some of the 13 artworks, including three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a portrait by Edouard Manet, and sketches by Renoir. But the location of the stolen masterworks is still unknown.

 Vermeer’s The Concert (1658–1660)

Richard DesDesLauriers, special agent in charge of the Boston office of the FBI, said that "the probe “accelerated” in 2010 and “crucial pieces of evidence” were developed identifying the robbers and their associates.

“The FBI believes with a high degree of confidence in the years after the theft the art was transported to Connecticut and the Philadelphia region and some of the art was taken to Philadelphia where it was offered for sale by those responsible for the theft. With that confidence, we have identified the thieves, who are members of a criminal organization with a base in the mid-Atlantic states and New England,” stated DesLauriers,

DesLauriers added that because the investigation is continuing it would be “imprudent” to disclose their names or the name of the criminal organization. He said the probe was in its “final chapter.”

Officials are seeking help from the public and will be launching a massive public awareness campaign that will stretch beyond New England. Among the exposure tactics will be a dedicated FBI website, video postings on FBI social media sites, digital billboards, and a podcast. To view and listen to these items, visit the FBI’s new webpage about the theft: www.FBI.gov/gardner.

 There is a $5 million reward for information on the whereabouts of the missing art. The statute of limitations has run out on the robbers, and they might be granted immunity for other charges, such as possessing the stolen paintings.

 

Arts journalist Lee Rosenbaum, who writes the art blog "Culture Grrl" added further details about Boston Globe reporter Milton Valencia‘s Twitter feed from the news conference. His tweets suggests that the hunt may be moving to Philadelphia.

Special Agent Geoffrey Kelly, who is the lead investigator in the case nd a member of the Art Crime Team. “In the past, people who realize they are in possession of stolen art have returned the art in a variety of ways, including through third parties, attorneys, and anonymously leaving items in churches or at police stations.”

If you have a tip, call : 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Or you can go to this website: https://tips.fbi.gov. In addition, the press release gives you permission to “contact…the museum directly or through a third party.” Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

http://www.examiner.com/list/the-fbi-provides-new-information-on-the-1990-isabella-stewart-gardner-art-heist