Bay Area top ten art picks for 2014

 Vuillard from the "Intimate Impressions" show at the Legion


I am going over my articles for the year - I wrote a lot more than I thought I did and it's not all bad either. Some of the works, like the "Hagaddah" by Arthur Szyk, touched me deeply and others - like the "Masters of Fire" at the Legion - intrigued me. I was saddened by the lost of so many galleries and gladdened to find out that some -like Meridian and Roots - managed to survive eviction, find new spaces and continue on their mission. It's hard to limit the list to ten; the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford deserves a separate list for their shows on Robert Frank and Charleton Watkins as well as the new art spaces curated by DeWitt Cheng.

http://www.examiner.com/article/bay-area-top-ten-art-picks-for-2014

@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz. http://www.examiner.com/article/ai-weiwei-s-songs-of-freedom-on-alcatraz

Jackson Pollock

Joan Mitchell, Sunflowers

First on everybody's list is the new museum in Stanford:. http://www.examiner.com/article/the-anderson-collection-at-stanford-opens-to-the-public

My next choice for one of the most beautiful, spiritual, and ethical shows of the year was the Arthyr Szyk exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum: http://www.examiner.com/article/arthur-szyk-and-the-art-of-the-haggadah

"Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art" at the Legion of Honor. http://www.examiner.com/article/weekend-picks-for-march-28-30

Tetsuya Ishida: Saving the World with a Brushstroke" at the Asian Art Museum.  http://www.examiner.com/article/bay-area-art-picks-for-november-14-20th

“Roads of Arabia” at the Asian Art Museum. On everybody’s top ten list, although it is equal parts archaeology and art history (censored to exclude the ancient Jewish and Christian communities in the Arabian peninsula before the rise of Islam). http://www.examiner.com/article/roads-of-arabia-explores-the-arabian-peninsula-s-ancient-past

"Masters of Fire" at the Legion of Honor. This was another show that is equal parts art and archaeology: http://www.examiner.com/article/masters-of-fire-at-the-legion-of-honor

 Zheng Chongbin

 Li Huayi

A real eye opener for me - Contemporary Chinese calligraphy married to modern art. The Chinese painters in this show - Li Huayi, Wang Tiande, Zheng Chongbin and Lu Chuntao come from such a long tradition of using ink and manipulating the brush to create art that that is such an integral part of Chinese culture that it is imprinted in their DNA. http://www.examiner.com/article/li-huayi-wang-tiande-zheng-chongbin-and-lu-chuntao-at-nanhai

Ursula O'Farrell

Women artists in the Bay Area: From the sidewalk, Mythos Gallery looks like just another nondescript storefront off busy Shadduck Avenue in Berkeley. But if the viewer takes a second look, he (or she) will see one of the most powerful – if smallest – exhibitions of women artists from the 1950’s through today. The exhibition at Mythos Gallery is the first of two to showcase women painters who arose out of the Abstract Expressionist and Figurative artistic movements of the 1950's. http://www.examiner.com/article/beauty-fierce-as-stars-groundbreaking-women-painters-at-mythos-gallery

Romare Bearden at Jenkins Johnson: http://www.examiner.com/article/storyteller-works-by-romare-bearden-at-jenkins-johnson

'Beauty Fierce as Stars*, Groundbreaking Women Painters' at Mythos Gallery

From the sidewalk, Mythos Gallery looks like just another non-descript storefront off busy Shadduck Avenue in Berkeley. But if the viewer takes a second look, he (or she) will see one of the most powerful – if smallest – exhibitions of women artists from the 1950’s through today. The exhibition at Mythos Gallery is the first of two to showcase women painters who arose out of the Abstract Expressionist and Figurative artistic movements of the 1950's.

http://www.examiner.com/article/beauty-fierce-as-stars-groundbreaking-women-painters-at-mythos-gallery

Anonymous Was A Woman 2011 awards

Anonymous Was A Woman announced the ten artists selected to receive the Foundation’s annual award. The “no strings” grant of $25,000 enables women, over 45 years of age and at a critical juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow and pursue their work. Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, director of the program, explained, “Anonymous Was A Woman Awards are synonymous with important recognition in artists’ personal and artistic development. The financial gift helps artists buy time, space, materials, and equipment, often at early stages of a new project, and, sometimes, recover from traumatic life events. In itself, the Award helps artists feel recognized and honored by other distinguished women who seek no credit for the role they play.”

Jungjin Lee, Buddha on hand made paper.

For me the real beauty in photography is not the end product but the process. My images are a means of metaphorical expression: not a representation of the actual world, or a reconstitution of visual beauty, but a basis for fundamental meditation. The photographs represent thoughts incapable of being expressed in words, asserted, or emphasized as a single argument. My THING series, unlike my past works, approached me from objects which were near and familiar to me. The familiarity means a waiting and a private communication between the thing and myself. And that familiarity turns into an estrangement through the vacating of thoughts. The act of vacating, like the blank spaces of my work, makes the thing dream of itself as well as me.

More award winners at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/anonymous-was-a-woman-2011-awards