'Earthquake' opens at the California Academy of Sciences

A whole lotta shaking going on....

http://www.examiner.com/article/earthquake-opens-at-the-academy-of-science

"Phantoms of Asia' at the Asian Art Museum

The new show at the Asian Art Museum is at the top my my Memorial Day Weekend picks but the rest of the shows around the bay ain't half bad either. The "Cult of Beauty," the V&A's tribute to Victorian arts and crafts is still at the Legion while the de Young features several shows, including one showcasing the cutting edge prints of Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg. There is art from Nigeria at the Cantor and SFMOMA is hosting the first of many tributes to the Golden Gate Bridge which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

The red lotus that was just installed in the Civic Center Plaza is the outside symbol of an exciting, exhausting and bold exhibit inside the Asian Art Museum, now located inside the revamped  Beaux Arts building that formerly housed the old San Francisco Public Library.

http://www.examiner.com/article/take-an-art-break-this-memorial-day-weekend

Last DayBest of DoubleClickSF City Hall Gallery

Last day for Best of DoubleClick photo exhibit at SF City Hall Gallery. You can vote at the same time.

posted by Phil Gravitt

The world of the senses, Tibetan art at the Exploratorium

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-world-of-the-senses-on-view-at-the-exploratorium-san-francisco

Free admission this weekend

To the Oakland Museum and a dozen other places. Such a deal!


http://www.examiner.com/article/free-museum-weekend-around-the-bay-area?CID=examiner_alerts_article

“Scapes”Elena ZolotnitskyPaul Mahder Gallery

This solo exhibition of new oil paintings showcases Zolotnitsky's skill at portraying emotional facial expression with limited facial detail.

The show runs through June 12 at Paul Mahder Gallery on Sacramento Street in SF.

The first two weekends in June, Zolitnitsky is participating in East Bay Open Studios, in Berkeley.

Paintings Tolstoy Cuture (left) and Nude on Green (right) shown above from artlondon.com

posted by Phil Gravitt

Buckminister Fuller at SFMOMA

To boldly go where no man has gone before," might have been Buckminster Fuller's motto, which is well demonstrated by the current show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). While not a retrospective, there is more than enough to overwhelm the visitor.
http://www.examiner.com/article/bucky-fuller-s-utopian-vision

On Apology CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art

On Apology is a study on the now prevalent spectacle of the public apology, and is produced by the graduating class of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice at the CCA Wattis Institute. The exhibition consists of two floors of video, several walls of text, and a 20 page paper handout.

The videos I found most intriguing were Australian Shaun Gladwell’s Apologies 1-6, six videos running a total of 27 minutes. I saw two of the six videos. In each one, the camera is looking down a different two-lane road blurring and stretching into the desert. A road kill kangaroo lies in the gravel on the left side of the road, fairly close to the camera, and in focus.

In one video, a white tractor trailer and a smaller black vehicle are coming up the road. A motorcycle rider dressed completely in black, riding a black motorcycle, crosses the screen and appears to almost run over the kangaroo. As the motorcycle rider parks nearby and walks toward the kangaroo, it becomes clear that the film is in slow motion and the distances are distorted.

The rider looks like he is almost standing over the kangaroo, however he walks about thirty feet back to the kangaroo from his motorcycle. The tractor trailer and black vehicle, which were close when the film started, are taking forever to get closer.

The motorcycle rider carefully looks over the body of the kangaroo, gently touching its head while brushing away flies. The rider's slow motion hand movements suggest he is wafting incense in a religious ceremony. Eventually the rider picks up the kangaroo and wanders out into the road, as if apologizing for what had happened before he arrived.

Gladwell didn’t stage the kangaroos; each sequence was filmed where the kangaroo was found.

In addition to Shaun Gladwell, the exhibit includes works by Erick Beltrán, Mark Boulos, Keren Cytter, Omer Fast, Ragnar Kjartansson, Amalia Pica, Slavs and Tatars, Cassie Thornton, Dawn Weleski, and Artur Zmijewski.

Photo from Apology To Roadkill 2007, Sydney Morning Herald

CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art On Apology
April 19 to May 19, 2012
Upper and Lower Galleries, Kent and Vicki Logan Galleries
1111 Eighth Street (at 16th and Wisconsin)
San Francisco

The CCA Wattis building appears to take up the whole block. Many rooms are just walls open to the high ceiling, reminiscent of a short, modern Cow Palace, except with wonderful natural light. Flash mob classes take place in the large wide center of the hall running the length of the building. Chairs, display tables and rolling billboards are moved into place for a class, and when it is over, people and equipment disperse quickly in all directions.

Some displays and projects from various design and graphics classes remain along the side walls. I walked along about 15 feet away, squinting while trying to make out the detail in each one without disturbing the small classes nearby.

One architectural model caught my eye. A large walled patio, built of tan cement, was populated with several white three-legged plastic tables, green and yellow shrubs, colorful curved rocks, and dark pools. Half the patio was shaded by a leaning wall awning above. I wondered why there were no chairs with the tables.

As I got further away, I looked back and realized it was an empty pizza box.

Parking is a little tight at CCA. If you don’t live close enough to walk, and don’t have a bicycle or motorcycle, take a cab. If you drive, I recommend a Smart car with curb feelers, a low profile windshield wiper, and the bumpers removed.

posted by Phil Gravitt

Weekend Picks; Theophilus Brown, Chinese Historical Society

Theophilus Brown at Thomas Reynolds Gallery. Three Horses
acrylic on paper. 4 x 6 inches. 1977

http://www.examiner.com/article/weekend-picks-theophilus-brown-andrea-schwartz-chinese-historical-society?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Friday night boogie at the de Young

It's Friday night and you just got paid? Well, if not, no matter because many of the Friday night events at the De Young are free! You can see a fashion show, watch a film or boogie to music by the Fashion Slaves who perform originals, including "Suffer for Fashion" and "Loud-Mouth Girl" along with their version of "Going Down."

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/weekend-picks-friday-night-at-the-de-young-botanical-gardens-oakland-museum?CID=examiner_alerts_article

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Experience the fun and lively atmosphere of the DeYoung’s gargantuan Jean Paul Gaultier fashion exhibit. This King Tut Haute Tutu show is in the Herbst Special Exhibition Galleries downstairs, instead of the upper gallery sometimes remade into the world’s darkest dress shop for past fashion exhibits.

There is so much to take in, the DeYoung might need a golf cart to take absorption overload zombies back to their cars.


Gaultier creates wild and outlandish designs with incredible artistry and intricate detail, and somehow makes them look comfortable and sensible at the same time. Why put a bow there when whiskers are available?

The exhibit includes quite real animated mannequins, a large number of video screens, sketches, photos, and a moving runway of mannequins. Many collections are represented, including Mermaids, Hussars, Chic Rabbis, and Russian. Get up close and see the fabric is really 1000 hours of beadwork.

Mermaids photos above from Pinterest and Fashionising

Night of the Iguana photo below from nearfardarklight

posted by Phil Gravitt

SFMOMA purchases Edward Hopper's "Intermission"

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sfmoma-purchases-edward-hopper-s-intermission

Parallel Visions at Creativity Explored

 You Are Unemptiable by Louis DeMarco © 2010 Project Onward

Parallel Visions, the latest exhibition at Creativity Explored Gallery, shows work by artists from five different arts and disability organizations in conversation with work made by selected artists at Creativity Explored. The resonance felt between these artists, working in disparate studios across the globe, is uncanny and inspiring.

This show assembles a group of artists who emphasize drawing processes and repetitive mark making to create their work. A range of artwork is on view, though three distinct themes emerge: abstract works; figurative ink drawings; and, work comprised of poetic text and number systems.

More at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/parallel-visions-at-creativity-explored?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Weekend Picks: Chinese Historical Society, Mail Art, Intersection for the Arts

One of Jake Lee's watercolors of "Old Chinatown" now showing at the Chinese Historical Society (image courtesy Chinese Historical Society).

In the early 1960s, restaurateur Johnny Kan commissioned a series of water color paintings by artist Jake Lee. For many years, these stunning paintings hung in the private Gum Shan (“Gold Mountain”) dining room of the landmark Kan’s Restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The fascinating back story at the NY TImes: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/us/11bcculture.html
http://www.chsa.org/

More weekend picks at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/weekend-picks-chinese-historical-society-mail-art-intersection-for-the-arts

Dale Erickson, Pam Heyda, Sandy Yagi

It's not often that three of my artists friends are showing their work at the same time.

Dale Erickson. Lemons and Reflections. ArtZone 461, SF

Pam Heyda, Gum Drop Boat, Studio Gallery, SF

Sandy Yagi,  Hummingshrew, Watercolor on paper,  2012, 16 x 11-5/8 

The Bone Yard, Berkeley.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/weekend-picks-artzone-461-studio-gallery-the-bone-yard-and-more?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Weekend Picks; Letterpress in Oakland, Nieto Fine Arts, SF History Expo

 John A. Nieto, photographs now at Nieto Fine Arts

From John A. Nieto's statement: "There’s an energetic match that’s unique to every photographer and their “work”. Because most of my images are fleeting moments of my life, they are a certain testament, or reflection of my attitude on life. A pathway to my beliefs. "

"I’ve often wished to photograph dancers and as I watched and participated in a night swim recently, I became mesmerized by the drama the underwater pool light cast and how it adds so much mystery to the beauty of witnessing a human body in full motion. These moments became the dancers I’ve hoped to photograph contained in the “Aquatic Ballet Series” shot in Palm Springs, California."

More at:
http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/weekend-picks-letterpress-oakland-nieto-fine-arts-sf-history-expo

Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art and Jewish Thought

April Gornick.  Light in the Woods, 2011

The inspiration for the “Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art and Jewish Thought” exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, is a commandment from the Old Testament: “When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by wielding an axe against them; for thou mayest eat of them, but thou shalt not cut them down.”

More at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/do-not-destroy-trees-art-and-jewish-thought-at-the-contemporary-jewish-museum-review?CID=examiner_alerts_article

The Cult of Beauty at the Legion of Honor

Frederic Leighton, Pavonia, 1858–9, oil on canvas. Private collection

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/the-cult-of-beauty-the-victorian-avant-garde-1860-1900-at-the-legion-of-honor-review

Katherine Westerhout at Electric Works Gallery

I just wanted to write a little note about how fascinated I was with Katherine Westerhout's photos of an abandoned indoor swimming pool, and her photo of calcification of lime mortar around the windows of an abandoned building, now on display at Electric Works Gallery in San Francisco.

Then I checked out Westerhout’s web site, which led me to search on “Calcification of mortar” and “Grossinger’s Pool,” which led me to more photos of abandoned buildings and blogs by Jonathan Haeber aka TunnelBug, which led me to read his senior thesis for a Landscape Architecture course on the history of miniature golf, but since it took up all my allotted writing time,

The End

posted by Phil Gravitt

Tables of Content: Ray Johnson and Robert Warner Bob Box Archive

"The most well-known unknown American artist" died in a suicide drowning 13 January 1995, after lifetime as unique and perplexing as his art.

Ray Johnson:Untitled valise from Bob Box Archive, 1988–95; mixed media; dimensions variable. Photo: Tod Lippy, from Esopus 16 (Spring 2011).


http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/tables-of-content-ray-johnson-and-robert-warner-bob-box-archive-at-the-bam?CID=examiner_alerts_article