Showing posts with label Oakland Art Murmur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oakland Art Murmur. Show all posts

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Oakland Museum



BARTed to Oakland for dinner on a recent Thursday, and decided to go early and tie in a stop at the 12th St BART Station, to see the Oakland Museum and the June Steingart Gallery at Laney College.      
        
After hearing so much about Oakland revival, I was surprised to find not much going on in the whole neighborhood except a sidewalk garage sale with many unique items.    Few people were in the Oakland museum.

Sculptors and stained glass artists speak highly of the Laney art program.   I was disappointed to find the open til 5PM Steingart Gallery at Laney was already closed at 3PM.  The Laney web site does say hours are subject to change.   After making a call to the number listed on the gallery page of the web site, I was informed that is not the number to call nor is the correct one available.   My thoughts drifted to all the welcoming Academy of Art galleries in SF, their MFA shows, etc.    

Future art trips to Oakland:  First Friday Art Walk of Oakland Art Murmur.  

Looking at map of Oakland Art Murmur made my head hurt, and also begged the question, is it called Art Mumu in Honolulu? 


From the murmurmap, it looks like the art movement is moving away from Oakland museum and nearby Laney College.  

I had not been to the Oakland Museum in a long time.  It is much larger than I remembered, with extensive grounds.   As the Museum’s primary focus is education and California history, I sped through those sections, having temporarily reached my limit recently through books, documentaries and other sources.      I stopped at one room with kids flopped on beanbags on the floor. They seemed to be enjoying a full wall video of what it is like to see the ocean from a slowly rocking boat, known in the interactive education arena as a seasick-o-tron.   Woozy from standing on the deck of the boat, I staggered from the room, holding the wall along the way to the coastal tide pool and beach found plastics collection, before heading to my favorite exhibits at the museum:
  • Paintings by David Park and others with similar style 

  • Inspiration Points: Masterpieces of California Landscape   now through Sunday, January 4, 2015
 
2013 SF Gate article about Rex May collection at SF Mexican Museum  

The upcoming SFMOMA collaborative Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California  opens September 20, 2014, runs through April 12, 2015 at Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak Street, Oakland, CA 94607

Posted by Phil Gravitt

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The week ahead: 'Neighbors' in the Tenderloin and more..

@ Troy Holden
"Neighbors" closes tomorrow but it's worth the trip to the hood to see the gritty, honest and tender portraits of our close neighbors. For "amateur" photographer Troy Holden, it took a year of canvassing just to get 50 willing subjects to form the exhibition "Neighbors." Holden who lives in Bernal Heights, discovered the Tenderloin on his first day in San Francisco in 1996. The photos range from tender to gritty but each is an honest, beautiful look at at those who live in a part of the city that we often hurry through with our eyes averted.

Troy Holden's website: http://troyholden.com/

"Neighbors:" Troy Holden's portraits of the Tenderloin, Through Wednesday. Lower Branch Gallery, 233 Eddy St., S.F. (415) 525-4626. www.lowerbranch.com.
Review: SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Troy-Holden-snaps-people-of-the-Tenderloin-in-5159985.php

More at:  http://www.examiner.com/list/the-week-ahead-portraits-of-the-tenderloin-gallery-crawl-oakland-art-murmur?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Weekend Picks for Sept 6 - 8

 Kim Thoman. Venus of Time. Image courtesy the artist. 

Shadravan Gallery: "Dualities" the latest works by former Merritt College Professor and Oakland based artist Kim Thoman. Dualities expresses Thoman’s interest in duality in many forms: body and soul, intellect and intuition, stillness and movement, male and female, the physical world and the unseen, life and death.

Thoman will exhibit 15 pieces from her “Pod Series” and “Venus Series” that trace the major developments in her recent work over the past 5 years. The "Pod Series" paintings juxtapose a wide range of computer-generated pods and painted natural imagery. The pods come in three varieties: an elongated tri-partite form, a twisted shell, and a pointed lozenge with an oval opening. Each of the pods has a skin of digitally applied paint, covering its surface. The "Venus Series" strongly suggests a figure and recalls the Venus of Willendorf, a paleolithic fertility statuette. The landscape is evocative of the desert landscape and reflects Thoman’s experience at an artist’s residency in Taos, New Mexico.

“...Thoman doesn't resolve conflicts, but reveals their superficiality. At heart, everything is in union...” - Renowned art critic, Peter Frank. Full review at www.kimthoman.com/peterfrank.html

Opening night will take place on Friday, September 6 from 5-9pm during the Oakland Art Murmur, the first Friday of the month gallery walk. www.oaklandartmurmur.org

More at: http://www.examiner.com/article/weekend-picks-electric-works-shadravan-gallery-meyerovich-berggruen

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Saturday gallery stroll in Oakland

Hopefully the weather will cool down so that walking will be bearable but this looks like a lot of fun. I went to Oakland's Art Murmur a couple of times and they aren't kidding about the crowds. I am a little too old for the party scene so I appreciate an opportunity to "just" look at the art:

http://www.examiner.com/article/oakland-s-first-friday-art-murmur-event-extended-to-a-saturday-gallery-stroll