Surprised by Viola Frey

We escaped from San Francisco today up to Napa for a visit to the di Rosa Preserve .  It’s been quite a few years, and I was looking forward to seeing their vast collection of Northern California art.  Until we began the tour, I hadn’t realized that Gallery 2, their largest gallery space, is currently showcasing a large exhibit of the work of Viola Frey. 

Before today, I was only familiar with some of Frey’s larger-than-life, ceramic, sculptures seen in places like the Oakland Museum.    Seeing a comprehensive exhibit of her work and discovering she was first a painter was a surprise and unexpected to treat.  Once you see Viola Frey first and foremost as a painter, her ceramic work even feels like paintings rendered in clay and glazes.

About once a year, an art exhibit comes through the Bay Area that is truly a don’t miss, incredible experience for art lovers.  It is rarely the most hyped-up, big museum extravaganzas.  We are only about half way through the year, but the show to see in 2019 is most definitely Viola Frey: Center Stage.

Keeping an Open Mind to Meissen

Last week I had a day trip up to Sacramento that included the Crocker Museum.  Currently most of the special exhibits are Japan-focused, including two shows of contemporary ceramics. Japanamerica — Points of Contact explores the role and influence Japanese art on the United States through a century of international expos and world’s fairs. There is also an exhibit with the photography of Ansel Adams from the Japanese-American internment camp at Manzanar.  They are beautiful and stunning photos from an ugly, sad and shameful chapter in American History.

There was one exhibit that I knew I did not need to see.  Forbidden Fruit – Chris Antemann at Meissen.  Sure, as an artist I can appreciate the craftsmanship.  But from my point of view, Meissen porcelain is at the high end of the spectrum of old lady knick-knacks.  Starting at the bottom with the offerings of the Lillian Vernon catalog, to Hummel, to the Franklin Mint to museum-worthy Meissen.  It is one big yawn.

As I passed by the sun filled room, I was like, okay, sure, I might as well have a look….

I love them.  Technically the sculptor Chris Antemann has created beautiful work.  At a quick glance yeah, Meissen — at second glance, what, wait a minute….   They are so naughty.  I can’t resist saying it, but she put the bone back in bone china. 

I was tempted to camp out and wait for a few of the ladies-who-do-lunch to come and have a look and be all, well, titillated. 

The show is in Sacramento until June 25, 2017.  You can get a video preview here. 

Fancy Animals invade Civic Center

The carnival is in town. Taiwan artist Hung Yi’s Fancy Animal Carnival has been installed in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza.  The whimsical, colorful animals are here until May 7th and adding some much need spring color to the plaza.

Cynthia Brannvall

In my own work I often strive to reuse, repurpose and recycle materials.  And I also have been using textile patterns as a guide for much of my own collage work.  As soon as I received Cynthia’s submission, I know she was a perfect fit for Collage meets Landscape. 

Her textile work incorporates actual vintage fabric, including lace, ruffles and trim.  Her Lace Series, seemingly abstract, immediately brings to mind landscapes.  The old, stained and discolored fabric comes together in pieces that instantly reminded me of the desert. That her artist’s statement mentions camping and hiking as sources of inspiration, comes as no surprise.

More examples of Cynthia’s work can be seen on her website.

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The Collage + Landscape = Collagescape will be on view at San Francisco’s Glama-Rama Salon and Gallery at 304 Valencia Street in San Francisco.

The show runs from July 29 to September 28, 2014 with an opening reception on Friday, August 1 (7pm to 10 pm).

The exhibit will have two components:

On the main level, there will be an exhibit of my new series of work called Collagescapes.

On the upper level of Glama-Rama, I am curating a companion show of mixed media works, where the theme will be Collage meets Landscapes.

Luke, I am your mother…

Immediately I was amused by Ianna Nova Frisby’s new series of Darth Vader-inspired sculptures.  And that was enough to make me love them.  But the more I looked and the more I thought about it, these are just so delightfully subversive on many levels.

They could be seen as a parody of the collectible Star Wars kitsch sold on the pages of Parade Magazine or the Lillian Vernon Catalog.  I’ve never been in a home with Star Wars collector’s plates hanging on the wall.  I doubt I could keep a straight face.  And then there are all those figurines. For example, there is the one of the scantily clad Princess Leia as a prisoner of Jabba the Hutt.  I had the pleasure of seeing Carrie Fisher’s one-woman show and sat two rows behind George Lucas as Fisher berated him over those figurines (she never received a dime for those). 

I also love the feminization of the iconic villain.  Particularly due to the generally male-dominated, sexist universe depicted in that galaxy, far, far away – there are few females in the Lucasverse and even fewer strong, independent women.  It’s worse than Mad Men.  

You can get a look in person at Luke’s Mother at Axis Gallery up in Sacramento for the 20^th Annual Pink Week happening in November.

Ceramics in Civic Center

I can’t spend the whole day at my table making art, well actually I can.  But on a sunny October day I felt compelled to get out, take a little walk and some fresh air.  I found myself down in Civic Center where I happened onto an outdoor show called Ceramics Annual of America.  It’s free, accessible and out there for everyone to enjoy.  The work of most of the participating artists can be previewed on the event site. 

There was plenty of quality work filling the center of Civic Center Plaza and two outstanding artists caught my eye: 

• Katherine Dube’s work is all about grids, circles and patterns, many of my favorite elements.  If I was to head into ceramics I suspect I might end up in a similar place.  Her wall installation Bloom is shown above and more details can be seen on her website.
• Calvin Ma’s work was my favorite in the show.  He was showing work from his Homebodies Series (they all can been on his website) and two are shown above. 

The CAA show had plenty of well done, but dare I say, predictable whimsical ceramics.  The kind of things that fill galleries in places like Sausalito and Carmel – nice, but nothing I that feels new since about 1974.  What struck me about Calvin’s work is that he is building on that tradition but taking in a new direction fusing in the look of contemporary animated imagery but still creating something unique.  I wish a piece of his work was in my budget, because something tells me it’s destine to be picked up by serious collectors and museums.  If they were giving out awards, it would be the best in show.  

Vaillancourt Re-imagined

The Vaillancourt Fountain in Justin Herman Plaza gets no respect.  The Canadian artist Armand Vaillancourt titled the piece Québec libre! when it was installed in 1971.  The City sent out a crew to remove the title from the fountain and did so numerous times after the artist himself repainted it — so much for respecting an artist’s work and artistic intent.  Today the piece is universally known as the Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco.  It also has a poor reputation in part fueled by San Francisco’s legion of self-appointed art critics and hack newspaper columnists.   I LOVE the fountain, it’s one of San Francisco’s best works of public art and, of course, looks best when water is gushing through it.

Now, I would never be so disrespectful as to suggest modifying an artist’s finished work, but I would love to see some changes made to the setting for the piece.  When the fountain was installed in 1971 it was placed in front of the Embarcadero Freeway and off ramps wrapped behind the fountain.  Today the freeway is gone and the space is more open and welcoming. 

Let’s re-imagine the Vaillancourt Fountain, or to be exact, Justin Herman Plaza.  Currently the fountain uses fresh water.  Imagine if an underground conduit pumped saltwater from San Francisco Bay into the fountain.  Imagine if we remove some of the concrete perimeter.  We could create a shore around the fountain filled with tide pools and native marsh plants.  The fountain’s basin would even start to fill with native wildlife.  Water could flow in and out, and like a natural salt marsh, act as a filter for bay water.  Imagine restoring a small piece of Justin Herman Plaza to the state it was back before 1849.  When there were tidal flats instead of skyscrapers.  We successfully restored Crissy Field now it’s time to bring a bit of nature back to the concrete jungle at the foot of Market Street.

The Future in Hayes Valley

There’s a new piece of temporary public art in Patricia’s Green in the heart of Hayes Valley.  Every time I walk through there, it gets harder and harder to remember the old freeway.    Kate Raudenbush’s Future’s Past is one of the best offerings we’ve seen from the Black Rock Arts Foundation.  I love that there are so many angles to appreciate this piece from.  Including getting inside the sculpture.  Call the DPW and bolt this down extra tight.  We should keep this one.

The Lotus Has Landed

Choi Jeong Hwa’s kinetic sculpture, Breathing Flower

This week the Asian Art Museum is opening a new exhibit titled Phantoms of Asia.  As part of the show a sculpture titled Breathing Flower by Korean artists Choe Jeong Hwa has been installed across the street in the Civic Center Plaza.  There’s more about the piece on the museum blog.  It’s really fun.  My only criticism is I wish there was more.  Imagine about 50 of the flowers filling Civic Center.  

Flowers on Market Street

A few flowers have popped up on Market Street near UN Plaza. The sculptures were created from recycled metal by artist Karen Cusolito. They were installed with the help of the Black Rock Arts Foundation. They are 20’ tall and look tough enough to withstand the harsh conditions on Market. And the one looks like it may even be carnivorous.

A Mixed Bag at Yerba Buena

When I have been asked to describe the art they show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, I consistently say, “It’s a mixed bag.” There have been some good things there and some that are really great. Nick Cave’s Soundsuits back in 2009 were spectacular. Probably the best art shown in the Bay Area that year. And then of course, the mixed bag always has a lot of work that leaves me to wonder (and we’ll leave it at that).

Last night I came up on the second floor at Yerba Buena. There is an exhibit of work by the artists Lauren DiCioccio. The first thing I saw was a row of plastic shopping bags hanging on a line up near the ceiling. I rolled my eyes. This is the sort of “art” that just makes me crazy. I get a little closer and realize the bags are actually not plastic. The bags are made from organza. All the imagery on the bags, text, logos, etc has been carefully embroidered. At that point I immediately appreciated the artistry, but still was not quite convinced. My initial reaction was that it was a lot of work to make something that, in its original form, was just plain ugly. But then I turned the corner and it all started to make sense.

Lauren DiCioccio has done some amazing work. Recreating everyday items like plastic bags, newspapers, water bottles and notebooks. She makes the items out of fabrics like organza, muslin and felt and then embroiders the imagery onto the pieces. She could be described as a realist working in fabric and thread instead of paint. Her timing is perfect. She is creating images of items that are on the verge of disappearing form our daily lives. As things like the plastic shopping bag and printed newspaper become things of the past, DiCioccio’s work will be an artistic record. In the future, her work will find a home in museums. Shown in the same rooms where we see those old fashioned, über-realistic paintings of dinner tables covered with a bounty of food. I know just where they’ll go in the de Young.

An incredible use of pencils

I just came across the website for an incredible artist. Check out Jennifer Maestre. She does amazing work with colored pencils. No, not drawings, but sculpture!

The 2010 Globe

Here is is, the new globe for 2010. I made one of these in 2005, I need to make more globes. I really like these.