Monday, April 6, 2009

Weekend Recap 4.6.09


My first stop on this month's busy First Thursday was Back to the Picture's SoMa Gallery: 


Within the frame shop is a gallery space, where the current show "City Subject: San Francisco Urban Studies" will be on display until May 1.


Hilary Williams' brightly colored serigraphs (above and below) combined photographic elements with drawing:


Aquatints and lino-cuts by Sarah Newton (below) rounded out the portfolio of printmaking on display:


It was great to see Ms. Newton's full color, multiple-plate aquatints (below) up close:


Though not as distinctly San Francisco as many of the other pieces, Trish Tunney's colorful photography (below) was quite pleasing:


I also enjoyed this pairing of black and white photos by Peter Kupfer, which captures and contrasts the city's tradition of parading in costume:


My next stop was the busy HangART Annex, for "Time Lapse," which is through the month of April: 


The show focused on the artistic process of four local artists:


For Anthony May, the gallery had installed a collection of small sketches (above) as well as two large canvases (below):


Lea Feinstein's paintings reflect the artist's use of gravity to distribute paint onto moisture resistant Tyvek (think FedEx packaging):


I was intrigued by the metal base on which Feinstein's painting was mounted (below):


Phillip Hua (pictured below, foreground) was there to explain his process of "manufacturing" works that ultimately degrade over time:


His "re:action" series was well represented at the show and fit very well well with theme, given it's unique artistic process and continuing evolution after completion:


Also included were a couple small pieces that Mr. Hua was "prototyping" when we spoke last fall. Recall that in these works, the tree image becomes more visible with time as the paper fades with exposure to sunlight:


Finally, Carolyn Meyer's artistic process was displayed through an installation (below) of her studies, both in traditional journals as well as non-traditional surfaces, like Crayon boxes:


Samples of her completed paintings, marked by their impasto, were also on display (below):


Next, I went across the street to HangART, where works by David Fullarton were on display in the rear gallery:


The show, called "Once Again I Fail To Live Up To My Advance Publicity," will be up through the month of April:


In addition to some larger collage canvases, many of Fullarton's pieces used non-traditional materials. 


The hand-written text was often humorous and self-depreciating:  


For my last stop of the night, I went to Frey Norris Gallery, which was featuring Dana Harel's series, "Kin":


For someone who has seen images of this series, it was great to see the life-size scale to which Ms. Harel draws her hand animals (below):


What these pictures do not capture well is the fine detail of subtle textural mutations to the subject hand's skin, which are at once anatomically correct for the implied animal and incorrect for the human model:


The show is up until May 3 in the downstairs of the gallery:


On display upstairs at Frey Norris are a couple pieces by Attiya Shaukat (below) from their March show:


On Friday night, I ventured out again, this time to Hyde Street Gallery. The current show, "Spaces", features work by Brett Amory and Nancy Chan:


Both artist feature figurative work where the figure is disconnected from its surroundings: Mr. Amory's figures are waiting, and therefore not fully present; and Ms. Chan's are starkly lacking a physical context: 


The show will be up through April:


I also made it to Baer Ridgway Exhibition's Saturday opening of a Tom Huck solo show and group show, "Dark Americana," but my camera battery was dead. Will have to follow up. In the meantime, be sure to bookmark the Arteaser Calendar to stay up to date on shows of local artists featured on Arteaser.

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