Alameda sculptor Feng Jin e-mailed me to tell me about his show at the Alameda museum, opening this weekend. It is called “Symphony of Chinese Calligraphy and Sculpture.”

Jin has partnered with Taiwanese calligrapher Mei Chu Chang to present this show, open now until July 30.

Chang is an accomplished traditional calligrapher and has even presented some of his work to the Vatican. He breaks from the traditional calligraphic field in this show, presenting a “picto-calligraphy” style that appeals to Western sensibilities.

Jin uses metal sculpture to represent traditional calligraphic characters and other Asian script. Feng Jin even applies the rules and methods of calligraphic writings into metal fabrication, such as correct stroke order, proper balance and rhythm of characters.

I am a big fan of metal sculpture and I appreciate how difficult it is to make a metal piece that is graceful. I meandered through Jin’s Web site and saw enormous amounts of beauty and grace in his work. I can’t wait to see this show!

The Alameda Museum is at 2324 Alameda Ave., right off Park Street.

Leave a comment

 The title of the show alone was enough to get me into the gallery. Throw in the fact that it’s three artists “working with imagery inspired from memories, images, fables and myths” informed by the modern world and ancient Meso-America, and I’m hooked. But I was especially eager to see Robles’ work. One peek at the paintings and prints on his Web site revealed a world of saturated blues, intense oranges, and fiery reds filled with angels, jaguars and all manner of shapes, patterns and symbols.

“Raicez,” silkscreen

 Robles hails from Oaxaca, Mexico and lives in San Francisco’s Mission District where he creates paintings and prints. This show includes a dozen frescos whose plaster surfaces are filled with mythical beasts like centaurs, vampires and serpents. His heavily-worked oil paintings teem with depictions of masked women, spirit horses and deer.

“Huautla,” oil on canvas

There’s also pointedly political commentaries filled with skeletons, slingshot-and-bow-and-arrow-toting children and coffins emblazoned with the names of the PAN and PRI, two of Mexico’s dominant political parties.

“Oaxaca en Resistencia,” oil on canvas

His silkscreens (Front Gallery owner Bob Jew gave me a preview of work which will go up next month) appear spontaneous - no small feat considering the labor intensive process of layering that goes into creating a print.

“Checatl,” silkscreen

There’s also a pair of richly colored “grana cochinilla” works on paper.

I asked Robles to explain grana cochinilla:

“This is a pigment that comes from this very small insect that grows in some special cactus in Oaxaca, Mexico. After some time, people collect these bugs, put them in hot water and after they die, put them in the sun to dry. After this they grind them to make this very fine pigment that looks black. You can use it like watercolor, and if you mix lemon drops with the pigment you get a very beautiful red. You can mix it with different things and change the color to purple, orange. This pigment was used by the ancient people of Mexico, before the Spanish came to America and they used it to paint their codices, clothes or fresco murals on their temples.”

If you go, be sure to check out Alexandra Blum’s dreamlike monoprints which are filled with the silhouettes of women and birds. Hopefully I’ll get to watch Ana Hurka Robles’ video, which I missed (it wasn’t screening when I visited), at the second reception to be held July 4.

Gallery hours are 1-6 p.m. Fridays, 1-4 p.m. Saturdays, 1 -10 p.m. first Fridays of the month and by appointment. The July 4 reception runs from 1-10 p.m. 35 Grand Ave., Oakland. 510-735-7295. www.frontgalleryoakland.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment

American artist Robert Rauschenberg died Monday according to an AP report and  New York’s Pace Wildenstein gallery.

Although known for his assemblage and mixed media works which brought together elements as disparate as bald eagles, mattresses and brooms, the Texas native was equally at home in the theater and dance worlds. He designed costumes and sets for Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor.

 I always found Rauschenberg’s funky “combines” - assemblage works he began producing in 1953 at the dawn of the Beat era -especially fascinating. His gift for marrying flotsam and jetsam with scribbles and patches of dripping paint has been hugely influential. He was also an excellent printmaker and his collaged, edgy prints are as vibrant and relevant today as they were in the 1960’s.

 I’m thinking of Rauschenberg’s Automobile tire print, his series of “White Paintings,” the erased De Kooning drawing. If you’ve never seen these works, check them out here, here and here.

  

Leave a comment

After several flaps regarding cruelty to animals in the art world, particularly one exhibit that was closed at the San Francisco Art Institute, a local organization is working to prohibit “cruel” art in San Francisco.

In Defense of Animals is a San Rafael-based animal-rights organization that works hard to stop animal abuse all over, but particularly in the Bay Area. I happen to be on their e-mail list and they are always trying to stop cruelty at local circuses, Marine World and local zoos.

Anyway, IDA President Eliot M. Kats will testify tonight at 5:30 p.m. at San Francisco City Hall in support of a proposed ordinance to ban the abuse or killing of animals to produce art. It is called the “Humanitarian Art Ordinance” and it was introduced by Commissioner Christine Garcia as a direct response to the San Francisco Art Institute exibit that included a video of animals being slaughtered with a sledgehammer.  

The ordinance reads like this:

“The City of San Francisco believes that there is something inherently wrong with the production of media and/or art wherein the director or the producer of the media and/or art is the direct cause of the death, abuse or suffering of an animal that is to be captured on media and/or art display. This ordinance will make the commission of the crime of Animal Abuse for the purposes of creating media and/or art to now be illegal, punishable as a misdemeanor or felony. The location of production of the media and the commission of animal abuse is irrelevant. Any person responsible for displaying this media as “art” is also guilty of a misdemeanor or felony.”

Leave a comment

After a few weeks of silence on this here blog, I am happy to say I am back in action and ready to post all kinds of art stuff for your reading delight. I will first give you a heads up about a cool event TONIGHT at Industrielle Gallery in Oakland.
The gallery is hosting “Kind Women for Womankind: An Art Auction to Benefit Women of Violence” from 7 to 9 p.m. at their space at 33 Grand Avenue in Oakland. The auction includes artwork donated from Bay Area women artists including, Elisa Carozza, Ann Marie Donahue, Lynn Ganser, Maya Kabat, Jessica Serran, Dana Taylor, Charlene Thomas and Mary Younkin, amongst others. Money from art sales goes to CARE.org, a humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and injustice.

If you can’t make it to the show tonight, don’t worry. You can visit the center’s Web site and bid on the pieces RIGHT NOW. Come on. You know you want to.

Leave a comment

The Yale student art project that I wrote about yesterday, the one with a young lady performing multiple self-induced abortions, was a hoax.

Here’s the Yale press release explaining the “piece.”

Yet the hoax was her art. It was very successful, indeed, as stories of the hoax was all over newsfeeds and blogs. I still think, with talent, you can be a more effective “performance artist.”

Leave a comment

As if I needed another reason to go to Chabot Space and Science Center, there is a new one. It is to see Reuben Margolin’s large-scale kinetic sculpture “The Hexagonal Wave.”

According to Chabot folks, Margolin’s work combines the logic of mathematics with inspiration drawn from the beauty and patterns of nature such as wheat fields waving and the motion of caterpillars. The sculpture moves effortlessly, as if dancing.

An opening reception for the piece will be held Friday, April 25, in conjunction with Chabot’s occassional Lunar Lounge event. I went to the last one and it was super fun.

Leave a comment

While I do enjoy art that is edgy and perhaps even disturbing, I have been struck by a bunch of “art projects” in the news lately that seem to exist only to tick people off.

The first flap that I noticed was a local one. Adel Abdessemed’s exhibition “Don’t Trust Me,”  scheduled to open March 31 was canceled by the San Francisco Art Institute.  According to the press release, school leaders feared for the safety of their students after hearing from a number of animal rights groups about the exhibit. Basically, Abdessemed’s piece included a video of a bunch of animals being bludgeoned to death. Critics of the work, which included people in the SF arts community, said that there was no context offered to explain this cruel showing. It seemed to be included just for shock value.

The second one came across on a message board I am on. Guillermo Habacuc Vargas tied a dog to a wall in a gallery in Nicaragua and told people not to feed it. The dog died. This “piece” is just depressing.

Finally, a Yale art student inseminated herself multiple times and induced abortions for the benefit of video viewers.  While she insists her piece is not made for “shock value” it is by its very nature shocking and disturbing, no matter where you stand on the debate of abortion or procreation.

It irritates the crap out of me that these “artists” are killing animals and possibly harming themselves for the sake of making some sort of statement. The ugly fact is they are also getting the press they so desire from doing things that are just, in my opinion, terrible.

Also, there are millions of people who haven’t been exposed to the many forms of art that entertain, enlighten and inspire. The morning radio crew I listen to includes a jock who hates all forms of art, thinking it is stupid and thinking it is even more stupid that the government helps fund certain art projects.

With these types of “artists” in the news, no wonder he thinks the arts are a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Leave a comment

 This is a self-portrait created by longtime Oakland artist/ printmaker Casper Banjo who was shot by Oakland Police last month.

Banjo was 71.

Apparently, there is going to be a fund-raising event *tonight*  for his family. It’s just $5 to get in and no one will be turned away.

Here’s the announcement from Bay Area muralist Dan Fontes’ blog:

A Community Fundraiser for the Family of Casper Banjo

Friday, April 11, 6:30PM
Swarm Studios + Gallery
560 Second Street, Oakland
$5 donation at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Please join us in celebrating the life and mourning the tragic death of beloved Oakland artist, Casper Banjo.
Shockwaves rippled through the Bay Area art community recently at news that influential printmaker Casper Banjo had been killed. Casper was 71 years of age. An artist and teacher since 1970, Banjo was among the group of local artists who helped define the black aesthetic in visual arts. His trademark was using bricks in his prints, even creating a legendary brick-patterned suit that read “Express Yourself,” and an African-American-themed yellow brick road.

Artwork for this event is donated by members of the art community and will be available for purchase. Contributing artists include:
Milton Bowens
Bill Dallas
Slobodan Dan Paich
Anna E. Edwards
Tom Franco
Dan Fontes
James Gayles
Susan Matthews
Eileen Starr Moderbacher
Rosalind McGary
Frank D. Robinson
Malik Seneferu
Karin Turner
Orlanda Uffre
Amanda Williams
Keith “K-Dub” Williams
TheArthur Wright
and more…
DJ performance! Appetizer delicacies donated by Cock-A-Doodle Cafe, Oakland
All proceeds from this event will benefit the family of Casper Banjo

Our Hearts Are Pained…
Casper Banjo, of Oakland, California was born in Memphis in 1937. After obtaining an Associates Degree at Laney College he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute where he subsequently taught. He began his art career as a printmaker. His prints have been exhibited nationally and internationally at locations such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition, The John McEnroe Gallery, the Venezuela Second Biennial Del Grabado de American and a traveling exhibition of the Gong Gallery in Lagos, Nigeria. He also participated in the Very Special Art Gallery’s African-American Artistry, the California Society of Printmaker’s Exhibition at the Triton Museum, The Oakland Museum Collector’s Gallery and the Laguna Arts Museum Prints and Painting Show. His work can also be found in numerous private collections. Mr. Banjo traveled extensively throughout the world, including West Africa, Upper Volta, Benin, Jos, Zaria, Lagos Nigeria, Ghana, Ife, Kano and Ibadan.

Leave a comment

Yuri’s Night 2007: Photo from NASA

I am kind of torn about writing about NASA’s Yuri’s Night 2008 celebration coming Saturday to Moffett Field. On the one hand, it is an uber-hipster event with fashion, art, science talks, dancing and all kinds of other things going on. I am excited to hear Amon Tobinas our Web guy over here, George Kelly, highly recommends him. And I just like going to the NASA site and hanging out in a huge hangar.

The problem is, the event costs $40 in advance and $50 at the door. And if I remember correctly, last year I got there at around 7 p.m. and was ready to go home at around 11 p.m. after seeing all the sights. This is not a fund-raising event for a non-profit organization. I just don’t get why it is so expensive.

If you plan to go, as I do anyway, bring a warm coat and leave your drugs at home. The place is open-air and heavily guarded by not-very-friendly looking cops because it is on federal property.

If it’s too much a hassle to drive all the way to Mountain View for a space party, but you are available and willing to drop 50 bucks on something, I suggest going to The Crucible’s ballet, FIREBIRD: “L’oiseau de feu”. Your money will go to supporting Crucible programs and the event is sure to be entertaining at the least. When I get some pictures of last night’s performance, I will post them here.

Leave a comment