Must See Art Show

Some of my favorite artists. I would not miss this one. Jules de Balincourt, Jason Jagel, Ben Peterson, Todd Hido, Kota Ezawa, David Huffman, not to mention the greats from the previous generation...Diebenkorn, Becthle, Oliveira, the list is long.

A CENTURY OF CCA at the OAKLAND MUSEUM of CALIFORNIA

OAKLAND, CA - California College of the Arts (CCA) culminates its centennial celebration with ARTISTS OF INVENTION: A CENTURY OF CCA, a survey of work by 100 faculty and alumni, many among California’s most influential artists. The show continues through March 16, 2008, at the Oakland Museum of California.

The exhibition features more than 120 works—paintings, ceramics, photography, video, sculpture, mixed media, installations, textiles, wood, and works on paper—and includes a large contemporary section from the past 20 years.

ARTISTS OF INVENTION: A CENTURY OF CCA was organized by Oakland Museum of California Chief Curator of Art Philip Linhares, exhibition designer Ted Cohen, and consultant Lee Plested, all CCA alumni. The contemporary section was organized by CCA alumni Liz Mulholland, Abner Nolan, Chris Perez, Jessica Silverman, and Bay Area curator Tara McDowell.

“A balance of technical skill and independent vision has always marked the art associated with CCA,” Lee Plested said. “The result has been some of the most idiosyncratic and expressive art in America.”

The exhibition, arranged by era, includes:

The Society of Six, a band of renegade plein-air painters from the 1920s; California production ceramists, such as Edith Heath and Jacomena Maybeck, who taught at the college in the 1950s and 1970s, respectively; Weaver Trude Guermonprez, who chaired the crafts department in the 1960s and 1970s, and textile artists Kay Sekimachi and Lia Cook;Richard Diebenkorn, whose mode was further developed in the work of alumni Nathan Oliveira and Manuel Neri; The modern studio ceramics movement, pioneered by Peter Voulkos and continued by Robert Arneson and Viola Frey; John McCracken, who began his explorations in Minimalism while a CCA student; West Coast Conceptualism, which broke ground with the work of David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; Photorealism pioneer Robert Bechtle and his peers Richard McLean, Ralph Goings, and Jack Mendenhall, a current faculty member; Painters Squeak Carnwath and Raymond Saunders; and A new generation: videographers Kota Ezawa, Désirée Holman, and Sergio de la Torre; photographers Larry Sultan, Todd Hido, and Liz Cohen; painter David Huffman; and mixed-media artists Lynn Marie Kirby and Amy Franceschini, among many others. Bay Area Figurative painter and CCA instructor

CCA was founded in 1907 by Frederick Meyer, a German cabinetmaker, as the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts. It was known for decades as CCAC (California College of Arts & Crafts). In 2003 the college was renamed California College of the Arts, in recognition of the breadth of the curriculum. For a summary of centennial events see http://www.cca.edu/about/centennial/events.php. A full-color companion book to the exhibition is available.

Visit the Oakland Museum of California. The museum is open Wednesday to Saturday, 10 to 5; Sunday, noon to 5; first Friday of the month until 9. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 seniors and students with ID, and free for museum members, kids five and under, and Oakland City employees. The museum is at 1000 Oak @ 10th Street, one block from the Lake Merritt BART. For more information, visit www.museumca.org

On the Town

With Jason Jagel

Aidin Vaziri, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, October 7, 2007

On The Town

Archive

Jason Jagel is a San Francisco visual artist whose work has appeared on releases by underground musicians such as Our Lady of the Highway and MF Doom, as well as in galleries nationwide. He didn't have to look far for inspiration: His father, John, was a celebrated artist who, in the in the '60s, designed a handful of iconic covers for jazz greats John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. Jagel holds degrees from Stanford University and California College of the Arts, where he teaches painting and narrative drawing. He will be one of the featured artists at Park Life's November anniversary group benefit show. In the meantime, we asked him for a list of his favorite spots around his Mission neighborhood. "My studio is in my backyard, so sometimes I need to invent reasons to get out of the house," he said.

24th and York Street Mini Park. "I've two young daughters, 1 and 4 years old, so my outings often tend toward family-centric destinations like the park and the grocery store. Right around the corner from my house is a newly redone kid's park. There are some of my favorite idiosyncratic Mission murals on its three walls, all pre-existing. As for the new parts, a giant, beautiful mosaic serpent spirals out, halfway submerged in the ground, around a fountain with orchestrated water spouts that can be activated by two color-coded 'panic' buttons."

La Taqueria, 2889 Mission St. "It's some of the best-tasting steak I've had in the city. Eight or 9 dollars for two tacos? Worth every penny, if you've got it."

Mission Pie, 2901 Mission St. "Full as can be, it's still hard for me to resist Mission Pie, whose yummy seasonal pies let my belly experience apricot, peach or strawberry season firsthand. The rich, spicy and not-too-sweet sweet potato and caramelized peach pies have been my tops. The shop is a wing of Pie Ranch, a 14-acre farm on the San Mateo coast that grows the ingredients for the pies and has an educational program that invites urban youth to experience our relationship to food production.

Queens Nails Annex, 3189 Mission St. "One place I enjoy visiting into the late night is Queens Nails Annex, an art gallery started in 2004 by Bob Linder and Julio Cesar Morales. Whether championing international art projects and performances or hosting music and audio projects, they throw mighty friendly parties. The events, where I can count on running into first-class genuine people, often migrate next door into the cozy, neighborhood bar the Argus, whose super bartenders, old-wood bar top and low-key space make it humble magnificent. Some good DJs there too, including Brolin Winning, Urban Yetti, Juan Luna-Alvin and, on the rare occasion, myself."

Mission Pool, 19th and Linda Streets. "A beautiful, outdoor municipal pool that feels not too chlorinated. Thanks to the local lobbying of district supervisors, it's open until January instead of just the summertime. And there's nothing like how hungry I get after swimming and nothing better for it than the shwarma experience of Truly Mediterranean on 16th at Valencia. Yum."

Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia St. "One of the oldest and stalwart nonprofit arts spaces in the city. Seeing vibraphonist Stefon Harris in that intimate, formal and, most importantly, unamplified space won me over completely. Besides which, their theater programming, including the Hybrid Project and resident artists, is always enticing."

Electric Works, 130 Eighth St. "A print shop, art gallery, publisher and book/sundry store. The brick building was built for the Buzell Electric Works in 1925 and now features a 'general store' of select items, including books and prints by a host of fine artists published there and elsewhere. Together, we're publishing a book called "73 Funshine" comprised of my paintings and a 12-inch record with songs by Monk Hughes and the Outer Realm, Young Jazz Rebels and the Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble."

Park Life, 220 Clement St. "Situated in one of my favorite, and often below-the-radar, San Francisco neighborhoods, and besides their great selection of things for sale, they formed Paper Museum Press and published 'Ulysses: Departures, Journeys & Returns: The Artwork of Andrew Schoultz,' a beautiful tome from a beautiful artist. When I opened the book, having not seen his work in a while, I was blown away by his horse and ship paintings and his 2-D/3-D installations. Boom."

E-mail Aidin Vaziri at avaziri@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page G - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Our friend Brendan is having a huge show in LA. Below are the details.
If you are in the area, you should check it out.

Brendan Monroe INSIDES

Opening reception on Saturday October 13th, 2007, 5-7pm
Exhibition Dates: October 13 – November 10, 2007

Richard Heller Gallery
2525 Michigan Avenue, B-5A,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
phone : 310.453.9191
www.richardhellergallery.com

Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, presents INSIDES, a solo exhibition of works by Berkeley based artist Brendan Monroe. The show will consist of a body of paintings on paper and a large interactive sculpture. The title, INSIDES, refers not only to the physical insides of us, such as a blood cell, but also in an emotional sense as in how one feels inside one’s thoughts. The sculpture, titled Borborygmi, represents a giant walk through plush stomach. Borborygmi is a term for the gurgling sounds your intestines and stomach make when you are hungry. The inside of the sculpture will be a very soft and comfortable space, though a little dark and claustrophobic. The sculpture can be about many things. Are people who go inside comfortable with themselves? How many of us listen to what our gut instincts are trying to tell us? How many of our feelings come from this place? How much of what makes us do things is out of hunger; physical hunger and also need?

Real good group show at SF State Gallery

This one is not likely to be widely seen, but is well worth the trip.
Details:

Pacific Light

California Watercolor Refracted
1907-2007

September 22 to October 20, 2007
Department of Art
Fine Arts Gallery
SF State University

http://gallery.sfsu.edu/

The show title is not a real good indication of the great work you'll see in the show..and their website is pretty worthless.

SOme of the artists
Robert Bechtle, Martin Ramirez, Alicia McCarthy, Barry Mcgee, Ruth Asawa, Chang Dai-chien, David Hockney, Julio Cesar Morales, Leslie Price, Wayne Thiebaud, Tucker Nichols, many more..

I tried to take pics but got reprimended.

Go See