Matthew Palladino Interview

Fecaface.com has posted a new interview with Matthew Palladino following his solo show with Park Life last month. Expect big things from this kid.
Image: Stay Out of the Rose Garden (Body pile), 2008

Hilarious dust up at the De Young

Art Review: Chihuly at the De Young by Kenneth Baker

SF Chron, Saturday, July 5, 2008

I can't remember getting so much entertainment out of an art review. The Bay Area's one and only big-time art critic takes on the masses. Personally, I think Kenneth Baker is a dinosaur, offering no insight or relevance for at least the last decade. But when he takes the tact that Chihuly's work "isn't art...but,...decoration..." and calls for the ousting of the De Young Director he really commits himself, which is rare for art writers. It's a given that Chihuly is to glass what Thomas Kincade is to paint, but I can't believe what a friggin snob Baker comes off as. Do yourself a favor and read the comments at the end of the article.

Michelle Blade show at Jack Hanley

Our friend Michelle Blade is having a show with Jack Hanley in SF.

Michelle Blade
The Elliptical Good-Kind
July 5th - Aug 8th, 2008
Opening reception Sat, July 5th 6pm

Best No Brow Art Gallery and Bookstore: Park Life

The SF Weekly gave us Best No Brow Art Gallery and Bookstore



Park Life is a quirky independent bookstore and gallery (and publisher, and gift store, andandand) in the Inner Richmond. All merchandise in this funky little store is carefully and lovingly chosen. From books on outsider artist Henry Darger, recent offerings from the likes of Barry McGee, Marcel Dzama, and Kota Ezawa, to Holga and fish-eye cameras and goofy David Shrigley postcard sets, Park Life covers the wide array of your arts-lovin' needs. And with the ever-humble goal of bringing affordable art to the community, owners Jamie Alexander and Derek Song at the very least make contemporary art accessible and fun.

yay.

Paul Wackers Tournesol Award Winner 08.

The Headlands Center for the Arts is announcing that painter Paul Wackers is this years' winner of the Tournesol Award.

You know we're big fans. Congrats.

Gary Panter Signing @ Park Life

Gary Panter will be @ Park Life to sign his new book on June 28th.

ABout the book:

An intimate look at the work and life of a legendary artist. Gary Panter has been one of the most influential figures in visual culture since the mid-1970s. From his era-defining punk graphics to his cartoon icon Jimbo to his visionary design for Pee-wee's Playhouse, he has left his mark on every medium he's touched. Working in close collaboration with the artist, PictureBox has assembled the definitive volume on Panter's work from the early 1970s to the present. This monumental, slipcased set is split into two 350-page volumes. The first is a comprehensive monograph featuring over 700 images of paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters and comics, alongside essays by Robert Storr, Mike Kelley, Richard Klein, Richard Gehr, Karrie Jacobs and Byron Coley, as well a substantial commentary by the artist himself. The second volume features a selection from Panter's sketchbooks--the site of some of his most audacious work--most of which has never been published in any form.

Details to follow.

Recently I discovered these...

Everyone knows there is a dearth of relevant arts coverage in the Bay Area (especially in print..I still can't believe that Kenneth Baker is the apex of art reviewing in SF.)
Well here are a few art sites that fill some holes:

www.sketchypad.com

www.libbysniche.com

plus a great new art calendar that is pretty comprehensive...it looks like they may be adding more content at some point as well.

www.happenstand.com

Hot and Cold at The Luggage Store

There are some real nice works up for the release of the newest Hot and Cold Zine at the Luggage Store Gallery here in SF. The zine is solid per usual. Stand outs for the show are works by Tucker Nichols, Jason Jagel and Paul Wackers. Especially the Wackers piece (pictured). (All three of these works are still available, inexplicably)

Kick
out
the
jams

Thru June 14th, 2008

the luggage store
1007 market street
san francisco, ca 94103
tel. 1. 415. 255-5971

www.luggagestoregallery.org

gallery hours: wednesday-saturday, 12-5pm

Ryan McGinley : Spring and By Summer Fall

I recently saw the new Ryan McGinley show at Ratio 3 in SF. Pretty amazing work. He has to be on the short list for best photographers of his generation. The bigger pieces really stand out ( isn't that always the case) Though I'm not sure I would want to live with one of these pieces on my home...one of his friends, naked, on a field trip, jumping around. Almost sold out show too, but don't ask for any pricing info...gallery is snobby.

Tucker Nichols solo show this Thursday

Tucker Nichols

May 13 - June 21, 2008.

Opening reception: Thursday May 15th, 6 - 8pm

Lincart Gallery is extremely pleased to present our third solo show with celebrated Bay Area artist Tucker Nichols.



Tucker is also in Residence at the De Young;


Tucker Nichols: Into The Museum
Artist-in-residence
de Young Museum, San Francisco
January – May, 2008
Closing reception: Friday, May 30, 6:30–8:30PM
Artist talk in conversation with Griff Williams: 7:15PM

Andrew Schoultz and Jason Jagel painting the Park Life sign.

NY Hipster Art Scene Beat-down from Jerry Saltz

WASTED YOUTH

by Jerry Saltz

Dan Colen and Nate Lowman’s collaboration at Maccarone has the look of now. Which is to say their show is a self-conscious pastiche of Warhol, Cady Noland’s junked-up approach, Richard Prince, quasi-slacker neo-punk, scuzz, stock ideas about mass culture, appropriation, assemblage and a sort of car-wreck esthetic. It’s a new hip academy.

That’s a good thing and a bad thing. Colen, who in January 2007 appeared on the cover of New York magazine, in bed in his underpants with two other male artists, is known for his superrealist renderings of bird droppings (there’s a great one at Deitch Projects right now) and graffiti. Lowman is noted for his impressive handmade paintings of bullet holes and advertising. Along with Dash Snow and Terence Koh, they’re hotshots on the scene. Each on his own is good at this mannered nonstyle. But their show, while roguish, is merely occupying a well-defined position. A heat-seeking art world, mindlessly drawn to the familiar, has deemed that current art should look this way, so more art does. That’s part of the bad thing.

Like so many recent exhibitions (numbing swaths of the Whitney Biennial, portions of the New Museum’s "Unmonumental") the Colen-Lowman outing resembles a disheveled rec room. The palette du jour in these shows is black-and-white, black-and-silver, monochrome, Day-Glo, or printer’s colors like magenta and cyan applied mechanically or in intentionally messy ways. Posters, gaffer’s tape, magazine pages and found objects are placed about. Images are usually derived from newspapers, ads or porn. Text and jokes often appear (à la Richard Prince); holes are often bashed in walls; Sheetrock and plywood are broken up and spray painted. Noland’s ideas about sculpture and Prince’s about appropriation are so prevalent that those artists ought to be drawing royalties.

Much of this work takes visual cues from the photographs that appeared in art magazines of the ‘60s and ‘70s, translating that smudgy halftone quality to three dimensions. These artists seem to want to crawl into the skins of Gordon Matta-Clark and Robert Smithson, whose work did intrusive things to the large and familiar, and a preapproved roster from the so-called "greatest generation." It’s a cool school based on an older cool school, and it gains attention the way a child of a celebrity does. Many artists of this stripe went to art school and have apparently internalized the beliefs of their teachers, using strategies common when those instructors were young. They’re making art in ways that their teachers thought art should be made. This is an Oedipal-esthetic feedback loop, a death wish. Some of this art is good. Most of it already looks very dated, or will soon.

Colen and Lowman’s effort is titled "Wet Pain," perhaps referencing "wet paint" or Brice Marden’s remark that "painting says pain in it." The first things you see are a car engine on a wheeled platform and a smashed-up 1971 Jaguar filled with electronic gear that continually plays the instrumental "Tequila." Once you size up their wreck, it emits almost no content and isn’t even visually riveting. The rest of the show comes on fast, sexy and cheeky, but then fades fast into flippancy.

There is (or was; the piece has gone back to the collector) a grungy towel with the words "Life’s a Beach" by a painting that says "And then you die." So we get a spoof or a sight gag made out of a found object and a painted one. But the materials, abjectness and jokiness feel indebted to Martin Kippenberger and Mike Kelley, and end up being pointless. Similarly, a photo of a smiling Josh Hartnett in his shorts seems more like Karen Kilimnik’s early work than anything else. A set of shiny mag wheels brings to mind Prince’s use of the same objects; a picture of some Disney books with crack pipes is an inane mix of goodness and badness. A rendition of a red Kabbalah bracelet skewers boomers’ searching for their inner mystics, and a graffitilike painting, titled Sarah Morris (Brice Marden) or Bill Clinton, has the caption "dude it’s about your mama." At least that one can make you chuckle.

The problem is, "Wet Pain" just looks too much like too many other shows -- many of them excellent, some at Maccarone -- to be taken as anything other than bad-boy shtick and hammy caricature. It radiates hipness and camaraderie, and is a warning that artists need to be wary of the point where influence turns into derivativeness. The Noland-Prince esthetic stem-cell line isn’t the only one available for use. (Nor, by the way, is the Smithson–Matta-Clark one.) As for Warhol, we all love him, or we don’t. Regardless, artists needn’t continually deploy his play-the-system anti-gambit. It was once brave; now it’s just a conformist pose, and a lazy and self-limiting one.

Dan Colen & Nate Lowman, "Wet Pain," Mar. 28-Apr. 26, 2008, at Maccarone, 630 Greenwich Street, New York, N.Y. 10014.

JERRY SALTZ is senior art critic for New York Magazine, where this article first appeared. He can be reached at jerry_saltz@newyorkmag.com

A few images of the store...

Evan Fan @ Richard Heller

If you are in the LA area this weekend you should really make the trip out to Santa Monica and check out the Evah Fan show. Evah is one of our favorite artists.

April 19th, 2008 - May 17th, 2008
Opening Reception: 5-7 pm

Richard Heller Gallery
2525 MICHIGAN AVE, B-5A
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA 90404

Good Stuff

Will Yackulic: A Prompt & Perfect Cure

April 1 – May 17, 2008

I've been following Will's work for several years, always been a fan.
I've also been curious to see where he would take his trademark blue and white cube renderings.
He's made leaps. Real, real good. Pretty much sold out too.

Gregory Lind Gallery | 49 Geary Street, Fifth Floor | San Francisco CA 94108 | 415 296 9661 | info@gregorylindgallery.com

Get Ready - New Park Life Edition - David Shrigley Deck.

Should be available beginning May. Limited Edition.

Andrew Schoultz @ Morgan Lehman in NY

Andrew's new show In Chaos We Become The Ocean opened last week @ Morgan Lehman Gallery in NYC and runs till April 12th. I've heard great things about it. Nearly sold out already. Next he's off to Rotterdam for another show.

Brendan Monroe Interview

Brendan stopped in yesterday and we went over the first comp of his soon to be published book. For a first draft it was pretty awesome and I'm not just saying that cause we are publishing it. The finished book should be in our hands in mid to late summer!

In more Brendan news, here is a recent interview he did with DGV publishing in Germany.

Chris Johanson opens this weekend @ Jack Hanley

One of our favorites, Chris Johanson, has a new show (untitled) opening this weekend @ Jack Hanley. March 8.

Also, the SFMOMA recently acquired one of his larger works..it's up right now in their new acquisitions room on the 4th floor. It's a big, colorful piece (6' x 6') from from like 2004.

Simon Evans also has a nice piece showing that the MOMA just bought.

Keegan Mchargue Book.

Just got an advance copy of Keegan McHargue's new Monograph Deep Mauve and man is it nice. It's big, it's got an embossed satin hardcover, and it's very limited. Published by his Japanese gallery, the book features works on paper from about 2002-2006. Email us to get on the preorder list. These will go fast.

Auditory Art

Real Good show - Paul Wackers.

Paul Wackers at Eleanor Harwood Gallery

Stand Still Like the Hummingbird

opens Feb. 16th 7-10pm

show runs Feb. 16th - March 16th


I was anxious to see Paul's new work..his last show being one of the highlights of 2007 for me.
He does not dissapoint. Paul is really stepping it up. I can't believe how affordable the work is too. Get one before they go through the roof.

Eleanor Harwood Gallery is located at:

1295 Alabama Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
cross street is 25th

415. 867. 7770

Gallery Hours:

Thursday, Friday & Saturday 1-5
and by appointment

Ian Johnson Show opens Sat.

Young art star Ian Johnson's new show opens this weekend.
Here's a preview of the work.

http://www.whitewallssf.com/gallery.php?artist_id=current#

Joint show featuring the work of Ian Johnson and Albert Reyes.

Opening party Sat Feb. 9th.

Chris Ballantyne @ Hosfelt Gallery

Our good friend Chris Ballantyne is having a a show at Hosfelt Gallery here in SF that opens this weekend.

CHRIS BALLANTYNE
When the World Was Flat

9 February – 22 March 2008
Reception: Saturday, 9 February, 4-6 pm





You don't want to miss this one.

Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco is located at 430 Clementina Street, between Howard and Folsom and 5th and 6th streets. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday 11–5:30.

New Era begins

We're painting the Sign! This is you last chance to see the old 50's era(I think) Busvan for Bargains sign that graces our facade. In a couple weeks it will be the Park Life sign. New paint, new lettering and original work by two of SF's best artists - Jason Jagel and Andrew Schoultz. I can't tell you how exciting this is for us (or how many hoops we had to jump through with the City).

Luggage Store Anniversary Show

The Luggage Store is having it's 20th Ann. show right now showcasing all the great artists that have passed through over the last two decades. A virtual who's who of the SF art community.

Some works are for sale.
Stand-out pieces for me were works by Mark Bradford, Margaret Kilgallen (duh), Os Gemeos, Cheryl Dunn, Barry MCgee, Tauba Auerbach, Shaun O'dell.

Keegan Mchargue's piece????????????????????