Audrey M. Roy

Earlier this week I had the chance to visit some of the galleries in Manhattan's East Village/Lower East Side.  

My favorite by far was Gallery Satori.  They have a main space and a project space (i.e. a side mini-gallery).  The main space is currently filled with large mixed-media sculptures by Benjamin S. Jones.  I was instantly drawn to these pieces, which look like exploding, radiating architectural models.  One piece has graphic foam arrows flying out of it, and another is like a sea urchin of high-rise and smaller buildings.

In their project space is a series of "found-media" videos by Jeremiah Teipen.  The videos are extravagant collages of bits and pieces of video and animation from the web.  Teppen's biography refers to his pieces of "pure visual gluttony," a description that I thought was vividly perfect.  He takes the most gluttonous parts of the web (e.g. MySpace comment "bling" graphics) and scrolls them across his video pieces.  It is a bit hard to describe.  The videos remind me of Jeff Koons' work.  You really should see them while they're up at Satori if you are in the area.

I like how Gallery Satori shows artwork that teeters on the edge of being too uncomfortably experimental.  In contrast, for the most part the other Lower East Side galleries were either more risk-averse or over the deep end of experimental.  I was also very impressed with the artwork's presentation, in a way that I don't know how to explain.  It just felt right.

The show tonight looks really, really good.  I had no idea what to expect since the pieces are smaller than what you'd normally see at an art show.  But the folks at The Compound Gallery did something very interesting, displaying the pieces inside of gift boxes mounted on the gallery walls. 

Again, it's open to the public, and I'll be there:
Sept 8, 2009, 7-10p
The Compound Gallery, 6604 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA 94608.  (near Ashby BART; lots of street parking around)
Light refreshments served

I guess you can't see much of the artwork from this video, but you can kind of get an idea of it:

My recommendations for the art shows to go to in September.  I'll be out of town for much of this month, but I'll try to make it to as many of these as I can. 

(And let me know if you know of any other good ones)

• Art in a Box Social & Exhibit

  My comments: I'm one of the Art in a Box artists and will be at this :)  Come and say hi to me!  I think a lot of the artists will be there.  It's going to be a pretty informal, fun little party, with lots of art all around, of course.

  Tuesday, September 8th 7-10pm
  The Compound Gallery, 6604 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA 94608

  Art in a Box is hosting its first Art exchange and September pick! Enjoy tasty treats, art, and friends!   New subscribers can pick work off the wall for their first month and current subscribers can pick off the wall for their September Art in a Box. Plus, you can meet the artists involved!  If you are not a subscriber, come see what Art in a Box is all about!

  About Art in a Box:
  The Compound Gallery is pleased to announce ART IN A BOX, a new art subscription service featuring Bay Area artists. Operating on the model of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription, Art in a Box offers amazing original works of art instead of vegetables. Each month subscribers receive a new work of fine art by a different local artist. Our featured artists work in a variety of mediums (ceramic, printmaking, painting, collage, digital prints, etc.) and most of them live and work in Oakland or San Francisco. Subscribers can indicate a preference in mediums, but not the artist or piece. All artwork is contained in an 11” x 17” x 3” box along with the artist’s bio. Subscriptions are $30/month for pick up only, and $50/month which includes shipping and a bonus piece (there is a minimum three month subscription). We currently have subscribers in all parts of the U.S.– from Oakland to Brooklyn. Art in a Box allows subscribers to receive high quality works worth much more than the subscription cost, gives local artists national exposure, and helps to support the arts and artists in the Bay Area. Check out our website: www.Artinabox.net for more info.

  
  

• It's Gonna be Awesome
  
  My comments:  I will be out of town for pretty much the entire time that this show is up.  But honestly, I know it's gonna be more than awesome.  I met Narangkar at one of the openings at The Compound Gallery and love her paintings.

  new work by Narangkar Glover

  September 10 - October 11, 2009

  at Blankspace Gallery, 6608 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA 94608
  Reception:
  September 12th 6-9pm

  First Friday Reception:
  October 2nd, 7-10pm

  Sunday Tea;
  September 20th 3-6pm(tea generously provided by NUMI tea of Oakland)

  It's Gonna Be Awesome features large scale oil paintings, one large scale (40 x 60 inch) embroidered painting, and a number of smaller studies. In this body of work Glover deals with personal space and individuality. The curvilinear shape depicted in her paintings is the homemade concrete skate bowl in her back yard. This is a landscape built for a single leisurely and social activity: skateboarding. The paintings serve as homage to the individualistic lifestyle around it, and the efforts made by individuals to sustain it. Aesthetically interesting is the bowl as a unique structure, and its juxtaposition with the jasmine, bamboo and lemon trees indicative of East Bay gardening. Narangkar gives treatment to her works as landscapes with definitive borders by including elements such as fences and telephone wires - reminders of the city that surrounds this oasis.

  Narangkar Glover holds a BFA from California College of the Arts (1999), and begins her MFA candidacy at the University of California at Berkeley this fall. She lives an works in Oakland, California and has exhibited widely throughout the Bay Area in spaces such as Giant Robot SF, Oakland Art Gallery, Blankspace Gallery, 21 Grand and the Richmond Art Center.

  GALLERY HOURS:
  THURS-SUN 12-6pm, FIRST FRIDAYS 7-10pm
  

• "Adventures in Photography" 

  My comments:  Don is a friend whom I know from back when I had a studio at Art Explosion.  He's an incredible, incredible photographer and sculptor.  I'll be out of town, but if you attend, please say hello for me :)

  Keith Gidlund : Don Ross : Thelan Nguyen

   Fri September 11th 7pm - 10pm
  744 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA

   This is the 7th and final show of our Summer Art Series. We would like to thank the artists and everyone who came to these intimate viewings. This was our first attempt at having art shows in the summer and they were a success we look forward to building on next summer. Please visit and enjoy some wine and have a fun night out viewing art and meeting the artists.

   Free Admission
  Free Refreshments

• The Gallery at Intersection presents The Language of Anxiety

  My comments:  My friend and former Art Explosion neighbor Andrea is in this.  I remember that her art was a fascinating mix of conceptual/social commentary, often with a humorous or absurd twist.  Great stuff.

  Second Annual Intern Show
  September 9 -19, 2009
  Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 12-5pm, Tuesdays by appointment
  FREE

  Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 9, 2009
  6pm-9pm
  FREE

  The Language of Anxiety examines environmental and personal tension by exploring how we define, react, and respond to rising personal and social anxieties, serving as a timely response to the uncertainty of our times. Organized by current and former Interns from the Intersection Leadership Training Program, this exhibition will include their paintings, sculptures, installations and writing. The show will also present work created by middle school students from Seven Tepees Youth program, an Intersection Community Partner.

  Participants include: Ana Bedolla, Jasmin Bode, Kathleen Brennan, Elizabeth Burke, Daniel Chen, Katy Chmura, Bea Dominguez, Evelyn Ellias, Jennifer Kincaid, Laurie Monziols, Tanya Orellana, Kate Purnell, Heather Rosen, Andrea Slattery and Seven Tepees Youth.

  *The Intersection Leadership Training Program is a year-round, highly regarded internship program with competitive enrollment and offers a variety of possibilities for young artists and arts leaders by providing opportunities in career building, professional development and hands-on experience.

• This Long Road

  My comments:  I know Crystal and Ben through The Compound.  Crystal sculpts some of the most interesting, unique, emotional figurative pieces that I've ever seen.  As for Ben, I don't know his other work but I'm amazed by his miniature head sculptures that all seem to tell a different story or expression. 

  DEREK WEISBERG * CRYSTAL MOREY * BEN BELKNAP
  (September 12-October 11, 2009)

  at The Compound Gallery, 6604 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA 94608
  Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 6-9pm

  Afternoon Tea: Sunday, September 20, 3-6pm
  Closing Reception: Friday, October 2, 7-10

  This Long Road is a show of individual works as well as collaborative pieces, made by Ben Belknap, Derek Weisberg, and Crystal Morey. All three artists were schoolmates at the California College of Arts and Crafts where a relationship began rooted in the love of figurative sculpture. Each artist has their own interpretation and style of the body as well as emotional content behind the work. In “This Long Road’ the artists will each represent their own work, and then explore the wonder, innovation, and trials of working together on a larger project.

• Polar Identity
  AN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION

  My comments: I have no connection to this, but it sounds cool.  I've always wanted to get involved with 01SJ somehow...

  Can’t make it to downtown San Jose? Join us virtually at SWITCH.SJSU.EDU. We will have LIVE Streaming of the opening! Watch First Friday Live starting around 8 on Friday August 7 at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/works-live featured live streams will be from Anno Domini, KALEID Gallery, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art and WORKS/ San Jose. There will also be a lightly moderated chat available to talk to other art patrons and perhaps even some on site.

  Global climate change has far reaching ramifications, and as a result the world as we know it will not be the world of 100 or perhaps even 10 years. Armed with an awareness of how our actions impact the environment, how will this affect our ideas about who we are? This was the question posed by CADRE New Media Lab at San Jose State University in an open call to artists earlier this summer.

  From entries all over the world, six finalists were chosen. Leading artist Andrea Polli, seen at 01SJ 2008, will be exhibiting her work Sonic Antarctica We are also excited to feature the work Markers and 100,000-year journey by Xavier Cortada. Other works exploring the poles include Jerome Gueneau and Catherine Rannou, Phil Boissonnet, Andrea Juan, and Erika Blumenfeld. The jurors for the exhibit include surveillance artist Hasan Elahi, new media artist Robin Lasser and writer/curator Annick Bureaud.

  SPONSORS: Zero1.org, SWITCH.sjsu.edu, CADRE New Media Lab, WORKS San Jose.

  Exhibition details:

  OPENING:
  August 7, 2009, during South First Friday Art Walk
  7pm-11pm.
  Location: WORKS/SJ
  www.workssanjose.org
  live http://www.southfirstfridays.com/live-stream

  ARTIST CHAT: with French artist Phil Boissonnet and see his work CP Toms.

  AUGUST 9TH: POLAR IDENTITY Family day. Bring your family in for an art workshop on Polar Identity. See SWITCH.SJSU.EDU or workssanjose.org

  ONGOING: All art POLAR IDENITITY will also be exhibited virtually at SWITCH.SJSU.EDU

  SEPTEMBER: Panel on Polar Identity and Global Warming. If you are interested in being on the panel please contact us at switch.sjsu.edu

  CLOSING:
  September 11, 2009, 7pm
  WORKS/San Jose

• The Modern Chimera, and The Bright Darkness, at Sweet(art) Drawing Gallery, 6602 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA 94608

  My comments:  The amazing Obi Kaufmann is curating these mini-shows.  I loved the first show to death and can't wait for the next one.

  Show #1: “The Modern Chimera"
  Teppei Ando
  Christine Benjamin
  Jon Carling
  Matt Decker
  Martha Sue Harris
  Dave Higgins
  Kevin Earl Taylor

  Aug.7-Sep 9.09, Reception Aug 7th, 6-9pm

  Abstract: The first of four shows at Sweetart Drawing Gallery, The Modern Chimera is a group show that represents a bestiary of malformed and hybrid creatures from an imagined world. Exhibited drawings include themes which revolve around a sense of nature violated and a world ecology disrupted.

  Show #2: “The Bright Darkness” artists TBA.

  Sep 11-Oct 7.09, Reception Sep 11th, 6-9pm

  Abstract: The Bright Darkness is the treatise of a reaction common to many contemporary artists and that is the imminent sense of an almost supernatural violence. An artistic violence born in what many may classify as dark imagery, although it is not a violence that destroys but a revealing mask of dissatisfaction and ultimately, hope. This show intentionally opens on the 8th anniversary of 9-11.
  

• a new hybrid comics shop/gallery that my friend Leef just opened...
  Mission Comics and Art
  http://www.missioncomicsandart.com

  3520 20th St. Suite B
  San Francisco, CA 94110

  I don't think they're having any openings until October, but check their website calendar for updates.
  

• David Ivan Clark, Kerri Lee Johnson, Emily Payne

  My comments:  The opening's over, but this is another good one.  Kerri, who is one of the owners of Blankspace Gallery, draws and paints the most interesting scenes of strange things at sea.  It's kind of hard to describe but awesome in a strange way.  And I own one of them now :)

  September 3 - October 9, 2009
  Main Gallery

  Opening reception:
  Friday, September 4, 2009
  5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

  In David Ivan Clark's works, landscape is implied. His layers of oil hint at nature as a tangible object and at the same time assert the abstract idea of paradise. He credits the plains of western Canada, where he grew up, as a strong influence on his work.

  Emily Payne is also interested in the dialectic of nature and man-made materials. Comprised of gouache layered over X-Acto knife marks, her works are reminiscent of ocean waves.  Other pieces incorporate wire sculptures as well as the shadows they cast in paint on paper. Each piece has an ethereal quality, suggesting something more than the immediately visible.

  Kerri Lee Johnson, like Clark and Payne, is influenced by surroundings, both natural and manufactured, historical and fantastical. The figures in Johnson's drawings are part of a fanciful society where ceremonial rituals are performed.

Wow, that's a lot of shows.