When multimedia storyteller Pauline Bartolone reached out about a photo-centered art auction fundraiser she’s hosting for friends detained in Iran, I was ecstatic about the idea. Saturday night’s event at SOMArts Cultural Center has 80 local artists presenting in the name of freeing documentary photographer Shane Bauer and fellow hikers (you can learn more at FreeTheHikers). And buy art–just know that I call dibs on Camille Seaman’s ”Uneditioned,” below.
It may be months away, but I’m most excited for ODC’s creativity symposium with women artists slated for April. The day and a half event “Women Who Frame the World” will bring creators and artists to the Oberlin Dance Company (as in, the Ohio university for which the now Mission-based theater hails). Performer Laurie Anderson, feminist psychologist Carol Gilligan, and novelist Mona Simpson will be presenting, and after seeing ! Women Arts Revolution this week, I’m looking forward to Lynn Herhsman Leeson’s talk in mid-April.
The Valencia Street store The Curiosity Shoppe will be hosting artist Maria Forde’s work starting Friday (and celebrating with a reception starting at 6). The show of world record-themed work is a new addition to her sets of etchings including “musical instruments that i like: because of how they look and sound” and favorite actors. Consider the race to take home the latest work on.
Southern Exposure, the Mission-based community space, has long been an enigma to me. Its large space seems to be a place for creative but mysterious things, but it seems the curtain is opening with this weekend’s Art Publishing Now. The “two days of events dedicated to the investigation and showcasing of art publishing practices in the Bay Area” is to include discussion, an art publisher fair, and, oh yes, an after party. While the Saturday summit covering fetish objects and regional criticism is closed, a fair on Sunday from 11 to 6 is free and open to the public. Think Art Practical, Believer Mag, and that you’d be silly to miss it.
San Franciscans, rejoice: Lady Parts, a co-working salon that was formerly limited to the East Coast, is making its Bay Area introduction this week. I like the concept of an “open, collaborative, creative salon for ladies in pursuit of independent endeavors” but I mostly like the call to BYOB. Bolt | Peters will play host to the typing creatives and photographers in attendance–if only we could all be so lucky.
After a bright weekend in the city (it is Indian summer, after all), it’s nice to see work that’s equally colorful–and imaginative, for you Folsom Street Fair-goers. In addition to creating joyful work on wood locally, illustrator and CCA grad Mati Rose McDonough currently has a show at Rare Device that’s well worth a stroll through. If the warm weather keeps you from making it to the Market Street store, her Etsy shop may grab you with its neon elephant-themed pieces and half off sale.
Some of the most fun I had during my first year in advertising involved working with two artists in the SF Dump’s Artist in Residency program (count on our fair city to be one of the only ones nationwide that gives artists the privilege). Tables with bike wheels, sod couches and bulletproof benches were among the most imaginative pieces to come out of the commission. So hearing that the local organization Intersection for the Arts is now hosting work created from materials in the Public Disposal and Recycling Area (“the dump”) has me most excited, of course. Recology is on display at Intersection’s new space at 5th and Mission until September 25th, and I beg you not to miss Mike Farruggia’s inventive use of redwood, ironwood and cycling parts (below, following Sandy Drobny’s Caution and before Sirron Norris’ Found Wood, Jane Kim’s Faux Bois Divide, and Nemo Gould’s Impala).
This being the first Friday of the month, the Oakland Art Murmur taking place this weekend along at galleries near the MacArthur BART beckons with art walks and concurrent receptions. Buzz Gallery, Creative Growth, and Rock Paper Scissors Collective will be among those opening their doors and showing work alongside performers on 23rd.
When Method’s Anna Kolhede passed along details about John Heart Jackie playing at Hotel Utah on Saturday night, planning on it was a no brainer–like the venue, love the band. The duo of Jennie Wayne and Peter Murray have compiled a set of beautifully melodic songs recorded at an Oregon winery, and her vocals are especially inviting in “We are Gold Mounds,” the title track. As a slave to public radio, you know I was glad to see NPR Music make a plea for adding the band “to the growing list of artists to watch from Portland.” West Coast tours and downloads, bless you.
Should you consider yourself curious and creative (and who here doesn’t?), getting thyself to Valencia Street’s Curiosity Shoppe tonight might make for an inspiring experience. The store is hosting a five-to-eight fiesta in honor of UPPERCASE, a very well designed new publication that’s, quite frankly, not safe for work from the perspective that its visual collection may persuade you to never return to Excel.
