“Humming Half-Lives”

Printmaker Barbara Foster is one busy artist. When not teaching students in her role as professor at San Francisco State University, she’s active in several other faculty departments, artists’ programs, and residency programs, such as the Ucross Foundation Residency Program, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, The Kala Art Institute Resident Fellowship Program, and the Frans Masereel Artist Residency, Belgium. She’s been an exchange faculty to the Phillip Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, Chair of the Art Department at San Francisco State, and the Chair of Visual Arts of the California State Summer School for the Arts. Her work is included in the collections of museums from Japan to Belgium to Honolulu, Hawaii; and even more right here in California, including Santa Barbara, Oakland, and San Francisco.

Foster’s current work will be displayed at Warehouse Gallery One in The Prairie Center of the Arts in Peoria, Illinois, a juried Artist-in-Residency program founded in 2003. Housed in a huge, 115 year-old building that was once a rope factory, the Warehouse Gallery One exhibition space only occupies one tiny section of the facility, which is dedicated to attracting and promoting both emerging and established artists, providing them with the opportunities, technology, and work space needed to research and develop exciting new works.

The 2010 Artists in Residence Group Reception will take place on October 1, showing Foster’s work, a series of large format architectural images printed by Hanson Digital using carbon-based inks on fine Japanese paper, as well as the works of fellow artists Jack Stone and Charles Weiss. The show runs through October 29, 2010, and is free and open to the public.

Additionally, if you just happen to be in NYC area Wednesday, August 25, 2010, you have a chance to see Foster speak as a guest artist at the prestigious Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York City from 6:30 -7:30 pm, 323 W39th St. 2nd Floor; see the Workshop’s site or write to rbpmw@efanyc.org for more information.

Barbara Foster: Humming Half-Lives: October 1-29, 2010; Opening Reception on Friday, October 1 @ 7-9 pm, 1506 SW Washington St., Peoria, IL 61602.

Visit >> Prairie Center of the Arts

“An Installation by Wendy MacNaughton”

Wendy MacNaughton is an artist on the move.

No, not just because of the sneakers illustration. Moving is a central theme of MacNaughton’s work, as well as a description of her life.

A San Francisco native, MacNaughton has made her home all around the world – Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam, Paris, and East Africa – and enjoys documenting her fellow travelers on the Planet Earth. A habitual rider of public transit, MacNaughton makes sketches of the other passengers, reproducing their portraits in ink and watercolor along with her own wry comments and insights, creating a witty picture of the world as well as a chart of her own mind.

Not so coincidentally, maps and charts are another popular topic for MacNaughton, blending diagrams of physical spaces she’s inhabited with her own innerspace. (Or sometimes, just her own innerspace.)

MacNaughton’s latest installation of her work opens tonight at Shoe Biz on Haight Street, sponsored jointly by Shoe Biz, Onitsuka Tiger (aka the Asics shoes pictured above), and Outside Lands music festival. The opening will feature gourmet food carts, and live music by digi-folk musician John Givens of What If It Came in Chocolate, and Marky of Massive Selector/Sweater Funk. A portion of all proceeds will benefit the Suubi (Hope) Lunch Program in Uganda.

Hanson Digital made high-resolution drum scans of MacNaughton’s original artwork to create prints of her paintings of sports shoes on smooth white fine art paper, which the artist will then be incorporating into a custom window display for the exhibit.

Check out the Shoe Biz blog for more information on the food carts, music, and other upcoming events scheduled at the store to celebrate Outside Lands, and the artist’s own blog to get a close-up look at her own custom-painted invite flyer, as well as more of her humorous and beautiful work.

An Installation by Wendy MacNaughton: Opening Party Thursday, August 12; 7:30 pm @ Shoe Biz, 1553 Haight St. (at Ashbury), San Francisco, CA.

Visit>>
Wendy MacNaughton
Shoe Biz

“Lend Me Your Rears”

Poopy Lickles was born in western Massachusetts and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with his mother at the age of 12. As a child he was nurtured by his father’s appreciation for underground comics of the ’60s and ’70s and he showed an early aptitude for drawing. His love for artistic expression lead him to seek a bachelor’s degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland but the pursuit of a “higher” art form left him feeling empty and aimless. Years later, as he languished in a retail job, he began drawing shocking and depraved comics on scraps paper in order to shirk his duties and entertain his co-workers. It was then he discovered what his true passion had been all along.

Currently residing in San Francisco, California with his girlfriend and their two cats, Lickles will be holding a book release and signing party celebrating the publication of his second collection of comedy drawings, “Lend Me Your Rears,” at the over-21 venue Jay ‘N’ Bee Club.

Entirely self-published, Lickles’ comics are drawn with a disposable rollerball pen on quarter sheets of standard copier paper, with no preliminary pencil sketches, and usually no concept in mind for the finished work either. Digital touch-ups correct spelling, punctuation, or smudges, but otherwise the cartoons are printed in their original size exactly as they were first produced, an entirely on-the-fly approach that works as a sort of illustrated improv comedy.

Both “Lend Me Your Rears” and Lickles’ first collection, “Shave the Women and Children First,” will be available for sale at the event for US$15. The books are 8″ x 8″ with a perfect (square glued) binding, feature full-color covers, and offer roughly 100 black and white pages of sociopolitical, psycho-sexual, single panel comics in the grand tradition of underground comics pioneers such as R. Crumb and B. Kliban. In other words, this is content not for the easily offended, but willfully politically incorrect, crass, irreverent, and ultimately hilarious.

Lend Me Your Rears: Book release party/signing with the artist, Friday the 13th of August, 2010, 5-8 pm; The Jay ‘n’ Bee Club 2736 20th Street (at York), San Francisco, CA.

Visit>>
Jay ‘N’ Bee Club
Poopy Lickles

The online buzz about it has been circulating for almost a year now. It’s been the talk of the street fashion enthusiast site Hypebeast, and inspired a collaboration with the San Francisco-based streetwear label Black Scale. It’s the Tenderloin Project, and it’s opening at the Medicine Gallery on April 9.

The brainchild of co-founders Sean Desmond and John Elliot, The Tenderloin Project is defined as “an ongoing artistic endeavor focused on one of San Francisco’s most marginalized neighborhoods, The Tenderloin,” with the aim of capturing “a compelling and honest portrait of this diverse community.”

And an honest portrait it is: rather than the usual depressing parade of documentary images of the down-and-out, Desmond – the project’s photographer and videographer – captures faces, attitudes, and scenes that would be familiar to anyone who actually lives or works in the neighborhood, but that few others have the opportunity to see.

Through his stark, black & white photography and up-close-and-personal video footage, Desmond goes beyond the emotions within easy reach and captures a more nuanced, exuberant portrait of the Tenderloin and its residents.

Desmond’s photographs will be exhibited at the Medicine Agency Gallery starting on Friday, April 9, the first official exhibition of his work for the Tenderloin Project. The show will then travel to select U.S. cities, where Desmond’s penetrating images will give broader audiences a personal introduction to understanding what life is like in the Tenderloin.

A portion of proceeds from the show will be donated to Hospitality House’s Community Art’s Program, the only free-of-charge fine arts studio for homeless and poor artists in San Francisco. Promoting and giving access to art in the Tenderloin, Desmond feels, will allow his project to live on in the community for years and generations to come.

The show will also feature collaborative pieces by a variety of artists from the Bay Area and beyond, including Mike Giant, Greg Mike, Mark Bode, Apex, Oliver Black and others, with an exclusive silk-screened show poster by Sean Desmond with Mike Giant.

Black Scale will also be releasing their second run of t-shirts – two new T-shirts and a hat were designed especially for the project, and were then given to Tenderloin residents – and a first run of pullover hoodies featuring original photographs from the Tenderloin Project. (Video footage shot during the original Black Scale promotion, as well as slide shows of Desmond’s still photographs, can be seen on The Tenderloin Project Web site.)

Hanson Digital produced exhibition-quality Gicleé prints for the show, using a smooth, bright white fiber-based paper, in sizes ranging from 40″x60″ wall-size prints to miniature reproductions of the entire exhibition.

The Tenderloin Project: Opens Friday, April 9, at 8 pm at Medicine Agency Gallery, 1262 Mason St. (at Jackson), San Francisco.

Visit>>
The Tenderloin Project
The Medicine Agency Gallery

“The Human Figure” and “Adam Forfang”

A Bay Area native and graduate of San Francisco’s Academy of Art College (now the Academy of Art University), Adam Forfang is a realist painter specializing in still life compositions of everyday objects – fruit is a clear favorite – in arrangements that are artistically formal, yet notable for their playful touches and subtle details. Forfang’s work is currently included in John Pence Gallery’s group show, “The Human Figure,” that runs through April 10, but his work will also be the subject of a one-man show at the John Pence Gallery starting April 16.

“Adam Forfang” is the artist’s fourth solo exhibit, and will display his recent works. The images showcase the painter’s love of food as a subject (note the artful placement of sugar cubes in the examples pictured here), as well as other unique still life creations involving toy robots, ice skates, and masks.

Hanson Digital created and designed Forfang’s portfolio Web site, using muted colors and a simple grid to focus attention on the clean, bright shapes and quiet mood of his paintings.

A gallery of the artist’s recent work can also be viewed at the John Pence Gallery Web site, at http://www.johnpence.com/visuals/painters/forfang/index.htm.

The Human Figure: group show on exhibit through April 10, 2010 at John Pence Gallery, 750 Post Street (between Jones and Leavenworth), San Francisco. Adam Forfang Solo Exhibition: April 16-May 22, 2010 at John Pence Gallery, 750 Post Street, San Francisco. Opening Reception on Friday, April 16, 6-8 pm (open to the public).

Visit>>
John Pence Gallery
Adam Forfang

“Other Worlds”

We first wrote about Mike Glad’s photographs from his travels around the world back in May, 2009, when his work was exhibited at the Chartreuse Muse gallery in Modesto, California. Now Glad’s new “Other Worlds” collection is set to debut as a special exhibit at the prestigious 24th Annual San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show at Fort Mason Center.

Part of the “Arte Du Monde SF” Cultural Arts Week, which opened with the San Francisco Arts of Pacific Asia Show (SFAPA) on February 5, the Tribal & Textile Arts Show is widely recognized as the finest gathering of tribal art in the world. Top collectors, dealers, and galleries all congregate in San Francisco over a single weekend to show and appreciate art from Central and South America, the Oceanic Islands, the Middle East, Africa, Polynesia, Indonesia, and little known tribes of Asia.

In the context of the Tribal Arts show, the joyously humanistic qualities of Glad’s photography will no doubt add a unique perspective to the textiles, furniture, jewelry, masks, religious items, and other fine art and artifacts on display. Glad’s images, gathered on his treks through Yemen, the wooden monasteries of Myanmar, and villages of Pakistan, are photographs of people living their everyday lives amid the stunning landscapes. The very openness and candor of his subjects are the very opposite of “exotic,” and connect with the viewer on a level that is truly universal.

Hanson Digital worked extensively with Glad to perfect the printing for his desaturated images, where selected colors subtly direct the viewer’s attention to specific details, or emphasize the general mood or atmosphere of the shot. Fine art Giclée prints of many of Glad’s images are available for sale through the artist’s Web site.

The opening night preview takes place on Thursday, February 11, from 6-9 pm. The preview night gala is a benefit event for the deYoung Museum’s Textiles, the Art of Africa, and Art of Oceania, and the Americas galleries; you can purchase tickets for 150 per person by calling 415-750-7656. The Tribal & Textile Arts Show officially opens to the public on Friday, February 12, at 11 am. Admission is $15 per person, which includes an illustrated full-color catalog. Friday and Saturday hours for the show are 11-7, on Sunday the show is open from 11-5. (See Mike Glad’s Special Exhibit page on the Arte Du Monde Web site here, and read an extensive article from the official show catalog, starting on page 18, here.)

Visit>>
Arte Du Monde SF
San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show
Mike Glad Photography

“Prints Byte: The Cutting Edge of Printmaking”

Get ready for “an exploration of experimental, digital, and installation-based printmaking” at SOMArts gallery this Friday! Co-Curated by Justin Hoover and Hanna Regev, Prints Byte features 30 local artists who combine politics and social observation with image-making, including the prolific Christina Empedocles, whose latest 3D creation, “Robins, Warblers, and Thrashers,” featuring manipulations of her fine art drawings into a freestanding sculpture by way of photocopies, wood, and staples, is pictured here. 

And if the out-of-the-box art on display at the show blows your mind, be sure to check out the companion programs: “The Politics of Printmaking,” a panel discussion featuring Art Hazelwood, and Steve Lopez Gallery director of ArtZone 461 Gallery, moderated by Don Farnsworth of Magnolia Press, on Saturday February 20, 3:00– 4:30pm; and the Curatorial Walkthrough and Closing Reception on Saturday February, 27, 3:00– 4:00pm, as co-curators Hoover and Regev take you on a personal tour of the exhibit.

Not enough for one night? Get yourself over to Oakland, for the Opening Gala and Inaugural Exhibition for the Era Art Bar & Lounge in the heart of the uptown district. Billed as “a 5,000 square foot space designed to bring together art, handcrafted artisan cocktails, local small production wines and a wide range of music with a sprinkle of live performances,” Era fills two floors with decadent architectural detail such as hand- plastered ceilings, a thirty-five foot steel and concrete bar, vintage leather seating, reclaimed 1920’s hardwood flooring, and handblown glass chandelier, all to provide a magnificent backdrop for enjoying fine art, music, and boutique cocktails.

The opening exhibit, “Rhythm and Rupture,” curated in partnership with Jessica Cox and Cameron Jackson of Alphonse Berber Gallery, features even more artwork by Christina Empedocles, plus Yvonne Mouser, Joshua Dildine, Justin Margitich, Don Porcella and Stephanie Inagaki. The Grand Opening Celebration festivities will take place on Friday, February 5, from 4:30pm -1:30 am. The gallery’s opening reception is from 5-8pm, so presumably, you can show up a little early to check out the space, or stay late for an extra drink. Or two.

“Prints Byte”: Friday, February 5- Saturday, February 27, 2010 at SOMArts, 934 Brannan St., San Francisco; Opening Reception on Friday February 5, 7-9pm.

“Rhythm and Rupture”: February 5- April 4, 2010, Era Art Bar & Lounge, 19 Grand Street, Oakland; Opening Reception on Friday, February 5, 5-8pm.

Visit >>
SOMArts
Era Art Bar & Lounge
Christina Empedocles

“Art Buzz: The 2010 Collection”

San Francisco native Marty Martinez started his art career in 1975, when he entered a contest hosted by a local television station to design a logo for an amusement park then known as Marine World Africa USA (now Six Flags). Martinez took first place in that contest, and he’s had an active artistic life ever since. He’s continued to win competitions – a People’s Choice Award for his painting “Indian Warrior” in 2007; selected “Best Of” at Mims Gallery in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, among others – and he’s been generous in donating artwork to charities, from fundraising for the San Jose public television station KTEH to the ambitious “…and the levee broke: meditations on the power of water” exhibition, a touring art show to raise funds for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

But Martinez’s best-known works are probably his “Shapeshifters” series, paintings inspired by Native American folklore and a nod to Martinez’s own part Pueblo Indian heritage. The paintings are an energetic combination of the abstract and the familiar, incorporating organic shapes with interesting patterns and textures, and rendered in fluorescent acrylics that “transform” into yet another image when viewed under a black light. (Samples of this series can be viewed in a slide show of Martinez’s artwork on Art Slant.)

This year, Martinez’s artwork will be included in two new publications: Art Buzz, The 2010 Collection, a hardcover, coffee table-style book of noteworthy contemporary artists, and a hardcover collection for a forthcoming exhibit about combat casualties in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 2010 Collection is now available for order now, directly through Art Buzz; just click on the “buy now” link.

Hanson Digital has worked with Martinez to create high-quality reproductions of his work, such as the three featured here, “Stovepipe Wells,” “Buzzed,” and “Harebell.” First, the original paintings were photographed to create reproduction-grade 4×5 transparencies. The film was drum scanned to the size of the originals, and the digital files were carefully optimized for printing. Canvas prints were then made, treated with a UV varnish coat, and stretched onto standard bars, for frame-ready reproductions.

Visit >>
Art Buzz
Marty Martinez

“Back to Front”

The curatorial platform of the San Francisco gallery Queen’s Nails Projects is to exhibit “collaborative, site-specific, and experimental projects by artists and independent curators.” The gallery’s upcoming “Back to Front” exhibition expresses that goal by showcasing the work of artists who are usually only seen behind the scenes at the gallery – artists who work at Queen’s Nails Projects itself.

All four of the spotlighted artists – Christina Empedocles, Luke Butler, Jason Kalogiros, and Maggie Preston – have very individual styles, although the group exhibition revealed subtle thematic similarities in their work. History, culture, and our personal relationships with its icons are popular topics for all, as familiar celebrity faces are redressed in new ways, and photographic manipulation is presented as a subject in itself.

Christina Empedocles, a painter and paper artist whose work makes extensive use of photographic images recreated in the more hand-crafted media of pencil and paint, is displaying her recent wax pencil drawings in “Back to Front.” Created in soft, stippled gray tones, her images are painstakingly realistic renditions of found images – historical figures, marvels of photography such as the frozen flight of hummingbirds – made altogether new by her choices of media and presentation. By creating a copy of a copy, Empedocles explores memory, nostalgia, perception, and the distance between ourselves and the objects we remember, or think we know.

To create digital files of Empedocles’s drawings (as seen here), for the artist’s Web site, and for other promotional use, Hanson Digital created 4×5 transparencies, which were then drum scanned, and carefully adjusted to match the original artwork.

“Back to Front” features new work directly from all four artists’ studios, many of the pieces only recently completed and/or never before seen. The Opening Reception is free and open to the public, but normal gallery hours are by appointment; see www.queensnailsprojects.com for contact information.

Opening Reception: December 12, 2009, 7-10pm at Queen’s Nails Projects, 3191 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA. The exhibit is open through January 16, 2010.

Visit>>
Queen’s Nails Projects
Christina Empedocles

A juried exhibition selected by creative directors from various Bay Area design firms, the annual “Something Personal” event for the Advertising Photographers of America (APA) in San Francisco contains 100 examples of the personal photographic work from local professional photographers – in other words, the kind of images they shoot when they’re not on the job. Check out the works of Danielle Hall, Erik Almas, Stan Musilek, Jim Erickson, Thomas Broening, Michele Clement, Jim Hughes, Lupine Hammack, and Hanson Digital’s founder Mark Hanson (pictured above), among many others.

The opening reception party takes place this Friday, December 11, 2009. It’s an invitation-only event, but free invites are available for download at www.apasf.com. Click on the blue-and-white graphic for the “Something Personal Exhibition,” follow the directions, and be sure to bring the printout with you on opening night for admission.

If you already have something festive lined up for Friday, or just can’t attend the opening night party for other reasons, never fear – you can still view a collection of images (one from each exhibitor) at Gallery 645 at 645 7th Street (between Brannan and Townsend) in San Francisco for the month of January, 2010. The entire exhibit will also be available online, at APA’s Web site.

Something Personal Exhibition: Friday, December 11, 6-10 pm at Leftspace Studio; 2055 Bryant St., San Francisco, CA 94107.

Visit>>
APA SF
Gallery 645
Mark Hanson Photography