Cheers to all of you who made Passport such a wonderful experience!

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery (SFAC Gallery) is grateful for all of the hard work and enthusiasm that people put forward to make this event so interesting, fun and rewarding. This year's Passport was the most successful Passport fundraising event to date. The money made from this event will  fund artists in the upcoming year. Your purchase is helping artists generate income and the SFAC Gallery provide programming that furthers cultural dialogue. We believe this is great and worthwhile and we thank you for making it possible.

Passport 2011 artists employed variety of creative solutions to the challenges of producing  small scale works that are interesting, meaningful and continues the language of their larger body of works. Artist John Chiara went so far as to build a small wooden frame that served as a printmaking register for his stamp(s). Although a single image was produced there were three distinct images at varying sizes and colors that were layered to create one final image. The process utilized three people. One to ready the Passport and ink the stamps, one to put the wooden frame into place, set the register blocks and press the stamp and finally another person to blow dry the ink between layers. It looked like a small factory line. People lined up out the door and down the sidewalk for this stamp, but there is no doubt that it was worth the wait.

Chiara was not the only artist to utilize assistants and a small production line for their stamp. Monica Canilao had a stamp that involved cutting, collage, sewing and stamping. The process alone was a work of art. Open the book, cut the page, collage on the page and insert a small strip of paper, sew the strip on, finish with a stamp on top of it all and repeat about 330 times. Having those two works alone is well worth the $25 cost of the Passport, not to mention the other incredible stamps and artworks that were produced.

Each year the SFAC Gallery visits a different neighborhood to host Passport. The impact in each neighborhood is also a worthy cause for participation. Each year patrons are introduced to vendors they may not have known existed. Several people commented on how they had never really explored the Castro and how great it was to find new spaces in their city that they might not have heard about. It is the SFAC Gallery's goal to partner with local business during this event. This partnership helps promote their business, introduce new customers to them and strengthens community.

After a day of meeting artists, collecting art and seeing new neighborhood spots people headed over to QBar for some refreshments and entertainment. This was a lot of fun. Artist Sean McFarland was taking photographs in a low lit room with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and any willing participants for $5. This was not officially a Passport stamp, but it really rounded out the collecting experience. McFarland shot black and white photos with a Fuji Polaroid style camera. With each participant he took time to light the scene, posture the subjects and came up with some truly amazing photos. Also at the after party was DJ'ing, musical performances, drink specials and raffle prizes. QBar generously donated a percentage of bar sales and helped organize and create a fun environment for everyone.

Stay tuned for next year's Passport event. We will be located in a new neighborhood with a new crew of artists and venues for your art collecting experiential pleasure.

For information about  Passport 2011 visit our Facebook page at  http://on.fb.me/SFACPassport2011 or call 415.554.6080.

Tell me more! How did Passport start?
In its inaugural year, Passport 2009 took place in the Mission District, arguably the heart of the local art scene, with stamps created by Libby Black, Michelle Blade, Lisa Congdon, Maria Forde, Colter Jacobsen, Veronica De Jesus, Sean McFarland, Barry McGee, Tucker Nichols, Maria Porges, Clare Rojas, Andrew Schoultz and Marci Washington and a diverse range of neighborhood supporters that served as lively stamping locations, including Needles & Pens, Bombay Ice Cream Company, Paxton Gate and Casa Sanchez.

In 2010, Passport took Hayes Valley by storm, with artist contributions from Timothy Cummings, Richard Diebenkorn (courtesy of the estate), Jamaica Dyer, Ana Teresa Fernandez, Suzanne Husky, Jason Jägel, Ruth Laskey, Paul Madonna, Nigel Poor, Ricardo Richey, Lordy Rodriguez, Jovi Schnell, Travis Somerville, Deth P. Sun, Weston Teruya, and Lindsey White. Small business and organizations in the area such as local bag-designer Timbuk2, AgeSong assisted-living home, the African American Art Culture Complex, and clothing designer Lemon Twist—who outfitted a drill team to parade along stamping route—were integral to the event’s success.

Pasport 2011 was generously supported by Body and the following sponsors.

David Huffman, Traumanaut Tree Hugger, video still

Opening Reception: Friday, September 16, 6-8pm
Exhibition Dates: September 16 - December 10, 2011

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery is pleased to present SHIFT, an exhibition of newly commissioned solo projects by Bay Area artists Elizabeth Axtman, David Huffman and Travis Somerville who, through their work, confront the concept of race in America.

SHIFT pushes the public to think about our changing demographics and what role race plays in our post-millennial American circumstance. The SHIFT artists, of whom two are mixed race and one is white, are creating works that are extremely disparate from each other in terms of aesthetics. However, each attempts to illuminate the present by thrusting the past (recent and not so recent) and its varied legacies of prejudice, hate and denial into today and the future. SHIFT - shifting demographics, shifting forms of activism, shifting critical theory, shifting contemporary art practices...

Meg Shiffler, SFAC Gallery Director and SHIFT curator, says, “We’re not living in a post-race world, however things are changing. According to the 2010 Census 2.9% of Americans claim to be more than one race, which is up 32% from 2000. We are fast becoming a nation of mixed race individuals, which broadens the dialogue about racial identity and politics immensely. The artists in this exhibition, each in their own way, present new insights and perspectives that implicate a living history and call for discourse around radical redefinition.”

Established Bay Area painter, David Huffman, takes on the SFAC Main Gallery with his first multi-media exhibition. A centerpiece of Out of Bounds will be a pyramid made out of 650 basketballs, which, at the end of the exhibition, will be deconstructed and donated to local charities. Elizabeth Axtman, an artist deeply interested in forgiveness, has created a video, The Love Renegade #308: I Love You Keith Bardwell (Phase 1), that responds to a 2009 incident in which Bardwell, a former Louisiana Justice of the Peace, refused to marry a mixed race couple. Her video, featuring interviews with mixed race couples and the children of mixed race couples will be screened at various locations throughout San Francisco. Travis Somerville’s new installation, Places I’ve Never Been, takes over our Grove Street installation space, and highlights six historical moments in San Francisco when various populations have risen up in protest.

Elizabeth Axtman
The Love Renegade #308: I Love You Keith Bardwell (Phase 1)
Off-site & Online Video Project
Check out the project page for more information.

David Huffman
Out of Bounds
Main Gallery, 401 Van Ness Avenue
Tuesday - Saturday, Noon-5pm

David Huffman is represented by Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco. http://www.patriciasweetowgallery.com/inventory/archives/cat_huffman_david.php

Travis Somerville
Places I've Never Been
Window Installation Site, 155 Grove Street
Viewable: 24/7
Check out the project page for more information.

SHIFT is generously supported by the following:

Jackson Nichols, Junior Queen, Stevinson, CA, 2009

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 6, 5:30-7:30 pm
Exhibition Dates: October 6, 2011 – January 6, 2012
Location: San Francisco City Hall, ground floor

The SFAC Gallery Art in City Hall Program, in partnership with PhotoAlliance invited submissions of photographic works from Bay Area artists that explore what it means to be part of a group, culture or association. The work included in the show depicts groups of people who share activities, identities, locations or some form of common ground. How do we look familiar to the people who share our passions and interests? From fashionistas to sports fans, and from mountain climbers to rockabilly swing dancers, how do we identify people who look familiar to each other? If familiar faces are not present in the photographs, what kind of residues do groups leave or what objects could be attached to a place as a signifier of a shared activity or event?  What kind of places or objects define a group?

Exhibiting Artists: Sarah Christianson, Robert Cortlandt, Barbara Hazen, Dennis Hearne, Yoni Klein, Lisa Levine, Neeley Main, Karen Massing, Jeffrey Michaels, Jackson Nichols, David Pace, Kristen Perkins, Sarah Podles, Shane Powers, Joshua Smith, Robyn Twomey, Raphael Villet, Gary Yost, Jin Zhu

Jurors for You Look Familiar
Dana Hemenway, Events and Exhibition Coordinator, Root Division
Thom Sempere, Executive Director, PhotoAlliance
Alice Shaw, photographer
Meg Shiffler, Gallery Director, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery

Click here for more information about PhotoAlliance.

January 20 – April 14, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, January 20, 6 – 8pm

Artists: Luca Antonucci, Reenie Charrière, Jonathon Keats, Phil Ross, Daniel Small, Heather Sparks and Gail Wight

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery is pleased to present, Vast and Undetectable, curated by Aimee Le Duc featuring work by; Luca Antonucci, Reenie Charrière, Jonathon Keats, Phil Ross, Daniel Small, Heather Sparks and Gail Wight. This exhibition explores space that is either so large or so small we cannot conceive of it with our known processes of sight and comprehension. We have to invent systems and vernaculars (from physics to astronomy to science fiction to visual art) to be able to talk about these spaces. The artists in the show, from Jonathon Keat’s founding a Microbial Academy of Sciences for cyanobacteria to Heather Sparks’ lenticular photograph of pixelated scans of her own skin, are establishing systems dedicated to measuring and positing what exactly these kinds of space look like, how they behave and how they affect our daily lives. Additionally the artists strive to comprehend how time passes within these spaces and how objects move within them.

The artists in Vast and Undetectable are creating work that runs the gamut from the most microscopic existence to the vastest reaches of space and time. They are creating objects, and forms of order to articulate these spaces and the shapes they might take. Through the use of photography, video and installation, the work engages matter within these unfathomable spaces as both source material and subject matter.

Read the recent press for Vast and Undetectable.

Exhibition Locations and Artists:

SFAC Main Gallery
401 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister), San Francisco, CA 94102

Artists: Luca Antonucci, Jonathon Keats, Phil Ross, Daniel Small, Heather Sparks, Gail Wight

SFAC Gallery Window Installation Site
155 Grove Street, San Francisco, CA  94102
Gallery Hours: Viewable 24/7

Artist: Reenie Charrière

Exhibition Dates: October 5, 2011 – January 6, 2012
Location: SFAC Gallery, Art at City Hall
Submissions Due: Saturday, August 13, 2011, 6pm (This is NOT a postmark deadline.)
For more information: contact the SFAC Gallery at 415.554.6080 or aimee.leduc@sfgov.org. Click here for more information about PhotoAlliance.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: You Look Familiar
We are inviting submissions of photographic works that explore what it means to be part of a group, culture or association. Submissions can depict groups of people who share activities, identities, locations or some form of common ground. How do we look familiar to the people who share our passions and interests? From fashionistas to sports fans, and from mountain climbers to rockabilly swing dancers, we are looking for submissions of people who look familiar to each other. We will also accept images that reveal the evidence of group activities. If familiar faces are not present in the photographs, what kind of residues do groups leave or what objects could be attached to a place as a signifier of a shared activity or event?  What kind of places or objects define a group? (You do not have to be a part of the association depicted.)

THE LOCATION
The City Hall ground floor exhibition space can accommodate up to 100 photographs. The jury will choose between three and ten images from each selected artist. Please do not submit less than three images. There will be no stipend for selected artists.

Please be conscious of the fact that the exhibition space at City Hall is a multi-use area that acts as a busy intersection for City employees, tourists, children and arts patrons. It is both a municipal cross roads and a place where individual concerns may be expressed. Please note that exhibited works will not be insured.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

• Eligibility: All living artists over the age of 18 who are residents of the greater San Francisco Bay Area are eligible to apply. All work should have been completed in the past five years.  (San Francisco Bay Area counties include: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma Counties)
• No entry fee required
• Medium, framing, Delivery: All two-dimensional works using any photographic process including digital and/or analog are eligible for exhibition. All chosen works should be delivered to the Gallery framed behind glass or Plexiglas. All selected artists need to be able to deliver and pick up their work from San Francisco City Hall on designated installation and de-installation dates. Works that need to be shipped will not be considered.
• Portfolio: Only digital submissions will be accepted. Submit three to ten images. Files should be on a CD in JPEG format. Image size should be no larger than 2MB or 8 inches in one dimension with a resolution of 150dpi.
• Image files should be titled: Lastname_Firstname_imagenumber.jpg
• Please submit an accompanying inventory sheet with the image number, your name, title, date, medium and unframed dimensions of each piece. You may also include a one-page statement about the work and a one-page bio.
• Please include a cover sheet with the following information:

Full name
Address
Phone number
Email address

• Mail submissions to: San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery 401 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA  94102
  Attn: That Looks Familiar Jury
• No emailed submissions will be accepted. Hand delivered or mailed applications only.
• Submissions Due: Must be received by Saturday, August 13 by 6pm. No late entries will be accepted under any circumstance. Please plan ahead. Traffic and parking can sometimes be time consuming around the Civic Center. We will not be able to accept any late submissions for ANY reason.
• Submission materials will not be returned.

JURORS for You Look Familiar
Meg Shiffler, Gallery Director, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
Thom Sempere, Executive Director, PhotoAlliance
Darius Himes, Fraenkel Gallery
More jurors announced soon!

CALENDAR
August 13                  Submissions due by 6pm
August 23                  Jury panel meets to make decisions
August 24                  Notify selected artists (emails will be sent)
Sept. 22-24               Artists deliver artwork
October 5                  Opening reception at City Hall, 5:30 – 7:30pm
January 6                  Exhibition closes
January 12-14          Artists pick-up artwork

February 8 – May 18, 2012
Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 8 5:30-7:30 pm
Exhibition Location: Ground Floor of City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
Viewing Hours: Monday – Friday, 8am – 8pm, Free

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery’s Art at City Hall program presents Seeing Double – The Best of DOUBLEtruck Magazine, a travelling exhibition organized by KONA Gallery and Photojournalism Center (San Clemente, CA).  Seeing Double offers a chance to view a selection of over 60 of the best photographs featured in the first five years of the award-winning quarterly magazine DOUBLEtruck. The exhibition is a virtual time capsule of some of the most memorable moments in recent history captured by world-renowned photojournalists.

SFAC Gallery Director, Meg Shiffler says, “Hosting this epic exhibition at historic City Hall offers viewers the opportunity to learn about, or revisit, the celebrations and tragedies that have defined recent history through iconic images that illuminate the human condition.”

Seeing Double was curated by Scott Mc Kiernen, publisher of DOUBLEtruck, director of KONA Gallery and Photojournalism Center, and the founder of ZUMA Press, the largest picture agency and wire service in the world run by a photojournalist. Launched in 2004, DOUBLEtruck is dedicated to promoting outstanding photojournalism and showcasing high-impact photography of important world issues. The magazine’s title refers to an ad or editorial project that covers two facing pages.

“The magazine was inspired by the photojournalism renaissance in 2003, when major magazines around the globe ran amazing picture content of the Iraq conflict over numerous two-page spreads,” said Mc Kiernan. "Each image featured in the magazine tells the story as only a strong single image can.” For more information, visit doubletruckmagazine.com.

About the KONA Gallery and Photojournalism Center

http://www.thekonagallery.com/

The KONA Gallery is a space dedicated to the presentation and discourse of photojournalism. The vision of The KONA Gallery has been to expose a broad audience to moving historical moments through the lens of acclaimed photographers. The gallery also acts as a think-tank for industry professionals, emergent photographers and the interested public.

About Zuma Press

http://zumapress.com/

About San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery

www.sfartscommission.org/gallery
Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery makes contemporary art accessible to broad audiences through curated exhibitions that both reflect our regional diversity and position Bay Area visual art production within an international contemporary art landscape. By commissioning new works, collaborating with arts and community organizations and supporting artist’s projects, the SFAC Gallery’s programs provide new and challenging opportunities for contemporary art to engage with a civic dialogue.

The SFAC Gallery was founded in 1970 and is the exhibitions program of the San Francisco Arts Commission, the arts agency of the City and County of San Francisco

Robin Scheswohl

Exhibition dates: July 28 - August, 27, 2011

Please join us as we celebrate The Hootenanny! City and County Employees of San Francisco Art Exhibition. This is a special opportunity to take a glimpse at the creativity and vast talents of a selected group of CCSF employees. The opening reception is free and open to the public. All ages welcome.

The jurors Noah Lang, publisher and artist manager of Electric Works, and Justin Hoover, curator & gallery director of SOMArts reviewed hundreds of artworks and selected 13 artists to participate in this special exhibition.

Artists: Amber Crabbe, Rochelle Delavega, Ruth Geos, Paula Kehoe, Vicky Knoop, Thomas McGeorge, Frank Patt, Maggie Preston, Elizabeth Prillinger, Robert Reed, Robin Scheswohl, Beatrice Thomas and Daryl Wells.

Special treat: The Let's Be Frank hot dog cart will be taking care of business in front of the Gallery all evening.

]]> http://www.sfartscommission.org/gallery/2011/opening-reception-hootenanny/feed/ 0 http://www.sfartscommission.org/gallery/2011/the-hootenanny-city-and-county-employees-of-san-francisco-art-exhibition/ http://www.sfartscommission.org/gallery/2011/the-hootenanny-city-and-county-employees-of-san-francisco-art-exhibition/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:59:51 +0000 Aimee Le Duc http://www.sfartscommission.org/gallery/?p=4159

The Hootenanny! A juried art exhibition of the city and county employees of San Francisco.
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 28 6 -8 pm
Exhibition Dates: July 28, 2011 – August 27, 2011

The Hootenanny is a celebration of the vast and deep talents of the public employees of the City and County of San Francisco. The jurors Noah Lang, publisher and artist manager of Electric Works, and Justin Hoover, curator & gallery director of SOMArts reviewed hundreds of artworks and selected 13 artists to participate in this special exhibition. Please join us in celebrating the artistic talent of our city employees.

Artists: Amber Crabbe, Rochelle Delavega, Ruth Geos, Paula Kehoe, Vicky Knoop, Thomas McGeorge, Frank Patt, Maggie Preston, Elizabeth Prillinger, Robert Reed, Robin Scheswohl, Beatrice Thomas and Daryl Wells.

Here are some samples of the show!

Terry Berlier

OPEN SECRET
An installation by Terry Berlier at the SFAC Storefront Installation Site at 155 Grove Street
Exhibition Dates: July 15 - August 27, 2011
Artist Reception: Friday, July 15, 2011 7-9 pm SFAC Main Gallery

Partially as a response to the recent nuclear plant catastrophe in Japan and in consideration of the United States massive storage of over 65,000 metric tons of nuclear waste Berlier created a site-specific installation that uses visual elements drawn from found web accessed photographs of spent nuclear storage facilities.

The installation is not meant to be a literal representation of this imagery but rather a gestural interpretation of the confluence of “open secrets”, the cycles of man-made dependency and incapacity to fathom the time that is calculated when considering the storage of nuclear waste. The sculptural elements, including a standard household light bulb that performs on a suspended kinetic loop, act as a silent reminder of the cyclical nature of energy consumption, waste and invention.

About Terry Berlier

Terry Berlier is an interdisciplinary artist who works primarily with sculpture, installation, and video. Her work is often kinetic, interactive and/or sound based and often focuses around everyday objects, the environment, ideas of nonplace/place and queer practice.

Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally (Europe, Australia, Middle East) including Barcelona, Venice, Girona, Meinz, Tel Aviv, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento. She recently received the Recology San Francisco Artists in Residence for 2011-12, the Kala Art Institute fellowship and residency for 2009-10 in Berkeley, CA and a residency at the Hungarian Multicultural Center in Budapest, Hungary in July 2010. In 2008-9 she received the Visions from the New California Residency at the Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco through the Alliance of Artists Communities. She has received grants from the Zellerbach Foundation Berkeley, Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Fellowship, Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research Fellow (2011-12), California Council for Humanities California Stories Fund, City of Cincinnati Individual Artist Grant, and the City of Davis Art Contract. She was a fellowship recipient for a residency at the Millay Colony for Artists in New York in 2004.

She received an MFA in Studio Art from University of California, Davis and a BFA from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Berlier has taught at UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, and California College of the Arts. She currently teaches in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University.

Click here for more information about Terry Berlier.