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.

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

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.

Work by Angel Florentino

An exhibition by participants of San Francisco Behavioral Health System
presented in partnership with San Francisco Study Center.

Opening reception: Wednesday, June 8, 2011 5:30-7:30
Exhibition dates: June 8 – September 9, 2011
Location: SF City Hall, ground floor, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA
Hours: Monday – Friday, 8 am – 8 pm

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and the San Francisco Study Center are proud to present As We Live It, a juried exhibition at historic San Francisco City Hall featuring works created by participants of San Francisco’s Community Behavioral Health Services. The selected artists are  among thousands of San Francisco residents who access the City’s multiple programs of assistance for anything from temporary counseling to places to live, and who receive substance abuse and mental health treatment.

As We Live It celebrates the vast and deep talents of artists who use their visual art practice as one form of articulating their identities in a way that words cannot.

The call for submissions was distributed to art therapists and staff of the city’s Community Behavioral Health Services organizations. We received almost 100 submissions from participants of 18 different organizations. The jury then selected 33 artists, giving four the honor of becoming a featured artist: Rene Avalos, Kami Cheatem, Anamar, Jeff Roysdon and John Wotipka. As part of As We Live It, SF Study Center staff member, Heidi Swillinger interviewed the featured artists and excerpts are presented next to the artists’ work. .

Jurors: M. Roy Crew, program director, Office of Self Help; Aimee Le Duc, gallery manager, SFAC Gallery; Geoffrey Link, executive director, San Francisco Study Center; and Heidi Swillinger, advertising and special projects, San Francisco Study Center.

Click here to read a statement by exhibition coordinator Aimee Le Duc.

Featured Artists: Re'ne Avalos, Kami Cheatem, Anamar, Jeff Roysdon and John Wotipka

Artists: Donald Becerra, Charles Blackwell, Tim Cavey, Phillip Cha, Daniel Conant, Will Dempsey, Harry Driggs, Angel Florentino, Maria Enrique-Leach, Mehrin Ganjeizadeh, Ronald Goodman, Ethyl Hayes, Raisa K., Michael King, Lucky Lee, Amelia Lewis, Bill Malcolm, Richard McIzzie, Robert Miklos, Phillip Pena, Cipriano Perez, John Rhodes, James Scoville, Marjorie Shiffer, Bill Snook, Ron Takeuchi, Taeafa Togia, Doris Yen, Raymond Young as well as artists from the Central City Hospitality House permanent collection.

Click here for the exhibition inventory and price list.

Partnering Organizations: San Francisco Study Center and Central City Hospitality House, Central City Older Adults Mental Health Clinic, Chinatown/North Beach Mental Health Services, Citywide and Community Focus Center, Creativity Explored, Family Service Agency – Older Adult Day Support, Hyde Street Community Services, Janet Pomeroy Center, Mission ACT DPH Mental Health, Mission Mental Health, Office of Self Help, RAMS Inc., San Francisco Department of Public Health, SOMA Mental Health Services.

The 2011 exhibition season is supported by the following donors; Paule Anglim, the Graue Foundation, Cheryl Haines, Barbara J. Herbert, Jill S. Manton, Anthony Meier, Joanne K. Vidinsky, Dede Wilsey and Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund.

Ernest Jolly, Natural Reaction

Exhibition Dates: May 12 – June 18, 2011
Location: 155 Grove Street Window Installation Site
Hours: Viewable 24/7

Special event dates and times to be announced soon.

The SFAC Gallery presents Natural Reaction, a new site-specific work by Bay Area artist Ernest Jolly. Natural Reaction is an installation created in response to recent disasters resulting from tsunamis and floodwaters. Jolly explains, “The coast has always been a place where I have sought refuge from internal and external noise. More often than not the coast is a reminder of transition and change. It is also a place where the abrupt violence of nature can all at once change lives forever and minutes later recede back into its self.”

Taking full advantage of the space, Natural Reaction fills the 400 sq. ft. storefront with large sculptural elements that actively disrupt more serene installation components such as a shallow reflecting pool filled with water, and an expansive backlit scrim complete with whispy white clouds. Jolly worked with musician/sound artist Chris Evans to create a soundtrack that will catch the attention of passersby.

Ernest Jolly's Artist Statement:

My work involves the re-contextualization of lived experience, of both the individual and the group, in comparison to environmental change in nature. Through sculptural forms and video/sound installation I’m pulling together these lived experiences into a hybridized practice.

My most recent body of work explores the architectural entropy of failing urban environments in relation to stresses on nature such as erosion of coastal lands and the depopulation of honeybee hives. The works compares and contrast such natural phenomenon as Colony Collapse Disorder to the decline of the industrial city. The cities I’m most interested in are former auto and steel manufacturing towns in the mid-west. These cities whose economies have rest largely on heavy industry production have, within the past decade, experienced huge economic and population decline. This decline has left many cities abandoned, without a sustainable infrastructure and deteriorating architecture. Colony Collapse Disorder is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive abruptly disappear. There is no definitive answer for this disorder at this time. Some attribute the problem to biotic factors, environmental stress, and malnutrition. Others suggest that it’s not one single factor but many factors that are the cause. My work is both a meditation and a call to action in addressing the factors of urban industrial decline and disappearance of species in nature.

Ernest Jolly is represented by Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA. (link)

San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery

Exhibition Dates: April 28 - July 2, 2011
Public Reception: April 28, 7 - 9pm. Free and open to the public

Brown Bag Lunch discussion with Sydney based artists Chris Fox and Josephine Starrs

Event date and time: Friday, April 29, 12:30-1:30 PM
Location: SFAC Gallery, 401 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister
Free, light snacks will be served

RSVP by April 28 to Aimee Le Duc, aimee.leduc@sfgov.org or 415.554.6080

Click here for more information

CarriageWorks, Sydney
Exhibition Dates: August 4 - September 3, 2011
Opening Reception: August 4, 6 – 9pm, Free and open to the public.

Project Pages: San Francisco Artists
Click on the artists names for expanded project information.

Amy Balkin + Alicia Pozniak

Sergio De La Torre

Rebar

Project Pages: Sydney Artists

Chris Fox

Makeshift

Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski

The SFAC Gallery has partnered with the dynamic, Sydney-based, multi-disciplinary art center CarriageWorks to produce the 2011 Sister City Biennial. For this inaugural Biennial exhibition, Urbanition, the curators tasked the selected artists to create works addressed to the Mayors of San Francisco and Sydney that propose visionary solutions to make each city more humane, green and livable. The artists’ proposals range in subject matter from improving immigrant rights to commuting by jetpack, and from revamping the Sutro Baths to making BART a more human-centric system! The exhibitions will feature the proposals, (which will be presented in a wide variety of media including video, sculpture, drawing and performance), and a catalog which will be handed to officials from each City government. Educational programs, free and open to the public, will play a substantial role in both cities.

Co-curated by Meg Shiffler and Justine Topfer

Every two years the SFAC Gallery will partner with an arts institution in one of our Sister Cities around the globe. The collaborative efforts will result in a visual art exhibition in each location, featuring some of the best and brightest artists each city has to offer.

This project is supported by the following: San Francisco Arts Commission; the San Francisco Arts Commission, CarriageWorks; the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Protocol; the City of Sydney; Arts New South Wales; Zip Car; Greg Norman Wine Estates and the Handlery Union Square Hotel. Many thanks to: the Australian Chamber of Commerce (SF office); the Sydney Sister City Host Committee in San Francisco; the San Francisco Office of the Australian Consul General; the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery Advisory Board; and Philip Black, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney.

Lindsey White, video still from Common Senses

San Francisco Artists Consuming the Banal

January 21 – April 2, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, January 21, 6 – 8pm

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery is pleased to present, Isn’t Obvious? San Francisco Artists Consuming the Banal an exhibition of newly commissioned work by Arthur/Allan, Matthew Kennedy, Kristina Lewis, Jasmin Lim, Daniel Nevers and Lindsey White.

Through the use of video, photography, performance, sculpture and site-specific installation, the exhibiting artists reconfigure both commonplace and iconic objects and images to create wry and humorous works that challenge a basic definition of the everyday. The exhibition critically examines how we visualize our surroundings and in turn asks us to consider in what ways we consume the banal.

Isn’t It Obvious will also have an online component, The Clog. A tongue-in-cheek combination of an exhibition catalog and a blog, The Clog will serve as a site for critical examination of the work in the exhibition and it will also serve as an outlet for all viewers responses to the question, “Isn’t It Obvious?”. This online project will also be a source to connect the public programs to larger dialogs occurring in the art community.

Exhibition curated by: Aimee Le Duc

About the Artists

Matthew Kennedy is creating an installation that includes a video and photographs of him in various stages of jumping up and down. Although the images and accompanying video seem to be capturing a very simple task, the visual and audio presentation ultimately breaks down the movement in a surprising and curious way.

Kristina Lewis is pushing the boundary of her practice by reconsidering an already existing piece, Rigging the Weather, a large scale installation of umbrellas broken down and reconfigured in a stunning, floor-to-ceiling, floating sculpture. Additionally, Inspired by the traditional number of triangular fabric pieces used for each umbrella, Lewis will be showing a series of abstract renderings of the myriad ways an 8-part circle can be represented.

Jasmin Lim’s work is an exploration of the mediated experience. Lim takes iconic photographs of the American West, molds and sculpts them into various twisted forms and then photographs them in a way that obscures scale, depth and the very subject matter until the way of looking becomes the subject itself. Lim also uses this same strategy with water, plastic bags, computer monitors to position the viewer both inside the concepts of looking and outside of the act of seeing.

Daniel Nevers explores the trope that You Can’t Stop Progress in an installation bearing that title at the 155 Grove Street site. Using home-improvement supplies purchased from big-box chain stores, Nevers fills the space with color and pattern in a dizzying display of consumption that challenges our conflation of material goods with perceived self worth. Mixing readymades with hand-built decoys, Nevers uses absurdity and humor to question what is real and what is replica in a semi-narrative environment that suggests a story of renovation gone awry.

Arthur/Allan Through a series of actions artists Brion Nuda Rosch and Chris Sollars, who are collaborating under the moniker, Arthur/Allan, will investigate the unoccupied open space of San Francisco civic buildings. In this series of interactions the pair will make use of the banal and the mundane, producing video works and sculptures that investigate the civic aesthetic and its function.

Lindsey White’s work explores the magical moments of the every day through photography and video. By showing the most simple representations of rocks via photography and sculpture and collapsing all of the favorite moments, best moments onto each other by creating a wall of monitors playing short-videos showing only the best part, White shows us that there is no way to be able to focus on every moment or the best rock, which begs the question, can we really ever focus or find the best moment of any time or thing?