Engineer's Daughter

matokie mix 06.30.13

mix

boundary lines

Andy Vogt

Andy Vogt

Andy Vogt

All images from Andy Vogt's hallway project Boundary Lines at Eli Ridgway Gallery last year.  From the gallery:

Based on the sculptural potential of lumberyard detritus, Vogt uses additive and reductive approaches to delineate the facets of raw material. His vision of well-worn, structural demise finds a language in the crisp edges and broken off-cuts of discarded plywood - scavenged from disintegrating Bay Area architectures. For Boundary Lines, the artist will mine the transitional space of the gallery's entry hallway to produce a mixture of site specific installation and sculpture, where saw marks become a drawing medium and fractured lath plays in the formalism of line weight.

I absolutely adore what Vogt does with wood, how he often creates deceptively minimalist sculptures that nevertheless defy gravity or bend light just so.  As it happens Eli Ridgway has another exhibition of his work up right this very moment, but you only have through Saturday to experience it so hop to it.

See also:

• Eli Ridgway Gallery
• Andy Vogt

agenda 06.26.13

Thursday, June 27:

• Bacon Babes & Bingo Pride Kick Off Party at Cafe Du Nord
• Mo Freedom: Le Chat Roux Burlesque Celebrates Pride at Balancoire
• Reggae Got Soul at the Missouri Lounge
• Beyond Belief | 100 Years of the Spiritual in Modern Art at the Contemporary Jewish Museum
• The Long and the Short of It at Goforaloop Gallery & Studios
• Vintage Queer San Francisco Cinema at Oddball Films
• Free Screening: Seeking Asian Female at the Temescal Art Center
• Suicidal Tendencies at Slim's
• Karyn White at Yoshi's San Francisco

Friday, June 28:

• With Cinder Blocks We Flatten Our Photographs at Romer Young Gallery
• This Is Not A Step: Celebrating 20 Years of More Than Music at 924 Gilman
• El Porvenir / What is to Come, Mission Voices 2013 at Southern Exposure
• Rina Banerjee: Tender Mahal - Lifted at Hosfelt Gallery
• Under the Influence: Interdisciplinary Performances at Emerald Tablet
• ¡Oye, Mira! Closing Party at the Walter and McBean Galleries, SFAI
• Classic Cartoon Cavalcade at Oddball Films
• Gram Rabbit at DNA Lounge

Saturday, June 29:

• Dark Room the Black Glitter Collective - Pink Saturday After Party w/Believe & DJ Heklina at Cafe Du Nord
• Victor De La Rosa: Mi Barrio Es Tu Barrio at Galeria de la Raza
• Matthew Endler and Lenox-Lenox at Important Projects
• RISK: Berkeley Art Center's Annual Juried Exhibition
• SF Dissonance Party at The Lab
• Erykah Badu at the Mountain Winery
• Robert Plant at the Greek Theatre
• Freestyle Explosion at HP Pavilion
• Berlin at the Uptown Theatre Napa

Sunday, June 30:

• Gregory Scharpen on Outsight Radio Hours
• Closing & Artist Talk - Azin Seraj - "Sublunar" at Martina }{ Johnston Gallery
• Meet the Scientists: Ocean and Atmosphere Day at the Exploratorium
• Mayhem Festival at Shoreline Amphitheatre
• Prince Rama at The Catalyst

Tuesday, July 2:

• Reflecting Forward at 116 Kroeber Hall
• Beyonce at HP Pavilion

Wednesday, July 3:

• Love Always, Carolyn at the Contemporary Jewish Museum

skunky

Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen.  November 23, 2011.

go see this

Four excellent shows to see this week before they close:

Etel Adnan

Through June 29 - Words and Places: Etel Adnan at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.  Every year the graduating class of CCA's Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice puts on a kick-ass thesis show, this one over in the Wattis's newish space on Kansas.  The curators focus on the abstracted landscape paintings and handmade books created by Adnan but also pull in videos by Chris Marker, The Otolith Group, Rabih Mroué, and Adnan herself to emphasize themes of memory and displacement.

Through June 29 - ¡Oye, Mira!: Reflective Approaches in Contemporary Latin American Video Art at SFAI's Walter and McBean Galleries.  I'm not only vouching for the show, chock full of cutting-edge work, but am personally recommending the closing party Friday night which will feature performances by Future Twin, Gold Wood, and Shalo P.  More audio and visual stimulation than you can shake a sword at.

Leigha Mason

Jarrett Earnest

Whitney Vangrin

Through June 29 - Cerberus: New Transmedial Work at Meridian Gallery.  The trio of artists in this show use materials as varied as spit, honey, smoke, sheet latex, and upholstery foam to create their equally wide-ranging and wonderfully uncomfortable work.  As for me, any show that references Virgil and the mythical guardian beast of the underworld is going to get an additional vote.

Seth Curcio

Dan Swindel

Through June 30 - CORNERWAYS by Stairwell's.  I cannot say enough good things about the Stairwell's project by Sarah Hotchkiss and Carey Lin.  The curators stage occasional site-based installations in (you guessed it) stairwells, often using these liminal spaces to challenge perception.  Stop by this Sunday afternoon during the closing reception, and while you're in the neighborhood pick up a copy of the beautiful Stairwell's Takeaway zine, printed by my fave Colpa Press. 

matokie mix 06.23.13

mix

dogsbody

 

From the archives: Performed at Intersection for the Arts last year, Erik Ehn's Dogsbody is not an easy viewing experience, as Intersection's description of the play can attest:

Ehn takes us deep into a meditation on war through the eyes of child soldiers as they grow up.  Set in Uganda and in an imaginary future war in Texas, Dogsbody asks us to undertake a “revolution of the heart” and reach for understanding and healing.

It's just one of seventeen plays that comprise Ehn's epic Soulogrophie cycle, all of which deal with genocide and race politics around the world.  The trailer above provides a glimpse of Erika Chong Shuch's beautiful choreography created specifically for Intersection's production, and you can also get a sense of the power of Ehn's cryptic and poetic script.

See also:

• Intersection for the Arts
• Soulogrophie
• Erika Chong Shuch

agenda 06.19.13

Thursday, June 20:

• ISSUES Comedy Night
• Dick Binge // Fucking Dyke Bitches // No Babies // Space Trash // Naam Sayn' // The Urgents // Daisy World at RCA
• Lucky Dragons, Bulbs, Jeweled Snakes, DJ Joshua Kit Clayton (Division of Labor Festival) at The Lab
• Split Focus at Eleanor Harwood Gallery
• Introductions: Four Young Artists Step into the Spotlight at Creativity Explored
• Joshua Lutz: Hesitating Beauty at Robert Koch Gallery
• Yerba Buena Third Thursday
• Motown Madness at the Museum of the African Diaspora
• Strange Sinema 65: Strange Stunts at Oddball Films

Friday, June 21:

• The Need / Queen Crescent / Stillsuit / Bitter Fruit / May B Knot at LoBot Gallery
• The Fruit That Ate Itself at Et Al
• Silver & Black Soul Club - Monthly Dance Party at the Night Light
• Wayne Smith: 5 Short Holidays at Gallery 16
• A Brighter Yesterday: Science and Technology Films of the ‘20s and ‘30s at Oddball Films
• Father John Misty at the Fillmore

Saturday, June 22:

• Chris Fraser and James Sterling Pitt artist talk with Dena Beard: LOOP Arts Fundraiser at Et Al
• Battlehooch, Major Powers, Hungry Skinny at Slim's
• Lam Tung-Pang: The Curiosity Box at the Chinese Cultural Center
• Educator Open House at the Museum of the African Diaspora
• She & Him at the Greek Theatre
• UMEK at Public Works
• Davis Music Fest

Sunday, June 23:

• Snapshot Poetics Now: Queer Encounters with Allen Ginsberg at the Contemporary Jewish Museum
• RTS Talks: residents Lenox Lenox + Derek Frech
• Gargamel (A DJ Night in Oakland) at the Night Light
• Family Free Day - Celebrate Juneteenth at the Museum of the African Diaspora
• Petah Coyne lecture at CCA
• Koans and Performance Project at Meridian Gallery
• Alice's Summerthing in Golden Gate Park
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at Slim's
• Dot Hacker at the Chapel

Tuesday, June 25:

• Hot Fruit (Olympia) + Jaime J. (Tucson) + E_Rupt (Tucson) + HussyClub + Daddies Plastik at MOCO
• The Explorist International presents Awesome Times at Amnesia 4
• Hot Chip at Slim's
• Last Summer on Earth at the Mountain Winery

Wednesday, June 26:

• Deities, Demons, and Teachers of Tibet, Nepal, and India at the Berkeley Art Museum
• Melmann at Meridian Gallery
• Quicksand at Slim's
• AM & Shawn Lee at the Rickshaw Stop
• Last Summer on Earth at the Mountain Winery
• Big Business at the Blank Club

zymurgy

Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco.  January 4, 2007.

montreal 2013

Full set of photos here

Monday
-mental soundtrack--->Purity Ring
-TSA agent who stopped me for a random boarding pass check: "Oh, Montreal...it is the most beautiful city!" 
-a very-much-appreciated pick-up at YUL by Jorden 
-my 11th-floor room at the hyper-designy Hotel Zero 1, steps away from Chinatown, cool artsy venues, and um the red light district
-a pile of veggie chow mein and a Tsing Tao at Beijing 
-neon and bright lights and beautiful architecture

Tuesday
-mental soundtrack--->Piney Gir
-a rustic Benedict with wild mushrooms and Ste-Paulin cheese at Fabergé (at Khris's suggestion)
-street art and public art everywhere
-the Biosphere in all of its Buckminster Fuller glory, appropriately filled with ecotechnology exhibits 
-a BBQ hempburger at Lola Rosa
-marveling at Montreal's non-stop art and culture maelstrom at La Vitrine in Le 2-22
-wishing I could buy every last book and zine at Formats
-Sven Augustijnen's exhibit Spectres about the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and a man obsessed with the story at Vox
-dinner in the Portuguese part of town means I'm eating fish, delicious grilled sardines at Jano to be precise 
-a St. Ambroise cream ale while watching Kalmunity set up at Les Bobards 
-a single-malt Suntory whiskey at the speakeasy-esque Big in Japan

Wednesday
-mental soundtrack--->The Mary Onettes
-so smitten with my warm sesame bagel from St-Viateur Bagel that I immediately went back for another
-perusing the fascinating Chinese herbs and remedies for sale at Quoc Te
-awesome graphic design and delicious cure-alls at My Cup of Tea
-a giant steamer basket of mushroom and bok choy dumplings at Qing Hua
-exploring the dozens of galleries in the Belgo Building
-a tightly-edited group show at joint spaces Galerie Christian Lambert and Galerie Roger Bellemare including sculpture by Mathieu Gaudet, photos by Geoffrey James, paintings by Jérôme Bouchard, and works on paper by Martha Townsend
-chatting with Geneviève Saumier herself while admiring her paintings at Visual Voice
-John Player paints the military-industrial complex and Glenda Leon snorts money at Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain
-coveting the entirety of the stock at local boutique Three Monkeys
-ditto for the accessories (omg shark purse) at Little Burgundy
-friends!
-a gorgeous veggie burger topped with gruyere and eaten al fresco at Cafe Souvenir
-Magnum ice cream bars, Éphémère apple beer, and a purring kitten in my lap
-a Blanche du Paradis at Dieu du Ciel
-a Ramos Fizz at Baldwin Barmacie

Thursday
-mental soundtrack--->Cold Pumas
-housemade granola, bananas, and a dollop of yogurt at Le Cagibi Cafe
-pristine fashions of yesteryear at Citizen Vintage
-an entire flea market under one roof at Monastiraki
-old machine parts and such at Style Labo
-goodies for my beau from Drawn & Quarterly
-one more bagel from St-Viateur
-a vegan Thai rice bowl with peanut sauce at Aux Vivres
-a quick turn through the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, with stops in front of Picasso's Embrace, Jean-Paul Riopelle's Austria, and the many new-to-me Canadian and Québécois artists in the Bourgie Pavilion 
-a caramel-doused drinking chocolate and a tomato/pesto/mozzarella crepe at Juliette et Chocolat
-red wine, Brillat-Savarin cheese, ripe pears, good conversation on an Outremont porch in the gloaming