Engineer's Daughter

national gallery of jamaica 2012 national biennial

Jasmine Thomas-Girvan

Andrea Chung

Oneika Russell

I can easily think of many excellent reasons to visit Jamaica, but here's another one to add to the list: the National Gallery of Jamaica's Biennial.  The 2012 iteration featured work by 86 artists (including those pictured above) who were both invited and chosen by jury.  From the Gallery website:

To qualify for inclusion in the Biennial – and for this exhibition to be representative of recent developments in Jamaican art – works of art must have been created in the last two years. At present, the Biennial format is being reviewed, in preparation for its conversion in what we hope will be a multi-site, international Kingston Biennial by 2016, and some modifications have already been made: the definition of “Jamaican artist” was expanded to include artists of Jamaican parentage – previously artists had to be resident in Jamaica or Jamaican born. This was done in recognition of the significant role played by the Jamaican Diaspora in the development of what can be considered Jamaican culture, which is itself an increasingly diverse and transnational field.

See also:

• National Gallery of Jamaica Blog

agenda 10.16.13

Thursday, October 17:

• The Making Is A Re-Making Opening Reception at Kala Art Institute
• Defektors / Vapid / Tall Girl / Centre at Casa Sanchez Restaurant
• Fred Moten and The Undercommons at CCA
• Rescheduled Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History Lecture at Kroeber 160
• Little Sister / Piranha Party / The Skunks / Ancient Wing / DJ Brontez at The Uptown
• Club Death Disco at The Knockout
• Twisted Sisters Artist and Curator Panel Discussion at SF Camerawork
• the word, my dear, is piecemeal: films on the visualization of text at Artists' Television Access
• Lecture | Paul Laffoley at the San Francisco Art Institute

Friday, October 18:

• Alameda Point Vintage Fashion Faire~Fall 2013
• KALX 2013 Fall Fundraiser
• Giant Puppet Theatre Presents the Open Mind at the Stork Club
• bon/anza 3 : dress for this at n/a
• All About Eve at The Paramount
• Connotations at 1:AM Gallery
• San Francisco Cinematheque's Third Annual Art Auction and Benefit at the Center for New Music
• [email protected]: Kiandanda Dance Theater at the Berkeley Art Museum
• Crystal Stilts at The Chapel
• Sleepy Sun EP Release Party at the Brick & Mortar Music Hall

Saturday, October 19:

• Self Evident California Mini Tour
• Dead Panzies / Bedroom Witch / Gay Henry / Warm White / The Tambo Rays in Oakland
• Buried in the Body at the Mountain View Cemetery
• Alumni Day 2013 + Concentrate at the San Francisco Art Institute
• Red Virgin at Central Works Theater
• Pink Hole Cinematheque presents: Luminous Procuress (Steven Arnold/1971) + Gender Queer Short Films 1965-1987 at the Starline Social Club
• Stranded presents: Glenn Jones / Meg Baird at the Night Light
• Handsome Hawk's Horrorween Hop w/ Koffin Kats, Hayride To Hell & Memphis Murder Men at the Blank Club
• Proximities 2: Karaoke Lounge from ABBA to ZZ Top at the Asian Art Museum
• Video Renegades: Experimental Video at Mills at the Mills College Art Museum
• Treasure Island Music Festival

Sunday, October 20:

• red element / a queer reading series at n/a
• Panel Discussion | Mission School: Yes or No? at the San Francisco Art Institute
• Flourish Oakland at Mua Restaurant
• Twin Forks at Bottom of the Hill

Monday, October 21:

• Stillwell Student Show (Submissions) at the San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery
• Hunx & His Punx, Wet Drag, and Violence Creeps at The Chapel
• Anoka Faruqee at the San Francisco Art Institute
• The Sounds at The Fillmore

Tuesday, October 22:

• Film Screening | Waiting for Godot and Beyond at the Pacific Film Archive
• Surfer Blood at The Independent
• Okkervil River at The Fillmore
• Brian Wilson with Jeff Beck at The Paramount

Wednesday, October 23:

• Creating Minds - An Academic Conference on Reading and Writing in the Digital Age at Sutardja Dai Hall
• Open Loop - UC Berkeley Art Practice Annual Faculty Exhibition 2013 at Worth Ryder Art Gallery
• Weekday Wanderlust-aversary at Hotel Rex
• Citydance: an evening of outdoor screenings at Kadist SF
• Glenn Jones, Chuck Johnson, EFFT at Life Changing Ministry
• Film Screening | From Baghdad to Badlands at the Pacific Film Archive
• Kanye West at Oracle Arena
• NoNoNo at the Rickshaw Stop

anemic

Wiener Kids, Bar 355, Oakland.  October 13, 2013.

guantanamo bay museum of art and history satellite exhibition

Jenny Odell

Through October 19 - Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History Satellite Exhibition at Worth Ryder Art Gallery.  Part of the power of this group exhibition is in its set-up by curator Ian Alan Paul.  As you pause before entering the side gallery at Worth Ryder the wall text refers to the Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History, "located at the former site of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp in Cuba."  It goes on to describe the museum as "an institution dedicated to remembering the U.S. prison which was active between 2002 and 2012 before it was permanently decommissioned and closed."  Which is exactly where I realized I was reading about an alternate reality, and where I also wondered if the average American would even notice the fiction.  Guantanamo (which I don't need to tell you is still very much open and very much in use) is tackled head-on by the majority of the artists in the show, as in Adam Harms's karaoke versions of the songs on the detention center's "torture playlist" or in Jon Kuzmich's melding of audio from a prisoner interrogation with images of one of John Yoo's infamous torture memos.  Mr. Yoo, it has to be said, is still teaching law at Cal, giving the inclusion of his words here a frightening potency.  I was also chilled by Jenny Odell's piece All the People in Centinela Federal Prison, in which images of individuals in the prison yard taken from Google Earth are stripped of all background, leaving only an ant colony of shadowy figures.  These are real people, not just statistics, but we can barely see them as human.

See also:

• Worth Ryder Art Gallery
• Lecture by Ian Alan Paul at 160 Kroeber on 10/17
• Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History

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And it's that most wonderful time of the year, the KALX fundraiser!  Please tune in (and donate!) next Sunday when Home Alone will be joining me for non-stop hits and a ton of great premiums.  The Too Much Coffee Man mugs are going to be our most popular item, I can already tell.

headlands

Kota Ezawa

This post is just another in the long line of odes I like to sing to Headlands Center for the Arts, inspired by a couple typically gorgeous evenings I've had there in the last week.  I snapped the above image in Kota Ezawa's studio when he was in residence there several years back, and I just found an article in an old issue of CCA's alumni magazine where he details why his experience there so important:

"Something special happens at Headlands," Kota Ezawa agrees.  He found that his work changed in unexpected ways when he moved from an urban environment to a national park.  "I found myself engaging in more risk-taking and experimentation.  Of course these are necessary for any artist and can happen in any setting, but the quietness of Headlands affords a special kind of focus."

The autumn season at Headlands is currently in full swing, with the centerpiece Fall Open House (and picnic!) scheduled for October 27, barring any complications from the government shutdown.  I also highly recommend splurging on a ticket for their First Look party on November 21, during which Ezawa's work will be prominently featured alongside that of other Headlands alums.  I promise nothing short of magic.

See also:

• Headlands Center for the Arts
• Headlands Celebrates 30 Years & a Long Love Affair with CCA

agenda 10.09.13

Thursday, October 10:

• Cor Humanum: Four Artists on Matters of the Heart at Martina }{ Johnston Gallery
• "Tonight Tonight" | Facundo Arganaraz at Highlight Gallery
• Charles Papillo Opening at 18 Reasons
• Punk Jews at the Contemporary Jewish Museum
• RTS Talks: residents Ron Ewert + Amy Yao at Real Time & Space
• Dapplegray, Fench Radio at LSG New Music Series
• Festival '68 at the Make-Out Room
• Natural Discourse: Culture & Cultivation at the Berkeley City Club
• Thee Oh Sees at The Chapel
• The Truth About Love Tour 2013 at the Oracle Arena

Friday, October 11:

• SPACE: 1999 at Incline Gallery
• The Armada Sets Sail at 826 Valencia: A Celebratory Reception
• Stranded presents: Dreamsalon / Violent Change at the White Horse Bar
• The Living Earth Show at the Berkeley Art Museum
• A double burger and two metamorphoses: a proposal for a Dutch cat, a Dutch dog, a Dutch donkey, a Dutch goat and finally, a Dutch camel at Et al.
• Fresh Like Cadaver One Year Anniversary Super Mess
• Profligate + Samantha Vacation + Cube + Melting Wreck + Aja Vision at The Church
• Jocko Weyland: "Crackle, Hiss, and Scrawl" at Ever Gold Gallery
• Primal Scream at the Regency Ballroom
• Thee Oh Sees at The Chapel
• Behold... the Arctopus at the Oakland Metro
• An Evening with Steve Kilbey & Greg Dulli at The Independent

Saturday, October 12:

• 2nd Annual Oakland Record Swap at Pizzaiolo
• APE at the Concourse Exhibition Center
• Swell Night of Pin Striping at Swell Bar
• Wandering Chunks... at MOCO
• Bangarang Crash at St. Mary's Pub
• Yerba Buena Night at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
• Divide // Conquer: The Manananggoogle Onboarding Experience at Southern Exposure
• The Avett Brothers at the America's Cup Pavilion
• Thee Oh Sees at The Chapel
• Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg at The Independent

Sunday, October 13:

• Sunday Streets Berkeley
• Bangarang Crash Recovery Brunch at Rosamunde Sausage Grill
• CCA v. SFAI Homecoming Game & Tailgate at Hellman Hollow
• A Celebration of Cheryl Marie Wade at the Alumni House
• Tiberius + Wiener Kids at Bar 355
• Passport 2013
• Shapeshifters Cinema Presents Craig Baldwin at Temescal Art Center

Monday, October 14:

• Staged Reading: Kano and Abe by Ignacio Zulueta at the SF Playhouse
• VAS Lecture: Jaimie Warren + Whoop Dee Doo at the San Francisco Art Institute
• Fucked Up at the DNA Lounge

Tuesday, October 15:

• A Night of Short Films by Carlos Gonzalez at Black Hole Cinemateque
• Tim Kasher at the Rickshaw Stop
• Kylesa at the Oakland Metro
• The Truth About Love Tour 2013 at the SAP Center at San Jose

Wednesday, October 16:

• Draft Horse: Ruby Mountain, Protoghost, Vankmen at MOCO
• Smashism Video Screening / Music Show at Artists' Television Access
• Film Screening | Image Alchemy: The Films of Phil Solomon at the Pacific Film Archive
• Wavves at Slim's
• The Dodos at the Great American Music Hall

pediculous

Andersonville, Chicago.  June 2, 2005.

the illuminated library

Jason Jägel

Clare Rojas

Tauba Auerbach

Through October 17 - The Illuminated Library at the SF State Fine Arts Gallery.  This group show uses books as its theme, exhibiting artists who use books in their art, artists who use books as their art, and artists who have published books for children and others.  If that sounds a little too inclusive to you you're exactly right, as the exhibition never quite gels around a central idea.  However it does offer a chance to see work by a host of exciting artists, and for that reason alone it is well worth a visit.  I was thrilled to see a sizeable section of the gallery devoted to Jason Jägel, including his three-dimensional paper cut-out sculptures that are entire worlds unto themselves.  Those particular pieces contrast nicely with Tauba Auerbach's intimidatingly-engineered pop-up folios and Brian Dettmer's waterfall of a sculpture constructed out of old World Book encyclopedias.  It was really neat to see selections from the book collaborations Jess had done with his partner Robert Duncan (and with Michael McClure as well), and I also loved Nina Katchadourian's photographs of books cleverly arranged so that their titles tell a new story.  Insert your own joke about judging a book by its cover here.

See also:

• San Francisco State Fine Arts Gallery

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