Through February 19 - Soft Serve at CTRL+SHFT. I am beyond thrilled that there is a new all-female art collective that has taken up residence in a converted warehouse in Oakland, and their opening show featuring artwork from the members is a fantastic introduction to the women's diverse talents. Welcome them to the neighborhood by donating to their Kickstarter too.
Through February 20 - Feedback of Desire at Romer Young. This thoughtfully-curated exhibition features recent paintings from Ted Gahl, Shara Hughes and Christoph Rosner, all of whom work with representation to a degree but with a healthy dose of abstraction mixed in as well. Hughes's vibrant semi-landscapes were a personal favorite, but it's well worth the jaunt out to Dogpatch to see the whole show.
Through February 20 - An Increasingly Desperate Man at Alter Space. Having just admired Quintessa Matranga's dual show with Rafael Delacruz at Et al. last week, I was pleased to check out this curatorial project of hers very soon after. Matranga asked an impressive group of artists to create work that grapples with the theme of desperation, and the wide-ranging results are by turns witty and poignant.
Marilee Talkington and Joe Estlack
Through February 28 - Little Erik at Aurora. Mark Jackson's contemporary update of Henrik Ibsen's Little Eyolf is not always easy to watch, dealing as it does with some of the messier aspects of grief and human relationships. But Marilee Talkington is riveting at the center of the play as an uber-successful tech executive whose ambivalence about her role as a mother conflicts sharply with her husband's desire to do nothing but father their son. Ibsen did love to write complicated women.
Kenny Toll and Jessica Waldman
Through March 6 - Ondine at Cutting Ball. Written by Katharine Sherman, this is a much more stripped-down version of the classic mermaid myth than the immersive experience We Players offered near the Sutro Baths last year, but I found it to be just as if not more affecting. Here in Cutting Ball's non-linear and intensely physical production, water sprite Ondine's innocence and inexperience with the male species lead inevitably to a curse that forever alters both her life and that of her lover Hildebrand.