Engineer's Daughter

three forms

Through August 8 - Three Forms: JB Blunk at Blunk Space

I was looking for an excuse for a drive yesterday, so I trundled on up to Point Reyes Station (zero love to the asshole blonde in the Mercedes who tailgated me and the five cars in front of me the entire way) to revel in some beautiful scenery and to introduce myself to the work of JB Blunk by way of the new Blunk Space gallery. Blunk lived off the grid in Inverness until his death in 2002, and a connection to nature strongly informs all his work. I knew that he had carved the monumental redwood piece The Planet on permanent display at the Oakland Museum, and I was delighted to take in some of his semi-abstract paintings while seated in Blunk Space on one of his wooden stools, carved into sculptural and biomorphic forms from redwood, cypress, and bay laurel. Blunk's ceramic work is also represented in the form of a series of cups that have been recast from his original designs, and it was very tempting to walk out with an entire set in the sage glaze. I'm very excited for further exhibitions and further excuses to visit. And that wasn't the only art I saw yesterday, because earlier after fueling up at AvocadoCon I made a stop at Minnesota Street Project to visit Connie Zheng's brilliant new yam fish seed exchange (nyse) installation and to see everything at Anglim/Trimble: Ajit Chauhan's "erasures" upstairs, and the group show Contested Territories curated by Kim Anno downstairs.

Other things I liked this week:

• An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky. A collection of experimental essays/short stories/meditations themed around things lost that definitely had some tough moments but which I ultimately found quite beautiful. The physical book design is its own work of art too.
• Beyond the Visible - Hilma af Klint by Halina Dyrschka. This luminous documentary explores af Klint's astounding body of work, and the question of what happens to art history when work is discovered that completely rewrites the whole of it.
• I've been feeling pretty glum about environmental devastation lately, but it was very uplifting to hear local legend Doug McConnell give his perspective on our parks and conservation future courtesy of the Sempervirens Fund.
• Also inspiring: What is the water saying?, a screening of videos by Carolina Cayecedo, Denise Ferreira da Silva and Arjuna Neuman, Sky Hopinka, Thao Nguyen Phan, and Charwei Tsai, curated by the Wattis Institute and hosted outdoors at Headlands.
• And because I'm back to outdoor performances only I was grateful to SF Playhouse for the option to stream their current play, The Song of Summer by Lauren Yee. Their video has a few glitches but still (mostly) captures the feeling of being in the theater for a live show, and the play is very sweet besides.

dear geometry

Nate Boyce

Anissa Mack

Rick Caruso

I used to love visiting Jancar Jones Gallery back when they had their cozy SOMA space, but since they moved down to Los Angeles they've kept up their schedule of reliably excellent exhibitions.  The Dear Geometry group show from last year caught my eye in particular thanks to its inclusion of one of Nate Boyce's mesmerizing video/sculpture hybrids, though I would have been curious to see Anissa Mack's spray paint and aquaresin piece in person too.  From the press release:

Each of the works in their own way remember when geometry could be declared pure form, but don’t look back through any one clear frame. The memory becomes an evolving version of itself as the recollection has been reprogrammed, reimagined, and reprocessed over time. Through the layering of histories, materials, and methods of representation, these three works tunnel through generations of geometric form and display the mediations and interferences they acquire along the way. 

If you live closer to LA than I do also keep an eye out for upcoming shows at Jancar Jones that will feature work by Joel Dean and Rick Bahto.

See also:

• Jancar Jones Gallery
• Nate Boyce
• Anissa Mack
• Rick Caruso

aboveground animation: 3d-form

Jacolby Satterwhite

This week's find from the archives is an online-only exhibition courtesy of the New Museum:

“3D-Form” is a presentation of four experimental animations selected from the archive Aboveground Animation for the New Museum’s monthly series First Look: New Art Online. Featured artists include Barry Doupé, Kathleen Daniel, Ryan Whittier Hale, and Jacolby Satterwhite. Beyond Pixar, Adult Swim, or the default avatars of video games, these works explore possibilities for 3-D human forms. Their casts of improbable people are hatched out of personal history or emotion—through a longing for intimacy or an uncertainty for the future. Experimental and short-form, all the works were made to be viewed across various screening contexts, from the cinema to the gallery to the browser, and yet their structure reflects a sophistication with a range of digital media and programs, from Maya to 3D Studio Max.

Take some time and watch all four animations, though I admit I'm particularly fond of the one by Jacolby Satterwhite.

stop & go 3-D

Tal Rosner

Johan Rijpma

Wade Shotter & Yukfoo

Sarah Klein, an amazing artist herself, also puts together film programs of the best in contemporary stop-motion animation.  Her latest, Stop & Go 3-D, has been making the rounds over the past year and screening in venues like the Exploratorium and Interface Gallery:

Strobing effects, afterimages, anaglyphic experiments, optical elements and three-dimensional spoofs are all part of the show...Several of the animations in the program require the audience to wear red/cyan-colored glasses to fully appreciate the work.

Check out Klein's site for a sample of the program and to see where another showing might be popping up soon.

See also:

• Sarah Klein
• Stop & Go

miscellany 02.21.13

PIKI at Swarm Gallery, part of the Sound Salon series

Through February 23 - Taraneh Hemami: Resistance at The Luggage Store

Bradford Nordeen, Chris E. Vargas, Mariah Garnett at SFMOMA, Dirty Looks NYC: Yesterday Once More film program

Dr. Yacine Badian Kouyate at Museum of the African Diaspora, The Manuscripts of Timbuktu film screening and discussion

Through February 24 - Alicia Escott: And the Crowd Rushed Together, Trying to Keep Warm at Interface Gallery

Pablo Helguera lecture at the San Francisco Art Institute

agenda 01.02.13

Thursday, January 3:

• CONGRATULATIONS! with Tauba Auerbach at Will Brown
• Sentinel at The Starry Plough

Friday, January 4:

• SHE WORLD: Ursula Brookbank at Krowswork
• Backwash: New Work by Pete Hickok at Aggregate Space
• In The Box Beneath The City and Other Projects at Alter Space
• Speak Your Peace at SOMArts
• Art Murmur at Johansson Projects

Saturday, January 5:

• Excuses + Diesel Dudes + Believe + Horsebladder at Rock Paper Scissors
• Marissa Nadler at The Chapel

Sunday, January 6:

• Multiple Stimuli Overload at Subterranean Arthouse

Monday, January 7:

• The Projected Self: Performance-Based Videos from the Media Arts Collection at SFMOMA
• Ovens at The Knockout

Tuesday, January 8:

• Breaking News: A One-Night-Only Radical Collaboration at SOMArts
• A Benefit for The Riley Center: Tender Buttons/Bitter Fruit/No Bone at The Knockout
• Takin It Back Tuesday at Double Dutch

Wednesday, January 9:

• Bawdy Storytelling's "The 7 Dirty Sins" at Verdi Club
• Rosamunde Oakland Grand Opening Party

jillian mcdonald

Jillian Mcdonald

Jillian Mcdonald

Jillian Mcdonald

From Macdonald's site:

In Scotland, I cast fifty local residents, creating costumes on location in response to the landscape, traditional highland dress, and music. Oral folklore and local legends - both real and imagined, and the haunting romanticism of the landscape figure prominently. The camera reveals mossy glens, barley fields, heathered mountains, fairy knolls, rainbows, woodland creatures, animated avatars, and apparitions.
Masked animal characters appear frequently in horror - at once anonymous, uncanny, hybrid, terrifying, and disarmingly naïve.

See also:

• Glenfiddich Artist in Residency Program and OCAD University Announce Canadian Winner, 2012