The San Francisco art school kids have emerged, and into a city that is quickly becoming a hostile environment for creatives. Paradoxically, the group show's title was "Principal" and it was held at the SF Mint. I say paradoxically because while these students may have a certain amount of social currency due to their associations with SFAI very few (if any) have enough "Principal" capital to live in the city this institution brought them too. It sucks! and I would prefer a city that was more accommodating to artists.
In short this blog will be my attempt to witness, share and write about the art scene in SF and it's surroundings. What you will find here will be simple, brief, plain spoken observations and opinions of art; many pictures, few words.
Like the new emerging creatives of SFAI so too comes forth the start of smARTy. I hope you enjoy it!
Here are seven artists from the show SFAI MFA Graduate Art Show that caught my eye.
PATRICK HOTHAN
I loved Patrick's photo realist paintings. The were fun, lively, well composed, large than life in scale, clean and tight painting's of dirty things. He's showed me the vibrant interdependency of detritus: the companies that produce the products; the hands that distort, crumple and leave behind the products; and the community streets that hold and display them to the rest of us.
GOLBANOU MOGADDAS
Golbanou is producing masterful prints and illustrations. Her imagery is distinctly feminine, delicate, intricate, symbolic, anatomical, ambitious and intensely thoughtful. Her work cannot be digested in a glance and with a glance you cannot help but move into absorption. Her compositions move you into a state of exploration and discovery wherein human life upon plant life upon animal life exists within, around and because of each other. All of it is mesmerizing and fantastical.
JAVIER ARBUZI
Javier's film really mesmerized me. Here's a snippet of it. The black and white film of a white horse in a dark hallway was simply aesthetically attractive. It was in a large white room with columns and old uneven walls. It was a perfect place for his film as his imagery was large - a white horse looming and lumbering through a hall. The film created the feeling as if there was another dark and mysterious space that was part of this big white room.
NANDO ALVAREZ-PEREZ
Nando's photography captured my attention immediately. He plays with saturated colors and textures of everyday scenes. I love this kind of stuff! Banality turned to beauty by the magical gaze of the artist, reminding us all of the whimsy and strangeness of the ordinary.
ARTIST OF NO-NAME (as of yet)
Dear artist of no-name,
If you should come across this blog please send me your name so I can properly talk about you.
Thank you,
Sera Mac
When I first walked into the space this artist showed in I saw this film looping on the wall and immediately thought of Gary Winnograd's shooting from the hip street photography. I really dig that aesthetic; the black and white, timeless looking, street photography.
Then as my eyes adjusted to the darkened room I realized this artist had a full room installation art thingy going on. A sort of alcohol fueled, psychopathic, woman stalking, murderous narrative emerged from the artifacts in the room. I'm not a fan of this sort of stuff but I have to admit that it sure is timely given all the news that has recently emerged regarding the regressive, obsessive, and murderous mysogony happening on the world stage (think: Santa Barabara shooter, creeps who keep women chained in their basements, Pakistani honor killings, and so on). Let's hope this guy doesn't join those "other" men.
SPENCER PRODUCT
This artist caught my eye simply because everything he had on display in the room seemed oh so trendy! Oh so punk! Oh so street! Oh so graphic! Oh no!
