july
zero eight

Ginelle Hustrulid stands tall in Iceberger's gallery.

photo: Tony Foster © 2008

     Ever escalating rents in San Francisco continue to test the resourcefulness of gallery owners attempting to present fine art. "It's really hard to afford a large space," says Erica Freyberger, "and then we'd just have to compromise what we show ... just trying to pay the rent." When Freyberger and her business partner Ginelle Hustrulid first investigated a brick-and-mortar space for their online gallery, listed prices exceeded $3000 per month.

     In order to make their three-dimensional dream come true, they took on a sunny, 9' by 14' cinderblock venue on Treat Street in the Mission. "We had to put up the drywall ourselves," Hustrulid remembers. "We did quite a bit of labor ... ." Ultimately, men resident to the neighborhood decided to help, "So we basically watched them and bought them beer while they built this up."

     The finished gallery, Iceberger, demonstrates how a small, adventurous venue can contribute nationally and internationally. Iceberger opened in February of this year, with the photography of Mark McKnight. Recent exhibits include an oil on canvas show from Boston's Apenest Collective and this month's video installation by Londoner Richard T. Walker, currently in residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. read more

Joan Perlman's "Flux" installation at David Cunningham Projects, San Francisco, CA

     Determining the color of water constitutes an archetypal Artist's Choice. A vacation ocean churns blue. A fouled Yangtze flows brown. Niagara clouds white and cold and its rainbow issues iridescent.

      Where, one might ask Joan Perlman, does black come in?

      The inspiration for Perlman's painted black allegedly gurgles from Iceland, the world's youngest country geologically. If ever an expanded potential for the color of water existed it would be there. In addition to glaciers, rivers, oceans and lakes, Iceland also moves with volcanic activity. Yet, Perlman's black brings to mind another ubiquitous liquid, one responsible for her air travel, luggage, brushes and paints: crude oil.

      "Flux", which opened May 22nd at David Cunningham Projects, exhibits eleven of Perlman's untitled acrylic and enamel creations, along with a three-channel video installation, "From Ice", soundtracked by Steven Dye. read more

ERIK FOSTER - Untitled, 2008

     When I first heard about Erik Foster's upcoming show, "Split Hearts Unevenly", I was just as curious about attending an art show at a hair salon as I was about seeing the art itself. When I arrived toward the end of the opening on Sunday night, a few people were still milling about the salon. Over two-dozen brightly colored paintings hung on the wall among several large vanity mirrors. Unlike most hip and contemporary hair salons in San Francisco, each hair station was completely unique, with its own set of products and sense of style. Between each, Foster's paintings formed a kind of static connection that tied the decor and ambience of the room together. The paintings seemed similar at first glance; the solid, bright colors and smooth texture of the paint in his pieces gave the entire body of work a very cohesive and polished feel. Most of the paintings were quite simple: each contained a solitary figure and a background landscape that split the painting in half with an effortless yet bold horizon line. The figures within the paintings seemed to begin from simple line drawings, and, while small and intricate details were apparent in their clothing, they remained character-like in appearance. The shadows that appeared in the crevices of their bodies made them pop off the "page" and distinguished them from the background. read more

© BERNADETTE COTTER - "Still Life", 2008

     Bernadette Cotter lived in San Francisco for roughly seven years. Those familiar with the Irish expatriate scene or Performance Art concerns will recognize her instantly. Entering her second decade of mature work she continues to defy common expectation of her modest appearance. Short in stature with a thin-lipped smile, her hair grays unspectacularly through youthful red and brown strands. Her button mushroom white skin, profuse with freckles, eschews makeup, botox and other manipulations. This simplicity resonates in her analysis of global interconnectedness and the innate androgyny of human representation. That's still part of her life performance.

     "Still Life" developed from events impacting the artist in the fall of 2004. Suddenly back in her native land for a teaching gig, Cotter was struck by the immediacy of the international news story welcoming her home. An entire school of children, captured by Chechen rebels, was massacred. read more

     The sun surprised us all that day by setting so quickly, the darkness fell like a velvet curtain on the near-empty East Bay streets. It was December the 22nd, but the hush of holiday vacation could not deter me from attending a reception at Turn Of The Century Fine Arts Gallery in Berkeley. As I brushed the darkness from my lapels and entered the threshold of Turn of the Century, the warm glow from a myriad of candles welcomed me and transformed the gallery into a reverent space. The gently flickering tapers, however, were not the only source of illumination. Leopi Nicola's luminous, life-sized paintings seemed to emanate a light of their own and filled the room with jeweled tones of oranges, rose pinks, and blues. That night, I was privileged to experience these unique works and to interview the artist herself.

     Leopi Nicola's paintings are mysteriously captivating. The most basic aspect that piques interest is the dramatic play between blues and oranges on the canvas, creating a harmonious vibrancy and depth in the paintings. In accord with these striking colors are the sumptuously rendered figures--monumental apparitions, with their unflinching gazes, lithe postures, and glowing orange and blue skin--commanding the viewer's full attention. read more

     There are few local artists that can polarize art enthusiasts as much as Keith Boadwee. In San Francisco Art Magazine's May 2001 edition, Christopher Stout covered Boadwee's exhibit at San Francisco's long-since laid to rest Lair of the Minotaur. Since our site went on sabbatical in 2002, Boadwee has received extensive coverage in print and been in Bay Area Now 3, had a solo show at Peres Projects Los Angeles, been in Into me/Out of Me at PS 1 New York, been in a show curated by John Waters, and has been included in a number of group shows including Keith Mayerson's well-received Neo-Integrity show at Derek Eller Gallery, Nicole Eisenman's Redykeulous, as well as shows at LightBox Los Angeles (where he'll be showing later this year) and in Glasgow and Athens.

     Stuff like Keith Boadwee is exactly what I like to eat for breakfast. Feasting my eyes on innovative conceptual art gets me geared up for a day of deliciously uneasy digestion, so imagine my delight when I happened upon the announcement for Girlfriends, a three day conceptual sculpture show featuring work by Keith Boadwee's San Francisco Art Institute students. No sooner could you say, "Sweet salivation!" than I had the kids packed in the car and we were headed over the Bay Bridge to Blankspace in Oakland. read more

     2007 marks also the thirtieth anniversary of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, the largest Latino community center in the continental US, located in a former furniture factory on boisterous Mission Street. It's one of a number of community-based San Francisco art centers of various ethnicities that continue to combine community activism and education with high artistic standards. "The jovencitos are our future," wrote Board Member Isabel Barraza on the occasion of MCCLA's silver anniversary. Now headed by executive director Jennie Rodriguez, the nonprofit continues to serve Latino youth (as declared)--and adults--with extensive offerings in salsa, Capoeira, flamenco, Aztec dance, Cuban dance, puppetry, photography, theater, samba, mask-making, and African drumming; in the visual arts, it offers instruction in printmaking, photography, drawing, design, video, installation, and textile printing. MCCLA's teachers, scholars, and visiting artists preserve and transmit Mexican/Chicano, Central American, South American, and Caribbean culture to new generations in spite of the difficulties faced by all nonprofits, financial necessity sparking continual invention. (The sardonic and affectionate title of this article comes from former director Rene Yanez.) read more