Dave Eggers
china marker on paper with words
ArtPadSF
Electric Works is pleased to be featuring in our gallery/room for ArtPadSF at the Phoenix Hotel the work of Robert Minervini and Dave Eggers. Elaine Buckholtz will be creating an on-site light installation.
Robert Minervini will be addressing the kind of subject matter that is alluded to in his previous utopian and dystopian cityscapes, landscapes, and floral still life paintings—namely, the ecological impact of humanity on the landscape. His new paintings and drawings of floral still lifes, literal and metaphorical quotations from traditional European vanitas paintings have been recontextualized in contemporary environments. The flora and fauna depicted in these works are currently listed as endangered wildlife in California. These present day memento mori directly reference the traditional form and function of European vanitas paintings—which acted as symbolic reminders of the inevitability of death—by depicting local wildlife that is in the process of extinction. His presence at ArtPadSF will be an extension of his show After Glow: As the Wick Burns that is in our gallery, May 10- June 29.
Dave Eggers will present animal portraits with text- china marker on paper with words that express what the animal might be thinking. Working in the vernacular of political propaganda posters, these deftly executed drawings feature an ongoing cast of fur-, feather-, and scale-bearing creatures. What seems like an extraordinary balancing act of good humor and earnest pledges of allegiance, Eggers creates a menagerie that speaks to our very human condition.
Elaine Buckholtz will be creating a lavender light installation onto the swimming pool in the center courtyard of the hotel and she will be changing out all the lights on the landings of each room to a soft pink. Buckholtz explores light as an ephemeral phenomenon and uses it to unmask hidden aspects of architectural forms in relation to painting. She uses visual and temporal repetition to explore the intersection of space, image, movement, and light. Her fascination with light has a long history. Buckholtz will use her background in lighting and theater design to generate her own luminous theater at the Phoenix Hotel.
Easy Rider
Electric Works’ artist Elaine Buckholtz’s will present Easy Rider a site-specific, light-based work at ArtPadSF 2013. Buckholtz, known for her colorful and subtle interactions with video, print and sound, will change the atmosphere of the fair with this poetic, playful and just-barely-present work. In Easy Rider the Phoenix Hotel’s usual outdoor lighting in front of each gallery room is replaced with a soft pink light bulb. Lavender light projected from above the pool hits the water at an angle that activates both its surface and depths. The lit swimming pool creates a center point of the Phoenix’s outdoor space and the gauzy ambient light.
ArtPadSF at the iconic Phoenix Hotel is a provocative 21st century boutique art fair, focused on emerging and contemporary art from the Bay Area and beyond. In its third year and partnered with San Francisco’s world-renowned arts institutions, galleries, and artists, ArtPadSF is a crossroads for the creative and an unparalleled marketplace for art. Arts patrons and enthusiasts are invited to take in some of the most exciting contemporary art the market has to offer as the Phoenix Hotel transforms itself into a visual arts destination with over 40 hotel rooms being taken over by galleries and curatorial projects. Join us May 16th through 19th 2013 for screenings, panels, performances, and more.
After Glow: As the Wick Burns
Robert Minervini
After Glow: As the Wick Burns
May 10—June 29
Artist Reception, Friday, May 10, 6-8 PM
In After Glow: As the Wick Burns Robert Minervini addresses the ecological impact of humanity on the landscape. In a group of thirteen new paintings and drawings of floral still lifes, literal and metaphorical quotations from traditional European vanitas paintings have been recontextualized in contemporary environments. The flora and fauna depicted in these works are currently listed as endangered wildlife in California. These present day memento mori directly reference the traditional form and function of vanitas paintings—which acted as symbolic reminders of the inevitability of death—by depicting local wildlife that is in the process of extinction.
The subtitle “As the Wick Burns” is a poetic adaptation of a familial saying which Minervini would use whenever preparing to depart from family gatherings. In Molfetesse, Minervini’s family’s regional language, the expression “Sa squagghiate la cer” roughly translates as “the candle wick is about to burn out,” meaning our time together is coming to an end. Minervini often found this saying to be bittersweet, and it echoes the notion of time fleeting presented in his work.
Ranging in scale from intimate to grand, and in style from abstract to realistic, these highly meticulous and layered artworks vacillate in a space that is both symbolic and illusionistic. Using predominantly acrylic paint, and mixed media such as paper and cellophane, the materiality and physicality of these works in close proximity is contradictory to the slick appearance that they take on at a distance. At moments, paint skins scraped up from the palette are collaged into and on top of layers to create flower forms. In contrast, highly rendered moments intermingle with swatches of spray-painted forms and shapes to create a visual weaving and density that mimics the effect of looking into an elaborate bouquet of flowers.
The flowers in these works have been chosen for their symbolism of aesthetic beauty and the way in which they simultaneously signify ecological disaster in a specific time and place. Through this body of work, Minervini poses the question: What is the greater cultural significance of depicting something that is both beautiful and a sign of something profoundly tragic?
David Tomb in Manila and Mountainfilm
Some views from the Ayala Museum Gallery in Manila where David Tomb’s Rufus Hornbill has flown in for the 6th Annual Hornbill Conference organized by Mike Lu of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines. View the exhibit until May 5.
Tomb will be a special guest at Mountainfilm in Telluride, May 24-27. Join him Friday, May 24, 3:30-6:30 for the Gallery Walk, one of the highlight events of the weekend.
Mission between 9th and 10th
We are happy to be in the ‘hood with CounterPULSE on Mission between 9th and 10th. Our neighbors are celebrating their 8th anniversary with May Day a showcase of local artists to raise funds for the nonprofit experimental space for art and social action. Support CounterPULSE as a hub for risk-taking community-based performance. May Day features an all-star lineup including March Bamuthi Joseph, Keith Hennessy, Dohee Lee, Scott Wells & Dancers, Axis Dance Company,Jess Curtis/ Gravity, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, Byb Chanel Bibene, and Duniya Dance and Drum Company and a silent auction every night!
May Day 2013
Performance Festival to Benefit CounterPULSE
1310 Mission between 9th and 10th
May 3 -5, FRI-SUN at 8PM
$35 and up Buy tickets
Trapped in Your Mind Feeling
Rubber Bands by Sandra Ono
Sometimes it does feel as if the sky is tumbling down- if only for a split second. A Trapped in Your Mind Feeling, an exhibition curated by Lucy Puls will provoke those unwelcome jolts of pernicious unease. With Tim Armstrong, Sarah Bliss, Kirk Crippens, Aida Gamez, Farley Gwazda, Richard Haley, Conrad M. Meyers II, Sandra Ono, Melissa Pokorny, Emma Spertus and John Tronsor.
Alex Bigman in the East Bay Express describes The Anxiety that Artists Feel.
A Trapped in Your Mind Feeling runs through May 4 at Aggregate Space (801 West Grand Ave., Oakland), 510-832-3807 or AggregateSpace.com; and through May 18 at Transmission Gallery (770 West Grand Ave., Oakland), 510-835-2626 or TheTransmissionGallery.com
Pleased to present
Electric Works is pleased to present the work of Scott Serrano in our Main Gallery
and Amber Stucke in our Extension Gallery.
March 22 – May 4
Opening reception Friday, March 22, 6-8 PM
Serrano invites us in to Picturesque Flora Wallaceana : Botanical Ambulations In Greater Wallaceana 1854- 1857 a fabricated 19th Century science narrative about the tropical island of Wallaceana in an installation of images, text and artifacts.
In Parasitic, Mutualistic, Commensalistic Relationships, Stucke is exhibiting a series of small works that explore and investigate the idea of symbiosis through an intensive drawing relationship interconnecting evolutionary biology, consciousness, philosophy of mind, and the imagination.
Picturesque Flora Wallaceana
March 22 – May 4
Opening reception Friday, March 22, 6-8 PM
Electric Works is pleased to present Scott Serrano’s Picturesque Flora Wallaceana : Botanical Ambulations In Greater Wallaceana 1854- 1857 a fabricated 19th Century science narrative about the tropical island of Wallaceana as an installation of images, text and artifacts. This invented landscape is named after the great 19th Century naturalist and scientist Alfred Russell Wallace, the lesser known co-discoverer of the theory of evolution. Serrano places himself as a character in the narrative and documents the terrain with drawings, travel journals, artifacts, faux plant specimens and fabricated photographs.
In an homage to 19th Century traditions of botanical exploration and in a critique of objective scientific representation, Serrano uses his invented island to illustrate a series of brief parables about modern human moral frailty and current social-political battles. Serrano’s lavish botanical drawings are in the style of Gothic- Romantic traditions of painting and scientific illustration.
After traditional art training at San Jose State University and San Francisco State University, Serrano gravitated to performance art. His complex masked puppetry works were presented at The Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Cherry Creek Arts Festival (Colorado), and Jim Henson Puppetry Festival, New York. His puppetry/ masked work culminated in “Anatomical Demonstrations”, a 19th Century period lecture that received an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts grant for a residency at the Exploratorium. His interest in the creation of parallel universes led to his current work with the re-creation of 19th Century objects and installations that have been featured at the Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York, Samuel Dorsky Museum at the State University of New Paltz, New York and at Cabrillo College Gallery.
Parasitic, Mutualistic, Commensalistic Relationships
March 22 – May 4
Opening reception Friday, March 22, 6-8 PM
Electric Works Extension is pleased to present Parasitic, Mutualistic, Commensalistic Relationships small works by Amber Stucke. The works in this show are an extension of Stucke’s long term project on symbiosis. This project explores and investigates the idea of symbiosis through an intensive drawing relationship interconnecting evolutionary biology, consciousness, philosophy of mind, and the imagination. By combining experiential and rational knowledge systems together within drawings, Stucke appropriates from visual taxonomies to create conversations between local knowledge systems of the human body and scientific classification structures. The drawings specifically look at parasitic, mutualistic, and commensalistic relationships of fungus, algae, lichen and moss under the biological study of symbiosis.
Stucke received her MFA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and has also had additional studies at Goldsmith’s College in London and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Primarily working within the mediums of painting and drawing, Stucke connects the strong detail in her work to ideas within artistic research as-well-as to dialogues between art and science. Her work is project based and involves interdisciplinary investigations within artistic production. Her thesis titled Embodying Symbiosis: A Philosophy of Mind in Drawing is published in an international academic journal called Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, which is based in the UK.