Photo Courtesy Hatch Gallery

This summer offers up a ton of open studios all over the East Bay as well as the usual First Friday jinks associated with the art murmur and surrounding openings. Here’s a diverse sampling of shows I’ve picked as “must sees” for your consideration. There’s a good reason Oakland’s art community has been getting increasing attention in the media and these shows should serve as evidence of that. Without further adieu, here are my picks for The Month Ahead In Oakland Art.

Becoming Non-Object: Nathaniel Crane & Michael Deane
Hatch Gallery
492 23rd St.
hatchgallery.org/
Reception: Thursday, June 4th, 6 p.m.– 9 p.m.

I wrote of gallery owner Adam Hatch’s account of the Miami Art Fairs way back in December and one part of our lengthy interview that was left on the cutting room floor was his intention to curate his new eponymous space according to the seasons, pairing off artists in successive two-person shows that aim to compliment the work through aesthetic association, both personal and environmental. This month, one of the artists mentioned in that conversation, Nate Crane, is showing with interdisciplinary artist Michael Deane in an intriguing pairing that looks to hold up the promise of Hatch Gallery’s “Preview 09” show, which showcased a sampling of the work of folks Mr. Hatch plans to show through the year.  In his press release, Mr. Hatch describes Nate Crane’s work as - “…renditions of cars and buildings detailed with Victorian patterns of smoke and exhaust, an expression of his interest in the beauty of decay as an organic effect of societies existence.” It’s solid work, and its increasingly abstracted nature serves it well. Where his work has veered a bit towards the pop end of the pool, now it seems to be more clearly playing with heavier notions like “astrophysics, color theory and chess.” Michael Deane, the winner of SFAC’s Construct 3 - installation award, will be exhibiting a set of never before seen works that based on the press release aim to re-engineer and record art and the art-making process.

This opening is separate from the usual art murmur madness, so it should make for a nice, mellow respite from the art crowds of first Friday.

Just Because There are Questions Doesn't Mean There are Answers: New collaborative work by Joy Fritz, Sam Lopes, Matthew Momchilov, Matthew Pawlowski
Blankspace
6608 San Pablo Avenue
blankspacegallery.com/
Reception: Friday, June 5th, 6 p.m.– 9 p.m.

I first wrote of Sam Lopes’ hauntingly memorable work over a year ago for The Oakbook and this show of queer artists playfully emulating each others’ styles looks to be a good one. Politics in art, personal or otherwise, should come unforced, naturally, and perhaps with even subtlety to have the greatest effect. As concepts go, this one isn’t original, but its lack of reflexivity goes a long way towards getting my vote of confidence. That and the fact that it includes one of the Bay Area’s best young drawers, Matthew Momchilov. His name is already memorable and portents to be even more so based on his talent. I have followed his work since first seeing it at Lobot Gallery a few years ago. Ever since, he’s been a much buzzed about talent and has a fairly high profile upcoming group show at San Francisco’s highly reputed Eleanor Harwood Gallery to evidence it. Based on just these two artists, how could I not recommend this one?

East Bay Open Studios 2009
Friday, June 6-7, and June 13-14
All over Oakland and the entire East Bay: proartsgallery.org/ebos/index.html

Open studios are great. This one features work from artists from across the ENTIRE East Bay -- in studios, in homes, in studio spaces, in neighborhoods like Jingletown and in galleries like Swarm in Jack London Square. In the past, I have written of how fantastic graduate open studios and shows are. This event is not all that different, though due to its gargantuan size, the quality will be a bit spottier. That said, in the past great local artists like Oakland’s John Casey’s have participated – so there’s certainly some great work out there and for once I can fairly easily say that there is going is likely be something out there, for everyone.

Steven Barich: The Logic Stone and other new work
Rowan Morrison Gallery
330 40th St.
rowanmorrison.com/
Reception: Saturday, June 20th, 7 p.m.– 10 p.m.



Steven Barich is a local artist who makes the rounds of Oakland’s openings regularly and maintains an excellent group art blog called artopic. He’s also a compelling artist and a well trained one, coming out of Mills College's noted MFA program. Originally from Milwaukee, Barich spent much of his youth here and is an alumni of not only of the California College of Arts and Crafts but my old high school Skyline High.

His newest work -- most of which serves as meditation on Chinese Scholar's Rocks, stones which were “improved” by human hands and meant to be a point of contemplation – all turns on a single word: Apophenia. It means to put it simply, the “experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.” Perhaps sacrilegiously, this is what many would call faith. Whatever you call it, Mr. Barich’s intricate diagrammed meditations are a must see and remind me well of some of the work of another Oakland artist, Chris Duncan. Both utilize conceptualism towards a deep spiritual understanding of our rapidly changing and confusing modern world. It’s a welcome motif, I must say, and completely of our times. Barich spoke to me during a recent studio visit of being influenced by Martin Puryear’s recent show at SFMOMA towards a certain elemental simplicity. The work he evokes, Scholar’s rocks, was almost always anonymous and the commonality is unmistakable yet the artist’s hand is palpable – that minor tension is what keeps your eyes affixed to the work. I must now note that the artist started out as a photographer and became a drawer by the end of his time as CCAC. I note that because the work here clearly is of the moment and you could tell that even if you didn’t know it was made in the space of a few hours. It is Barich’s sincerest “…hope that the viewer takes the time to consider and meditate on…” the charcoal and graphite drawings at view. I’d take his advice. It’s mine as well.