Kathy Aoki, The Brazilian (2009), Solar-plate etching

Women artists figure prominently in our local art scene. From Viola Frey to Margaret Kilgallen, the Bay Area has a long and storied history of amazing women artists adding and expanding to the canon of essential art history. This month offers some great female artists in high profile shows, which offer evidence of a new generation picking up where the last left off. Here are some Oakland shows you will want to see.

This Long Road: Work by Derek Weisberg, Crystal Morey, and Ben Belknap”


Crystal Morey at work on "This Long Road"

Crystal Morey is one of the most exciting artists working locally in sculpture today. Her emotionally evocative dapnes, representations of the female figure seem to be at once autobiographical and a comment on the vulnerable nature of femininity in the modern world. She has organized a strong three-person show including two of her fellows from The New Bay Area Figurative Sculpture group. Derek Weisberg, ran the regrettably defunct Boontling Gallery.

For Ms. Morey everything lies in the process. Too much planning for her is “stifling.” She told me this while we discussing her collaboration with the show’s two other artists on a piece depicting an unnamed mythological deity. The god is shown impeding the progress of a young woman

about the process creating a collaborative piece involving all three participating artists depicting a mythological god, perhaps Zeus, impeding the progress of a young woman toward her inevitable future. Morey represents the future of Bay Area sculpture, and based upon this work, the outlook is promising.

Friday, October 2, 7 p.m.- 10 p.m.
The Compound Gallery, 6604 San Pablo Ave

"It's Gonna Be Awesome: New work by Narangkar Glover”


"One Way..Or Another", 2009, wool embroidery and acrylic on jute, by Narangkar Glover

Narangkar Glover is one half of the husband and wife team that run the uncommonly consistent and innovative Temescal artspace Rowan Morrison. What many regular attendees of their openings might also know is that she is an accomplished painter. Her strongest work has been her embroidered pieces, which are painterly and deeply insightful. I recently had a chance to interview her regarding about this work: “Process-wise, my embroidery is informed by Crewel work, and this particular piece is inspired by the Abigail Pett bed-hanging, which is a Jacobean tapestry from the 18th century.  It currently resides in the Victoria and Albert museum.  And with this piece, I’ve incorporated painting on to the fabric – it ties it into my own practice, and sort of brings the medium up-to-date.  Earlier this year I experimented with some techniques involving painting or sizing the actual needle-work and it just kinda got mucked up, so I decided to stick with keeping the two separated on the canvas.”
   
I asked Narangkar about her relationship to her materials, Narangkar had this to say: “…I musn’t ever negate the relationship to the materials, and how integral it is.  Oil paint is visceral, and I’m thoroughly moved when I get right down to the nitty-gritty of the stuff.  I like to work wet on wet – it’s a feeling of real involvement and presence.  When I can say what I want to say in as little fussing with the medium, that moment in time is going to be conveyed successfully.  The only perspective I truly have is my own, so I work with what I’ve got.  It’s what makes it universal.  Empathy is, I guess, part of it.”
   
In Narangkar’s new show, narrative overshadows the figurative elements. This makes for an interesting and gentle tension. The nature of memory is what is at question here, and as a subject it is a damned compelling and time tested one. Come to your own conclusions at the opening. The artist will be there and I imagine she will welcome any and all thoughtful inquiries into her process and aesthetic inclinations. The great thing about art openings is that they democratize the insular nature of the art world. There are reasons other than sales that folks have them, and critical dialogue is certainly one of the best.

Friday, October 2, 7 p.m.-10 p.m.
Blankspace, 6608 San Pablo Ave

"THE MUSEUM OF HISTORICAL MAKEOVERS," New Work by Kathy Aoki

To say this show is huge is an understatement. It takes all but one of Swarm’s three gallery rooms and takes excellent advantage of it, filling the airy expanse with sculptural works, etchings, and other media by Kathy Aoki. The risky scale pays off.
   
But what’s it about? This is what the press release has to say: “Creating a pseudo-museum experience, Aoki presents us with imagery that looks antique, but addresses current beauty and pop culture concepts.” Here’s the artist’s take: "I want the artwork to help explain why we are so obsessed with beauty and pop consumerism. Obviously (from these mock documents), it's been that way traditionally throughout history."
   
With all that well-meaning propaganda out of the way, here’s my spin: Even though we live in a greening world filled with hybrid cars and biodegradable utensils made of corn that melt in the presence of hot food, ours is still a culture where “pop” reigns supreme and the whole notion of subculture has become outmoded in our post – postmodern age. As The Clash once sang in 1977, before my birth, “…ha you think it's funny/Turning rebellion into money.”

Subcultures don’t hold the power they once did. Everything is seen and sold to you faster than ever in Urban Outfitters or on Amazon. All is the monoculture, as I imagine rock musician and blogger Momus would say. When humanity is gone and all that is left is WALL – E and cockroaches, the worst and most banal elements of our culture shall remain. That is what this show satirizes with mock museum-style placards, painstakingly detailing the past of our strange old world from an imagined future anthropological perspective.
   
We get a bit close to Jeff Koons territory here. The show has snark to spare, and, in this case, it is certainly called for. Insipid pop icons like Gwen Stefani are enshrined for being successful at doing bad copies of the acts they have emulated (in her case the Fun Boy Three with Bananarama).

These artificial artifacts seem all too real, hyperreal, really, and manage to present a wonderfully warped mirror for our twisted age.

Artist’s Talk: Wednesday, October 14, 6:30 p.m.
Swarm Gallery, 560 Second Street
 

“ANIMAL, Work by Sunaura Taylor”

Sunaura Taylor, Untitled, 2009, oil paint on photocopied paper

The art business puts a premium on youth and its perceived appeal, which is an odd thing to do because few artists mature early in their careers. Still, as Robert Hughes once said, “More students graduate every year with art degrees in the USA, than lived in Florence at the height of the Renaissance.” In this overheated milieu the role of the critic is required more than ever. Who else, after all, will help sort skillful, compelling, and relevant work from art that that does not meet that is not? It also is our job to help highlight worthy artists.

Sunaura Taylor is another such breakout talent. I first saw her work in a group show one year ago at The Compound Gallery in Oakland and her oil painting in it, “Culled Male Chicks In A Dumpster,” rocked me like good and bad news delivered simultaneously.

It is evocative and literal, depicting the waste and vulgar sacrifice entailed in our daily omelets. I consider where my food comes from a whole lot more now because of that painting. No news story did that for me. Art made me think and stop to consider. That is the power art holds.
   
“Animal,” Ms.Taylor’s current show, “Explores two themes that have preoccupied my art for many years: the oppression of disabled people and the oppression of animals.” Animal rights and disability rights through the eyes of one of the most talented artists working in the Bay today? I’m there.

As the artist says, “The work in this show examines these intersections by exploring various photographic discourses of animals and disabled people, including butcher diagrams, medical photographs and sideshow images. Through painting I explore these photographic histories and the theoretical and social concepts that have evolved with them. With this work I ask controversial and challenging questions about rights, responsibility, independence and what it means to be compared to an animal.” Her work has found beauty and transcendence in the terrible and that is truly something.

The show runs from October 24 - November 28
Rowan Morrison Gallery, 330 40th Street