Aly Su Borst's Untitled, from Volume III of The Maladies and Treatment of an Unkempt Mind ( C - print, 2007)
Mirror Made Me at Krowswork Gallery
Only accessible through an awkward side entrance, Jasmine Moorhead's Krowswork Gallery takes up the back three rooms of what was the Esteban Sabar Gallery and then the Fort gallery. The daughter of a photographer, Moorhead has pursued a career in art as an editor at Museum of Modern Art in New York, and now at the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco. Her own gallery, just two months old, has started strong, and has a very promising year of programming planned. The schedule includes live events with a number of well known video artists, as well as an intriguing show of photo portraits of Oakland rappers.
Only so much can be made of plans, but this month’s show augers well. Mirror Made Me features pieces from six artists working in video, photography and installation; three media that this space has wisely staked out as fertile territory for specialties. One particular highlight for me, is a series of what distinctly appear to be staged photos by Aly Su Borst, which successfully manage a performative tone in a static world. In Borst's 2007 C- Print "Untitled, from Volume III of The Maladies and Treatment of an Unkempt Mind", a young woman wearing dark blue, oddly regal thrift store clothes, stands with her back to the viewer as she looks down a hotel hallway. Her face the visage of ghost, slowly extinguished by light. It's the strongest of a series of photos contrasting clarity and obfuscation.
Cybele Lyle's installation "The Last Resort” recreates the Florida bar where serial killer Aileen Wuornos once frequented. Projected video of bar patrons hanging out, and cold beer and stale pretzels free for the taking help set the mood. A series of funhouse mirrors arranged in a grid is meant to give one the sense of alteration that comes with intoxication. The piece is successful, as much for bringing a series of conflicting thoughts regarding Wuornos as for managing to haunt my memory long after I left the gallery.
Mirror Made Me - Aly Su Borst, Ursula Brookbank, Michael Deane, Cybele Lyle, Shana Moulton, and Andrew Wilson
Krowswork Gallery
480 23rd Street
Art Murmur Reception: Friday, Feb. 5th, 6 p.m.– 9 p.m.
Article X Featuring Dave Trautrimas + Kristina Lewis at Johansson Projects
Personal mythologies and the remix of everyday objects are central to many an artist's oeuvre these days. There’s enough of it around to call artists who do both members of a "movement." While I will refrain from giving this one a name, as the contrarian formalist in me eschews such things. At the end of the day, most art is written about because it is well executed as much as it is worthy of discourse. It is not for nothing art bloggers and the legendary art world "bible" Art Forum have one thing in common: a pronounced lack of negative reviews. Kristina Lewis turns household objects like light switches, bits of zippers, and stilleto heels into artifacts from a drowned civilization where utility has evolved to match the savage grace of a chaotic and clamorous world. Her work is well-paired with the more playfully spooky conceptualist photos of David Trautrimas, which recast ordinary appliances such as coffee pots, electric razors and waffle irons as the architecture of top secret installations like Skunk Works or Area 51. The novelist J.G. Ballard once said that , "A widespread taste for pornography means that nature is alerting us to some threat of extinction." Wise words.
Kristina Lewis
A bonus: According to the press materials, Conspiracy of Beards, a 30-man a cappella choir, which performs the songs of poet, novelist and singer Leonard Cohen will be at the opening.
Johansson Projects
2300 Telegraph Ave
Art Murmur Reception: Friday, Feb. 5th, 6 p.m.– 9 p.m.
Lending Library at the Royal NoneSuch Gallery
Wildly cluttered, artfully arranged, or starkly austere; artist's personal studios - I have found - generally take on an almost installational aspect. Studios visits can be revealing, but seasonal open studio events are hardly natural. Perhaps this show will give folks a more direct view into an artist's headspace. The Royal NoneSuch Gallery's Lending Library will feature the "tools, materials, and resources" that constitute the studios of seven artists. Sunaura Taylor and Trevor Paglen will be among the participating artists.
Royal NoneSuch Gallery
4231 Telegraph Ave
Opening Reception: Friday, Feb. 5th, 7 p.m.– 9 p.m.
the space between ( a love story ) by Michale Patton at Zza's Wine Bar Gallery
I first encountered Michael Patton's intensely personal, intricately crafted works that blur the lines between art and anthropology during a visit to his Jack London Square area studio during last year's Open Studios event. An animal skull, fragile and bleached, lies in a glass bed across from an installation made of what appears to be railroad ties reclaimed from the neighborhood and remixed into a bushel of rusty stalks, the stuff of wilted history and gentrification. The piece is eloquent and graceful. I am a bit biased here as I featured Mr.Patton's work in my debut as director of The Oakbook's art gallery, but I'll let you be the judge.
This time out Patton is again showing work that is personal. In his own words, " ...the work for the show is very much a personal narrative. The title for the show, the space between ( a love story ) really captures the underlying feeling that has influenced me. It brings in ideas of contrast and duality, as well as time, fragility, and beauty. This is a story, a love story. These works are deeply connected to intimate memories, emotions and past experiences…shaped by time, these works are presented as a continuum of remnant memories." In the execution of it all for Patton, "...creating the work for this show was truly a healing process for me...."
Zza's Wine Bar Gallery
550 Grand Avenue
Opening Reception: Saturday, Feb. 13th, 6 p.m.– 9 p.m.
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