The Last Iceberg: Camille Seaman

Camille Seaman’s photography exhibition The Last Iceberg is currently on view at The World Affairs Council, in San Francisco.

Camille approaches the images of icebergs as portraits of individuals, much like family photos of ancestors. She seeks a moment in their life in which they convey their unique personality, some connection to our own experience and a glimpse of their soul which endures.

Nick Cave once sang, “All things move toward their end.” Icebergs give the impression of doing just that, in their individual way much as humans do; they have been created of unique conditions and shaped by their environments to live a brief life in a manner solely their own. Some go the distance traveling for many years slowly being eroded by time and the elements; others get snagged on the rocks and are whittled away by persistent currents. Still others dramatically collapse in fits of passion and fury. The Last Iceberg chronicles just a handful of the many thousands of icebergs that are currently headed to their end.

On view June 5 – August 2nd, 2013

Travis Somerville at Catherine Clark

The Travis Somerville solo show, A Great Cloud of Witnesses is an interesting – (if somewhat obvious)  take on history and the current state of racial tensions. It has a raw folk art edge we liked, especially the Pinocchio nose on the Lincoln shovel, below.

Exhibit Dates: March 02, 2013 – April 20, 2013

Catharine Clark Gallery, 150 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Travis Somerville continues his exploration of historical memory. How is it that certain stories reduced to sound bites and repeated ad nauseam become the collective truth? Through imagery that invites an investigation into the impact of iconographic legacy and the current state of human rights, Somerville critically examines the continued cultural implications of the Civil Rights movement. Bringing appropriated material from the past into dialogue with imagery from today’s “post racial” society, the artist makes complex montages that appose imagery from a bygone era with that of contemporary news stories on the subjects of immigration, child labor in Uzbekistan, and Arab Spring uprisings. The resulting works are confrontational and serve as a springboard for conversations about multiculturalism, truth, and the lasting power of images.

Muses and Madness in Berkeley

Opening up this Saturday is the exhibit Muses and Madness in Berkeley at SR2 Gallery. It is  a solo show of work by the artist Patrushka, featuring many interesting and arresting portrait-based works. Her themes are diverse and include environmental concerns, crime mugshots, celebrities and fairy tales.

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 16th, 7- 9 PM

Exhibition Dates: March 16th – April 28th, 2013

Working in many medias, from scratchboard to oil painting, Patrushka has created an eclectic array of images for this exhibition. Fascinated with the ying and yang of life, the skull beneath the smile, the dark within the light and the good as well as the bad. Patrushka draws upon pop culture, politics, music, emotions, the human face and our natural world for inspiration.

 The theme for this exhibit is a divergent binary: “Muses & Madness”.  Muses focuses on artists, musicians, friends, cultural icons, causes and celebrities that she admires. Whether it be their artworks, their songs, their image or their happenstance in life – all have inspired and moved Patrushka to capture them in paint. Madness is used in a literal and a generalized way  and focuses on the dark and sometimes violent side of mankind, and the many gradations of insanity – whether it be in the way we treat our environment or in the way we treat those who dare to be different. Violent criminals, threatened species, abused women, emotive portraits and misfit personas whose “madness” has consumed them, all have found a place in Patrushka’s world. The body of work crosses the boundaries of the human condition, celebrating the wonderful and the weird, embracing the whole oddity that is humanity. – Via Sacred Rose Gallery

Absence: New Works by Cyrus Tilton

Currently at Vessel Gallery: New Works by Cyrus Tilton

“Tension is something I’m drawn to” says Tilton. “Tension among subjects within a single piece; a collision of forms that you don’t usually see in nature. “

On exhibit now, through April 13, 2013

First Friday Oakland Art Murmur Reception: Friday, April 5, 6 – 9:00 PM

Vessel Gallery

471 25th Street Oakland, CA 

 ARTIST TALK: Saturday, March 9, 2013 2 – 3:30 PM

Tour the exhibit with artist Cyrus Tilton, learn more about this new body of work and gain insight to his use of various techniques in his sculpting process

Cyrus Tilton’s Bio:

Cyrus Tilton’s mother and father espoused the values of the back-to-nature movement of the Sixties and when they were first married, set up house in a remote river valley in the wilderness northeast of Anchorage. His father has worked as a commercial fisherman and park engineer. His mother went from tending vegetables in the family truck patch to being a master gardener who has designed gardens for clients. Cyrus remembers being a toddler in a one-room cabin; he remembers his mother fetching water for his bath from the river below the home; he remembers getting a home visit from a bear. The vast expanses of Alaska were always just outside Cryus’s back door, even when the family moved to a house in Chugiak, close to Anchorage. From there, he could still trace with his eye the profile of Mt. Susitna, the great “Sleeping Lady” that dominates the horizon west of Anchorage, and watch the seasons roll through the splendid birch forests of the great north.
Since then he’s been searching for elements of The Great Good Place in all the locales where life has taken him. His move to the Bay Area brought him into contact with a postindustrial urban. landscape, where he now observes the processes of decay at work in concrete and steel with the same keenness that he watched, back in Alaska, the powerful effects of weathering and erosion on his surroundings. Wherever he goes, he never leaves behind his love of nature and his delight in analyzing the intricate structures of organic forms.
Born in 1977, Cyrus has been making art for as long as he can remember. Cyrus was awarded a full tuition scholarship to the Art Institute of Seattle and graduated from there in 1998. In 1999 he took the position of Lead Sculptor at Scientific Art Studio in Richmond, California, working closely with the sculptor Ron Holthuysen, SAS’s founder and creative director. Cyrus is now Art Director at SAS.

Tim Doyle’s Unreal Estate

This is just a few pieces of the artwork created for the SpokeArt gallery show, Unreal Estate, opening in San Francisco on Feb 2nd, 2013. It features all new works by Tim Doyle. We love the subtle lighting in the clouds and colors of the sky, (above)...

Tim Doyle is an illustrator and print-maker working out of Austin, Texas.  Growing up in the suburban sprawl of the Dallas area, he turned inward and sullen, only finding  joy in comic-books and television and video games.

Link to Tim’s website

Patricia Thomas at Slate Contemporary

While visiting Oakland last week, we stopped into check out the current solo show Periodic Tables, of Patricia Thomas at Slate Contemporary. Her works on paper are somewhat abstracted pieces, many based on trefoil symbols. The radiation trefoil symbols had the most punch for us, although the symbol itself carries so much meaning it is hard to separate the impact of the image from the art itself. The pieces are beautifully rendered in charcoal and pastel transforming harsh images into soft and tactile with subtle edge.

Open for Art Murmur Friday, January 5th, 6–9pm

Exhibition walk-through with artist, Saturday January 12, 4:30pm

The international radiation symbol (also known as trefoil) first appeared in 1946, at the University of California, Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. At the time, it was rendered as magenta, and was set on a blue background. – Via Wikipedia

We really loved Patricia’s furry chandelier sculpture, hung in a corner. It is a darkly, elegant shape from afar; up close you see it is wrapped in black yarn and begs to be touched. The lightly gray shadows cast on the wall behind created an attractive decorative motif background. Both Patricia’s paper works and sculptures, seem to address the concept that something can be strong and dark, yet also soft and warm.

Crucible Opening at Mirus Gallery

Stopped into the opening of a new space in downtown SF, the Mirus Gallery, to see Crucible a show of collaborations, over the weekend. These works are extravagant large swirling abstract masses of geometric and organic shapes, full of movement and layers. The opening was packed, full of posers and girls in cocktail dresses – some being photographed in front of the works, even though the artists were all male. It was difficult to see the art due to the crowd and it seemed like most weren’t there to really look at the art anyway. A worthwhile and interesting exhibit to revisit without the crowd.

CRUCIBLE: COLLABORATIVE WORKS BY ARTISTS DAMON SOULE, DAVID CHOONG LEE, MARS-1, NOME EDONNA AND OLIVER VERNON

NOV 10TH 2012 TO DEC 1ST,  2012

Annual Day of the Dead Altar Show at SomArts

Lia Tealdi

Every year SomArts puts up a wonderful show of altar art installations for Dia de los Muertos. This year they really outdid themselves with a larger installation. Lots of great altars and some that lacked much creativity – but overall the good ones really cancel out the bad – the show is a must see. I would give yourself at least a full hour to absorb all the works. They even have a black light room with lots of day-glo art, a fun place to sit down and create some of your own. (Sugar skull images to color are provided).

Black light art altar room

CALLING ON THE SPIRITS TO FACE THE FUTURE

When: October 13–November 10, 2012

Where: 934 Brannan St. (between 8th & 9th)

How Much: Free admission

Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Friday, 12–7pm, Saturday 11am–5pm, Sunday, 11am–3pm

Betty Segal, Irene LaChance, Keiko Kubo, and Nikolas Sikelianos

Helen Bayly