17 November: Tavares Strachan @ the Luggage Store gallery
LAST MINUTE NOTE For those of you who happen to (not) be reading, Strachan will be speaking *tonight,* 7 p.m., @ CCA’s Timkin Auditorium. Be there.
“Where We Are Is Always Miles Away” marks Strachan’s SF debut following recent shows at Pierogi 2000 and Jack Tilton. Fresh out of Yale, Strachan has excavated 20 square feet of New Haven’s Crown Street and installed them inside a hermetically sealed and climate controlled container within the gallery. Trust in me: watch this man.
Image courtesy Pierogi 2000.
UPDATE (26 November): I’ll be reviewing this show in the upcoming issue of Artpapers.
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14 November: MA Class of 2007 Advancement to Candidacy Review, Department of Visual Criticism, CCA
Passed. Resumed life accordingly.
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2 November: Weston Teruya @ Patricia Sweetow Gallery, 49 Geary building, SF (until December 16th)
Collapsed System Aftereffects (’til we get there) forms the latest series of speculations in Teruya’s ongoing fictional narrative. Mad skills. Highly recommended.
From What Remains (past the sky)(2006)
spraypaint, gouache, ink, cut paper collage and color pencil on paper
57 1/2” x 36“ Image courtesy the artist.
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2 November: Brazilian Girls @ the Warfield:
A fine, fine show from a hot, hot band that remains so irresistibly difficult to categorize. Leading lady Sabina on the group’s latest, Talk to la Bomb:
“The future of this planet as we know it, the human and animal kingdom, and the plants, depends solely on this record. You’re welcome.”
No, thank you.
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27 October: Harrell Fletcher @ CCA (where else?):
Not sure if I’m learning to love him more or not, actually.
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20 October: Beirut @ the Great American Music Hall:
Dashed hopes, mixed reviews. Front man Zach Condon likes his whiskey, and while the boy managed to sing well enough, his stage game was akin to the sort of fumbly, freshman-type grope sessions so often spawned by the Wild Turkey. I’m placing my bets on the fantastic, spaz-tastic violinist who held the show together, along with the rest of the band, some of whom I suspect were coaxed away from their regular Klezmer gigs in Crown Heights. Zach, don’t do that Cat Power thing, OK? The ghost of Al Green won’t save your ass, either.
UPDATE: Condon has been hospitalized for exhaustion and the rest of the band’s tour has been cancelled.
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10 October: Michael Kimmelman @ CCA Timken Hall
Critic-cum-cowboy Kimmelman read from his latest book The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa while waxing nostalgic for Michael Heizer and his collection of firearms. Talked around a student’s question for a full five minutes before throwing in the towel and admitting that art historians do better art writing than critics.
Kathleen Gilje with her painting of Kimmelmann at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, Apr. 4, 2006
Image courtesy Artnet.
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8 October: Willie Nelson in Napa
Willie Nelson, at some winery (read: amnesty zone) in Napa. Strange combination of die-hard country fans and drunken vineyard rats in golf wear and white linen. Weird. Awesome.
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29 September: Tartufi @ the Independent
New band, revamped sound. Love that feedback, love it.
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19 September: Kaja Silverman @ CCA Timken Hall
A nice, rigorous morning spent with James Coleman, Jeff Wall, and World Spectators.
On Coleman: Performativity of images; slide projections lie between cinema and still photography. History constantly rewritten; cannot be captured through photography as such.
On Wall: “Total visibility.” Exposure of war, violence, and dirty secrets; making the invisible, visible. Terror of visibility: surveillance.
On World Spectators: Art allows a perceptual event to happen through spectatorship: “I show the world as I saw it.” World as a provisional partner; art is realistic to the degree to which it can put us back in touch with the world.
