The Closing of ARTWorkSF in San Francisco

The Shadow has received several inquiries -- some from as far away as the East Coast -- inquiring why ARTWorkSF shows were missing from this blog in the past month.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that The Shadow had to take some time off to deal with personal matters and did not attend any art openings during the month of May.

The second is a bit more tragic. The ARTWorkSF Gallery at 49 Geary Street closed it doors on June 1, 2008. Johnny Davis, founder and president of ARTWorkSF, has decided to retire to concentrate on personal matters.

The Shadow with ARTWorkSF Founder and Director Johnny Davis

in December 2007

The Shadow was indeed sorry to hear this.  ARTWorkSF has been a friend of this blog since its inception in July 2005 and The Shadow has covered many events for ARTWorkSF during that period.  The Shadow has not spoken personally with Johnny Davis, but we wish him well in his retirement.

In the meantime, Matt MaKinley, former Chief Curator at ARTWorkSF will continue to work at many of the ARTWorkSF venues through his venture McKinley Art Solutions.  Matt is a good guy and knows the San Francisco Bay Area art scene well.  He is also a fantastic curator.  We have no doubt that we will continue to see the high quality of artwork that ARTWorkSF was proud to show in their gallery.

In the meantime, The Shadow will continue its gallery collaboration with Varnish Fine Art Gallery in the SOMA district of San Francisco and its organizational collaboration with ArtSpan in San Francisco.

It is our pledge to bring you the best in artwork in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond and the collaborations with McKinley Art Solutions, Varnish Fine Art Gallery and ArtSpan will allow us to do that.

The Shadow Takes A Fresh Look at Ice Cream Art

The Shadow briefly left the Deborah Tash studio opening to visit another artist and friend -- Kellyann Gilson Lyman -- who has a new solo show entitled "Ice Cream Art -- A Fresh Look".

Artist Kellyann Gilson Lyman discusses one of her pieces at the reception

Kellyann brought out a lot of new work from a new series entitled "Ice Cream Art".  In this series, Kellyann continues to explore abstract coloring with several pieces very pleasing to the eye.

  

  

Some of Kellyann's work on display at the exhibit

The exhibit was curated by Kellyann, who did a wonderful job in putting the exhibit together.  Matt McKinley of McKinley Art Solutions, another good friend of The Shadow, was on hand to give his perspective on Kellyann's work.  (The Shadow will have more on Matt in another entry.)

 Matt McKinley does a talk on Kellyann's work

Providing music at this venue was a wonderful blues/latin/jazz band called Girls Talk Band.  This trio of women were wonderful to listen to and provided quite an ambiance to the afternoon.

Members of Girls Talk Band perform.  Members are (l-r)

Laura Boytz, cello; Valerie Bach, guitar and vocals; Leslie Thorne, double bass

Visitors to the reception received the usual opening food and wine fare, but also received a special treat -- gelato from La Copa Loca.

Top:  People line up for gelato from La Copa Loca

Bottom:  Passion Fruit gelato for The Shadow to enjoy

You can view Kellyann's work at The Sports Basement, Gallery Del Grotto, 1590 Bryant Street, in San Francisco.  The Gallery is located in the basement of the store.  You can view the exhibit during normal business hours.

Kellyann's exhibit will be showing through July 28, 2008.

  

 

Top:  Scenes from the reception

Bottom:  Matt McKinley and artist Kellyann Gilson Lyman at the reception

More information for Girls Talk Band is available here.  More information for La Copa Loca is available here.

More pictures from the reception are available here.

The Shadow Visits with Deborah Tash

Last weekend, artist Deborah Tash invited The Shadow to the opening of her new studio in the Potrero Hill area of San Francisco.

Opening to Deborah's New Studio

As you may recall earlier in this blog, Deborah was forced to abandon her old studio last May.  With the help of many good friends -- who were also present at the opening -- and Deborah's vision for a new space, she now has a studio space that most artists would envy!

Scenes from Deborah's new studio

Everyone in attendance would pretty much agree that Deborah's new studio has a warmth and energy that would allow her to continue creating the wonderful art that she is known for.

  

Two new works from Deobrah's "Cunt Egg" series

Deborah is indeed a very happy artist right now.  She will continue creating and preparing the studio for Open Studios in October.  The Shadow will visit her again to see what she is up to.  In the meantime, if you wish to contact Deborah, a link to her website is listed on the left.

Top:  A cake in celebration of new beginnings for Deborah

Bottom:  Artist Deborah Tash (in white) with friends in her studio

More pictures from the opening are available here.

A Comedy Legend Is Gone

As you may have heard by now, a legendary comedy icon has died. George Carlin, without a doubt the most edgy and controversial comic to live, died Sunday of heart failure at the age of 71.

George Carlin (1937-2008)
(picture courtesy People.com)

Say what you want about Carlin's humor -- this man was brilliant when it came to edgy comedy. His best known routine, "The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" was so controversial, that it prompted a lawsuit after a New York radio station aired it in 1973. Carlin was also arrested several times for performing the monologue live.

The lawsuit was eventually heard by the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled 5-4 that the monologue was "indecent but not obscene." It was soon after the Court made its opinion that the Federal Communications Commission determined that such language should only be heard in late night -- a policy that still stands today.

Carlin paved the way for many comics today. Tributes are pouring in from comics throughout the world. As The Shadow mentioned -- say what you want about his comedy -- George Carlin was the master.

For those of you who may have never heard it, below is the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" monologue. The Shadow will warn you that the material in this video is very explicit and is not suitable for minors. Use your judgment.



So long George -- we will miss you!

The Miley Cyrus Photo

The Shadow monitors who comes to this blog. There is a counter attached to this blog that tells us which country, city, or IP Address (only 3 of the 4 numbers are given to us) that a person comes in from. This counter also tells us what search terms were used (if any) to come to the blog.

In recent weeks there has been a lot of activity connected with the semi-nude photo of Miley Cyrus from Vanity Fair. That photo is distracting too much from the purpose of why this blog was formed -- to examine art, culture and entertainment. The Shadow has removed the picture because of this.

For those of you who come to this blog to see the art scene in San Francisco -- this blog will be here for you.

June 22, 2008: Enjoy Art -- Eat Ice Cream -- Hear Music

Just a reminder from The Shadow's good friend, Kellyann Gilson-Lyman this coming Sunday!

Click on the picture for a larger view

For those of you who read San Francisco Magazine, you can find a small blurb here.

The Shadow will see you there!

The Shadow Travels to the East Bay for Open Studios

The Shadow, at the invitation of his good friend, artist Jaime Erfurdt, traveled to Oakland to view her open studios at Vulcan Studios.

Artist Jaime Erfurdt at her studio space

Jaime's work encompasses digital photography, sketches, and paintings using paint with a very unique ingredient (we will let her tell you what it is).

Top: Jaime with one of her "Map Women" sketches
Bottom: Jaime with her good friend Anne at the Studio

Jaime shares the space at Vulcan Studios with fellow artists Liz Berg and Donna Fenstermaker.

Top: Artist Liz Berg (seated) with a patron with her works in the background
Bottom: A painting from artist Donna Fenstermaker

The Shadow would like to thank Jaime for inviting us to her studio (and the great time we had with friends afterwards) and to Liz and Donna for sharing their work with us.

However, we learned during the course of the afternoon that the Open Studio at Vulcan Studios was part of a region-wide Open Studios event organized by Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland. The Shadow will comment more on Pro Arts in a moment.

On Sunday, The Shadow went to Berkeley with two new companions, Anne and Arthur, to try to take in some of the work in the East Bay Open Studios.

The Shadow met and view the work of several artists including:

• Galerie Dumas
• Zohra Kalinkowitz
• Hadley Williams
• Carol Aust
• Donna Duguay
• Lisa Simonson
• Mirto Golino
• Deborah Stenberg-Service
• Julie Goodson-Lawes

Some of the works The Shadow viewed on Sunday

This Open Studio was not as well attended as it should have been, partially because it was Father's Day, but mostly because of the marketing efforts of Pro Arts.

Top: A work by artist Hadley Williams
Bottom: Artist Donna Duguay with The Shadow and some of her works

It is not The Shadow's place to tell an art organization how they should do their business. But collaboratives like this come together to help artists sell their works. There was scant advertising for this event done in the East Bay and no advertising -- that The Shadow is aware of -- in San Francisco or the Peninsula. The Shadow would recommend expanding your focus in the future to include people west of San Francisco Bay. To put it simply -- The Shadow would love to cover this event and see more artists, but if we do not know about the event, we cannot do that.

If anyone from Pro Arts would like to dispute us on this, you can email The Shadow directly here.

More pictures from the weekend are available here.

The Shadow Views 30 Under Thirty

The Shadow has returned from blog vacation and we are back to report the world of art in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It is First Thursday in San Francisco. Tonight, The Shadow went to Varnish Fine Art Gallery for a reception for a new show from ArtSpan entitled "30 Under Thirty".

Participating artists in this show are:

• Rita Alves
• Ian Amberson
• Seth Armstrong
• Peter Belkin
• Nancy Chan
• Deanna Charles
• Ariel Clute
• Lauren Cohen
• Demon Cutler
• Joseph Findeiss
• Julia Goodman
• Joshua Hagler
• Queena Hernandez
• Josh Hershman
• Jessica Laurent
• Carol Anne McChrystal
• Matt Momchilov
• Argisti Musakhanyan
• Kara Nelson
• Ian Norstad
• Kate Nichols
• Ernesto Ortiz
• Leah Rosenberg
• Theo Rigby
• Noah Sakamoto
• Sam Snowden
• Estee Stevens
• Hilary Williams
• Gavin Worth
• Judy Wu

Participating artists at the reception include (top to bottom):
Gavin Worth
Jessica Laurent
Judy Wu
Kara Nelson
Noah Sakamoto
Queena Hernandez

All of the artists in this show are, yes under 30. They are also affiliated with either the California College of the Arts of ArtSpan.

Some of the works on display at the exhibit

The jurors for this exhibition were Kerri Stephens and Jennifer Rogers of Varnish Fine Art and Justin Giarla of Shooting Gallery.

More works from the reception

This collaboration celebrates the Y Generation of entrepreneurial artists, honoring them for their talent, drive, and bravery in a world where it is progressively getting harder to gain ground.

Scenes from the reception

This exhibit will continue through June 28, 2008 at Varnish Fine Art Gallery, 77 Natoma Street, in downtown San Francisco. More information on the exhibit, including viewing hours, is available on Varnish's website. The Shadow needs to note here that because Varnish has a permanent Wine Bar on the premises, no one under 21 will be admitted to the gallery.

ArtSpan Executive Director Therese Martin with The Shadow at the reception

More pictures from the reception are available here.