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Written by Alex Mackenzie
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Friday, 30 January 2009, 5:07am
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 Cultural institutions are beginning the sell off entire collections to stay a float comparable to destroying wildlife refuges for the sake of the resources they hold; permanent damage for the sake of temporary benefits.
 Adam McEwen's "Untitled (Dead)", part of the "Saints and Sinners" exhibit currently at the Rose. In the past few months, I've noticed increasing articles about various institutions (museums and universities) selling valuable works art from their collections in order to keep their heads above water. It's a terrible trend for many reasons; most of all, I think, because of the shortsightedness of this as a solution to immediate financial difficulties.
It's often said that buying art is an investment, because the value of art appreciates over time; I don't think this should ever be taken in a purely monetary sense, but that seems to be what's happening.
The Los Angeles Museum is one such place that nearly tanked recently, but received a rescue in the form of a large donation - a bailout, if you will - from Eli Broad. Another is the National Academy, which recently sold two Hudson River School paintings to stay afloat. The latest, and most significant, of these sell-offs is the Rose Art Museum, which has decided to close its doors - selling their entire collection - mainly due to loss of supporting funds from donors who were affected by the Madoff fallout.
This is a huge deal - this isn't just selling off a few assets, this is an important contemporary museum about to close its doors permanently.
It seems interesting to me that the Madoff debacle - which felt very far removed from mine or other artists I know immediate circles of concern - is having a direct impact on things like the survival of cultural institutions which are important for everyone, not just now, but for years to come. It demonstrates how narrow the margin of survival is - and how crucial what support that is received is - for the arts.
Aside from the loss of artworks themselves, the decision to sell the art seems to cause only more troubles for the places trying to stay afloat - there is a huge community backlash, and the people making the decisions to sell don't seem to be the ones who appreciate the true value of what they're selling; the museum directors, those who are in charge of caring for these collections, are not consulted in the decisions, nor are those who donated works (84% of the Rose's collection consists of donations), nor those of us who actually come to see the art, and rely on these kinds of institutions to curate, care for, and make the arts available to the public. If we can't trust museums to safeguard our creative heritage, who can we trust?
This sort of art culling or liquidation is much frowned upon in the art world. The Association of Art Museum Directors in particular frowns upon the selling of art from collections; they came down heavily on the National Academy for the Hudson River School painting sales mentioned above, essentially blacklisting them from involvement with other organizations - while they were rightly motivated, this sort of behavior only adds more nails to the coffin.
It seems comparable to destroying wildlife refuges for the sake of the resources they hold; permanent damage for the sake of temporary benefits. The arts are always the first thing to be cut from educational budgets in tight times; it's ironic that in these instances, the seemingly expendable arts are serving as the life vest. I'm sure that in theory, the bank bailouts are supposed to create the liquidity and funds everyone needs to stay afloat, but who's seeing it? Where are the bailouts for our banks of culture?
There's a lot of political emphasis right now on investing in the future economically and environmentally, and the arts should be part of this. Allowing important collections like the Rose fall apart for the sake of covering their immediate bills is only a stopgap, and takes away something more valuable than dollars. One idea that's been gathering a lot of steam lately, having a Cabinet-level Secretary of Culture, could be a significant start to changing this sort of thinking, and helping to prevent this kind of future loss. We need to preserve our creative heritage as well as our environmental and financial security.
Written by San Francisco based artist Alexis Mackenzie.
View her great work here: alexisanne.com
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Related articles:
About Obama arts support / potential Secretary of Culture:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/arts/26nea.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/13/AR2009011303264.html
About the Rose:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/arts/design/28rose.html
http://www.boston.com/news/museum_backers_seek_halt_to_selloff/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/gallery/0128_roseartmuseum/
About the National Academy and artworld backlash to these kinds of sales:
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/29702/aamd-censures-national-academy-museum/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/arts/design/28fink.html
{moscomment}
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| Dave Kinsey @FFDG
Last Friday we were pleased to open up Dave Kinsey's first solo show in San Francisco since before 2000 when Dave was doing a lot of work in streets with his then work partner Shepard Fairey. A lot of the smaller works are homage to that era, i.e., the titles are San Francisco street names. Love his new direction.
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| STREETOPIA @The Luggage Store
After our Dave Kinsey opening last Friday, we made our way down Market Street for Luggage Store's opening of STREETOPIA. Ran into a lot of friends and was amazed at how transformed the gallery was. Multiple rooms built out to include a Free Cafe, a theater, a gallery/studio, and a library. Streetopia will host free performances, teachings, and talks in the city every day for the show's month-long run and, thus, will provide a temporary space that offers opportunities for participation, agency, critical thinking, learning, sharing of ideas, and tools for community building that will reverberate in the real city after the city we build in the gallery is long gone.
 |
|
| Matt Moore in Paris
From Matt Moore: A new series of (entirely spraypaint) canvas painting created during a 1-month residency in Paris. A true evolution from the purely geometric abstractions I have explored in my past few exhibitions : Sun Ray Ricochet (Moscow 2011) + XYZ Axis (Cincinnati 2011) + Crystals & Lasers (Paris 2010) + Parallel Universe (Sao Paulo 2009) + 20/20 (Barcelona 2008). An exciting new chapter.
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| Barry McGee at Prism LA
Doug Neill emailed over a few photos from Barry McGee's opening last Friday at Prism in Los Angeles.
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| Further Collective Flagstaff Mural
The Further Collective: Mario Martinez (Mars-1), Damon Soule & Oliver Vernon were in Flagstaff last week collaborating on an outdoor mural at The Flagstaff Brewing Company located in the historical district of downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
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| INTERVIEW with Tristan Patterson
Director of the documentary film DRAGONSLAYER --> DRAGONSLAYER is a documentary about the skateboarder Josh "Skreech" Sandoval. He's a character and the film follows his many ups and downs dealing with young parenthood, competing, and relationships. However, rather then try and make some type of statement about him, it just presents him objectively in the way that he is through wonderful cinematography.
 |
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| 2 New Zines by Pacolli & Mildred
Got two new zines from Mildred and Pacolli for us to share with you. Pacolli's The Last Chance Kids is published through Volcom's Artist Series and is 40 pages and sells for only $7 printed on thick quality heavy stock.
 |
|
| Logan Crable's Blow Jobs
Logan Crable emailed us the other day with an offer to view his Blow Job series. Normally we don't get offers to view someone's porn project, but we quickly learned that the blowing is more in the literal sense as opposed to the pleasuring form.
 |
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| Michelle Ramin & SFAI Grad Show
Thanks to Michelle Ramin for emailing us some her recent paintings. Michelle will be displaying her work as part of SFAI's MFA graduate show running this weekend and opening Friday, May 11th at the Pheonix Hotel here in San Francisco.
 |
|
| Interview with Jeff Depner
Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of 'improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.
 |
|
| If Bill Murray was a Triple Bacon Cheeseburger
Bay Area artist Cahill Wessel emailed over a couple gems- food/human hybrids with wonderful titles. Made our morning.
 |
|
| Michael Miller @Fifty24SF
On the way home from Fecal Face a couple Fridays back we swung through Fifty24SF to catch the two day show with the LA based hip-hop photographer Michael Miller in celebration of his new book. West coast hip-hop iconic early 1990's hip-hop photographs, including numerous photos of 2pac, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Warren G... the bonus: Eazy-E touting a skateboard and a gun?!
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| Marissa Textor - Mini Interview
Marissa Textor and Ryan Travis Christian are currently showing together at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Gerald interviews the LA based Marissa Textor. Check out her detailed graphite drawings.
 |
|
| Richmond Virginia Street Art Festival 2012
A couple weeks back Jeff Soto flew out to Richmond, VA for their street art festival to do some mural action. Artists included the likes of Hense, Richard Colman, Dalek, Hamilton Glass, and many more.
 |
|
| Dave Kinsey @FFDG, May 18th
Mark your calendar: Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words @FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm).
New mixed media paintings and installation. This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years and his first on the West Coast since 2007... We're very excited. Below is a lil' taste of what's to come.
 |
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| ROA at Stolen Space, London
Massive show from this prolific Belgium based sreet artist.
 |
|
| Hamishi in Melbourne
Hamishi emailed over some photos from his current show Nothing Special running at Melbourne's Paradise Hills through this Saturday, May 5th. If you're in Melbourne, view it in person as we're sure it looks even better in person.
Hamishi participated in last November's group show 11.11.11 @FFDG back in November with Mario Martinez showing a solo show... Man, that's was a nutty opening before the cops showed up.
 |
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| Opening Pics @FFDG for C.P.H.
Alex Uhrich & Gerald Anekwe got some photos from the recent group show at FFDG, Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing.
 |
|
| Spoke Art Thursday
Spoke Art here in SF opens the group show Synergy curated by LA's Thinkspace this Thursday, May 3rd (6-10pm) featuring works by a slew of artists that Thinkspace works with. Spoke Art sent us a taste for you to sample.
 |
|
| Ludo's Palynology
Ludo who we've featured many times emailed over a recent piece from Katowice in Poland called "Palynology".
 |
|
| Murals by Flavio Samelo (Brazil)
We had the pleasure of meeting Flavio Samelo when we were in Sao Paulo last summer (blog). He's a skateboarder/ photographer and talented artist. Here are some photos from some of his recent mural done in Rio de Janeiro, also in his words.
 |
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New Fish Print
Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 10:12am
Our buddy Jeremy Fish has a brand new print The Golden Hills out through Upper Playground. The print is made in an edition of 100, signed and numbered by the artist, and printed at the fantastic Bloom Press in Oakland, California. 18" x 24" $100
This drawing was inspired by that looming feeling that San Francisco is an isolated island from the rest of the country. As SF becomes more and more expensive, and the lower income creative folks that make this city pulse get squeezed off the island, "the city that knows how" will slowly transform into a sterile west coast Manhattan full of tech chads and internet gurus. —Jeremy Fish
To All The Graduates
Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 11:23am
Congrats to some of our friends who've just graduated from SFAI this past weekend. Henry Gunderson (below), Alex Ziv, Quinn Arneson and our intern Alex Uhrich among many more not only at SFAI but those at CCA and other schools across the country. May you all work hard and prosper in your future arting endeavors.
Henry Gunderson all grown up, college graduated and bow-tied.
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Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 11:56am
Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist
Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 1:40pm
Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist, Round 2: When Jacobs Turns Vandalized Store Into $680 Shirt <-- Earlier this week, on the night of the Met Ball, the Marc Jacobs boutique in SoHo was hit by French graffiti artist Kidult, who has famously vandalized Supreme, Hermes, and Louis Vuitton, among others. The hit? Kidult took a fire extinguisher filled with pink paint, and sprayed the word ART over the front of the store (seen below). ~continue reading
Dave Kinsey @FFDG 5/18
Wednesday, 09 May 2012, 1:00pm
Thanks to Arrested Motion who posted some info on Dave Kinsey's solo show Lost For Words which opens at FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm). This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years. RSVP.
Founder of BLK/MRKT w/ Shepard Fairey in '97 (becoming sole owner in '03), lengedary street artist with his Unlearn campaign, and highly accomplished painter, it's with great honor that we welcome him back to San Francisco. New paintings, mixed media and installation, it should be one of our best shows to date and a lot of fun. -Complete Show Details
Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words at FFDG on Fri, May 18th.
Asian Art Museum Tonight, Thurs
Thursday, 17 May 2012, 10:51am
The Asian Art Museum opens their grand first contemporary show PHANTOMS OF ASIA with a massive preview party this evening with DJs, food, and other goodies 7:30pm - midnight ~details
We went to the press preview yesterday and should have some photos to share, but time constraints due to preparations for our show w/ Dave Kinsey opening Friday and the lack of a mayor Ed Lee which all were waiting for... Well, we had to bail before they let us preview the show... What we've seen online looks great and tonight should be a blast. See you there.
Some of the artists participating in PHANTOMS OF ASIA under Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa's 24-foot-tall "Breathing Flower" in the Civic Center.
Phantoms of Asia Opening Thurs, 17th
Friday, 11 May 2012, 1:29pm
The Asian Art Museum here in San Francisco opens its first large-scale contemporary art exhibition Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past with a big old preview party on Thursday, May 17th complete w/ DJs VIN SOL and KING MOST. ~details
Curated by Mami Kataoka, chief curator of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, in collaboration with Allison Harding, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Asian Art Museum, Phantoms of Asia features artworks by contemporary artists hailing from Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Tibet, and the U.S. Going to be a great show.
Installation by Choi Jeong Hwa
The Slingluff Gallery
Thursday, 10 May 2012, 10:06am
Thanks to the Slingluff Gallery in Phildelphia for helping to support Fecal Face by buying a lil' ad which you can view by scrolling down here in the news section. Those lil' guys will only set you back $50 for the month as our special rates continue for the month of May. Get yours.
Print by Ralph Stollenwerk from the LOST TREASURES collection. $21
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+SF
| :: Sketch Tuesdays @ 111 Minna Gallery - Tue | | :: Susan Freinkel - Eternal Plastic: A Tox.. - Tue | | :: Visioning the Invisible in Augmented Re.. - Wed | | :: "So you think you can Paint?" - Thu | | :: RAW SF: The Blend with B.LEWIS, THE SPI.. - Thu | | :: Nothing Is Ever Finished - Thu | | :: 'Yi, dos, drei, four' - Fri | | :: SFFS Presents: 'Once Upon a Time in Ana.. - Fri | | :: Friday Nights at SF Decorator Showcase .. - Fri | | :: "Graphical Inspirations" Art Opening - Fri | | :: Opening Reception for 'Yi, dos, drei, f.. - Fri | | :: “Between the Lines” a solo exhibition b.. - Fri | | :: “YI, DOS, DREI, FOUR” - Fri | | :: “YI, DOS, DREI, FOUR” - Fri |
+NYC
+LA
FULL CALENDARS: BAY AREA | NYC | LA
| 
-as of 10am
| Dave Kinsey @FFDG
Last Friday we were pleased to open up Dave Kinsey's first solo show in San Francisco since before 2000 when Dave was doing a lot of work in streets with his then work partner Shepard Fairey. A lot of the smaller works are homage to that era, i.e., the titles are San Francisco street names. Love his new direction.
|
|
| STREETOPIA @The Luggage Store
After our Dave Kinsey opening last Friday, we made our way down Market Street for Luggage Store's opening of STREETOPIA. Ran into a lot of friends and was amazed at how transformed the gallery was. Multiple rooms built out to include a Free Cafe, a theater, a gallery/studio, and a library. Streetopia will host free performances, teachings, and talks in the city every day for the show's month-long run and, thus, will provide a temporary space that offers opportunities for participation, agency, critical thinking, learning, sharing of ideas, and tools for community building that will reverberate in the real city after the city we build in the gallery is long gone.
|
|
| Matt Moore in Paris
From Matt Moore: A new series of (entirely spraypaint) canvas painting created during a 1-month residency in Paris. A true evolution from the purely geometric abstractions I have explored in my past few exhibitions : Sun Ray Ricochet (Moscow 2011) + XYZ Axis (Cincinnati 2011) + Crystals & Lasers (Paris 2010) + Parallel Universe (Sao Paulo 2009) + 20/20 (Barcelona 2008). An exciting new chapter.
|
|
| Barry McGee at Prism LA
Doug Neill emailed over a few photos from Barry McGee's opening last Friday at Prism in Los Angeles.
|
|
| Further Collective Flagstaff Mural
The Further Collective: Mario Martinez (Mars-1), Damon Soule & Oliver Vernon were in Flagstaff last week collaborating on an outdoor mural at The Flagstaff Brewing Company located in the historical district of downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
|
|
| INTERVIEW with Tristan Patterson
Director of the documentary film DRAGONSLAYER --> DRAGONSLAYER is a documentary about the skateboarder Josh "Skreech" Sandoval. He's a character and the film follows his many ups and downs dealing with young parenthood, competing, and relationships. However, rather then try and make some type of statement about him, it just presents him objectively in the way that he is through wonderful cinematography.
|
|
| 2 New Zines by Pacolli & Mildred
Got two new zines from Mildred and Pacolli for us to share with you. Pacolli's The Last Chance Kids is published through Volcom's Artist Series and is 40 pages and sells for only $7 printed on thick quality heavy stock.
|
|
| Logan Crable's Blow Jobs
Logan Crable emailed us the other day with an offer to view his Blow Job series. Normally we don't get offers to view someone's porn project, but we quickly learned that the blowing is more in the literal sense as opposed to the pleasuring form.
|
|
| Michelle Ramin & SFAI Grad Show
Thanks to Michelle Ramin for emailing us some her recent paintings. Michelle will be displaying her work as part of SFAI's MFA graduate show running this weekend and opening Friday, May 11th at the Pheonix Hotel here in San Francisco.
|
|
| Interview with Jeff Depner
Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of 'improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.
|
|
| If Bill Murray was a Triple Bacon Cheeseburger
Bay Area artist Cahill Wessel emailed over a couple gems- food/human hybrids with wonderful titles. Made our morning.
|
|
| Michael Miller @Fifty24SF
On the way home from Fecal Face a couple Fridays back we swung through Fifty24SF to catch the two day show with the LA based hip-hop photographer Michael Miller in celebration of his new book. West coast hip-hop iconic early 1990's hip-hop photographs, including numerous photos of 2pac, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Warren G... the bonus: Eazy-E touting a skateboard and a gun?!
|
|
| Marissa Textor - Mini Interview
Marissa Textor and Ryan Travis Christian are currently showing together at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Gerald interviews the LA based Marissa Textor. Check out her detailed graphite drawings.
|
|
| Richmond Virginia Street Art Festival 2012
A couple weeks back Jeff Soto flew out to Richmond, VA for their street art festival to do some mural action. Artists included the likes of Hense, Richard Colman, Dalek, Hamilton Glass, and many more.
|
|
| Dave Kinsey @FFDG, May 18th
Mark your calendar: Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words @FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm).
New mixed media paintings and installation. This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years and his first on the West Coast since 2007... We're very excited. Below is a lil' taste of what's to come.
|
|
| ROA at Stolen Space, London
Massive show from this prolific Belgium based sreet artist.
|
|
| Hamishi in Melbourne
Hamishi emailed over some photos from his current show Nothing Special running at Melbourne's Paradise Hills through this Saturday, May 5th. If you're in Melbourne, view it in person as we're sure it looks even better in person.
Hamishi participated in last November's group show 11.11.11 @FFDG back in November with Mario Martinez showing a solo show... Man, that's was a nutty opening before the cops showed up.
|
|
| Opening Pics @FFDG for C.P.H.
Alex Uhrich & Gerald Anekwe got some photos from the recent group show at FFDG, Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing.
|
|
| Spoke Art Thursday
Spoke Art here in SF opens the group show Synergy curated by LA's Thinkspace this Thursday, May 3rd (6-10pm) featuring works by a slew of artists that Thinkspace works with. Spoke Art sent us a taste for you to sample.
|
|
| Ludo's Palynology
Ludo who we've featured many times emailed over a recent piece from Katowice in Poland called "Palynology".
|
|
| Murals by Flavio Samelo (Brazil)
We had the pleasure of meeting Flavio Samelo when we were in Sao Paulo last summer (blog). He's a skateboarder/ photographer and talented artist. Here are some photos from some of his recent mural done in Rio de Janeiro, also in his words.
|
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