VIA theAMIGOunit

Many great entries this week. You wanna know a secret? It takes two to tango, and I never learned how to dance... Dance? May I have your hand for this second in time? But why you ask?... I don't know but when we were on our way home last night we ran into your sister and instead of going home we stayed out drinking. So today we are slow. Slow in the brain and I'm looking forward to getting a beer which I may in fact do at around 5 or so. In the meantime, I'm going to Caffe Trieste for another cup of coffee. A small half caffeinated one would work best. I don't wanna get all shaky AND I don't wanna have disturbed sleep tonight. Need to be fresh on Monday. We're moving the gallery on Tuesday and the week is going to be a busy one... See what just happened? Now we've come 360 and are back to my point... We're moving the gallery. UP? Well, the elevation is in fact UP and next door neighbor will be Upper Playground and their initials and U.P. Oh how apt for you? --> I need to urinate as well.

I recently went to space gallery and Lopo galleries to check out the recent shows they just had. Some pretty good stuff to be seen there. lots of artwork on the walls. The show at space gallery is called Here Be Monsters.

the lopo gallery side. if you didnt know lopo gallery is in the same entrance as to space gallery upstairs. Pacolli and I will be participating in a group show along with Jason Vivona, and Justin Lavato and some other folks at Lopo gallery next month. Should be fun.

From Here Be Monsters!!!! @Space Gallery

From Passed Patterns @LoPo Gallery

Love the works from this LA based painter. Thanks to POV and Alexis Mackenzie for getting us some images to share.

West, Wester, Westest Part 2
Group show curated by Ryan Travis Christian
Opening Friday, March 11, 2011 (6-9pm)
@FFDG, 248 Fillmore St @Haight

"In the second iteration of West, Wester, Westest, I've once again chosen a selection of emerging and mid-career artists that A) don't regularly exhibit in SF, if at all. and B) create work that "throws a wrench" so to speak, into what FFDG regularly shows. As a long time fan of Fecal Face, I'm honored to have such an immense platform to expose these artist to the world on. In terms of style and/or concept, these artists produce works that are very forward thinking and often experimental, throughout various mediums. The works exhibited, will run the gamut of content, from grossly disturbing to humorous, to bold and beautiful abstraction and then back again. Please join us @ FFDG's new location in the Lower-Haight (248 Fillmore @Haight) on March 11th for the opening reception of West, Wester, Westest Part 2, I will be in attendance." -Ryan Travis Christian

Artists: Carl Baratta, Timothy Bergstrom, Samantha Bittman, Ted Gahl, Rogelio Gamez, David Leggett, Shona Macdonald, Rachel Niffenegger, Paul Nudd, Marcie Oakes, Melissa Oresky, Tyson Reeder, Kate Ruggeri, Deb Sokolow, and Scott Wolniak.

Work by Shona Macdonald

Work by Ted Gahl

Work by Melissa Oresky

We've been fan of Vancouver based Niall McClelland for years now. He was in our 7.5 anniversary show in 2007. We're pleased to see his showing currently in San Francisco... Opening night pics: Francesca Pastine

Work by Niall McClelland

Guess we should be on the look out for weee people who are very protective of what's ever behind their doors.

I just installed the first of about 20 doors created by artists from around the country and sent to me for installation around San Francisco. This first one was the first that I designed and made. Below is the proposition that was sent out as a call for the work.

"The idea is to install small doors, unexplained portals, throughout the city. To start, in San Francisco. These doors would be scaled down to a size that is cognitively possible but whimsically improbable. Maybe 15-25 inches or so. Pet door sized. I don’t imagine them to be operable, but the more detailed in appearance the better.

February 4 - March 19, 2011

MH: I'm a huge fan of Northern Renaissance interiors... that moment when painters (and paint) got really good and a little secularized, an artists turned their eyes to world around them. And then, reaching forward in time and backward in sentiment, I've been returning to the work of the Pre-Rapahelites over and over, since I was a child. Their sense of color and omnivorous observation of the natural word led to some really hallucinatory looking work sometimes, and they also marked a period when craft, idiosyncratic handmade functional objects, was being considered and celebrated. I spend a lot of time looking at interior design and home-improvement books and blogs, sometimes gleefully but often with a lot of eye-rolling, too. And Minimalism is something I think about quite a lot, both as an ideal, and as something to be fought with and complicated.

MH: There was a clear moment when I was an undergraduate when I realized how much the preparatory drawings for sculptures mattered to my work, the diagrams and blueprints, as it were. More recently blueprints and plans have come to be a real part of the content of my work, too, not just a drawing style. My work is concerned with the way we build things, especially the way amateur builders build, and so I spend a lot of time thinking about the color palettes of lumber yards (all those 2x4s stained red or blue at the end!) and hardware stores (safety colors, neon colors, the nice periwinkle of the chalk used to snap level lines, grays, purples and greens of different grades of drywall). It's exciting to approach those tools and materials with an eye to pleasure as well as practicality.