White Walls Gallery Presents Dan Witz: “What the %$#@? (WTF)”

Dan Witz’s integrity in expressing beauty through subversion and an enduring interest in realism has sustained the artist a copious 30-year career. Known for his hyper-realistic paintings, Witz challenges himself to keep representational painting relevant in the postmodern era and digital age.  This challenge commands that the artist must continually grow and experiment in his art practice which has contributed to him being cited as one of the most progressive and influential painters of our time.

White Walls Gallery is pleased to announce the debut solo show by Dan Witz entitled “What The %$#@? (WTF)”. The opening reception will be held on January 8, 2011 from 7-11pm. Witz is known for using  his mastery of the visual deception of trompe-l’oeil and photorealistic painting techniques to create conceptual visual pranks, producing a definitive and unparalleled street art practice.

The “What The %$#@? (WTF)” series is named for the universal reactions it often inspires within the viewer.  For this street art project, Witz is installing his Dark Doings pieces on walls beside highway ramps and interchanges–bottleneck locations where traffic backs up and a captive audience develops as cars pass by at low speeds. Dark Doings is made up of digital photo prints with extensive over-painting mounted on plastic and then framed.  For each piece that Witz will be showing within the gallery, a corresponding piece will be put up somewhere in the Bay Area.  The artworks come in an edition of 6:3 for the street and 3 for other distribution.  The street versions are unsigned, but marked with NFFS*.  The asterisk indicates (on the back of the piece) *NOT FOR FUCKING SALE.

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Food in Plastic: Paintings by Victoria Mimiaga

Meat in Plastic

Through the traditional style of still life painting, Victoria Mimiaga explores the abundant and sometimes superfluous use of plastic packaging in the food industry. On December 30th, the SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery at Caffe Museo will host an exhibition Mimiaga’s work entitled “Food in Plastic”. In this body of work, Mimiaga captures the ephemeral nature of reflectivity while portraying the humor in the perfunctory uselessness of plastic receptacles. Cucumbers are Individually shrink-wrapped, sliced apples are packaged twice in plastic, a molded plastic half shell is manufactured for half a Bundt cake. These containers inevitably call into question the banal acceptance, redundancy and environmental implications of the overuse of plastic packaging.

Cucumbers

From the artist’s statement: “From thin gauge thermoform trays to seal tear bags, the use of plastic packaging in the food industry has undergone a renaissance. In supermarkets, corner bodegas and organic food stores, there are new and creative uses of plastic packaging – in some cases offering little more than heightened protection where none is needed. Items such as bananas, already covered in Nature’s skin, are further enveloped in a silky sheen of polymer.

Over the past decade, Victoria Mimiaga has been struck by this proliferation of plastic in the food industry. The traditional still life with fruit, fish or vegetable, a time-honored artistic subject, must now account for this new, man-made offshoot. And while plastic-wrapped food presents an aesthetic of its own, lying beneath the surface is the alarming reality of how this added waste material impacts the rest of the natural world.”

Cauliflower in Plastic

Food in Plastic will be exhibited at Caffe Museo, inside the SFMOMA, at 151 Third Street in San Francisco. The artist’s reception will be held on Thursday, December 30, 2010 from 6:30 – 8pm. The exhibit runs from December 23, 2010 to February 1, 2011.

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Donald Sultan to Give First AFA ArtTalk of 2011

"Poppies"

The American Federation of Arts is pleased to announce that artist Donald Sultan will be giving the first ArtTalk of 2011, to be held at Christie’s, located at 20 Rockefeller Plaza, on Tuesday, January 18, at 6:30 p.m. ArtTalks, the AFA’s lecture series, features notable figures in the art world. Following Sultan’s lecture, audience members are invited to participate in a question-and-answer session and a wine reception.

Internationally recognized for his painting, printmaking, and sculpture, Donald Sultan is best known for his sensual, large-scale paintings and monochromatic prints that incorporate images of lemons, flowers, dominoes, and other ordinary objects. At once representational and abstract, these works are rendered through an innovative use of unlikely materials such as linoleum, tar, vinyl, spackle, and Masonite.

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Rad: Michael Dotson

Nudashank in Baltimore recently exhibited the work of Washington DC-based artist, Michael Dotson. I love the playful and “rad” nature of his work. His vibrant, straight out of the box color palette is whimsical and attractive and manages to keep things light without being trite. Some pieces, referred to on his website as “drawings”, appear to be colored marker on graph paper while his paintings are executed in acrylic. He shows clear talent with both mediums and while there is a completely different feel between the two separate bodies of work, there is a cohesive sense of vintage abstraction to them that is reminiscent of 80’s and early 90’s aesthetics. Digital landscapes, pixel play, and “80’s modern” compositions that Don Johnson would most surely have had hanging in his “Miami Vice” bachelor pad. I kinda wish they had made a Trapper Keeper with Dotson’s motifs back when I was in grade school. Hell. I kinda wish they’d make one now.

"Living Room", 2010

"Dream Car Celebration at Tyrell Corporation", 2009

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Last Chance.

Congratulations to our friend, Ala Ebtekar on the success of his exhibition Indelible Whispers of the Sun at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles.  The show is recognized in  L.A. Weekly’s Critic Choices: Highlights of the Fall Season. Not bad for the artist’s Los Angeles debut solo show. Indelible Whispers of the Sun closes tomorrow, so make sure to take a look before it comes down.

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“Observed By Clouds” Solo Show by Mario Wagner

"The Hero's Return"

SAN FRANCISCO – July 30, 2010 – Gallery Heist is pleased to announce Observed by Clouds, an exhibition of new work by Mario Wagner. This event is highly anticipated as it marks the artist’s first solo show in San Francisco since relocating here from Cologne, Germany earlier this year. Utilizing imagery from the 1950s and 60s, Wagner’s pieces convey a sense of vintage futurism in beautifully anachronistic micro-narratives that describe one visual point in some larger, unknown story. Executed through a stream-of-consciousness based process: spontaneous, free flowing and of the moment, Observed by Clouds will be expressed through the techniques of painting, mixed media, collage, and installation and will present more than a dozen new artworks. An opening reception will be held at Gallery Heist on Saturday, September 4, 2010 from 7-11pm and the exhibition will run from September 4 – September 25, 2010.

Imbued with a sense of cinematic intrigue and sci-fi fantasy that speaks to the era from which he draws reference, Wagner’s pieces depict a time when futuristic fascination was widespread, space travel was imminent, and the possibilities of technology were limitless. Observed by Clouds will present a collection of work exploring some of the darker and more illusive narratives that have been steadily evolving in Wagner’s artistic oeuvre. As Wagner puts it, these new works “feel like the next step in a line.” Dreamlike scenarios of morose pallbearers assembled in funeral formation, masked marauders on horseback full of hidden agendas, and watchful strangers with questionable intentions lurking in shadows point to mysteries that border on the eerie, begging at the viewer’s imagination and inviting him to contemplate the origins of the story’s beginning and its probable end.

Mario Wagner, born in 1974, works as an artist and illustrator in San Francisco/USA. Wagner creates his works using analog methods of collage incorporating vintage print media. The execution requires finesse with scissors and glue to ultimately transform his vision from the mental to physical plane of existence. His work has been shown internationally and across the US in exhibitions at SCOPE, ART Basel Miami and the upcoming NADA Art Fair with the Pool Gallery from Berlin. Wagner’s commercial illustrations and artworks have been commissioned by Esquire, Playboy, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Magazine.

For more information visit www.galleryheist.com

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Matt Mignanelli @ Medicine Agency, SF

New York artist, Matt Mignanelli recently opened a new show at the Medicine Agency‘s gallery space in San Francisco. His work has been featured in numerous high-profile publications such as GQ, Juxtapoz, and Time Out: Chicago. I love his vibrant sense of color and his bold geometries. The work reminds me of some, pared down, vintage-futuristic landscape. His solo show entitled “Transformative Illuminations” will be on display through September 10th.

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Interview With James Roper in Issue 16 of Hi-Fructose Magazine

Issue 16 of Hi-Fructose Magazine features an interview I conducted with UK-based artist, James Roper. I encourage you to pick up a copy but in the meantime, here’s a snippet:

“…to grasp the complexity of Roper as a creator is to know him first and foremost as a thinker. If the viewer were to act as archaeologist peeling back the surface layers of paint, gesso, and canvas, he would find the core of the work to be built upon a conceptual framework of organized philosophical thought aimed at exploring the most fundamental of mankind’s musings: who and what we are.”

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Join Erik Otto for his Open Studio at Fabric 8

"Moment of Reflection" - recycled house paint and spray paint on found materials, 48" x 48", 2009

Erik Otto seeks to visually narrate dreams battled by undercurrents of destruction. His work takes his viewers to a place where chaos meets peace and loose meets refinement.   Erik’s pieces and installation will be on view at Fabric 8 for his open studio on May 16th from 2-8pm.

Erik will have signed copies of his new book, Paper Fabric Wood, as well as screen prints and paintings.  The day will consist of a backyard BBQ, a live DJ/music set by Grown Kids Radio and live painting by Erik.  The entire show will be broadcasted live within the Mission District on 94.7 fm.

Fabric 8 is located at 3318 22nd Street, San Francisco
Artwork on view: May 14 – 17

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Convergence: New Art From Lebanon

"Night Hunters" Marw an Sahmarani, 2005

Lebanon’s civil war lasted 15 years, from 1975 to 1990, and claimed over a quarter-million casualties and lives. “Convergence: New Art From Lebanon” includes the work of 29 Lebanese artists, recounting the painful memories of the civil war while looking to the future for hope and healing. The exhibition is currently on display at American University in Washington, D.C. through May 16, 2010.

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