Dan Witz is in Town | Book Signing at Space Gallery

Dan will be signing copies of his book, In Plain View at Space Gallery on Friday, January 7th from 8-10PM

Be on the lookout for his work as it shows up around the city!  For each work on view at White Walls, a corresponding piece will take root in the Bay Area’s public space.

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Jesse Hazelip: “The Belle of the Brawl” at 941Geary

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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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Interview With Glen E. Friedman x Shepard Fairey by Colin Day

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Call For Submissions: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Announces Public Art Opportunity

Photo by Alan Lishness via Flickr

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts invites submissions from Bay Area artists for a new commission for a public art project at YBCA. One artist will be selected to create a large-scale artwork on the glass exterior walls of the forum/galleries building. This is one of two buildings that make up YBCA’s campus, the forum/galleries building is designed by world renowned Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki and opened to the public in 1993. It houses YBCA’s exhibition galleries, multi-purpose forum and administrative offices.

The commissioned public artwork must be visually compelling and dynamic, express the values of YBCA, and enhance the experience of those in the vicinity of YBCA’s facility, the adjacent Yerba Buena Gardens and Mission Street. The selected temporary artwork will remain on view for a period of time between 18 months and two years.

The selected artist will be asked to participate in outreach efforts meant to deepen the public’s engagement with their artwork, for example, an artist talk or presentation on the making of the selected work on view.

Mission

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents contemporary art from the Bay Area and around the world that reflects the profound issues and ideas of our time, expands the boundaries of artistic practice, and celebrates the diversity of human experience and expression.

Eligibility

Applicants must reside in the Bay Area.

Bay Area Counties include: Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Marin County, Napa County, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County

Electronic submissions are preferred. Visit www.ybca.org to download an application form and instructions.

Awards

Three artists will be chosen to proceed to the second round and will be awarded $1000 each to develop a detailed design proposal.

The selected artist will receive an honorarium in the amount of $5000. In addition, under YBCA proposed guidelines, YBCA will pay for costs associated with the fabrication and installation of the work.

Deadlines & Dates:

Submissions must be postmarked, Friday, January 7, 2011

Three finalists will be notified by February 1, 2011

The final selected artist will be notified by April 1, 2011

For further information, please visit www.ybca.org

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Juxtapoz Interviews Glen E. Friedman for his 941Geary Exhibition, “Fuck You All”

Glen E. Friedman, photograph by Darren Wellhoefer

Glen E, Friedman, the legendary photographer and cultural influencer of all things music, skate, and underground aesthetics, is bringing his work to San Francisco’s 941 Geary space this Saturday for a major showing titled, in perfect punk, “Fuck You All.”

The new exhibition will be marked by some of Friedman’s iconic works, the touring exhibition portion that contains the shots of Black Flag, the Beastie Boys, and a far younger Tony Hawk. But the 941 Geary show will be highlighted by the Shepard Fairey collaborations together with the original photographs for the first time.

Henry Rollins, collaboration between Glen E. Friedman and Shepard Fairey

The collaboration comes on the heels of Friedman’s exhibition at Fairey’s Subliminal Projects last year, and a special interview Fairey did for Juxtapoz with Friedman in our 100th issue last Spring. As 941 Geary tells us, “Friedman’s 941Geary exhibition of Fuck You All will feature several never before seen collaborations with Shepard Fairey, which will be displayed along with the original photographs for the first time. These works are true artistic collaborations, executed symbiotically and inspired from a history of mutual respect between Friedman and Fairey.”

The opening reception will be held from 6-9pm on Saturday, November 6th at 941Geary in San Francisco. The artists will be in attendance.

Read the full Juxtapoz interview here.

 

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Justin Giarla – 7×7 Magazine “Hot 20 Under 40” Recipient

Huge congrats to A&O PR client Justin Giarla, owner of White Walls, The Shooting Gallery, and 941Geary for being selected as one of 7×7 Magazine’s 2010 “Hot 20 Under 40”. This is a very prestigious honor, and one that Giarla is very deserving of for his commitment to the arts community in San Francisco. Read the article here.

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Photos: VIP Preview of Flotsam’s Wonder World

Artist, Mike Shine for "Flotsam's Wonder World", Photo courtesy Mike Cuffe and Warholian.com

A&O PR is proud to announce the tremendous success of “Flotsam’s Wonder World”, the epic “art opera” by artist, Mike Shine that was held in conjunction with the inauguration of Justin Giarla’s newest gallery space, 941Geary. These images from Friday night’s VIP party are courtesy of Mike Cuffe of Warholian. The evening included interactive carnival games, a set by DJ Junk Drawer (formerly of Extra Action Marching Band), operatic performances by Jonah Hoptan, “Opera Boy” and Whitney White, “Opera Girl”, as well as a folk music set that included Mike Shine himself playing harmonica. “Flotsam’s Wonder World” is up through October 31st. For more images, visit Mike Cuffe’s Flickr set here.

941Geary Gallery Owner, Justin Giarala, Photo courtesy of Mike Cuffe

Whitney White and Jonah Hopton, Photo courtesy of Mike Cuffe

Danielle Grant, Kimberly Verde and Lainya Magana of A&O PR, Photo courtesy of Mike Cuffe

Greg Escalante and guest, Photo courtesy of Mike Cuffe

Lyrica Glory, Photo courtesy of Mike Cuffe

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Mike Shine: Flotsam’s Wonder World

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