Pen and Ink Drawing
Wandering around the Tendernob wondering where you can grab a cup of coffee, bite to eat or share some conversation over a drink with a friend? There are many businesses that will satisfy those needs but only three that will simultaneously heighten your visual experience with art by local artist D Young V. (more…)
The Sycamore on Mission St
Ever looked at the street art on Sycamore at Mission Street? There has been a lot of awesome art on that corner by Banksy, Zio Ziegler, Ian Ross, Eon 75, Jae54, Anson, Never to name a few. The latest art on the wall is skulls by several different artists. See artist names and all the skulls on Skull Wall (more…)
Photography by Daniell Allen
This Spring, Oakland’s largest public mural of approximately 240 feet long by 30 feet high (7,200 square feet) was painted on the back wall of a warehouse located in the artsy neighborhood of Jingletown on 333 Lancaster Street, bounded by the Oakland Estuary and Alameda and within walking distance to the Fruitvale BART Station. (more…)
Online Exhibition as the Landmark SF Installation Ends
View DEFENESTRATION at the Hugo Hotel building before take-down begins June 3rd!
Varnish Fine Art is proud to partner with Brian Goggin, finding permanent homes for DEFENESTRATION sculptures after they check out of the Hugo Hotel. This installation of original sculpture by Brian Goggin transformed a South of Market building into a renowned art site, and its preservation has been supported by the community, including generous donations by art luminary Banksy. Since Defenestration’s creation by Goggin 17 years ago with over 100 volunteers, San Francisco has delighted in the functioning Lamps, ringing Telephones, Leaping Tables, and Craning Clock to name a few of the 35 sculptures “thrown out the window” of DEFENESTRATION.
I have been caretaking Defenestration for seventeen years so of course I feel a strong, affectionate relationship with the artwork, and feel the loss, however, it has been a good run for a temporary installation. It is an urban project using local urban materials salvaged from the area, and changed over time by both weather and the methods I used to maintain and rebuild the work. Scaling the walls to work around the structure, restoring, and rebuilding the piece with my team for the last seventeen years has been a wonderful and mysterious experience where the local community consistently helped in my process to fabricate install and maintain the artwork. How often can something like this happen here in San Francisco? The artwork could withstand many more years if maintained. Defenestration has been a lively part of a creative public conversation with the world. I am very pleased we were able to experience the installation for the last seventeen years especially when I originally thought it might last only six months, now I am happy the artworks may find new homes with collectors as part of it’s migration from the hood.
– Brian Goggin (May 20, 2014)
These unique works of art must be removed before the Hugo Hotel is demolished, but the DEFENESTRATION Project will continue as new homes are found for each original sculpture. If you’d like to view these works in place, visit the building at 6th and Howard Streets soon!
Contact Varnish to purchase artwork shown on their site Varnishfineart.com and to discuss the future of DEFENESTRATION, including potential new projects in cities abroad.
View DEFENESTRATION in person:
Hugo Hotel building
Southwest Corner of 6th and Howard St.
San Francisco, CA
Meet Varnish at their office by appointment:
Varnish Fine Art
16 Jessie Street, #C120
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415)433-4400
Article content from Varnish Fine Art.
Photographs by Cindy Casey of Art and Architecture SF who wrote this article Defenstration Building a year ago.
There is a small shop situated in the middle of the block on Valencia at 19th Street, strategically placed across from the Mission Playground and Pool. It looks like a business, yet it suspiciously looks like a front for something other than the advertised shirts.
Apparently it is a pop up store that was opened last year by J. Otto Seibold when his children’s illustrated book titled The Lost Sloth was launched by San Francisco based publisher McSweeney.
We asked Mr.Seibold about the the book, store and his book illustrations.
i think i saw a video on youtube about a sloth being carried by a person across a street…. and it made me think about a sloth who had to act fast… in this case, winning a shopping spree! and the speed needed to claim the prize.
the store became possible because mcsweeneys, my publisher, and Amnesia, the bar, are next to each other and on good terms. so, when asked, Shawn amnesias owner said “go for it”
it was opened the first friday of december 2013, it was raining hard and the custom awning had just been completed (after Boots Rliley of Oaklands well known musical group The Coup had rushed to a local fabric store and chose the fruit motif tablecloth fabric)
it was run with “sloth hours” during the month december. i am broke so i was trying to promote the book and cover my rent. Sometime in the first week of the new year, someone broke the lock and stole all the shirts within… a major setback because the sales were to cover the next printing of shirts. i reopened in march under the same rent-needs premise. it’s a great place to sit on a sunny day. great response from kind people. and when its slow, slothyslow, i can grab a book from mcsweeneys and read in the daytime. a favorite activity!
i was a successful commercial illustrator in the 1990s. to a degree that i no longer enjoyed the commercial aspect of it. so i wanted to find a way of having the ideas and images to survive on their own merit. i was also expecting my first child. Things fell together and i sold my first book to penguin press in 1992.
i have a self taught method of appreciation for past examples of great work and a mutated form of interpretive memory… my style wasn’t something i was aiming for, its just an evolving state of what I’m most inspired to create at any given time.
the books have ALL been done in adobe illustrator, a long standing computer based vector art program. i started fumbling with it in 1988… and still use it today. though most everything has changed in the active creation side. couldnt even work in color in the beginning… and drawing by mouse has a certain chunkyness one had to accept then.
ive never had an art class… but ive spoken at some pretty nice art schools since my successes. im really into the continuing education role of growth… no teachers means i never have to curb my interests or be practical in the manner in which i want to soak up every bit of creative practice…
making a living. it was as easy to do in the 1990s as it is difficult in the present.
sometimes… i do a lot of non-book art.
id say through mcSweeney’s own website for the current book. in november of this year ill be having a show about my early “mr.lunch” series of books at the sf contemporary jewish museum. they have a nice history of originating quality childrens literature/art shows.
Following is video where Black Francis reads the book.
J Otto Seibold lives in Oakland. He may be contacted through the publisher.
Playful annimated site by Otto Seibold just because: Jotto.com
To purchase a Mr Lunch T Shirt: Mr Lunch T Shirt
THE ART OF HIP HOP FESTIVAL: Celebrating the 5 Elements – a fine art exhibit and hip hop festival
Nickel n’a Nail and The Brickhouse Art Gallery is seeking submissions in any and all media forms for a contemporary art exhibition: THE ART OF HIP HOP FESTIVAL: Celebrating the 5 Elements.
We encourage all street artists to apply, and join us for this ground breaking event. Our goal is to showcase artist’s perceptions of the five elements of Hip Hop (Graffiti/Street Art, MC’ing, DJ’ing, B-Boy/Girl ‘Dance’ and Knowledge of Self) and shed light on the political, social and economic issues through their art medium. The exhibition will showcase art works, Hip Hop memorabilia and performances that incorporate the bold, vibrant and outspoken nature of Hip Hop. The aim of the exhibit is to compile the many artistic components, icons and atmospheres that surround and comprise Hip Hop, as well as taking a deeper look into Sacramento and the Northern California’s unique Hip Hop culture. There will be a “The Art of Hip Hop Festival” Commemorative Catalog, T-Shirt and Music CD produced for this exhibit.
Where:The Brickhouse Art Gallery, 2837 36th Street, Sacramento, CA 95817 / (916) 475-1240
Exhibition Dates: June 5th – June 29th, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 5th, 2014 / 6PM – 9PM
Panel Discussion / Live Graffiti Showcase: Saturday, June 14th, 2014 / Noon – 6PM
Closing Reception/Open Mic: Sunday, June 29th, 2014 / 4PM – 6PM
Contact Information:Marichal J. Brown (916) 226-7099 / Barbara Range (916) 475-1240
Send to: nickelnanail@gmail.com
Submit by: Friday, April 25, 2014
State: ‘HIPHOP’ in the email subject
Include:
Submitting to the show is FREE. There is a $20 fee for artists selected to exhibit in “The Art of Hip Hop Festival” for a Commemorative Catalog.
Please also feel free to pass this info along to qualified artist friends – everyone needs to submit their work first before being accepted. The show will remain at a professional level of quality.
All art must be 100% original and somehow incorporating a hip-hop theme or inspiration. If shipping, each artist will be responsible for shipping costs to the gallery if from out of town. Each piece will be for sale during the duration of the show (June 5 – 29, 2014) and Nickel n’a Nail / Brickhouse Art Gallery reserves the right to sell the artwork after the show for a period of 30 days at the gallery and through our online store at www.thebrickhousegallery.net. Artists can submit up to 5 pieces each. Sales are split 40/60 between Nickel n’a Nail / Brickhouse Art Gallery and the artist for each piece. After the 30 days Nickel n’a Nail / Brickhouse Art Gallery will ship any non-sold items back to the artists.
Visit Brickhouse Art-Gallery
Hotel Zetta is a luxury boutique hotel situated in Soma (South of Market) of San Francisco within walking distance of Union Square, the Financial District and many SF based tech companies. It offers high tech conveniences in the guest rooms like a smart TV and a playroom with a pool table and shuffleboard and Wii that runs an app with 3D street directions to many popular Bay Area destinations and beyond.
Throughout the hotel is eye popping art including floppy disk portraits by Nick Gentry,a chandelier made of eye frames and a bar backdrop composed of wine bottles. They recently commissioned emerging artist Jonathan Matas to paint an eight floor stairwell.
The art does not appear to have a particular theme. It begins and ends with black and white line art with a mixture of color and murals in between. Eight flights down ends as quickly as it begins with each turn peaking your curiosity. There is a wild finish at street level that causes one to look back to see if anything was missed. As we walked down the stairs it harkened back to a statement Jonathan made in an interview we had with him a year ago.
I’m constantly trying to plan, Then watch my plan get overthrown by the beautiful demons of spontaneity. Then I try being spontaneous, Only to watch concepts of what I am doing begin to converge and decide they are a plan. Then I plan to make a plan and abandon the plan as necessary, You can see the contradictory nature of that. Then I try neither planning nor not planning, And realize I’m cornered in this conceptual box and that there is only one way out. Every once in a while, I’m just making art. That is why I like being put on the spot, without any time to think about what I am doing or not doing.
The hotel has signs on the stairwell door on every floor encouraging guest to see the art and use the stairs.
Hotel Zetta filmed an interview with Jonathan Matas discussing his thoughts as they view his art in the stairwell. It will be released shortly.
Visit Hotel Zetta
Check out www.jonathanmatas.com
His socially acceptable stalking page at www.facebook.com/jonathanmatas
His street art in the Bay Area with interview we posted last year. Jonathan Matas
Carpe Diem 24 hours creating art at Loakal Gallery in Oakland, CA
1 gallery…20 artists…24 hours for you to casually come and go and observe art unfolding in front of you.
There is an unusual mural on 23rd Street between Mission and Capp Streets in San Francisco. At a glance it appears to be yet another mural around the Mission. But this mural has a unique story and message. It features cameos of 35 activists, philosophers and artists from around the world and different time periods who left their imprint in the struggle for their spoken cause. The individuals range from well known Americans such as Harriet Tubman, Sitting Bull and Martin Luther King Jr. to International figures like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to lesser known but equally passionate Rigoberta Menchú of Guatemala and controversial Leila Khaled of Palestine who with a companion hijacked and blew up a TWA jet bound for Tel Aviv in 1969.
If you pause long enough you will discover that the piece is a talking wall conceived by Susan Greene and Freedom Archives.The mural is titled La Lucha Continua/The Struggle Continues. Each featured individual can be heard in their own voice while standing in front of the wall by dialing 415-200-4587 followed by the extension number of the person you wish to hear. The phone numbers are listed at the site. Listen later by visiting the website: Freedomarchives.org .
Susan Greene is local social art practitioner, educator and clinical psychologist whose is most notably recognized for her trapeze artist murals. One used to be on Clarion Alley. There is another 35-foot high mural funded by San Francisco Arts Commission that is currently around the corner off 17th and Mission Street and a much smaller one in Soma on Harrison and 8th Street.
See other art by Susan Greene
We happened upon local San Francisco artist Elliott C Nathan when he was starting this wheat paste mural on Bartlett at 24th Street in San Francisco. He had lots of newsprint, his own formula paste, photos of each artist on large papers and a camera set up on a table to capture him pasting up the mural. The mural was to commemorate some artists who have influenced the manner or style in which he creates, as well as those important to sf and mission culture.
The mural is now finished. Since wheat paste street art is typically quickly done in the middle of the night we thought you might enjoy a quick glimpse of how it is done.
See other art by Elliot C Nathan and read his interview.
Is the urban landscape your canvas?
Are aerosol cans, brushes and stencils your tools?
Are you the King or Queen of street art in your city?
If you think you are the best, then let the world be your judge!
From the Executive Producers of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and “The Glee Project” and the creative mind of world-renowned urban artist, BUA comes a new groundbreaking competitive reality TV series that revolves around the elusive world of Street Art.
To apply send us your name, contact info, a photo of yourself and tell us about your life as a Street Artist and why you would like to be on the show.
Email: JR@pitmancasting.com or call 818-666-3606 for more information. Must be 21 yrs. or older.
Cindy Casey of Art and Architecture – San Francisco, a site dedicated to documenting art and architecture in San Francisco, has been following the Port Commission of San Francisco Southern Waterfront Beautification Project whose mission includes trying to save and re-purpose some historic and abandoned buildings on the waterfront around 3rd Street in Hunters Point. She brought this project to our attention and shared the information for this article.
One of the buildings the Commission is trying to keep intact and reuse is the Pier 92 grain silo located in Bayview Hunters Point. In coordination with the SFAC they solicited both artist and artist teams to propose public artwork for the structure. The project was awarded to the Seattle based firm of Haddad/Drugan and is titled “Bayview Rise”. It is expected to be in place for a minimum of 5 years.
The project is underway. The facade of one tower is painted with an illuminated mural that can be seen from different vantage points in the neighborhood as well as Highway 101 and 280. The silo is located at 696 Amador Street off 3rd Street / Pier 90/92 in the Bayview/Hunters Point. The mural painting is by R.B. Morris III and the lighting by Legend Theatrical.
On the Hadded/Drugan website the mural is described as a multidimensional graphic. From a distance it looks one-dimensional. However it takes on different dimensions as the color and patterns interact with the architecture. At night it is illuminated with red, green and blue cycling lights. The lights cause various parts of the mural to recede and others to appear drawing out different elements and engaging the viewer to linger. Mural images include cattle,heron, native plants and shorebirds that relate to the surrounding area current situation and historic past.
These shots of the installation at night are from the Hadda/Drugan Website
Please visit Art and Architecture – San Francisco Painted Grain Silos for more information on this project. While there learn about buildings, sculptures and other art you have seen around San Francisco and wondered about but never had the time to research. Read the article she wrote for our site on the Defenestration Building
My name is Cindy Casey and I own a small artisanal shop that manufactures the fabulous ornamentation on the insides and outsides of so many of the buildings of the San Francisco Bay Area.
I love both art and architecture and use my blog Art and Architecture – SF to bring readers a history of the building, the artist and along the way, a bit of San Francisco.
