RIP Gilles Deleuze

LR-X
September 2012

"Last Renaissance-X"

It is an experience similar to a leap, a leap breaking out of a window and jumping into infinity. A wake up call and walking out of your room and out of your house door.

"I see the plane, and I see the plane crash into the building. I see the building burn, and I see the building fall down. I see imagery that until now did not exist in reality, only in the fiction of film. Seeing it with your own eyes, in real time--not on the screen, not projected by the frame of a television set, not in the communal darkness of a movie theater--seeing it like this is irreconcilable, like a hallucination, a psychotic break." - A.M Homes - The New York Times 9/11. "The Virtual Window" - Anne Friedburg

---In this room five minds have melted into one cohesive 21st century "hyper human" frozen in real time with real objects. Everything you are seeing here is off-line.

---In this personal lullaby the screen (window) famously connected to modern technology has dissolved and new unknown circuitry is invented; new possibilities, pleasures, and risks areformed and leap into a whole new beyond. Images and information are directly "up-loaded" bypassing --"invisible"-- and straight to your brain.

---In this 21st century the screen(window) has left the cinema, television, and computer. They have all melted together and lost their true identity and source. Windows have become mobile and the audience has become the "player" and the "user". Similar to chemically based photography losing its origin to digital images to the cinema losing its origin to the smart phone. In this microcosm exhibition the five minds display painting, photography, video, and installation as an "out-of-field"/ "radical elsewhere" inviting the audience into a cohesive collaboration bedroom to witness a "hyper-human" in seclusion dwelling into the depths of technophilia.

The event is November and the year is 1995 - Philosopher Gilles Deleuze (most famous for his main influence in philosophy, literature, film, and art) is in his french apartment-- he opens the window and throws himself to his death.

R.I.P Gulles Deleuze January 18, 1925 - November 4, 1995.

We invite you to come in - The door is always open.

Malcolm Kenter
George Lochman
Ian Maberley
Greg Shimada
Rafael Delacruz

www.lastrenaissance.tumblr.com

snapshot

\\\\\\\\ VALLEY /////////

Shalo P: VALLEY 

November 10 - December 2, 2012

Reception Saturday, November 10th, 7-10pm

VALLEY is an ensemble of supple relationships, a climax of virtualization. Hand-drawn and digitally rendered drawings elucidate an affair with a woman, one Sister Spread. Disconcerting, challenging, stimulating still images -- As the eyes move over them, reception is comparable to the sensing movement of our consciousness, jumping back and forth between the various layers of reality, between past and present.

2012 SECA nominee Shalo Eduardo earned his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and has exhibited most recently in SF's group show "Finos Detalles" curated by Juan Luna-Avin. His book VALLEY will soon be published by Chicago-based ITDN Group. More info http://hellprevails.blogspot.com/

Opening this Saturday in the Backroom!

Light Like a Feather, Not Like A Bird
Adobe Books Backroom Gallery
May 19 – June 17, 2012
Opening reception May 19, 7-10pm

Featured artists: Christine Peterson, Erik Grow, Scott Polach, Adam Katseff and Scott Alario

When fixated on the swells of the oceanic horizon, what can you determine? In capturing an image, there would be no landmarks to mark a location, only upon looking back onto the land would you be able to discern where you are in the world. The sky is often sited by those experiencing homesickness, knowing that the sun, or stars cast the same shadow across the country, often bringing a sense of comfort to parted family, friends, or lovers.

These images offer a disembodied experience of the landscape; one where the viewer understands what he is looking at, and perhaps even in what part of the world the images are situated, but cannot necessarily determine a specific location. In a time when we have all of the technology in the world to locate ourselves, the landscape remains resilient, the ocean is still the ocean and the sun the sun. We turn to the Internet to see where our friends have traveled to see if we have been there before, or if we recognize that particular look- out point.

Light Like a Feather, Not Like a Bird aims to present the view of the land looking out and up with few markers to determine locale.

8pm: Syncopated light and sound performance by Adam Brochstein

Guest curated by Amanda “Roscoe” Mayo.

FOUR DIMENSIONAL _____ IN 4D photos

FOUR DIMENSIONAL _____ IN 4D 

Thanks to everyone who came in to visit Grant Lavalley and Dan Olsen's spiritually and sensorially delightful installation in the Backroom Gallery. 

Check out photos of the exhibition and the Friday the 13th Undergrowth and Hobo Seance performances on our Flickr page!

Grant's video for the song "tales of thee ineffable" that was a part of the installation is now available for viewing on YouTube. Watch it here! 

THANK YOU!

Thanks to everyone who came to the Adobe Books Benefit Concert and Silent Auction at the Lab this weekend!  The event was a great success and thanks to you we raised over $4000 that will directly support Adobe Books. 

We are so grateful to the artists who generously donated work and all the volunteers who helped with every aspect of the evening--art installation, bar tending, selling tickets, taking photos, running the silent auction, and clean up.

Special thanks to the bands--Sonny and the Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees, and the Mallard-- and standup comics George Chen and Anna Seregina as well as DJs Willa Koerner and Alberto Cuadros.

And last, but not least, we send out a huge THANK YOU to the awesome staff of The Lab for hosting us! 

Please keep in touch and come by to say hello when you're in the neighborhood. We are so lucky to have you as a part of the Adobe family.

******
Attention art buyers: If you purchased work from the silent auction and didn't take it home with you Saturday, we will be getting in touch this week to arrange pickup. Please direct questions to: adobebooksbackroom@gmail.com.

Adobe Books Benefit Show: other ways you can help out!

ALL THE CHILDREN SING: Adobe Books Benefit Variety Show with Sonny and the Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees, and The Mallard is at the Lab this Saturday. Come on down and party with your favorite bookshop family!

Tickets will be available at the door starting at 8pm. If you're not able to make it and still would like to get involved with helping Adobe Books, you can donate any dollar amount by clicking the Paypal button below. All proceeds will go directly to the shop. Thanks for your support!

ALL THE CHILDREN SING: Adobe Books Benefit Concert w/ Sonny Smith, Thee Oh Sees and The Mallard

Join us this Saturday, April 7th at The Lab to support Adobe Books!

Where: 2948 16th Street (at South Van Ness) in San Francisco

Doors at 8pm / Show at 8:30pm

Sliding scale $10 - $20

»Music from Sonny and the Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees and The Mallard!

»Standup Comedy from George Chen and Anna Seregina!

»Silent art auction featuring incredible artists and writers!

»Portrait photo booth with Andrew McKinley!


Please join us in generating crucial funding and community support for Adobe Books. The bookshop is suffering from an imminent rent increase; the shop has only a couple months to regain its footing before it succumbs to closure. The event will feature music, comedy, art installations, and a silent art auction with artists who have been part of the Adobe community over the years.


The auction will include work by:

Devendra Banhart
Randy Colosky
Rachel Corey
Kyle Field
Matt Furie
Michelle Guintu
Colter Jacobsen
Chris Johanson
Adam Katseff
Kevin Killian
Sandy Kim
Carey Lin
Barry McGee
Patricia Mera
Jason Morris
New Bohemia Signs
Tyler Sharky
Cedar Sigo
Chris Sollars
James Sterling Pitt
Kyle Ranson
Raphael Villet
Christopher West
Lindsey White
... and many more!


Despite dire financial difficulties, shop owner Andrew McKinley and Backroom Gallery curator Katie Hood Morgan have produced well over thirty exhibitions and events over the last two years, providing artists assistance through promotion, distribution, producing announcements and press, installation and opening night receptions. Come celebrate this important community center!


All funds raised will directly fund Adobe’s efforts to remain open and operating as a bastion for San Francisco residents – many of who sought refuge as new transplants, and who have since flourished. Among these artists are Sonny Smith, John Dwyer and Greer McGettrick, and their respective bands Sonny and the Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees and The Mallard, who are lending themselves to performing in-kind. All bands will have merchandise tables, with flexi records and silkscreened posters in limited quantity, proceeds going to Adobe. 


The event will also feature a special satellite installation by current Adobe Books Backroom Gallery artists Grant Earl Lavalley and Daniel Olsen. The exhibition in the  Backroom Gallery will be on view until April 29th with a special event TBA on Friday, April 13th.




Many thanks to all of the contributing artists and to The Lab for hosting this awesome event!

4 DIMENSIONAL ________ IN FOUR D

Opening this Saturday:

An installation by Grant Earl Lavalley and Daniel Olsen March 31 - April 29th, 2012 Opening reception Saturday, March 31st Special event Friday, April 13th

Final days to see Rapport and what's up next at Adobe!

Zina Al-Shukri's beautiful solo exhibition Rapport is only on view until March 23rd. Don't miss it!

Also, we are pleased to announce the next Backroom Gallery exhibition: 

4 Dimensional __________ in Four D, an installation by Grant Earl Lavalley and Daniel Olsen, will open March 31st. More info to come...

4 DIMENSIONAL ________ IN FOUR D
An installation by Grant Earl Lavalley and Daniel Olsen

March 31 - April 29th, 2012
Opening reception Saturday, March 31st
Special musical performance Friday, April 13th

Coming soon...

Rapport: Paintings by Zina Al-Shukri

February 25 - March 23, 2012
Reception Saturday, February 25th

Adobe Books Backroom Gallery is excited to present the first solo exhibition of paintings by Zina Al-Shukri. She will exhibit a series of portraits of friends and acquaintances that illustrate what she calls the "feedback loop" between herself and the sitter. 

Zina works quickly, completing each painting in a single sitting, and the resulting works are expressions of the subtle shifts in energy over the course of the portrait session. Whether the sitter appears sullen or deep in thought or even suspicious, the empathy between painter and subject is unmistakeable.

Curated by Katie Hood Morgan


Zina Al-Shukri earned her MFA from California College of the Arts and has exhibited recently in the Bary Area at SOMARTS, Sight School, Root Division, and Jack Hanley Gallery. 


The opening reception will feature a special performance by Justin Carl Hurty.

More info: zinaalshukri.com

Image: Ready Fo' Something Like Church, 2011. Gouache, metallic pigment and charcoal on tinted paper; 30" x 22".

FAR FAR NEAR Halftime Show

Artwork by Christopher West

FAR FAR NEAR Halftime Show @ Adobe Books
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

In conjunction with current Backroom Gallery exhibition FAR FAR NEAR, we are pleased to present a special evening of music, words and images at Adobe Books this Thursday, February 2nd. Exhibition curator James Sterling Pitt will present a brief lecture followed by a reading by poet Cedar Sigo, and performance by local band Coconut with projection by exhibition artist Billy Joe Miller. Refreshments will be provided!

FAR FAR NEAR on The Bold Italic

Photo by Marion Anthonisen

Marion Anthonisen from The Bold Italic was kind enough to stop by the opening reception for FAR FAR NEAR curated by James Sterling Pitt. Check out the great photos at the link here.

And stay tuned for news about our upcoming event on Thursday, February 3rd! Expect music, baseball talk, and good times.

FAR FAR NEAR opens Jan. 14

My desire to see the light, my desire to be pure
Underground I visualize sighing ocean dream
Returnal - You've never left, you've been here the whole time
-Returnal, Oneohtrix Point Never
 

FAR FAR NEAR
new work by:  Lauren Douglas, Billy Joe Miller, and Christopher West

Adobe Books Backroom Gallery
January 14 - February 12, 2012
Opening reception: Saturday, January 14, 7-10pm

Curated by James Sterling Pitt

Adobe Books Backroom Gallery is pleased to present FAR FAR NEAR, a group exhibition featuring the work of Lauren Douglas, Billy Joe Miller, and Christopher West. The exhibition concept centers on memory, its dissolution and recollection, viewed through an autobiographical lens. Curator James Sterling Pitt initiated conversations with the three artists around such diverse images and events as a disintegrating beach house, a mother whale stranded in the Klamath River, and a World Series baseball game interrupted by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The resulting mixed-media exhibition expands on such universal ideas as nostalgia, family ties, and attempts to fix a fleeting moment in time.  

The opening reception will feature special musical sets by three Bay Area bands: Upside Drown, fieldguide, and Danny Paul Grody. 


On Thursday, February 2nd, the Backroom Gallery will host a special event to accompany the exhibition including a special performance by Coconut, a poetry reading by Cedar Sigo, and other  exciting presentations TBA. Follow this space for more info.


Image: Billy Joe Miller, Sea Light, 2010