Main space: SARA THUSTRA
Live performance by RANDTONIO
Special performance by SY LOADY
OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY APRIL 20 7 - 10 PM
curated by THE FOLKS
image by KYLE RANSON
Buy books and read them!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
How To Slow Down
NEW WORK BY KYLE RANSON
Main space: SARA THUSTRA
Live performance by RANDTONIO
Special performance by SY LOADY
OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY APRIL 20 7 - 10 PM
curated by THE FOLKS
image by KYLE RANSON
Buy books and read them!
Main space: SARA THUSTRA
Live performance by RANDTONIO
Special performance by SY LOADY
OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY APRIL 20 7 - 10 PM
curated by THE FOLKS
image by KYLE RANSON
Buy books and read them!
Thursday, March 15, 2007
KILLER SUBJECT
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
'Vessels of Acquiessence'
Call me Orca? Artist harpoons New Age vision of whales
Reyhan Harmanci
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Bert Bergen draws (and frequently sews on) many pictures of orcas. But he has no illusions about why they're called killer whales.
"People have so many associations with whales and orcas. They're very vicious and violent but very similar to humans," he says, describing how orcas kill other orcas just to eat their tongues.
Bergen's work comments sharply on the difference between the New Age vision of these giant sea creatures and the less cuddly reality. His posters for rock shows (he plays in the local band Ascended Master) have been appearing around San Francisco for the past few years, and his silk-screened clothing sells quickly at sample sales, but this show brings his ideas into sharper focus. He describes the collection of sewn drawings (he likes to bring his ink figures in relief by embroidering) and wood sculpture as an allegory.
"It's dealing with this human figure that enters the orca," he says. "It's an allegory dealing with the mineral, plant and human world mythology. Through a series of fragmented panels, the story unfolds." Bergen also says that he constructed the pieces to have the feel of human hands -- in keeping with the themes of nature's relationship to man, he didn't want to make anything too sleek or processed.
Bergen, a native of Washington state, began drawing after studying photography at Evergreen State College, where he would draw his ideas before shooting. After being laid off by a nonprofit a few years ago, he's been able to devote more time to his work.
As the intentionally misspelled title of his show ("Vessels of Acquiessence") suggests, Bergen doesn't mince words when it comes to the New Agers, the consumers of air-brushed whale calendars or perhaps practitioners of crystal therapy. He says that much of his work is a parody, but also a "comment on what is the mystical, what is spirituality."
"I grew up hunting and fishing and saw this side of nature and violence, and it's beautiful," he said. "With New Age culture, they seem so passive and not very honest about the whole spectrum.
"People don't want to understand the balance of dark and light, the real violence that happens. When you're so passive and white and privileged, there's this horrid view that your life is a wound and you're in a constant state of healing that doesn't resonate with me."
Opens in the Adobe Backroom along with Eve Ekman’s “The Ocean’s a Boneyard, the Sky Flies Still” in the Main Room. 7-10 p.m. Fri. Through April 16. Adobe Bookstore, 3166 16th St., S.F.
'Vessels of Acquiessence'
Call me Orca? Artist harpoons New Age vision of whales
Reyhan Harmanci
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Bert Bergen draws (and frequently sews on) many pictures of orcas. But he has no illusions about why they're called killer whales.
"People have so many associations with whales and orcas. They're very vicious and violent but very similar to humans," he says, describing how orcas kill other orcas just to eat their tongues.
Bergen's work comments sharply on the difference between the New Age vision of these giant sea creatures and the less cuddly reality. His posters for rock shows (he plays in the local band Ascended Master) have been appearing around San Francisco for the past few years, and his silk-screened clothing sells quickly at sample sales, but this show brings his ideas into sharper focus. He describes the collection of sewn drawings (he likes to bring his ink figures in relief by embroidering) and wood sculpture as an allegory.
"It's dealing with this human figure that enters the orca," he says. "It's an allegory dealing with the mineral, plant and human world mythology. Through a series of fragmented panels, the story unfolds." Bergen also says that he constructed the pieces to have the feel of human hands -- in keeping with the themes of nature's relationship to man, he didn't want to make anything too sleek or processed.
Bergen, a native of Washington state, began drawing after studying photography at Evergreen State College, where he would draw his ideas before shooting. After being laid off by a nonprofit a few years ago, he's been able to devote more time to his work.
As the intentionally misspelled title of his show ("Vessels of Acquiessence") suggests, Bergen doesn't mince words when it comes to the New Agers, the consumers of air-brushed whale calendars or perhaps practitioners of crystal therapy. He says that much of his work is a parody, but also a "comment on what is the mystical, what is spirituality."
"I grew up hunting and fishing and saw this side of nature and violence, and it's beautiful," he said. "With New Age culture, they seem so passive and not very honest about the whole spectrum.
"People don't want to understand the balance of dark and light, the real violence that happens. When you're so passive and white and privileged, there's this horrid view that your life is a wound and you're in a constant state of healing that doesn't resonate with me."
Opens in the Adobe Backroom along with Eve Ekman’s “The Ocean’s a Boneyard, the Sky Flies Still” in the Main Room. 7-10 p.m. Fri. Through April 16. Adobe Bookstore, 3166 16th St., S.F.
Monday, March 5, 2007
New works by Bert Bergen
Opening reception: Friday March 16 7pm - 10 pm
Show runs through March 16 - April 16
In the main room: Eve Ekman
Music by: Fortune Towerz
Bert Bergen was born on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound of Washington State.
His teen years were spent in Tumwater, Washington engaging in activities such as hunting, fishing and going to see any band playing in the neighboring town of Olympia.
Bert received a BA from the Evergreen State College in 1997 with a focus in photography and gender studies. After college he relocated to San Francisco. Gradually he shifted his focus away from the expensive world of photography, but kept its process orientated discipline of art making.
Bert has been in the bands: Lice, the sun, Appreciation, Citay and Ascended Master. Being active in the music community provided a platform for him to develop much of his visual aesthetic and technique in screen-printing, wheat pasting, drawing, painting, sculpture, sewing and ritualistic performances. He designed and manufactured seven cassette, LP and CD release for bands he has been in.
Bert has designed and produced posters, t-shirts and clothing for bands such as Om, Six Organs of Admittance, Oneida, Crime In Choir, Von Iva, Zombi, Pelican, DMBQ, Afirampo, Green Milk from the Planet Orange, Earthless, Mammatus, and Jana Hunter.
Bert has exhibited at The Lab, New Langton Arts, Triple Base, Quotidian Gallery, Ego Park, The Painted Bird, Hayes Valley Market, Pond Gallery, Soap Gallery, Artscape Baltimore, MD, and Skylab Columbus, OH.
Bert Bergen
Vessels of Acquiessence
As humans our bodies are inferior when dealing with elements that other creatures of this world take with ease. In order to traverse this inability, we create vessels that allow us to exist in other realms that normally would not be possible. If these vessels came to humanity in animal form, what possibilities would exist when we gave up our bodies and entered theirs? This mutually acquiescent relationship would lead to an existence that transgresses the relationships of this world. A new and purely visceral sensuality would be realized. Similar species of the animal bodies that are inhabited would obviously accept us. Our worlds would finally be each others. There would be a greater force visible to us that we could finally communicate with, another entity that could possibly illuminate the reasons for our existence. Humanity would finally have its purpose.
This allegory for the new age of Earth is depicted through sewn drawings (ink and brush drawings that are completed with an embroidery sewing machine) and a two dimensional enameled wood sculpture.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Andrew McKinley in SFBG
"100 Women/Good Guys to Know"
Andrew McKinley's unguarded portraiture
BY JOHNNY RAY HUSTON
REVIEW Through happenstance I visited Andrew McKinley's "100 Women/Good Guys to Know" at Adobe Books with one of the show's subjects. In a McKinley solo portrait, she's wearing a rich red and blue shirt that contrasts well with the sky blue mural fragment behind her. But what's most striking about the photo is probably her expression: open and friendly in addition to beautiful. This lack of guardedness is one quality of most of McKinley's female subjects — by and large, their eyes meet the camera with affection and sometimes amusement.
Enclosed in simple white frames and organized into five rows of 16 and one row of 15, these pieces make up 95 of the show's more than 100 photos. The size of the images is no different from those one gets back from a one-hour photo establishment — an example of the show's direct approach and lack of pretense. But any photographer would feel blessed to come up with a few rolls as vibrant and candid as these portraits, whose primary colors crop up in and pop out from flowers, gum ball machines, fruit, and items of clothing. A few photos are set within Adobe Books itself, a spot where McKinley has been integral to art in the Mission over the past 15 years.
McKinley didn't organize or provide the title of "100 Women/Good Guys to Know," whose name could be more or less dodgy depending on how one interprets the slash mark. There are far fewer photos of "Good Guys," and said fellows are more prone to stiff poseur stances, though McKinley has a great shot of a kid with a guitar.
Jibz Cameron with a keyboard, Sara Jaffe with a big smile, Xylor Jane with a red cap and an "I've been naughty" expression, Dan Johnson with a cake and a hand-markered "I Heart E.T." T-shirt — these are some of the people pictured in "100 Women/Good Guys." Whether their names mean something or nothing to you, McKinley's show appeals as the celebratory San Francisco family album of one person with a good eye — and often a good eye for good artists. In conjunction, Amanda Eicher has mapped out a network of local artists, writers, and scenesters on the upper walls of Adobe's front room. In the couple of minutes I looked at it, I counted 30 or 40 acquaintances, a handful of close friends, and the love of my life, many ensconced on the back wall. I also thought about many other absent names — and the people attached to them. Eicher's spiderweb of connections is a bit like a positive local version of the late Mark Lombardi's sinister global-networks drawings. (Johnny Ray Huston)
100 WOMEN/GOOD GUYS TO KNOW Through Sun/4. Wed.–Thurs. and Sun., 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.–Sat., 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Adobe Books, 3166 16th St., SF. Free. (415) 864-3936
Andrew McKinley's unguarded portraiture
BY JOHNNY RAY HUSTON
REVIEW Through happenstance I visited Andrew McKinley's "100 Women/Good Guys to Know" at Adobe Books with one of the show's subjects. In a McKinley solo portrait, she's wearing a rich red and blue shirt that contrasts well with the sky blue mural fragment behind her. But what's most striking about the photo is probably her expression: open and friendly in addition to beautiful. This lack of guardedness is one quality of most of McKinley's female subjects — by and large, their eyes meet the camera with affection and sometimes amusement.
Enclosed in simple white frames and organized into five rows of 16 and one row of 15, these pieces make up 95 of the show's more than 100 photos. The size of the images is no different from those one gets back from a one-hour photo establishment — an example of the show's direct approach and lack of pretense. But any photographer would feel blessed to come up with a few rolls as vibrant and candid as these portraits, whose primary colors crop up in and pop out from flowers, gum ball machines, fruit, and items of clothing. A few photos are set within Adobe Books itself, a spot where McKinley has been integral to art in the Mission over the past 15 years.
McKinley didn't organize or provide the title of "100 Women/Good Guys to Know," whose name could be more or less dodgy depending on how one interprets the slash mark. There are far fewer photos of "Good Guys," and said fellows are more prone to stiff poseur stances, though McKinley has a great shot of a kid with a guitar.
Jibz Cameron with a keyboard, Sara Jaffe with a big smile, Xylor Jane with a red cap and an "I've been naughty" expression, Dan Johnson with a cake and a hand-markered "I Heart E.T." T-shirt — these are some of the people pictured in "100 Women/Good Guys." Whether their names mean something or nothing to you, McKinley's show appeals as the celebratory San Francisco family album of one person with a good eye — and often a good eye for good artists. In conjunction, Amanda Eicher has mapped out a network of local artists, writers, and scenesters on the upper walls of Adobe's front room. In the couple of minutes I looked at it, I counted 30 or 40 acquaintances, a handful of close friends, and the love of my life, many ensconced on the back wall. I also thought about many other absent names — and the people attached to them. Eicher's spiderweb of connections is a bit like a positive local version of the late Mark Lombardi's sinister global-networks drawings. (Johnny Ray Huston)
100 WOMEN/GOOD GUYS TO KNOW Through Sun/4. Wed.–Thurs. and Sun., 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.–Sat., 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Adobe Books, 3166 16th St., SF. Free. (415) 864-3936
Submissions
If you would like to be considered for a show at Adobe Books Backroom gallery send slides or jpegs of your work to The Folks. Please consider if your work could fit in the main space or if your work is specifically aimed at the backroom. Any information and/or proposal for your work is strongly encouraged. Thanks for your interest in showing!
Mail slides to:
Maggie Otero
2918 22nd st.
San Francisco, CA
94110
Please enclose a stamped self addressed envelope for your slides to be returned. Also let me know if you have a deadline for slide return.
To email jpegs:
Email to adobebooks@earthlink.net. If you have both slides and jpegs please also send jpegs. Please send no more than 4 images and preferably email only small files.
Mail slides to:
Maggie Otero
2918 22nd st.
San Francisco, CA
94110
Please enclose a stamped self addressed envelope for your slides to be returned. Also let me know if you have a deadline for slide return.
To email jpegs:
Email to adobebooks@earthlink.net. If you have both slides and jpegs please also send jpegs. Please send no more than 4 images and preferably email only small files.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Precarious
New work by Kira Inglis
Curated by The Folks
Opening reception Friday, February 9th 7-10pm
Exhibition dates February 9th through March 11th 2007
Adobe Books Backrooom Gallery
3166 16th Street. San Francisco, CA. 94103
________________________________________________________________
Kira Inglis invents a new social landscape, inspired
by the banal aesthetic of Walgreens drugstore ceilings
and the related abstract mayhem of security mirror
reflections. Kira paints quasi-still-life paintings
of models built within her workspace. The models
themselves are theatrical and exaggerated facades,
harking back to urban planning and architecture, and
momentarily stabilizing various discarded, everyday
packaging materials, media detritus, and other
conduits from the urban environment. The paintings
attend to these models in the tradition that resists
popular categories but simultaneously engage
representational details with emotion and drama of
semi-abstractions.
The paintings, whether emanating from models,
preceding them in a catalytic manner, or being
realized as part of the model building process, reveal
the conceptual underpinnings of the practice. In
spirited game of balance and flux, the paintings chart
absorption in transformative processes, and rouse pure
potential from chaos. As a whole, the models and
paintings create a map of lines that are
interconnected and reliant upon one another,
reflecting the social networks of modern life, and
ultimately weaving together a fantasy of activism
where exaggerations draw attention and precariousness
frees.
________________________________________________________________
"100 women/ good guys to know
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW MCKINLEY
WITH LIVE PERFORMANCE BY: CONSPIRACY OF BEARDS
WITH LIVE PERFORMANCE BY: CONSPIRACY OF BEARDS
Installation in the main room by AMANDA EICHER
Amanda Eicher created a timeline comprised of names of those who are friends of the Adobe Books family.
The warmest thanks go out to all the artists involved in our show and our amazing friends who made the Backroom Gallery so magnificant.
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