click to enlargeSunday, November 1, 2009
Jason Byers, Zza's. Saturday Night.
"Farewell Horizontal"
new work byJason Byers
You are cordially invited to "Farewell Horizontal",
new work by Jason Byers at
Zza's Wine Bar Gallery in Oakland on
Saturday, November 7, 2009 from 6 - 9pm.
The horizontal plane is at once always before us and always behind us, always advancing and ever receding, it is everywhere, all at once, all the time. The horizontal plane is a singular point of reference in time and place for each of us, we are always where we are in relation to it and never where we are not. Without it, there is no up or down, side to side, forward or backward and despite its abundantly varied features and nuances, it's orientation is never lost no matter where one is. Indeed, the horizontal plane is the foundation from which buildings and structures strive to break its ever present hold and reshape the skyline, where trees and plants sink roots and grow and flourish. It is the demarcation between earth and sky, a definitive edge at the extent of our vision and far beyond our reach. It serves as a metaphor of endless possibility, of the future and what may be in store, of closure and a new beginning. It is the body in prone position, at its most vulnerable sign of surrender either to a lover or an enemy, or the simple need for rest. It is at once the nourishing backdrop of human experience and that final point of exhaustion found in the unmistakable drone of an ever approaching flatline.
Zza's Wine Bar Gallery
550 Grand Ave.Oakland, CA 94610
510-839-9124
November 7 - December 11, 2009
Opening Reception:Saturday, November 7th6-9pm.
Ben Venom, Medium of Choice
Ben Venom is an artist whose dark works inspire rather than frighten. His amalgamation of textures, media, subjects and approaches reveal truths about our common history with an attitude that is not sentimental. He let me into his lair and I asked him a bunch of questions.
Obi: Where do you come from? Why San Francisco?
BV: I am originally from the Deep South…Atlanta, GA. I moved to San Francisco in 2004 to attend the M.F.A. program at the San Francisco Art Institute. After receiving my degree I began teaching Printmaking courses for the City Studio Program at S.F.A.I.
Obi: How did you reconcile such an American tradition like quilting with Heavy metal?
BV: Well… that was the point. Bring two completely different interests together as one. In 2006 I saw the Gee’s Bend quilting exhibition at the Dee Young Museum and was immediately interested in quilting. I have been incorporating sewing and stitching in my work for many years in some form…i.e. flags and banners. While looking through my closet I noticed I had a lot of vintage Heavy Metal T-shirts that were literally falling apart. I grew up listening to Punk Rock and Heavy Metal. I knew I would never throw these shirts away but wanted to display them. I thought about how even the most die hard Head bangers need a good blanket to sleep with…how about a Heavy Metal Quilt!
Obi: Is there a rift between your fine art work, your graphic work and your print work?
BV: I feel they are all connected and derive from the same source. One inspires the other and vice versa. I tend to get bored working within one particular medium for too long and find it refreshing to do something different. When I am preparing for an exhibition I tend to think in terms of ideas and not necessarily medium. Whatever the initial idea calls for will ultimately be the medium of choice.
Obi: What is on the agenda for 2010?
BV: New work on the horizon! Live Fast….Diaherra!
Obi: Where do you come from? Why San Francisco?BV: I am originally from the Deep South…Atlanta, GA. I moved to San Francisco in 2004 to attend the M.F.A. program at the San Francisco Art Institute. After receiving my degree I began teaching Printmaking courses for the City Studio Program at S.F.A.I.
Obi: How did you reconcile such an American tradition like quilting with Heavy metal?BV: Well… that was the point. Bring two completely different interests together as one. In 2006 I saw the Gee’s Bend quilting exhibition at the Dee Young Museum and was immediately interested in quilting. I have been incorporating sewing and stitching in my work for many years in some form…i.e. flags and banners. While looking through my closet I noticed I had a lot of vintage Heavy Metal T-shirts that were literally falling apart. I grew up listening to Punk Rock and Heavy Metal. I knew I would never throw these shirts away but wanted to display them. I thought about how even the most die hard Head bangers need a good blanket to sleep with…how about a Heavy Metal Quilt!
Obi: Is there a rift between your fine art work, your graphic work and your print work?BV: I feel they are all connected and derive from the same source. One inspires the other and vice versa. I tend to get bored working within one particular medium for too long and find it refreshing to do something different. When I am preparing for an exhibition I tend to think in terms of ideas and not necessarily medium. Whatever the initial idea calls for will ultimately be the medium of choice.
Obi: What is on the agenda for 2010?
BV: New work on the horizon! Live Fast….Diaherra!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Nathaniel Parsons, the trouble with remembering
Nathaniel Parsons. October 2009.
Artist Nathaniel Parsons has been a friend of mine for a while now. Do you know his work? It is a mix of nostalgic narrative and Americana mythology that transcends easy classification with its quality craftsmanship, careful palette and tender content.
One real microphone. One carved from wood. Nat's work is often about translating memory by using warm media that is already pregnant with its own history (like wood, bottlecaps, etc...) relating a tactile experience with life in a modern culture of his own invention.
Artist Nathaniel Parsons has been a friend of mine for a while now. Do you know his work? It is a mix of nostalgic narrative and Americana mythology that transcends easy classification with its quality craftsmanship, careful palette and tender content.
One real microphone. One carved from wood. Nat's work is often about translating memory by using warm media that is already pregnant with its own history (like wood, bottlecaps, etc...) relating a tactile experience with life in a modern culture of his own invention.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
This Long Road, Shopping!
Have you seen THE LONG ROAD at COMPOUND GALLERY? The Compound Gallery, run by Matt and Lena Reynoso, pioneers of the Wild West Art World, pictured below, have thrown a brilliant show staring ceramicists Crystal Morey (pictured below shutting her studio doors from my prying camera days before the opening,) Derek Weisberg (pictured below with g-friend, the glamorous Alana) and Ben Belknap, (known for his collectable heads, do you own one?
Click here to check out the amazing pricing.
Click here to check out the amazing pricing.
Dave Higgins, New Work
email from Dave Higgins, 10/02/09:
Hey obi See you at Zza's and are you going to Terminal 22 on Friday? Here are my 2 newest paintings for a Halloween show at Psycho Donuts this Saturday 10-03-09 10am to 2pm in San Jose (Campbell) I thought you might like them Yer Pal, d.
Hey obi See you at Zza's and are you going to Terminal 22 on Friday? Here are my 2 newest paintings for a Halloween show at Psycho Donuts this Saturday 10-03-09 10am to 2pm in San Jose (Campbell) I thought you might like them Yer Pal, d.
Bert Bergen, Severed Arms
Bert Bergen is near the top of my short list of my very favorite artists of all time, ever.
Bert appeared on the cover of the second issue of Swee(t)art magazine back in October of 2006. That seems like a long time ago and yet not.
This studio visit happened right before his show at the SFMOMA garage windows last month. You can see him in the Worship of Water show at the Swee(t)art Drawing Gallery in Oakland this month.
What do you have planned for this show?
Iconic fragments from an ecstatic experience of dismemberment and renewal. Holy men that live inside of orcas, celestial beings with only mouths, the healing crystals of totality and the dismembered limbs of my spiritual overseers, that have guided me so gently over the years, all displayed against the lattice of infinity.
Where did the concept come from?
The concept came from the sensation of experiencing the symbols, icons and rituals of an ecstatic/spiritual practice that is unfamiliar yet engrossing. All is revealed in front of you, but there is no guide, no text to tell you what is happening, what anything means. Only your intuition and ability to follow narrative connections can guide you.
Humanity needs ecstatic experiences, connections with unknown realities and planes of existence that lie beyond our own. There are many theories, disciplines, and narratives that explain the why of our existence and the universe around us. These spiritual methods/religions/cults/movements etc. have historically borrowed and appropriated certain elements from each other. This amalgamation, this reforming, twisting and utilizing to form a new ecstatic framework are how I approached the work for this show.
Influences on the concept ranged from; Haida and Tlingit mythology, the shamanic practices of the tribes of northern Australia, the Pacific Northwest of America and the area of what is present day Mongolia, the lives of Christian ascetics St. Simon the Stylite and St. Seraphim, crystal healing and the writings of G.I. Gurdjieff.
There is nobody like you. Where do you find inspiration?
I feel like my life is a constant balance between the cave and the vista. Being isolated and focused in my studio working, probing those deeper recesses of my existence through a visual means can be like existing in a cave. There are moments of darkness and light, but ultimately I am cut off from the outside world, psychically speaking, and only existing in “ME” land. A deprivation of the senses on one level to heighten the senses on another. I balance this with the experience of the vista, the antithesis of the cave. This is the sensation of seeing the illuminated void that surrounds humanity, a continual expanse that stretches beyond one’s existence. When atop the vista there is only clarity and the reality that when it is time for me to leave this vessel, my body, this plane of existence and everything in it will no longer matter.
Bert appeared on the cover of the second issue of Swee(t)art magazine back in October of 2006. That seems like a long time ago and yet not.
This studio visit happened right before his show at the SFMOMA garage windows last month. You can see him in the Worship of Water show at the Swee(t)art Drawing Gallery in Oakland this month.
What do you have planned for this show?
Iconic fragments from an ecstatic experience of dismemberment and renewal. Holy men that live inside of orcas, celestial beings with only mouths, the healing crystals of totality and the dismembered limbs of my spiritual overseers, that have guided me so gently over the years, all displayed against the lattice of infinity.
Where did the concept come from?The concept came from the sensation of experiencing the symbols, icons and rituals of an ecstatic/spiritual practice that is unfamiliar yet engrossing. All is revealed in front of you, but there is no guide, no text to tell you what is happening, what anything means. Only your intuition and ability to follow narrative connections can guide you.
Humanity needs ecstatic experiences, connections with unknown realities and planes of existence that lie beyond our own. There are many theories, disciplines, and narratives that explain the why of our existence and the universe around us. These spiritual methods/religions/cults/movements etc. have historically borrowed and appropriated certain elements from each other. This amalgamation, this reforming, twisting and utilizing to form a new ecstatic framework are how I approached the work for this show.
Influences on the concept ranged from; Haida and Tlingit mythology, the shamanic practices of the tribes of northern Australia, the Pacific Northwest of America and the area of what is present day Mongolia, the lives of Christian ascetics St. Simon the Stylite and St. Seraphim, crystal healing and the writings of G.I. Gurdjieff.
There is nobody like you. Where do you find inspiration?
I feel like my life is a constant balance between the cave and the vista. Being isolated and focused in my studio working, probing those deeper recesses of my existence through a visual means can be like existing in a cave. There are moments of darkness and light, but ultimately I am cut off from the outside world, psychically speaking, and only existing in “ME” land. A deprivation of the senses on one level to heighten the senses on another. I balance this with the experience of the vista, the antithesis of the cave. This is the sensation of seeing the illuminated void that surrounds humanity, a continual expanse that stretches beyond one’s existence. When atop the vista there is only clarity and the reality that when it is time for me to leave this vessel, my body, this plane of existence and everything in it will no longer matter.
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