The launching point for the “Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art and Jewish Thought” exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum is a commandment from the Old Testament: “When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof Read More…
Film Readers know I have talked about “Melancholia” ad nauseum, but this Thursday, Feb. 23 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco could be your last chance to see Lars von Trier’s spectacular film on the big screen. It’s kind of a trek, but witnessing “Melancholia” — which stars Kirsten Read More…
The products of tripped out imaginations bounce back and forth on the white walls of Oakland’s Old Crow Tattoo and Gallery. In a show colored by magic and spirituality, “In Between” is Nick Mann, Brett Flanigan, Craig Rodgers and Dan Bortz’s first collaboration in a gallery space. Each occupying his Read More…
The Compound Gallery & Studios in Oakland is a comforting place. They have an affable staff, a rich display of chandelier lighting and a pleasant soundtrack of 1920s jazz. It was strange then, on Saturday evening, to see the words “FUCK YOU! I’LL FUCK MYSELF” in bold black print near Read More…
At a table set with a locally grown feast — hearty potato, kale and white bean soup, cornbread, fresh butter and mushroom gravy — sits a group of individuals all involved in sustainable farming in the Bay Area. As they discuss strategies in environmental activism, they sit below a makeshift Read More…
Take one look at Deborah Oropallo’s artwork, and you haven’t seen anything. This Bay Area artist’s hybrid prints are so intricate that one’s eye must linger and settle to take it all in, peeling away the layers to extract a narrative. And that narrative is certainly a unique one. In Read More…
Although museums can only show a tiny percentage of their collection at any given time, to hide away your de Kooning, Rothko and Pollock somehow seems criminal. In the Berkeley Art Museum’s exhibit, “Abstract Expressionisms: Paintings and Drawings from the Collection,” the museum brings out some of its most impressive Read More…
Last Saturday morning, the Oak Street Plaza’s giant wall at the entrance of the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) was entirely black. Four artists — Ras Terms, Safety First, Tecka, and Resta — were just arriving on the site to prep the space for the project “Living Concrete.” Paints were Read More…
A garbage facility may sound like a terribly unattractive place to visit — let alone as a subject of artistic scrutiny. Yet this past Friday at a recycling and disposal center, Recology San Francisco, the unique Artist in Residence exhibition turned the notion of waste as useless or ugly on its Read More…
At first, it’s easy to miss the planters at the Actual Cafe in Oakland. On winter nights, warm wooden tables and chairs beckon frozen passers-by. Some leftover Christmas lights dangle by the windows. Bicycles hang suspended on the walls. The chalkboard in the bathroom displays curious bits of graffiti. A Read More…
