#Oakland art gallery

[brettesims]

ART EVENT

A 21+ First Fridays Event:🍷 ✍🏾 Join me & my art mentor for a monthly drink & draw event @Oakstop_ ! Really happy to be back to hosting IRL events! 🔗 Link below to grab tickets👇🏾:

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Grace Hudson (1865-1937) "To-Tole (The Star)" (1894) Oil on canvas Located in the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California, United States

[happy-little-nightmares]

The way this works is I fire up the ipad, stream it to a monitor, and then the audience starts yelling suggestions about what the monster should be. It's a good time, and if you'll be in Oakland next weekend, it's worth a stop.

C'mon, you know you want to.

[longlistshort]

The image above is of Squeak Carnwath’s painting, Best Borrowed, 2005, Oil and alkyd on canvas, taken at Palm Springs Art Museum in 2018.

A solo exhibition of her work is currently at Pt.2 Gallery in Oakland, California, on view until 2/16/24.

[michaelwarr-creativework]

Poets Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Joyce Gordon Gallery

Come show your support for the celebration of the Joyce Gordon Gallery's 20th Anniversary this Saturday, September 30. I will join a stellar group of poets including Avotcja, Charles Blackwell, James Cagney, Tureeda Mikell, Lakiba Pittman, and Raymond Nat Turner. I'm bringing books to hawk and 50% of sales go to the Gallery so bring cash and all newfangled ways to spend your money for a good cause.

[superpotionlabs]

Artist highlight - Selected works by @legomaniac1256.

Jack Boucher is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates and combines social commentary with the juxtapositions of pop culture imagery. Using both humor and sincerity he is influenced by contemporary Pop art and Neo-Dadaism. He has exhibited work at Adobe books and mrkt gllry in San Francisco, goodmotherstudios in Oakland, ATTELIER gallery in San Rafael and Unimportant Gallery in Petaluma. His new work explores duality using airbrush, acrylic and oil on canvas.

[flodaya]

Coincidence I reckon! She's one of Oakland's most well-known people – let's be real only Tom Hanks and Kamala Harris can compete – so it makes sense there'd be people making art of her in that area (especially if the gallery is focused on local artists, in which case it's cool they're looking out for that sort of thing).

you’re probably right, but next question: do we think they bought it 🤪

[harvardfineartslib]

Kicking off the month of May for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

Carlos Villa : worlds in collision Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021] HOLLIS number: 99155985964903941

Bruce and Norman Yonemoto : memory, matter, and modern romance Los Angeles, Calif. : Fellows of Contemporary Art : Japanese American National Museum ; Santa Monica : Distributed by Ram Publications, 1999 HOLLIS number: 990081800110203941

We Are in Open Circuits: Writings by Nam June Paik Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2019] HOLLIS number: 99153836469503941

Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts New York? : Pre-Echo, 2023 HOLLIS number: 99157645381703941

Do Ho Suh : works on paper : at STPI Singapore : STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery ; New York : DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2021 HOLLIS number: 99155779049803941

[brettesims]

Drink & Draw BTS

Thanx to everyone who came out to my first Drink & Draw event! I had so much fun and an epic First Friday adventure after! Can’t wait until next First Friday yee ✍🏾✨🥂

~ B

[seattle-to-san-diego]

Sun, June 9

Ann, Aaron and I started our beautiful Berkeley day with a long walk to the farmers market. Picked up some artichokes, apricots, Rainier cherries and ripe yellow peaches, all while listening to a jazz ensemble. Lucky Californians.

Telegraph Avenue is not what it used to be. George and Ann were determined to help me find a pair of earrings by a local artist. We persevered and scored! Saw a lot of stunning art work along the way, including wood layered cutting boards made by none other than David Eichorn, the famed Berkeley High teacher. He was at one of the artists’ galleries and George had a nice chat.

Lunch at Saul’s, another of Bob Kelly’s favorites.

George got us tickets to the California Jazz Conservancy to hear original compositions by Doug Morton, all played by the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra. We were . . . absolutely . . . blown away. So interesting to hear George and Aaron talk music theory and work through their responses to the performance. The group is recording the same set on Tuesday ~ hope to get a CD so we can relive the experience!!!!

Had a couple of drinks and some apps at Lake Chalet on Lake Merritt in Oakland. Then back to George & Ann’s for some fruit and port.

Returning to places of the past can bring up big things. I had a pretty profound experience this time. I was talking about how sorry I was to blow thru Cal in 3 years. I didn’t take advantage of all that it offered. It’s a remorse story I tell a lot. (George played music, including a European tour and leadership of the Jazz Festival and rowed.) Me? I got a diploma.

And then for the first time last night, I allowed myself to really feel for the young woman I was. So much happened in the first quarter alone that really penned me in.

I feel sad for that young woman now. She didn’t stand a chance to be free to really explore. It’s okay tho. She did her best and a lot of wonderful things happened. What really matters is now. And life now is way, way good.

[shih-coulda-had-it]

Notebook #15! The binding on this is absolutely trash, and nearly all the pages are falling out. Still, it holds ink very well. Scans of select doodles/journal entries below.

A brief summary of my trip to Oakland and San Francisco for a Halloween bar crawl. It was not a very long bar crawl, but I did feel like crawling at the end of it.

Left: I'm a huge AJR fan! Every album release I start crying. Lyrics are, "I wish I was me, whoever that is / I could just be, and not give a shit / Hey I'll be whatever, makes you a fan / 'Cause I don't know who the hell I am / ONE! TWO! PANDEMONIUM!"

Right: Maplestory had a Hyper Tera Burning Event or something like that. I started playing in the middle of my first semester in grad school. No one was happy about this.

Left: Observations from when I visited the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts, and some Bruce & Yoichi doodles.

Right: Me being so so so normal about treating Prime Torino as a dress-up doll. He'd look so good in long skirts. I know this in my heart.

Left: There was a month when I really got into Sandman! Not the Netflix show, though the fanfic certainly bases all the dreamling fic off that... I thought the early comic version of Dream was hilariously pathetic and weird. Huge pity that the hair and robes don't translate to real life.

Right: Stardew Valley came out with the update, and I fell right back into my habit of marathoning SDV into the wee hours of night. That's Lark. He's an older Farmer who's surprisingly hardy for having been an IT guy for a decade and some change.

Left: The first rough draft for All for One's "Abbey" PMV. As you can probably tell, camera shots are not my strong suit, and the sequence went a little off the rails at the end.

Right: I don't know what to tell you guys. I dipped my toe in the FFXV AO3 archive and then I found The Promdyn (TYL!Prompto x Redeemed!Ardyn) fic of all time, and now they haunt me. Everyone else is posting "Bad Touch Chancellor Izunia" and I'm here contemplating Ardyn's whimpers.mp4.

[pixiesnakes]

Before the Light Wakes 01, Brooklyn Basin, Oakland, California, 2022

Shop Prints: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/kodandi/before-the-light-wakes-01/

[kimherbst]

New 5"x7" original work that will be available at the Send Me Across the Sea show at Helvella Art Gallery in Oakland CA from Feb24-Mar10 ✨️💕

[smokefalls]

Title: Burning Sugar Author: Cicely Belle Blain Publication Year: 2020 Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press Genre: poetry, queer lit

This was a deeply introspective poetry collection that focused on a lot of themes, though they were primarily through the lens of being a queer Black person. Blain scrutinizes the legacy of colonialism and systemic racism in their poems and how this impacts those in a similar position as them, while also making the words across these pages deeply personal.

I was really taken to the way Blain structured this collection into three sections. The first section, Place, draws attention to locations that had particular meaning to the poet. The second section, "Art," is a reflection on the art world and Blain's relationship with it. The last section, "Child," is perhaps the most abstract, with contemplations on identity and positionality throughout their life. Blain moves deftly through political and social issues across time, which especially shine in their letters to various Black folks and are interspersed throughout this collection.

Despite the intensity and density of the themes in this collection, Blain's poems are incredibly accessible, so much that I think they are a great entry point for readers who are new to poetry and want to explore the mentioned themes above.

Some favorites: "Burning Sugar," "Dear Philando Castile," "Oakland," "Lézignan-Corbières," "Toronto," "I Hate White People in Art Galleries," "Dear Archibald Motley Jr.," "Dear Diaspora Child," "Everything on Earth," and "Spiritual Dysphoria"

Content Warning: slavery, racism (specifically anti-Blackness), colonization, police brutality, death, rape mention

[vlkphoto]

Scrambled Eggs to Bugs Bunny

Léger & Gregory murals bookend the expanse of the United Nations General Assembly Hall. New York City, NY.

Swept panorama.

Mural, East Wall (Scrambled Eggs) Mural, West Wall (Bugs Bunny) The United Nations General Assembly Hall is flanked by two large murals designed by French artist Fernand Léger (1881 – 1955).  In the artist’s early works he created a personal form of cubism, which gradually evolved into a more figurative, populist style. He took imagery from the modern age including consumer materials and is sometimes considered the first Pop-Artist. While in New York, he was struck by the advertisements on Broadway which influenced some of his work, such as colours outlined in black. He practised, studied, and taught at the Sorbonne in Paris, at Yale University, Connecticut, and in Oakland, California, and returned to France in 1945. His work was featured at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2013. The mural on the east wall consists of red, white and dark blue organic shapes on a dark grey background. Upon seeing the mural in 1952, President Harry S. Truman from USA, referred to it as “Scrambled Eggs,” thus dubbing a long-standing nickname for the work. The mural on the west wall is a free-form creation in blue, white and orange on a dark grey base. US President Harry S. Truman called it “Bugs Bunny” upon seeing it in 1952, thus dubbing a long-standing nickname for the work. For these two murals, Leger was unable travel to the United States himself. Leger made the designs and prepared two maquettes of the murals but then gave them to his former student, Bruce Gregory, who traveled and executed the two murals.   Bruce Gregory (1917 – 2002) was an accomplished artist and teacher. He was exhibited in several museums including, MoMA in New York City, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, and Foster Harmon Galleries of American Art, Naples & Sarasota, FL. The mural was an anonymous gift through the American Association for the United Nations and was presented to the UN on 31 December 1952. Donor Region: Others (Institutions, Foundations, Individuals) Donor: Anonymous (through American Association for the United Nations) Classification: Paintings & Works on Paper Materials: Mixed Medium: Mixed media on plaster on metal mesh Location (Building): General Assembly (GA) Location floor: 2nd Floor Donation Date: September 19, 1952/December 19, 1952 Artist or Maker: Fernand Léger and Bruce Gregory Dimensions: 34 x 34 ft.

[mapimunoz]

Drylongso Response

Drylongso (1998) by Cauleen Smith is a glimpse into the Black community in Oakland in the 90s. It has a vibrant color palate and it transcends genres. Our protagonist Pica is an art student who likes to take the picture of the Black men in her community. She explains that it is due to the alarming number of young Black men dying so she captures their image. The film is a snapshot, like the polaroids Pica takes, of the time and of the community it centers in. It is also a buddy film, focusing on the friendship between Pica and Tobi. The girls come from different familial structures. Tobi’s mom is away touring but she sends her money whenever she needs it. Pica’s mom is present and always throwing parties, their house is never empty and Pica pays rent to stay in it. This difference in their home life is represented through the colors and sounds in each home. Pica’s home has bright and vivid colors and is always filled with people and noise. Tobi’s home has a more muted color palette, mostly white, and is mostly for herself with the exception of Pica and Mohammed. I thought the portrayal of the friendship and the connection between the two women was beautiful.

One of the elements I found interesting in the film was the way Tobi chose to dress. After suffering from an abusive relationship she begins to dress like a boy, wearing baggier items and covering her hair with caps or bandanas. She found a sense of safety in presenting as a boy when she goes outside. In her own home, she wears more feminine clothes and styles her hair like so. In the Q&A with the director Cauleen Smith, somebody asked her about Tobi’s gender expression. Smith mentioned that back then gender was secondary to mobility. If you had somewhere to be you would just throw on a hoodie. The trendy baggy clothes of the time weren’t tied to gender expression. It’s interesting to see how certain actions garner a meaning and have a definition as time goes by. It’s also interesting how newer generations interpret things a certain way because of these new meanings.

The ending scene where the community is gathered to celebrate Pica’s gallery seemed reminiscent to me of the gathering scene in Daughters of the Dust. The community all together, eating food and serving each other’s plates. The camera paused and took time at the food gathered and the people eating it. When I asked the filmmaker she said it wasn’t intentional. So, either both films are great at capturing food at the heart of community gathering or I just watched and analyzed Daughters of the Dust in two different classes this semester so it’s very present in my mind.

If I could ask the director more questions I would ask her:

What was the restoration progress like? 

You edited the film for three years, did your vision for the film change throughout this time?

Are there any films from the past 5 years that remind you of your own?

Is there an element or scene that you wanted to add to the film that you couldn’t?