Photo: Steve Dolan

Luxor by Seamus Conley

Opening, Viewing, Closing

What’s Up

Everything! That’s what’s up. There is such a fantastically diverse selection of shows that this month’s focus falls rather in line with that of the greater art world: it’s all over the place. The cohesive thread of April’s must-see shows is thus arranged simply by mood.

Hip, Lively, Fantastic—On show at Marx & Zavattero (Apr. 4–May 16) is the group show “I Want You to Want Me,” featuring work that embraces the worlds of fashion and/or music to explore issues of contemporary culture—race, class, sex, politics. Artists, many of whom were commissioned to create work specifically for this show, include David Hevel, Taravat Talepasand, Marcel Dzama, Kendall Carter, among others. While at the gallery, don’t miss out on Project 250, a unique art collecting opportunity. Taking extraordinary measures to meet our extraordinary times, every artist in the gallery is creating a limited number (ten to twenty) of original small-scale works, each priced at $250.

Over at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (through Jul. 5), artist/dancer Nick Cave will present fifty of his colorful, outrageously complex, handcrafted, mixed-media Soundsuits. In conjunction, live performances of Nick Cave Soundsuits Collaboration—a performance developed during Cave’s two-week residency at the Center and choreographed by renowned choreographer Ronald K. Brown with local dancers donning these wearable sculptures—will take place during the exhibition. A quick step away, at the Museum of Craft & Folk Art, is “Inside/Outside: Artist Environments” (through May 24), which explores spaces, often personal, transformed by artists into works of art in and of themselves. The show features work by Edgar Arceneaux, Jacob Sockness, Merritt Wallace, Megan Wilson, and Mike Shine; the highlight is the recreation of Mike’s Art Shack, an impressive undertaking that most literally puts the viewer in the artist’s intimate creative space (note: Mike’s work will also be featured in an upcoming two-man show with Caleb Neelon at White Walls Gallery, Apr. 11–May 2). Showing over at Altman Siegel Gallery is the multi-talented conceptual artist Matt Keegan (Apr. 17–May 23). Working in a wide variety of media, Matt, who, in addition to his studio work is a writer and curator, has been praised for his unique, very contemporary, and oftentimes witty, artistic expressions.

Calmly Captivating—Looking for a more meditative experience? Breathe in the elegantly quiet, finely detailed drawings of Dean Smith, on show at Gallery Paule Anglim (Apr. 1–25). Then amble the short distance to Haines Gallery to view the soothingly ethereal, amorphous compositions of Darren Waterston (Apr. 23–May 30; for a double dose of Darren, see “Splendid Grief: Darren Waterston and the Afterlife of Leland Stanford Jr.,” Apr. 15–Jul. 5 at Cantor Arts Center). At Rena Bransten Gallery (Apr. 9–May 16), take in a touch of the surreal with artist Tara Tucker’s beautifully strange flora and fauna drawings, precisely rendered in graphic on paper. Finish your art journey at Andrea Schwartz Gallery where the fantastical paintings of Seamus Conley (Apr. 1–May 15) will be on show. Dreamlike narrative and beautifully serene, Seamus’s work inspires contemplation and imagination.   

Private Viewing

The Bay Area is replete with outstanding art; unfortunately, for many of us, much of that hangs behind closed doors in numerous museum-quality private collections. Once a year for the past nine years, however, several collectors have opened their homes to members of the public for The Spring Art Tour, now called Private Collections. And it’s all for a cause: the event benefits Enterprise for High School Students, which helps San Francisco high school students with all aspects of job and career.

Previous collections have included those of Ann & Gordon Getty, George & Dorothy Saxe, and this year’s honorary co-chairs John & Gretchen Berggruen. Among this year’s ten collections going on view, which vary widely in content, are those of Michael Hackett of Hackett-Freedman Gallery, Jeff Dauber, Robert Stone, and Claire Carlevaro, director of Art Exchange Gallery. This year’s event takes place April 23; tickets are limited. For more information, ehss.com.

In Closing

Shocking (and sad) news hit the San Francisco art scene last month: Hackett Freedman Gallery is closing its public exhibitions program as of May 1. Thereafter, the company will operate privately and by appointment.

One of the city’s premier gallery spaces since opening in 1986 (then the Contemporary Realist Gallery), Hackett-Freedman has featured over three hundred exhibitions of work by both contemporary and modern artists.

Among other notable pursuits and achievements, the gallery has been a driving force behind strengthening the exposure of and interest in the Bay Area Figurative and Bay Area Abstract movements, in part by its representation of such artists as Frank Lobdell, Manuel Neri, and Roland Peterson.

Going out on a high note, the gallery’s final shows (through May 1) are a double hit of incredible work by artists who have long been represented by the gallery. Marc Trujillo, continuing his pursuit of showing us those ubiquitous places—chain stores, gas stations—that consequently become “nowhere” or “anywhere,” deftly captures the generic-ness, in small-scale photo-realistic paintings, of the fast-food drive-through in (the appropriately titled) “Drive Thru.” Also on show is (outstanding) recent work by Raimonds Staprans; a master of intense use of color and form to luminous, enrapturing, and most gleeful effect, Staprans continues to push his work to ever greater end, rendering even the most mundane of subjects captivating.