All the Art: A New Year Preview of all the Wonders this Month in the Bay
Oh, dear Bay! What an embarrassment of riches! We're merely days from the international art carnival coming to town (FOG, Atrium, Art.Fair.Mont, AND Creativity Explored x Open Invitational), and already the Bay is putting on her best gown, lipsticked and perfumed, ready for the ball.
Dancing through our own calendar, we are genuinely astonished by how many openings and talks, exhibitions and eventings one can whirl through. We wanted to try to point a few out, but even with a long litany, we are surely missing many gems in these New Year's treasures.
The monstrously alluring figures of Renaud Jerez fresh from France at Climate Control (opening January 22nd). The last weeks of the rippling beauty of Lee ShinJa's threaded colors and the deeply anticipated retrospective of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, an experimental magic from her hometown museum with its incredible collection of her work, both at BAMPFA (Lee ShinJa closing February 1, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha opening January 24). House of Seiko returns, showing CCA grad Jay Payton with paintings that collapse raw data and system failure into memory-soaked abstractions (or so we're told) (opening January 20).
And we've long been fans of P. Staff (and guest curator Jeanne Gerrity), opening The Prince of Homburg at YBCA January 17, a dreamy, desirous cabaret of exhaustion dancing against queer oppression. And Trevor Paglen's first turn at Jessica Silverman crosses surveillance with the sublime (and this is in the press release but it's too delicious not to repeat); it is what art historian Hal Foster names "Malevich in the sky with diamonds." (open til Feb 26). New Mexican-artist Rose B. Simpson seems to be finishing her takeover of the Bay, matching her long-term work at the De Young with another at SFMOMA, she's doing a talk this Saturday January 17, at 2pm, with one of our favorite all-time poets Natalie Diaz (just go ahead and buy Postcolonial Love Poems, I promise you won't regret it).
The ICA is inaugurating its nomadism next week with projects by Tara Donovan and Lily Kwong at the Transamerica Pyramid (be sure to stop by Rebecca Camacho Presents opening with Christy Matson and Karen Barbour on January 15th and Gallery Wendi Norris a block away opening with the cosmic apparitions of Marie Wilson on January 20th).
Christian Marclay at Fraenkel! 'Women in Abstraction' at Berggruen!
This is just a soupçon of what's out there.
And last but certainly not least, we are opening the SHACK15 Art Awards next Tuesday! A little curious how good Bay artists are? Come see this: they are very, very good. Abel Rodriguez, Brontez Purnell, Joanna Keane Lopez, Em Kettner, Terri Friedman, Adrian Burrell, and Keith Boadwee.
This Tuesday, January 20, 5pm - 8pm. Curator’s tour will be at 5:30 pm with a performance by Brontez Purnell shortly after. We want to see you! And don't worry, we'll send you a reminder.
Til then,
xoxo ArtBae