I haven't been going to art galleries lately, but Annika's home from her art residency in Iceland, and she, by God, wants to get out and see some things. So yesterday we did. We made the rounds of several downtown San Francisco art galleries, and it came back to me why I've largely switched from galleries to museums.
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Annika painting in Wendy's studio when she was 10
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Despite a shift at her restaurant job that started at 6:30 am, Annika looked radiant when I met up with her just after noon. At 22, she is clear-eyed and smooth-skinned, her dark glossy hair pulled back in a bun for work; she was wearing much-loved red down vest I handed down to her when she went to Iceland. I forgot to take my camera yesterday, but at left is a picture of the nascent artist at about 10.
We set out. First to the Dolby-Chadwick Gallery, which I think has the best paintings of any SF gallery. The current show is sculpture by Stephen de Staebler, which Annika and I weren't crazy about, but the back room yielded much more interesting finds, including paintings by Louise LeBourgeois waiting to be hung for the next show (see below, from the upcoming "Light Through Water" show).
Then we went to one gallery after another, mostly at 49 Geary and then at 77 Geary. At the end of it we were dragging, and I reviewed how much art I'd seen that did nothing for me, that felt clever but contrived and offered little to take away, alas. You never know, though, and that's what keeps us at it.
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| Water #450 and Water #453 by Louise Lebourgeois |
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| Hiroshi Sugimoto, from "Photogenic Drawings" at the Fraenkel Gallery |
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| Kota Ezawa at the Haines Gallery; from his new book "Paper Space" |
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| In the not-so-crazy-about-it category: burro-brick by Caleb Duarte and Xun Gallo and the Fischer Gallery |
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