Last weekend, my friend Rebecca and I trekked over to SF to check out a few galleries that have moved from downtown San Francisco, where rents have sky-rocketed, to Potrero Hill.
When I go to San Francisco these days, all I can think is "money." The house prices and rents are insanely high, and the competition to buy a house or rent an apartment is daunting.
Potrero Hill, which I remember from the 70's and '80's as rundown and industrial, with the residential blocks in the initial stages of gentrification, is now, of course, hip and expensive, with trendy restaurants and boutiques.
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| A florist on 18th Street |
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| One of the many Potrero restaurants with outdoor seating... |
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| ...this one with its own bike rack |
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| Maman's |
We had lunch at Maman's (1485 18th St.): crepes with smoked salmon and spinach, seasoned with lemon and who knows what else. It's a narrow restaurant with few tables. We sat at the counter facing two big round griddles for crepe-making, so it was warm, but interesting to watch.
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| Cook at work making crepes |
After lunch, we went to the Catherine Clark Gallery (248 Utah) to see the new Deborah Oropallo show. I've followed her work for years, and I like to see whatever she's up to.
The current show, "Milk Made," draws on her experiences on her farm in northern California, and it's cows in a whole new way, plus chickens, pigs, eggs, and lemons. Layered, unromantic but also fantastic and evocative, these pieces are wonderful, I thought. Here's a sampling:
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| Gravid, acrylic on canvas, 2013 | | | | | | |
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| Cattle Class, acrylic on canvas, 2013 |
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| Tit Tat pigment print, collage on paper, 2014 |
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| Milk Men, acrylic on canvas, 2013 |
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| Milk Model, acrylic on canvas, 2013 |
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| Swine, acrylic on canvas, 2013 |
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| Trigger, pigment print, collage on paper |
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| Barred Rock, wall installation, pigment prints, collage on paper, 2014 |
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| Detail of Barred Rock |
We spent a certain amount of time trying to figure out what was painted, what was photo-transferred and printed, and how Oropallo accomplished the look of collage in a painting. I'm still puzzled, but who cares?
Kenneth Baker wrote last week that "Oropallo's images suggest...preoccupation with the life of the farm and with artworks as survivors and precursors in cycles of creative cultivation far less obvious than in farming to those not engaged in them." Let's say, they made me think about what I eat and how it gets to my plate.
Oropallo's husband, Michael Goldin, shares the galler in this show. He makes stools with cowhide seats, and tables, and other implements:
One of my favorites, a candelabra made from a milking machine:
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| Milk claws, Michael Goldin |
The show is up through May 31.
After that, walked over to the Jack Fischer Gallery (311 Potrero) to see "Among the Missing," showing works by Josh Hagler and Maja Ruznic.
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| A watercolor by Maja Ruznic |
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| An oil painting by Josh Hagler |
Other galleries in the Potrero include: Southern Exposure, Steven Wolf Fine Arts, Horsfelt, and the Wattis Institute Gallery at the California College of Fine Arts San Francisco campus. My only complaint is that you have to drive to get to Potrero Hill from the East Bay, unless you want to deal with Muni connecting with BART (which I don't).
A good day! If I had $28,000 to spare, I would have jumped to buy one of the Oropallo paintings, but my walls are full and my art budget is zero at the moment. But fun to look.
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