"The Air We Breathe", Gay Marriage at SF Moma

Over the holidays we visited SF Moma and were very pleasantly surprised by this exhibit, covering one long wall as you emerge from the stairs. You don't often see "gay art" in a museum and I guess SF is the place to do it. Sad that it is edited out or censored elsewhere, art is art, wherever and whatever it conveys. It was refreshing to see same-sex imagery, thrust in the art-going public's face and confronting the inane bigotry around who-marries-who. 

 The show is up thru Feb. 20th, 2012. From the museum's website:

"The Air We Breathe brings together visual artists and poets to reflect on the subject of equal rights for same-sex couples, including the right to marry. The exhibition features works by artists including D-L Alvarez, Simon Fujiwara, Robert Gober, Raymond Pettibon, Amy Sillman, and Allison Smith, along with new poetry by John Ashbery, Anne Waldman, and others."

The 3D piece titled after the exhibition, The Air We Breathe by Elliott Hundley was a show stopper! Composed of eclectic elements, collaged and many-layered - it was impossible to grasp the multitudes of tiny objects and textures in a single shot. Posted below are a few details at different angles. Just a wonderful, mind-boggling assemblage, worthy of a good long contemplation. Couldn't find a personal website for Elliott but he is all over the web if you care to search.

Geoffrey Chadsey's Gay Electric Works

Geoffrey has a great show aptly titled "Shift, Return"up at Electric Works in San Francisco thru Feb. 12th. Popped into the opening last Friday and was pleasantly pleased and disturbed by his works. They are both paintings and drawings, using watercolor pencils on frosted mylar, then painting or smearing some areas. The images are large in scale and the mylar gives them a luminous quality that suggests floating. He is obviously practiced and adept at drawing and sketching, the pieces have wonderful geometrical lines - shaping the bodies and  enhancing the gestures of the posers.
The subject matter is gay based with lots of trans-gender imagery and transformations, from one sex to another and from human to beast. Strong, emotive, sexual and in-your-face art, just fantastic. A ride on the emotional roller coaster of identity that confuses and torments some gay lovers. A few pieces were a little too blatant in their statements, a more subtle suggestion of genitalia would have still done the trick for me. (If you don't want to see any genitals, this may not be a show for you.) However, this is a great solo with moving portraits, compassionate humanity and strong imagery, very worth making the trip to see.

For all the art, ( better photos and un-cropped), go here.

Get Up Close With Brett Reichman at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

Simulated Masturbation

The current exhibit "Silence, Exile and Cunning" ends July 25th at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. It is worth the visit to see the two works that most impressed me. They were both by Brett Reichman and the technique shows outstanding mastery of his medium - watercolor and gouache. Getting up close to the pieces I was floored by his skills even if I wasn't crazy about the subject matter. Both were masturbation themed compositions with intestinal, sack-like props. They made me laugh with their overstated extensions. Brett's colors were beautiful, as was the cross hatch-like shading and his anatomical studies were unparalleled. The hands alone were breathtaking in their rendering. 

These two pieces really should be seen in person, up close and personal, even if it is just to study his style and ability.

Joshua and the Swan

Remembering Harvey Milk Today - A Birthday Art Gallery

Today is Harvey's birthday, I sure wish he was still around to grace our city... From the brave man himself- 

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”

“The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, that my friends, is true perversion...”