The Collage Works of Alexis Anne Mackenzie

Eclectix first spotted local SF artist Alexis’ works at a little shop in the Mission District of San Francisco years ago. Beautifully detailed and elegantly composed collages that speak of vintage times, organic shapes and anatomical darkness. Her vision progressed to more text and word based imagery which slowly reveal a message. Her newest works ( very bottom piece) are much more abstract and non-figurative with a light airy feel and muted palette. 

Interview with Fecal Face here - LINK

“All of my collages are composed by hand – cut from books I’ve been collecting for years, and painstakingly pieced together as seamlessly as possible. They create themselves through a process beginning with a loose concept, followed by a series of trials and errors, subtle maneuvers, selection/elimination, harmonious unions, and happy accidents. It is a meditative process, and there is a lot of decision-making behind each element involved.

My general intent, throughout all my work, is to portray the world as a flawed thing of beauty – a place that shines brightly, but has a dark side to match."

You can view her works at her website and see some of her more recent efforts at the POVevolving Gallery.

Originally posted in the Eclectix Paper & Arts Issue, June 2011 along with the online exhibit of paper arts - LINK

Ewelina Ferruso Is In Town! New Works at Gallery 1988

"Who Let the Cat Out of the Bag?" by Ewelina Ferruso. 5 x 7 oil on board, encased in antique shadowbox with engraved title plate

Ewelina Ferruso will be showing "Meanwhile in Purgatory", a new collection of 5 x 7 oil paintings at Gallery 1988 in San Francisco, opening on November 6th, 2010. We love her art and this is a great chance for all Bay Area locals to get out and see it in person. Jeremiah Ketner and Yosuke Ueno are also showing works in this exhibit.

View the preview at www.nineteeneightyeight.com

and here, at Ewelina's site: www.ferrusos.com.

Previous Eclectix interview

Michael Wertz, Dreamy Dog Dreams at SFCB

Dropped in for a quickie look at the book release party for Michael's "Dog Dreams". Really wished I could have stayed longer but had stupidly made prior commitments. The gathering at the San Francisco Center for the Book was a really welcoming crowd.

Good vibrations with a family ambiance, unpretentious types enjoying Michael and his art. I first became familiar with his art when he bought in his wonderful silk screened, Chinese Horoscope book, "Zoodiac" to Eclectix, a lovely designed and hand printed work.

His new "Dog Dreams"  is a limited edition, letterpressed on Vandercook presses, little book of doggies doing all kinds of human stuff. A beautiful quality piece printed on paper you love to caress; the kind they used to use on all mass produced books, way back when there were plenty of trees to cut down.

Michael displayed some preliminary rough sketches for his book as well as a doggy collection of inspirational items.

Vintage books, memorabilia, photos and strange eclectic objects. (Sorry the reflective cases made the photos glare a bit) Very fun to peruse and it all gave the viewer a nice sense of the dedicated persona behind the work.

A great  bonus - Michael and his partner sung and strummed together in a performance of dreamy oldies, including a fave 'Mamas and Papas' song. A sensitive, warm and touchy-feely time for all attending with great art to boot.
From SFCB: "Dog Dreams, written and illustrated by Michael Wertz, is a children's board book that imaginatively reveals the hopes, wishes, and ambitions of over a dozen dozing canines through playful imagery and rhyming text. "


There is also a fantastic exhibit of LA Lotteria images up at the center.


Buy the book- for your kids or the kid in you- here.
For a great set of production photos go here.
For the Wertzateria site go here.

"Mischief" Art at Studio Gallery, San Francisco

Sheri DeBow's piggy perfection- one of her best dolls, so far

Dropped into Studio Gallery to see the current exhibit "Mischief", a group exhibit with so many past Eclectix artists it felt like a flashback. The show has a lot of pieces, very reasonably priced, mostly on the smaller side. There was a series of large glitter fashion model type paintings which left me bored and a number of others that lacked a necessary spark. On the plus side, there were quite a few wonderful pieces, mostly by artists whose work I know and love, some new to me that were awesome as well. An eclectic show, lots of styles, tons of critters, a lot of birds especially. Something here for almost anyone's taste from more traditional studies to loud cartoons. Posted here are the cream of the crop (the ones there were room for...). Go see the show  in person and enjoy the mischief. (thru August 15th)

Chris Beck's fun watercolor ducks

Koji Nagao's had a knock-out trio of childlike doll sculptures

Lindsey Latimer's expressive and dynamic "Fun With Voodoo"

 Christine Benjamin's always energetic sweet, colorful and quirky pieces

Chad Frick's flora and fairy tale world grabbing us in 

Michelle Water's classic penguin beauty contestant, showing it... 

Missy Feigum's new bold. wild bunnies provided some needed mischief...

Chiami Sekine's poetic, achingly beautiful deers

Cameron Chung's loose painterly perfection

Rebecca Peter's awesome owl

Modern Eden Gallery Grand Opening Exhibit

The new Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco's North Beach is somewhere to visit and support. Checked out their grand opening exhibit and was impressed by all the pieces. Some of the artists were shown in a number of past Eclectix exhibits, some were new to me - but all were high caliber choices with eclectic themes. Moody landscapes, mythical portraits, pop-surrealist pieces, gothic images and so much more! So happy to see artist Bradley Platz open this space, a much deserved venue and studio for his art, as well as for the other great artists. Michael Ryan has a number of his fantastically gloomy, classical works here and Leilani Bustamante and Marco Mejia's works are  newbrow must-sees as well. Alphonzo Solorzano and Miquel Felipe's works have a religious, folk-art-Latin feel to them with a warm, gritty street edge.

The clean, new space is purrfect - large, different bends and alcoves to it, with a number of ideal spots for sculpture display as well. It has a nice grace and flow to the overall ambiance. You might catch Bradley at work on his easel in the back area. There is handmade local artisan jewelry and fine crafts in a side store section. This exhibit is one of the best to be seen in SF right now, so get on down and see it before it closes July 14th!

Modern Eden Link

Modern Eden Grand Opening This Saturday

Date:	Saturday, June 12, 2010
Time:	6:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:	Modern Eden
Street:	403 Francisco Street
City/Town:	San Francisco, CA

White Walls Group Exhibition, "New Territory"

The "New Territory" show included artists Akira Beard, Mark Warren Jacques, Robert Burden, Henry Gunderson, and Cheryl Molnar. I really enjoyed the works of two of them...

Akira Beard's works were mainly portrait based  sketchbook pages, refreshing in their gritty rawness. 

Mostly famous faces, some had political commentary and  loose smears of paint and graphite embellishments. 

Cheryl Molnar's arresting works took collage to another level, using scraps of toned and found paper she re-created landscapes and other scenes.. literally painting with paper.

The colors were brilliant and the overall geometrics of the pieces combined into wonderful painterly images.


White Walls Gallery -http://www.whitewallssf.com/shows/new-territory/