text /// Chris Rusak

07-02-10

First Thursday.

Last night, Allen Passalaqua and I attended a variety of galleries throughout the city for San Francisco’s First Thursday Art Night. Galleries all over the place are open with extended, everybody-welcome hours and many mount openings of new shows and exhibitions to coincide with the elevated foot traffic. That said, last night seemed pretty minimal… the usual boisterous crowd absent (49 Geary didn’t feel like a cattle herd) and a more muted mass made the rounds.

I was privileged to meet and thank Robert Bechtle for his work and inspiration. I think he blushed. He curated John Berggruen Gallery for the four gallery show “They Knew What They Wanted” and he did a fantastic job at that. Countered with his work, the pieces and artists he selected all share a common eye for light and shadow, compositions with a low-volume, high-intensity pulse that draw you in with color and shape and leave you at an idea to ponder with as you retreat from the work.

EVER GOLD Gallery opened a new show, “Dream Summer” that left me dreaming of something else. Poorly constructed works that looked shoddy and disposable, cocked works on the wall that just needed the touch of a cheap level from the hardware store or the concerned eye of a gallerist doing crowd control. A good space with potential to mount something that not only originates from the street/graf/urban/self-taught realm, but also showcases that there is an intellect behind the work and a message, no matter how trite. Just disappointing to see things thrown hastily together; it perpetuates the chatter that many artists of that grouping are childish and aloof.

Gallery Heist, on the other hand, was excellent. Ryan de la Hoz curated the show “We Haven’t Felt This Way in Years II” and took an astounding number of pieces, hung it salon style, and presented a cohesive story as you wrapped around the walls. A simple gesture: being aware that a composition of backpainted plexiglass benefited from being placed near natural light at the front of the gallery, less in the glare of halogens. The full spectrum of media from paper to wall sculpture was deftly organized and the works themselves all contained soul and inspiration.

The winner of the evening was Eli W. Harris at Public Barber Salon. Brilliant, non-saccharine, colorful illustrative mixed-media on paper works. Harris hung ten large works surrounded by a swarm of smaller drawings, each set interrelated, tossing the story back and forth between the proportions. His hand shows detail and direction, the color palette and it’s application stretched from David Park to street graffiti, each working generously with the other. Conversing with Harris about the works and his process, he easily opened up to their genesis and future, giving further credence to what one discerns as they translate the read visual language into introspected deconstruction. Two of his works of the evening that stood out:

Two mixed media on paper works by Eli W. Harris, “Dance the Collapse” at Public Barber Salon, San Francisco, 2010.