Who's Afraid of San Francisco?
October 05, 2006 – November 16, 2006
Press Contact
Wendi Norris
Frey Norris Gallery
T: (415) 346-7812
F: (415) 346-7877
- Bay Area Artists ask, "Hey America, what are you afraid of?"
- Artists ranging from emerging to internationally renown include: Enrique Chagoya, Phillip Dvorak, Rodney Ewing, Hung Liu, Frederick Loomis, Michele Pred, Douglas Schneider, Laurel Roth and Andy Diaz Hope
- Bay Area artists unveil over 20 new works including paintings, works on paper, conceptual objects and prints.
... It's the indescribable conglomeration of beauty and ugliness that makes San Francisco a poem without meter, a symphony without harmony, a painting without reason -- a city without an equal.
- Herb Caen (SF Chronicle, October 22, 1940)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – "Who's Afraid of San Francisco?" is a head first plunge by a broad sampling of Bay Area artists into our biggest anxieties. Each contributing artist is looking not just at fear, but at what drives and motivates the most far-reaching fears that our city instills in the popular media, and thereby, in our local populace and that of the rest of the country. These artists range from internationally famous icons to maverick emerging talent and work in a wide range of materials, exploring a tremendous breadth of ideas. Is San Francisco a vanguard for America's greatest potential or a relic of liberal dogmatism?
Frey Norris Gallery boldly presents "Who's Afraid of San Francisco?" opening October 5 and running through November 16, 2006. Exhibiting artists include: Enrique Chagoya, Phillip Dvorak, Rodney Ewing, Hung Liu, Frederick Loomis, Michele Pred, Douglas Schneider, Laurel Roth and Andy Diaz Hope.
About the Art
Gay marriage and San Francisco as the Gay Mecca, old and new anti-war movements, workers' rights and social activism, massive earthquakes and their cultural scars, intravenous drug use, medical marijuana, immigration and racial injustice - all of these aspects of life in the Bay Area in some way pump up the nation's blood pressure or offer a contrasting, potentially frightening new way of seeing, and all of them inform specific works in the exhibition.
- Enrique Chagoya's "Adventures of a Minimalist Cannibal" explores the hot-button issue of immigration. Chagoya essentially "cannibalizes" a painting by Ellsworth Kelly (Red,Blue,Yellow) and creates a hybrid of Western and pre-Columbian painting styles. Chagoya's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco among others.
- In "Earthquake Weather" Phillip Dvorak investigates the generally discomfiting theme of sexual bondage, utilizing an array of overlapping human figures donning masks from animal species that once roamed the city and no longer do.
- Reminiscent of the Japanese woodblock prints of Hiroshige and Hokusai, Rodney Ewing's "A Change is Gonna Come" pays tribute to the Bay Area tradition of protest and activism - by illustrating the fist as a tidal wave or "tsunami" that constantly moves from shore to shore, landing not with destructive force, but with the capacity for justice and change.
- Laurel Roth and Andy Diaz Hope have collaborated on two themes, intravenous drug culture (in the form of a chandelier) and California's history of "Sundown Towns." Posters throughout these Sundown Towns warned minorities, most often African Americans, Mexicans, Native Americans, Chinese and Jews, that they were expected to vacate the town by sundown.
- Hung Liu's mixed media pieces "Immigrant," "Proletarian" and "Citizen" explore her life as a Chinese immigrant in the U.S., utilizing her actual immigration and passport documents, thereby personalizing the dramatic effect of living with multiple identities. Liu's work is in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The San Jose Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Walker Art Center, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Smithsonian among many others.
- Frederick Loomis' work incorporates concepts from the three traditions of the book (Islam, Christianity and Judaism), agnosticism, science-fiction and various veins of Asian esoteric mysticism. "Miriam" is a portrait of a trans-dimensional medium (a gold-skinned woman) who delivers to Loomis his 3rd Testament which he is both writing and illustrating – a prophecy of our next 1,000 years of evolution into "Human Computers," executed in the visionary tradition of William Blake and Henry Darger.
- Michele Pred's, "Grooms" utilizes found objects to depict a series of colorful wedding cake tops. Pred's "Marijuana Project" installation concerning the legalization of Marijuana will involve the legal growing of a Marijuana plant in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition. Pred is not a user of Marijuana in any form.
- Douglas Schneider's, "Bush," a large oil on canvas, depicts the only president in recent history who has managed to avoid visiting San Francisco – especially during a time of war. Is George W. Bush afraid of San Francisco? Schneider will also contribute a conceptual work, "The Big One," relating to the recent centennial of San Francisco's quake of 1906.
About Frey Norris Gallery
Focusing on important Bay Area artists and internationally recognized artists from Asia, Frey Norris Gallery provides one of San Francisco's most welcoming and dynamic venues for experiencing and purchasing contemporary art. Frey Norris Gallery exhibits paintings, works on paper (including drawings, pastels and watercolors), collage, sculpture, manufactured conceptual work and photographic media.
Address:
456 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
T: (415) 346-7812
F: (415) 346-7877
www.freynorris.com
Hours:
Tuesday — Saturday 11:00 am to 7:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Closed on Monday.
Coming Next:
In February 2007, Frey Norris Gallery presents "Vanitas Baby" the debut exhibition for San Francisco artist Susannah Bettag. More than twenty unique paintings and other wall hung media will fill the gallery with aggressive neon colors, sexually charged imagery and a strangely transgressive innocence in this exciting first look at an emerging San Francisco visionary.
About Frey Norris Gallery
Focusing on important Bay Area artists and internationally recognized artists from Asia, Frey Norris Gallery provides one of San Francisco's most welcoming and dynamic venues for experiencing and purchasing contemporary art. Frey Norris Gallery exhibits paintings, works on paper (including drawings, pastels and watercolors), collage, sculpture, manufactured conceptual work and photographic media.
Address:
456 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
T: (415) 346-7812
F: (415) 346-7877
www.freynorris.com
Hours:
Tuesday — Saturday 11:00 am to 7:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Closed on Monday.
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