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Museums
Introductions South
Despite a title like (un)Common Ground, the emerging Bay Area talent included in this group show at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art displays a group mentality. This is not to say that they risk conformity. It's quite the opposite, in fact, because each body of work possesses a style unique unto itself. Rather, the artists compiled by curator Chris Oliveria seem to share a common dialogue, one that, aside from other less obvious factors, may result from their shared identity as Bay Area artists. More
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Museums
Commemorating San Francisco's Big One
Those of us who were in the Bay Area for the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake are accustomed to the fear-addled curiosity of out-of-towners. Earthquakes are the most unimaginable of natural disasters for most people because of their sheer unpredictability -- but being so close to Earthquake Central, we often forget the devastating impact of some of history's major calamities. More
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Museums
By Melissa Broder
The Cartoon Art Museum changes their Gorey at Bay exhibit every three months, presenting Edward Gorey lovers with a perennial buffet. For the rest of the population, a trip to the Cartoon Museum is inherently a mind-expanding experience. The current Gorey Stories exhibit altered my perspective on the validity of cartoons, both within a social context and in an aesthetic framework. This exhibit will continue until November 17th, when it will then be replaced by Gorey Details on November 23rd. More
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Museums
Saving the Planet, One Brushstroke at a Time
Centuries before Jackson Pollock dribbled paint on a canvas or Andres Serrano relieved himself on a crucifix, a young Aristotle argued that all art inherently imitates nature. Such a rigid assertion might seem oversimplified today, but its essence holds true. More
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Museums
A Photographer’s Life
Since Demi Moore graced the cover of Vanity Fair back in 1991 nude and pregnant, exuding the immaculate, perfectly glossed sex appeal of a Hollywood screen goddess not in spite of but because of her distended belly, Annie Leibovitz has been heralded as the nation’s foremost celebrity photographer. More
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Museums
The Streamlining of Decadence
For much of the past half-century, critical pundits have treated Art Deco like the spoiled brat whose father's wealth and connections have allowed it easy access to the otherwise impenetrable echelons of the creative elite. "Indulgent", "capricious", and "exploitative" are some of the epithets hurled its way, and while Deco's aesthetic and academic implications have remained largely intact, a gradual acceptance of commercial art has allowed this movement more breathing space in the otherwise stuffy corridors of art criticism. More
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Museums
Skateboards, Slang, and Symbols
Propounding the DIY ethic and jabbering about street cred are, by now, cliches, but something about the persistent vogue of skating culture makes me feel like a downright luddite. Beautiful Losers, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is a celebration of skateboard memorabilia and contemporary art inspired by skateboard culture. In the 1990s, a group of American artists barely out of their teens redefined youth subculture by connecting the dots between skateboarding, graffiti, street fashion, and music... More
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Museums
Surrealist Photography and Sculpture
Andre Breton defined surrealism as, "psychic automatism in its pure state, by which on purposes to express, verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern." It's important to carry a working definition of surrealism around with you while navigating through the seemingly never-ending SFMOMA exhibition, Beyond Real: Surrealist Photography and Sculpture from Bay Area Collections. More
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Museums
Rise and Fall of a Global Icon
The latest exhibit at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a methodical multimedia retrospective that probes the legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the controversial Nigerian Afrobeat musician and activist who died of AIDS-related complications in 1997 at the age of 58. Conceived by Brooklyn-based curator Trevor Schoonmaker, the exhibit showcases the work of 30 contemporary artists who distill Fela's enigmatic persona and revolutionary proclivities... More
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Museums
By Rodrigo Diaz
Video as a medium has expanded our understanding of our sense of sight -- however it has come with limitations. Video footage of the Rodney King beating and recent terrorists attacks ingrain themselves in our collective psyche. Yet acquittals of the police officers, and analogies to an "action film come alive", elucidate video's failure to truly communicate "reality." This is the premise that Blind Vision: Video and the limits of Perception at the San Jose Museum of Art, through November 11, 2001, aspires to highlight, yet partially misses due to the selection of artists and a claustrophobic presentation. More
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