Spoke Art Gallery Preview
Spoke Art Gallery recently opened the doors to their humble space to host a group show full of up-and-coming visual artists from around the globe that will soon be having their own solo shows throughout the next season. The appetizer-size taste of art was varied with a number of mediums anywhere from screenprints, graphite, oil and even some oddly awesome, re-purposed stuff.
“A Taste of Things To Come”, an aptly-named show, is a bit of a mini-exhibit which showcases the widely-ranging contemporary styles of nine artists from places like New York, Haiti, El Salvador and right here in California.
Ontario-based illustrator Nimit Malavia’s stunning graphite piece called “Deafening Demons” is illustration of an impossibly-delicate girl with flowing hair and emotion-filled eyes. Austin artist and comic shop owner Tim Doyle channels Shepard Fairey for a Transformers screenprint that plays with Obama’s inescapable 2008 Presidential slogan “Change” and adds a bit of his own flair to it.
Because the Spoke Art Gallery is the sort of hip hole-in-the wall spot you can almost take in all in one breath, it would have been nice to have a little more than the bite-sized show they offered. The white walls almost swallow up the art making the group show somehow seem painfully sparse.
That doesn’t mean that this exhibit isn’t worth catching, though. There are some cool pieces there including New York-based painter Casey Weldon’s strangely cute portraits of Steve Buscemi that will have you seeing double. Portland artist Ron Ulicny provides some fun found art by creating unlikely assemblages out of random stuff like skulls, loafers and deadly weapons.
The most eye-catching (and incidentally, the largest) piece is Grammy-nominated artist and graphic designer Serge Gay Jr. Born in Haiti, he is now based in San Francisco and draws inspiration from his birthplace as well as all the other places he’s visited. The painting “Brick By Falling Brick” tells a small piece of a seemingly unfolding story. In the frozen scene two full-colored youth stand amongst the black-and-white din of a gritty city. A doe-eyed child looks out of the painting while diaphanous, pastel blue figures loom like spirits or memories gone but surely not forgotten. Gay Jr. will be having his solo exhibit later this year at the gallery
“A Taste of Things To Come” will be on display at the Sutter Street gallery through August 25th. After that you will be able to catch all these great artists at their own solo shows.
