At the end of the year, I find that there are many primary art exhibitions that I saw could not write yet.
Last September, the stop in San Francisco in other projects, I had the possibility of seeing 3 notable art exhibitions.
The first two were at the San Francisco Museum of Art (SFMoMA). The most striking was an installation of sculptural automatons by Kara Walker, called Fortuna and the Immortality Garden Machine.
It is known that Kara Walker recovers the department to exploit the racist images of the Civil War of the Black Life Civil War and say the fact by force of the murderous and sexual predation that occurred, all formulated in photographs of the slave of the slave life of the Slave of the plantation and the screens of Ménestrel.
In this installation, the full title of which is Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine) / A Respite for the Weary Time-Traveler. / Featuring a Rite of Ancient Intelligence Carried out by The Gardeners / Toward the Continued Improvement of the Human Specious / by Kara E-Walker, the artist has created a series of figures standing in a field of black lava rock. These are Afro-futurist figures, that at the same time harken back to the Victorian-era dress of The Civil War-era South, while also recalling Octavia Butler’s science fiction, such as Parable of the Sower. Similarly, these figures move like ancient fun-fair automatons but at the same time are unlike anything you’ve ever seen, at times grotesque, and at other moments, charming and captivating.
A commentary on Beyond Trauma, our providing and providing an imaginable hope for the future, the Fortuna figure is separated from others, dispensing the fortune published as Koans to visitors, which are published from their mouths and then fall as tapes to the ground . It is strange, disturbing and merits that can be seen.
Looking at work, you must respect Walker to go. As an artist, she is not afraid. However, for me, he feels more like an experiment, than a permanent direction for his work. Time will say it, and there is no doubt about it, it will continue to be a vital touchstone in its evolutionary career.
Ron Veasey., Untitled n.d., Purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Honig, Creative Growth
Another exhibition at SFMOMA that I saw in recent weeks, Creative Growth: The House That Built the Art, talked about the Bay Region-founded nonprofit that, over the past 50 years, has encouraged other people to make art.
Founded through the artist Florence Katz and her husband, the psychologist Elias Katz, in the garage of her Berkeley house in 1974, her founding documents affirm: “Our philosophy is that each user has the right to the richest complete progression and maximum of which they are capable. “
Many of the individuals in its program came to artmaking later in life, and have become recognized artists. So much so that SFMoMA has acquired a trove by Creative Growth artists, including Joseph Alef, Camille Holvoet, Susan Janow, Dwight Mackintosh, John Martin, Dan Miller, Donald Mitchell, Judith Scott, William Scott, Ron Veasey, and Alice Wong.
Today, more than 140 artists work at the organization, using every medium, from painting and drawing to ceramics, wood, fiber, digital media, and printmaking. Not only is the work interesting but it imparts joy in the expression of creativity fostered by the organization.
Alex Stern, Star Colored David 2023
Finally and above all, I went to Fresh Jewish Museum (the CJM) to see his first exhibition of open calls 1 of Jewish identity artists in California. This exhibition aroused controversy at each stage. Some artists did not need to identify themselves as Jews (that is, that we are only artists), others sought their paintings to explain their antiisraelí and / or their resistant Palestinian nationalist movements. In the end, the museum left an empty area wall for artists whose paintings were accepted but decided not to participate and withdrew their paintings.
Tiffany Shlain, my center will be 2023
Leaving aside the political controversy, the works on demonstrations represented a wide diversity of works through artists who identify as Jews. Some had visual Jewish connotations, some none. The works were in a media medium.
The artists whose paintings exhibited in the Jewish Open of the California Open Richard H. Alpert, Cheselyn Amato, Alexis Arnold, Marianna Baker, Robin L. Bernstein, Emily Bogin, Leon Borensztein, Natalya Burd, Kim Kyne Cohen, Beth Fein, Rebecca Fox , Deborah Benioff Friedman, Elina Fumerman, J. Ruth Gendler, Rebekah Goldstein, Amadi Greenstein, Ash Hay, Christine Huhn, Ken Kalman, Marty Katzoff, Mirka Knaster, Lisa Kokin, Anna Landa, Liz Lauter, Terri loewenthalarray Bernie Lubell, Stela Mandel Mandel Mandel Mandel . Array Bonny Nahmias, Irene Nelson, Vanessa Niederstraser, Meirav ongo, Rebecca Ora (Rora), Laura Pura, Forest Reid, Georgina Reskala, Kim Schoenstadt, Ronit Shalem, Laurie Shapiro, Tiffany Shlain, Deborah Stein, Alex Stern, Vanessa, Asar, Asar, Asar, Asar, Asar, Asar, Asar, Asar Thorman, Amy Trachtenberg, Anne Wolf, Steven Wolkoff and Holly Wong.
The CJM recently announced that that they were closing temporarily, perhaps for up to a year as they reconsider their financial path to sustainability. It would be unfortunate to lose this great institution that has exhibited so many creative, thoughtful, and thought-provoking work that explore Jewish creativity.
These shows stayed with me, and were part of what made the West Coast such a dynamic center for Art in 2024.
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