JOIN US for the next South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk on February 5th!
8pm ’til LATE — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public
SoFA District (So. First Street between San Carlos and E. Reed streets)

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  

  Opening Reception: ART OF ZINES 2010 featuring hundreds of zines from basements, bedrooms and midnight copy shops throughout the U.S. and abroad.

  We love zines… those little diy, cut-and-paste, copied-on-the-cheap, hand-folded, self-distributed gems that continue to surface because someone, somewhere feels the need to express themselves. It’s that simple. Zines exist and fleurish outside the mainstream with no particular interest whether you’re paying attention or not. According to Chip Rowe, creator of Chip’s Closet Cleaner, “They’re Tinkertoys for malcontents. They’re obsessed with obsession. They’re extraordinary and ordinary. They’re about strangeness but since it’s usually happening somewhere else you’re kind of relieved.”

  Featured Zine sellers: Marc Arsenault, John Bobst, Silvia Chenault, Michael Foley, Ben Henderson, Chris Kardambikis, M Undead, Yumiko Miyagawa, Tomas Moniz, Kyle Pellet, Mahoney Perkins, Louis Schmidt, Matthew Seigel, Kate Steward & Meagan Zupanci

  Music: Adam Lynn, Zoe Boekbinder (Vermillion LIes), Corpus Callosum

• Art Glass Center of San Jose – 465 South First St. map

  

  Bring your Valentine and enjoy live demonstrations by Lionel Chapital and our new instructor Lori Peterson at the torch. No doubt they will take inspiration from the holiday to create one-of-a-kind blown glass sculptures and beads that will warm your heart. Hearts and flowers from 20 other artists spread the love throughout the entire studio.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  [7-9pm] Opening Reception for featured exhibitions by Sandi Billingsley and Mark Damrel with live music by INFM, Tyler Boyd

  
  art by Sandi Billingsley

  Transfiguration is a collection of three dimensional art is an expression of Sandi Billingsley’s faith that “we humans can live in luxury while being environmentally responsible.” Transfiguration is essentially the art of changing the properties of an object. In this case it refers to the changing of garbage into art.

  This series is made entirely from rescued materials. The core is made of Styrofoam collected from shipping packages, friends and dumpsters. Sandi then applies a combination of old paint clothes, junk mail, phone books — basically anything with natural fibers headed for the trash. Dipping these flexible materials in non-toxic glue gives them strength to hold interesting shapes. Finally, the piece is finished with “Aqua Brand” textures and paint which are non-toxic. The result is an environmentally friendly piece of art.

  
  art by Mark Damrel

  Relative Matter is a series of paintings by Mark Damrel inspired by the hardships he encountered on his journey into fatherhood. “Years went by with little to no hope. I started to get used to the fact that I would never have a family, and then it happened.”

  In groupings of mixed media paintings on wood and paper he explores the themes of childhood memories, despair, hope and joy.

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  Castillo, Brown Sugar (detail), giclee, burlap bags, chain, 2009

  Opening reception of Conceptual Landscapes: recent work by Castillo and Mariana Garibay. Ancestry, nature and form are reflected in this two person show featuring site specific installation and works on paper.

• Phantom Galleries – temporary exhibits in vacant storefronts

  
  Guy Brookshire

  386 South First St: Illustrations from the Book of Dreams are book art collages, created with precision blades and glue by destroying reference, art, history, and science publications. They illustrate uncanny narratives of which no knowledge is required. The universe they describe is the work of Guy Benjamin Brookshire.

  
  Kate Stewart

  388 So. First Street: We Are Not From Here/ here we are an exhibit of large oil paintings by Kate Stewart

  Every city has a personality that both shapes and is shaped by the people who live there. People reflect the city as they build it. People fade into the city and embody it. The city learns its own nature by watching. The city and the individual enter a collaboration. Five paintings by Kate Stewart tell the city stories about itself.

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  

  ESCAPE FROM DULLSVILLE – Life is anything but dull in the SLG Boutiki & Gallery, and our first show of the year is no exception. First, artist and writer Andy Ristaino returns presenting artwork from his insanely crazy book Escape from Dullsville. See Andy’s high energy vision and find out for yourself why he was featured in HIgh Fructose magazine.

  Also, local author Dianne Sweeney will be on hand signing copies of her new book Kissing Frogs in Cyberspace.

  Live music by Assemblehead and all the things you have come to expect from an SLG event on South FIRST FRIDAY!

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  Pineapple Variation or Windmill Blades, Unknown quilt maker, Circa 1890

  Exhibits on view: Still Crazy mines the Museum’s permanent collection to explore the glorious Victorian crazy quilt, a purely decorative object that presaged modernists’ use of abstraction and collage techniques and was a forerunner of the contemporary art quilt.

  Also on view: Reincarnation: The Crazy Collage Aesthetic of India & Japan explores how different cultures have interpreted the ‘crazy collage aesthetic’ with c. 1920-1950 Japanese kimonos from the collection of the Clark Center for Japanese Art & Culture and contemporary Indian crazy quilts from the collection of Shobha Imports.

• Works San Jose – 451 South First St. map

  

  Give a little tough love to Works/San Jose and get some back! Come see the (anti)Valentine’s Silent Auction and Exhibition! Preview artworks 12-4pm February 4th and join us First Friday when bidding opens from 12-10pm ~ or buy instantly! Entry to exhibit is free! Bidders pay just $5.

  Installation in Paulette Peterson space by local artist Maynard Edwards

• Caffé Trieste – 315 South First St. map

  

  Opening Reception: All But Purple, paintings by Tamar Belson.

  “Despite my love for the red and blue colors, in this series I did not combine them to create the purple color. I used other basic color and their combinations to create a play of contrasts. Warm and cold colors, lines and shapes on colorful surfaces and circles on squares – being some of them. I am always attracted by the powerful interaction between those contrasts and offer the viewer the surprising and vivid fine balanced outcome.” ~Tamar Belson

  Back at Caffe Trieste for 2010, Opera San José, featuring your favorite arias and duets starting at 8:30pm.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  

  Opening Reception: photography by Nadia Nasiri

  Downtown Yoga Shala is proud to present featured artist Nadia Nasiri, a promising young self-taught photographer and avid yoga practitioner. She shares her love of nature and yoga through her lens. Nadia holds a masters degree in recreation with a focus on international tourism management from San Jose State University. It is her intention and desire to work for a non-profit that does eco trips abroad. Nadia believes in the transformation that is possible through travel and would like to promote travel that is beneficial to the community and the environment. Nadia is fascinated by social change, spirituality, the environment, and the importance of leisure.

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  Opening Reception: Both Before & After by Benjamin Caprile

  Born in Grenoble France, but raised in the Silicon Valley, Benjamin creates surreal landscapes that combine the familiar with the unknown, the mundane with the monumental. Sometimes grotesque and other times serene, the artwork balances opposites through a variety of mediums.

  Live DJ sets by Richard Gutierrez and Claude Cardenas.

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  

  Heart Show photos by the First St. Photo Collective

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  

  On view: Heart Of Chaos Uproar sale closes end of February! Please stop by and place a bid on your favorite art piece.

  South First Billiards is now an ALL AGES venue.