JOIN US for the next South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk on AUGUST 3rd
featuring STREET MRKT from 7–11pm. RSVP

The South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk is a self-guided evening tour through galleries, museums, and independent creative businesses featuring exhibitions and special performances. In addition to the monthly art walk, August 3rd features the nighttime urban faire, STREET MRKT, with 40 artists, creative vendors and a live music stage out on South First Street (between San Carlos and San Salvador).

It all kicks off at 7pm! All art venues and the STREET MRKT are FREE & open to the public.

• STREET MRKT
  A nighttime DIY urban faire that brings together local artists, creative indie vendors and a live music stage with performances by Benjamin Henderson, The Wild Reeds and Mad Noiseout on South First Street between San Carlos and San Salvador streets. Free and open to the public.

  Participating artists / creatives:
  17jewels, Anointed Apparel, Becca’s Studio, Sandi Billingsley, Blue Dream Project, Boombotix, Mchael Borja, Bugs & Monsters, Keith Bunnell, David Canavese, Crossroads Trading, Death Before Dishonor, Fora & Fauna, Francisco Franco, Galactic Romance Clothing, Emo Gonzales, Ike Greca, Andre Hart, iMINUSd, Jumbo Jibbles, Matt Lopez, Luna Chalk Art Festival, Mejia Arts, LAuruS Myth, Jose Nunez, Old Souls Clothing, Out of Print Vintage, Al Preciado, Steven Reece=, Rock N The Trend, SLG/ArtBoutiki, Social Villains, Tacti Design, Trading Tortoise by Souther Salazar & Monica Choy, Visual Confections, Wadl, Zatoon Clothing

  https://www.southfirstfridays.com/street-mrkt/

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

  
  

  Artist’s Reception: This Snow Rising Faring Purth solo exhibition

  Faring Purth moves from the open air canvas of the streets to gallery exhibition at Anno Domini for her debut solo show. Her hard upbringing, aggressive youth and her years of work in caring for the dying is permeated through the layers of meaning in her loose figurative visual imagery. The initial reaction upon viewing Purth’s paintings may be to think it grotesque in nature but that feeling quickly washes away as the beauty and dignity of these subjects surface when looking into their soulful eyes.

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  

  Hunter Westra’s work combines medieval influence with whimsical flourish to produce gorgeous chalices, goblets, and jars. Westra uses both wheel-thrown and coil-building techniques to realize a subtle, textured surface with gorgeous glazes adorning the exteriors of pieces. Westra will demonstrate his unique coil-building construction techniques during the August First Friday evening!

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  Opening reception for two new solo exhibitions by KALEID Gallery artists Steven Borelli and Zoya Scholis featuring live cello music by Freya.

  
  

  Creatively Maladjusted new works by Steven Borelli

  Emerging from a six year creative block, I find myself finally back in the flow. The works of art in this show are the visions of that return. No theme. No connection. The works are not a product of thought, but of feeling. Each individual. Each immersive. Every meaning correct. Exhilarating. Terrifying. Inspiring. There is no safety in art. Jump in.

  
  

  POLYGONS new works on paper by Zoya Scholis

  One is reminded of Japanese box kites and Op-art. These are not flat paintings, but in a playful move, watercolor polygons folded convexly to tease 3-D possibilities with their linen lines and irregular geometry. Cold press watercolor paper is covered with wild calligraphic brush stokes and splatter refined by a pattern of circles and random panels of translucent acrylic washes. Hanging them about half an inch from the wall, gives them space to breathe and makes possible shadows that dramatize their appeal. They are arranged to suggest flight and merriment, but take note: some are shaped like coffins.

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

  Efren Álvarez, The Game of Hope, 63 oil on canvas paintings, 2011

  Come join us at MACLA for an engaging evening of art and performances! In MACLA’s Gallery: Even the Smallest Change Can Be Profound exhibition. Artist talk @ 7pm and come play The Game of Hope with artist Efren Álvarez @ 8pm. MACLA’s Castellano Playhouse: Free Flamenco dance lessons and performance by the artists of The Flamenco Society of San José.

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

   

  95 South Market St: Cambrian Artists League Group Exhibit

• San Jose Jazz at Pagoda Restaurant & Bamboo Lounge – 170 South Market St. map

  
  

  Doug Ellington Trio for San Jose Jazz

  San Francisco Bay Area local Doug Ellington fuses Jazz, Hip-Hop and R&B into a wild, yet smooth groove. All About Jazz notes that, for Ellington, “music [pulses] through his bloodstream.” This trumpet player, composer, and bandleader is talented beyond the likes of his grand uncle, The Duke himself. Ellington’s most recent CD Life debuted in 2005, with his group the New Urban Groove. Bandmates include Chazz Alley on reeds, Nate Paese on bass, Ricky Carter on percussion, and Jacob Smolowe on keys.

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

  
  

  2nd International TECHstyle Art Biennial (ITAB)

  With art that will appeal to both the traditional quilter, and the technophile alike, the exhibition includes pieces that feature traditional hand-work (such as locally hand-made Kapa cloth) as well as high-tech pieces of quilted binary code, QR code, and HTML; digital processes including machine embroidery, jacquard weaving, and printing; 3-D rendering; laser engraving; and much more. Quilt enthusiasts will particularly delight in the wide range of quilts that make use of digital imagery and digital printing. The work featured in this exhibition is sculptural, clever, and transformative.

• Cardboard Box Theatre Project at San Jose Stage Company Courtyard – 490 South First St. map

  
  

  Cardboard Box Theatre Project is a South Bay company dedicated to the creation of new works and the presentation of old works in new ways.

  Throughout the evening, they will present a series of unique and rather strange characters who will cause you to question – and enjoy – the blurred line between reality and a surreal vision of reality. Be prepared to be surprised as the person standing next to you may be more than they first appear.

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

  
  

  The Art Boutiki celebrates the steamy summer with a show called Steampunk Visions featuring the art of San Jose artist Dorothy Whitman. Sculpture, jewelry and the like will be on display.

  Live music by Grooveyard Shift will keep jazz fans feeling cool in the hot month of August.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  Bill Gould

  Benefit Auction Exhibition

  A myriad of up-and-coming to established regional artists have donated work to benefit Works—your nonprofit community art and performance center. This First Friday is the opening reception and start of the preview exhibition leading up the the Benefit Auction on August 18. Join us at Works as dozens of artists put on display both their talent and their support for our community!

• Caffé Frascati – 315 South First St. map

  Caffe Frascati Opera Night! presented by First Street Singers. All your favorite arias and duets performed live by some of the Bay Area’s best opera singers.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  Marcia Rendon, Sunset on the Malecon in La Paz, watercolor on Fabriano paper, 2011

  Join us after Candlelight Yoga (5:30-6:45pm) as Downtown Yoga Shala opens its doors to welcome art patrons and the downtown community. We are proud to feature artists Marcia Rendon and Miguel Moreno, with their exhibit, LA BAJA SUR.

  Marcia Rendon, architect, expresses her passion for Baja California Sur, with this collection of watercolor landscapes; an outburst of color and poetry. Miguel Moreno, architect, studies the façades resulting from the interplay between Mexico and Spain. Windows, doors and balconies become the symbols of a heritage, a melange of genes and histories.

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

  

  Phantom Galleries presents Haley Goodlett at Good Karma Vegan Cafe.

  Working in a variety of exploding color, Haley Goodlett brings you her most recent inspirations from the sea. From acrylic paintings to seashell jewelry, and decorative boxes, Haley’s art is all about texture. As a legally blind artist, she is always curiously excited about new tactile methods of expression. Don’t miss this chance to check out some good color at Good Karma.

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  

  The Desert Has a Human Problem by Alex Stover

  The desert is an empty place, yet full of impossible distances and clear hot skies.

  Despite the sand and the oppressive heat, we feel the need to fill this emptiness. We create, we build, we live, we play, we pray, only to later recede like the absent tide on this waterless beach. What is left behind never moves. Yet, it all still eventually finds itself lost, returned to the sand, the heat, and the slow passage of time.

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  Phantom Galleries presents Year of the Dragon 2012 by Curt Schauer at Pho69.

  Dragons are powerful mythical creatures that symbolize strength, health, harmony, intellectuality and luck. In Year Of The Dragon. 2012 Curt explores Asian influences in his artwork. Monotype, contact print and calligraphic collage are the media represented in this exhibit, all based in Eastern philosophy, beliefs and current affairs.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  Christine Benjamin

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Valery Milovic, Carlos Villez, Eric Joyner, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters, John Hageman and Robert McColley!

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

  
  Dylan Kelly

  Live and original art by: reyes, one five seven, mike 3.5, dylan kelly, and delski. Music, kao,mr.grey and dj shyamroc, yeshua & the hightones, blank manuscript, and djmystik.

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  

  Members will be bringing in projects that they have made at TechShop. Come check out what projects you can make at TechShop!

• Art Ark Gallery – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  

  6–9pm Genesis: paintings and drawings by Jason Adkins

  The violence and turmoil of creation and apocalypse are embraced with mutual celebration in these recent works by Jason Adkins. Abstract yet suggestive forms wreath and twist in a (often) gluttonous display across the canvas threatening to overwhelm with visual chaos. There is much and more to look at and the longer you stare the more you see. Of this work Jason states “In this age of complexity, myth and reality seem more synonymous than antonymous—so intellectually I toy with the layered mythos of my reality; religious upbringing, sexual deviation, evolution, genetics and human environmental crisis. Yet all thoughts remain subservient to ambiguities of pictorial form.”

  With live music by Folk Atrocity