JOIN US for the next South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk + STREET MRKT on September 5th 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 featuring 20+ participating venues, September 5th comes with STREET MRKT, our nighttime urban faire featuring 40 local artists and live music out on the street in the SoFA District (on South First St. from San Carlos to San Salvador) and in the People’s Park at South First & William St. Free and open to the public.

NEW EXHIBITS…

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

  

  galleryONE: Opening reception for The Bride Series by Cake (Brooklyn, NY)

  Jennifer Caviola, aka “Cake” is a fine artist that focuses on public space as platform to express her support of all women with a voice of solidarity. Communicating through portraiture, women’s curves become sharp lines that in an architectural sense, propel a feeling of strength, power and vulnerability.

  This particular volume of paintings: The Bride Series, is a result of a lost marriage, which left her wondering who she was and what she could do to reclaim herself. Cake painted every day into the night for five months straight until the series was finished, and each Bride carried her closer to a healed heart.

  Caviola has a BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute and a MFA in Fine Arts from the Parsons School of Design. She has been featured in the Huffington Post, Complex Magazine, Vogue and High Fructose Mag just to name a few. She was recently featured at a recent panel discussion on Street Art at The Brooklyn Museum for her mural in the Bowery that she made in conjunction with FAB NYC and Many Project. The artist resides and works in Brooklyn, New York.

  Special Performance: Freya Seeburger

  

  galleryTWO: On view: A Human Race by Zero Cents (Tel Aviv, Israel)

  Zero Cents (b.1986) is an American-born Israeli-based artist living and working in Tel Aviv. For the past 9 years, the artist has been working both in studio and on the streets, painting murals and creating site-specific installations. The artist’s work deals with observations on people surrounding him: the lovers and fighters, the party-ers, the thinkers, the dancers and the damned.

  Through his work, the artist documents the energy the human race creates, the wisdom, morals, values (or the lack of them) that they pass on. While conducting this research, he communicates the subjects’ movement and energy on a variety of surfaces–from found wood to city walls–using various mediums and techniques without judgment. Using these components as a metaphor for forgiveness, Zero Cents shows the human race as it is, in the most authentic and honest way he feels possible.

  Zero Cents has exhibited in group shows around the world and solo exhibitions in Tel Aviv. A Human Race at Anno Domini is his first solo exhibition abroad.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  KALEID Gallery is pleased to present two new feature exhibitions by our resident artists, LAuruS Myth and Tanya Varga.

  
  

  Artist’s Reception: Spirit Walks by LAuruS Myth

  LAuruS is a prolific artist who expresses the constant search inward and outward for a collective power. Her paintings speak about a native connection we share throughout our diverse cultures. The symbols in her paintings are derived from her intimate interactions with other cultures. She recreates visions of her world that fuses sciences with spirit, and nature with innovation. While finding a deep connection to every culture and bits of nature she permeates, LAuruS celebrates the varieties of experience throughout her paintings and hopes to evoke a worldly sense of unity.

  Spirit Walks will immerse the viewer in enchanting imagery of Thailand, Cambodia, Peru and visions from within. From the peaks of mountain temples to the sacred valleys, an uplifting journey unfolds to speak of this deep earthly connection we can awaken from within.

  
  

  Artist’s Reception: Celestial by Tanya Varga

  For the theme of this exhibition, Tanya has created various works relating to celestial bodies and phenomenon. Tanya has a strong fascination with science, astronomy and science fiction. With these passions intertwined, comes a new series of work that promises to lift the spirits into the outer spheres of beauty and wonderment.

  Having worked for years with traditional mediums, such as oil and charcoal, she eventually discovered digital painting and has loved it ever since. Unlike with traditional painting, however, she is completely self-taught. She has advanced her skills with a lot of hard work, experimentation and practice. Her work has been featured in various publications such as Spectrum (“The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art”), Expose (“The Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe”), Exotique (“The Worlds Most Beautiful CG Character Art”), Corel Painter and ImagineFX magazine among other publications.

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

  
  Dulce Pinzón, Spiderman

  UNMASKED
  Work by Hector Hernandez, Dulce Pinzón, Carlos Donjuan, & Rio Yañez

  MACLA presents, UNMASKED, an exhibition exploring cultural and social issues of identity and otherness through the visual language of comic books, science fiction and superheroes and through the diverse work of local and national Latino artists.

  Come experience El Trio, a small ensemble performing everything from folklórico favorites to jazzy Cuban juapango to tango to thought-provoking modern fare in the Castellano Playhouse at 8:30pm.

• Seeing Things Gallery – 30 North Third St. map

  
  Top of the Shop by Jane Matchak

  Wouldn’t It Be Nice group exhibition

  A year ago I decided that our gallery was not showcasing enough women in art. So I decided that I was going to compile a list of women whom I had admired and was going to curate a show and put together more shows in the future featuring women artists. For this show I had this idea that I wanted it to be at the end of the summer, hence a show in September, and that it would have some sort of water theme, and as much as I want to describe it to you, I do have a difficult time trying to make it, make sense. I wanted these 9 women to showcase any medium of art with some sort of water theme, with my dreaminess in tact and saying “you know what I mean?” a lot to them. I have seen and spoken to some of the women on what they are going to do or have been working on and so far the conversations have been exactly what I was thinking, but couldn’t quite put it in words.So I welcome, Dalila Acuna, Jennifer Ahn, Polina Zaiko, Frances Marin, Nancy Ahn, Jill Bonny, Kim Christman, Thoey Ngo and Tanya Angeli to Seeing Things Gallery to show us, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”. ~Blanche Gonzalez, curator

• Silicon Valley Music Festival at Sliding Door Company – 355 South First St. map

  
  

  The Silicon Valley Music Festival introduces for the 2014-2015 “South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk!” Season its Diversity Arts Performances, located at The Sliding Door Company. SVMF will feature monthly world music and youth performances along with an on-going collaboration with Visual Artist, Supraja Kolluri and her focus on “Shishya Art”, a sanskrit word for students. As an artist Supraja is dedicated to enabling students in Silicon Valley, as well as India to explore and experience artistic mediums. With this in mind, SVMF proudly joins Supraja and this month will feature local youth music ensembles from the Capriccio Chamber Music Institute. Please join us on September 5th for an evening of Music and Art.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  A Brief History by Kerry Conboy

  A Crack in the Earth

  The annual salon of artist members of Works/San José is a broad survey of regional artists, from the most exhibited to those showing for the first time. See what’s happening and what is on the horizon from our area’s expansive community of artists and ideas.

• ZERO1 Garage – 439 South First St. map

  
  Gut Feeling, by Eric Parren

  BRING IT! Performance Art Series

  Come to the ZERO1 Garage for the last performance of our BRING IT! Performance Art Series featuring Los Angeles artist Eric Parren. Explore E. coli bacteria, the humble organisms with whom we share a symbiotic relationship. Eric Parren’s Gut Feeling investigates the boundaries of microcinematography and live cinema performance by using imagery from an advanced optical microscope and by employing building blocks of the promising field of synthetic biology as the content of an audiovisual adventure. Experience a rare, immersive view of microorganisms through time-lapse microscopy footage of genetically modified E. coli bacteria, at more than a hundred thousand times their original size.

• Art Ark Gallery – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  Art Box by Judy Roberto

  Opening Reception 6–9pm: Martha Gardens/Spartan Keyes Neighborhood Art Box Exhibition

  A celebration of artwork by local artists commissioned by the Art Box Project.This art exhibition is in conjunction with the Martha Gardens Art Box Festival at Bestor Art Park and in partnership with Clean Creeks Healthy Communities. It showcases original works of art on utility boxes in the Martha Gardens/Spartan Keyes neighborhood. The Art Box Project beautifies San Jose neighborhoods by bringing artists & community together.

  Participating Artists: John Cloud, Bea Garth, Paul J. Gonzalez, Carrie Lyons, Mark Martinez, Laurus Myth, Isabel Quinonez, Judy Roberto, Monika Rose, Maggie So, and Scott Willis

• Discover San Jose – 150 South First St., Suite 103 map

  
  

  Artist of the month: Jennifer Hendricks / Lavendar Designs

  Unique jewelry art formed and sculpted out of metal clay–once fired is solid and 99% pure. The Gemstones used are ethically mined and 90% of the metal is reclaimed and/or recycled from electronics and factories..Much of this jewelry art is influenced by historical imagery of family lines of women (ie. Island Royalty, Russian Family Line, Cave Women, etc.) When bringing forth a creation, Jennifer’s motivation is the end result-Your Happiness!

  
  

  Special musical guest: ASCENDANT

  A vector. A stream. A division. A branching off from the source code transmission. Optimal conditions that create light, life, and matter itself. What begins as the very collapse of that fusion turns on itself to create a universe with endless expansion and worlds of boundless capacity. A perfect alignment that never resolves. Join Ascendant on their continuous journey of discovery with an sneak peek into their new album, Optima.

  Local food sampling by Oso Pepper Co.

  The idea for Oso Pepper Company began with the belief that a pepper sauce should convey more than just the sensation of, “my mouth is on fire.” It should convey the taste of the pepper itself. Come and sample the family of sauces & pickled products that are a pleasurable mix of peppers, spices & love.

• Studio Climbing Gym – 396 South First St. map

  
  

  Opening reception: Ahhh… by Lucas Nissen

  My art is full of bold colors and shapes. Seemingly random, yet deliberate and intentional. Like my life.

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  

  TechShop San Jose presents George Bisceglia of Bisceglia Guitars

  Bisceglia Guitars is a small company fabricating beautifully handcrafted instruments to customer specifications. Located in San Jose California, George Bisceglia uses his extensive experience and knowledge of woodworking in addition to extensive Luthier knowledge and skills to create custom guitars that are completely crafted with the highest quality materials available. George continues to strive toward perfection not only in a quality guitar but also toward exceptional tone that you would expect from a fine instrument. His goal with his work is to please his customers by crafting fine instruments that exceed their expectations. George uses TechShop to assist in his design and fabrication. Using the our ShopBot CNC router, George has optimized the carving of guitars to maximize his time and design skill.

  “I started hand crafting guitars from a challenge from one of the finest guitarists that ever lived: Dave Meniketti of the world known band Y&T and one of my best friends. In 2002, after seeing some of my woodworking projects Dave said “why don’t you build me a guitar”. My reaction to that was ” I have no idea how to build guitars. And then I thought I have the woodworking skills to build anything. So for 6 months I got my hands on every guitar building book I could get my hands on and studied the science of building guitars. When I crafted Dave’s guitar, which was actually the second guitar I ever made, and he played it he was blown away by it. It’s now, in his own words, his favorite guitar. His guitar and my AshCourt guitar were the primary guitars used in their new CD Facemelter. Quite an honor to be bestowed on me.”

CONTINUED EXHIBITS…

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

  

  This September, join us for STREET MRKT where you’ll find our happy band of mud-flinging pyromaniacs and piles of pots. Browse for bowls, plates, vases, mugs and more at the Higher Fire booth on South 1st Street.

• Phantom Galleries – 95 South Market St. map

  
  

  Phantom Galleries presents: California new works by Alexandria Kerekez

  “I followed the current toward the bay from my birthplace along the Sacramento River. California has befriended, mentored, and shared its bounty with me so charitably, I am honored to dedicate my life and work to its celebration. This collection of work reflects my adventures and time well spent with California.” -Alexandria Kerekez

• Caffé Frascati – 315 South First St. map

  First Fridays is Caffe Frascati Opera Night presented by First Street Singers, with the Bay Area’s finest opera singers performing your very favorite classical arias and duets live in the cafe!

• First to Market Restaurant – 399 South First St. map

  
  

  First to Market presents mixed media works by Colin Jaramillo.

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  Phantom Galleries presents Definitely Not Digital: an excursion into the abstract and surreal by artist Tom Dytko.

  “The use of technology to create visual art today has raised the bar for artists working with traditional media. A good digital artist can create images and videos to stimulate the senses in ways those working with the traditional mediums can only dream. As such, we are challenged to create static images that are not easily replicated using technology, to not copy reality, but still solicits and toys with an individual’s eye and thoughts, perhaps stimulating the imagination or stirring an emotion.”

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  Art by Michael Foley

  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 Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Valery Milovic, Carlos Villez, Eric Joyner, Laura Callin Bennett, John Hageman and John Cloud!

• 

  A nighttime DIY urban faire that brings together 40 local artists, creative indie vendors and a live music stage. Street Mrkt programming bookends the SoFA District: with great artists and live music in two locations: on South First Street between San Carlos & San Salvador streets; and in the People’s Park at South First & William streets. The Street Mrkt takes place during the South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk hours of 7–11pm, and is free and open to the public.

  Participating Artists: Frank Aguilar, Aqua Nest, The Art Yard, Bolo Vintage, William Bryant, Keith Bunnell, David Canavese, Crossroads Trading Co., Current Tattoo, Donbon, EyeDesign Art, J.Fein Designs, Force 129, Francisco Franco, Lila Gemellos , Cynthia Gonzalez, Higher Fire Ceramics, Kolors of Earth Jewelry, KQED Arts featuring Scape Martinez and Thien Pham, Luna Park Chalk Art Festival, Masetas Rotas, David Mejia, The Poetry Site w/ David Perez, James Pollard , Al Preciado, Out of Print Vintage, Llunuel Richards, SLG / Art Boutiki, Steamy Tech , TechShop SJ, There There, Tinkertart , Stretched Canvas, Visual Confections, Works Gallery & JoAnne Yada.

  

  The STREET MRKT main stage is the official stop for the Be Here Now Tour 2014 featuring Be Calm Honcho, Brother Grand, and Sea Knight!

  Also performing is El Otro Mundo (eom) Sessions in The People’s Park / Parque de Los Pobladores.