JOIN US for the next South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk on May 1st from 7–11pm. RSVP

The South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk is a self-guided evening tour through galleries, museums, and independent creative businesses featuring eclectic art exhibitions and special performances.

NEW EXHIBITS…

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

  
  

  Opening Reception: SPECTRUM an exploration of the never ending possibilities of an amazing material.

  The 50+ glass artists represented in this show utilize a wide variety of processes to create the work presented in the gallery. With high caliber skillfulness, these featured artists are able to mold an everyday material into fantastic visual delights. Whether it is traditional glassblowing, flameworking, casting, alternative print processes, repurposed found objects, or a combination of all of the above, this show illustrates a small slice of how artists are using this amazing material as an expression of their creative vision.

  This exhibition coincides with the Glass Art Society’s 44th Annual International Glass Conference to be held in San Jose this June.

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

  
  

  Where Art Cradles Life

  Explore the world of organic form and texture with Joseph Hidalgo! Natural plant patterns are mirrored and married to organic containers created by the artist. Joseph will demonstrate his construction techniques for making pots specifically for drought-tolerant plants, including how to magically match the plant to the perfect pot! Hidalgo is a board member of San Jose’s Cactus and Succulent Society.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  Join us for the debut of two new feature exhibits by gallery resident artists.

  
  

  Color Me Free new work by Sandi Billingley

  As an artist, Billingsley has always been inspired by the notion of liberty and the ease with which it can be taken away. In this new series, she visualizes liberty through the imagery of animals, gender and even dance.

  
  

  Four Artists, Live Collaborations featuring: Jay Cee, Nekyua, Theresa Merchant, and Al Preciado

  This group of 4 artists have worked organically over the last few months to produce live paintings and masks based on characters, mythology and animal forms.

• Phantom Galleries at Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  Lift Off 2015 + Phantom Galleries at Pho69 presents “Star-Crossed Lovers”, an exhibition celebrating the work of San Jose State University MFA graduates Devon McKnight, Lindsay Montgomery, and Scotty Gorham. The work of these three artists interact with the lively and hip downtown Pho restaurant, exploring themes of tragic destinies and doomed lovers.

• Phantom Galleries at SoFA Market – 387 South First St. map

  
  Acrylic on 100 x 4 ft. Walmart cotton scroll (now torn), methylcellulose, hide glue, marble gesso and gouache on wood panels.

  Phantom Galleries presents Broken World by Briana Lyon at SoFA Market.

  Native Californian artist Briana Lyon brings us her massive installation Broken World. This 12-piece series explores the fractures hidden in our rural landscapes and the vision of a world being torn apart by synthetic living. Created over five years of residence in rugged British Columbia, Broken World combines Lyon’s intensive studies in Chinese literati painting with modern art. The pieces play plastic, factory-intensive materials directly against all natural, handmade painting mediums.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  artwork by Rob Toloy

  Natural Extraction a landscape of emerging artists

  Twenty-two local artists draw inspiration from nature, distilling forms from the landscape to reorient themselves within the natural world. Although our species undeniably forms a part of a larger ecosystem, our relationship to this ecosystem grows ever more convoluted, as our constructed environments become considered an extension of nature itself.

• ZERO1 Garage – 439 South First St. map

  
  

  Don’t miss a night of interactive multi-media experience at ZERO1 during May’s South FIRST FRIDAYS. Come enjoy a glass of wine, interesting art and learn more about how ZERO1 connects creative explorers in art, science, and technology to provoke new ideas that shape a more resilient future.

• Art Ark Gallery – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  Image by Alyssa Eustaquio.

  Opening Reception: Lift Off 2015 SJSU MFA Graduate Exhibition

  Participating Artists: Alyssa Eustaquio, Ann Ryals, Charuta Seith, Devon McKnight, Elizabeth Torrance, John Stewart, Kathleen McDonald, Lindsay Montgomery, Nin Filip, Scotty Gorham, Temara Danoyan, and Thomas Sanders.

  Live Music: Davarone Boo

• Cafe Stritch – 374 South First St. map

  

  An Evening of the Music and Art of Smith Dobson V: “The Eye, And Other Works”

  Since early childhood, artist/writer/musician Smith Dobson V has been attracted to abstract art, particularly painting. Growing up around a family of musicians, creative pursuits were always encouraged in the household. While painting has always been a substantial part of Dobson’s creative life, he has never, until now, showed his work in public. Dobson’s first exhibition features several new paintings completed in the past couple of years and show influences of abstract expressionism, minimalism, contemporary art, photography and film. Dobson also considers music a huge influence on his visual art. The paintings explore themes or repression, such as Orwellian surveillance and incarceration, juxtaposed with freer themes in other works, such as dance and Nordic landscape. There are also many paintings in the series that have no specific conceptual identity, and Dobson always openly encourages the individual to have their own ideas and experiences when viewing his work.

• The Craftsman – 399 South First St. map

  
  

  Abraham Menor is a community artist, organizer, and street photography based in San Jose, California. He is currently working on a collection that combines both his art/ mixed media and photography. Combining the two worlds allows Menor to put a creative twist to the subjects that he captures on the streets around the world.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us after Deepa’s Yoga-Pilates Fusion class (5:30-6:45pm) for the May South First Friday Art Walk, as we open our doors from 7-10pm to welcome art patrons and the downtown community. For the month of May, the exhibit represents part of a school wide collaboration between Schallenberger School in Willow Glen and the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga. The school’s fourth grade students, explored nature and natural elements through mix media. They worked with ceramics, paint, watercolor, pastels and photography. Their works were inspired by lessons in environmentalism and conservation offered by resident artist, Travis John. These young artists and their teachers, Kim Cox, Nahrain Kaska, Lisa Avila and Binh Le Herrera are delighted to have an opportunity to share their work. Let’s show them our whole-hearted appreciation and support!

  Also during the Art Walk; come have some YUMMY PIE and support Tibetan Nuns!
  ($5/slice or $24 whole pie – All proceeds help Buddhist nuns in and around Lhasa,Tibet). Apple, Blackberry Ginger, Apple Crunch, Pumpkin, Raspberry, Peach, Strawberry Rhubarb, Olliberry, Shaker Lemon

• SJSU BFA Animation/Illustration at the Citadel – 199 Martha St. map

  
  Illustration by Luke Suzumoto

  A group exhibition of art work by students from San Jose State University’s Animation/Illustration graduating class of 2015.

• South First Billiards – 420 South First St. map

  
  

  “Lift Off 2015” at South First Billiards celebrate the work of San Jose State University MFA graduates Elizabeth Torrance, Nin Filip, John Stewart, and Ann Ryals. Excited by the possibility to interact with the bar scene, pool tables, and exposed brick, these artists create an environment that shifts between gritty and ethereal, playful and haunting.

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  

  TechShop SJ presents: Jansen Wright – 180°

  As our eyes take in the world around us, we learn standards of form, color and movement. 180° takes elements of projection mapping, animated illusions, and viewer interaction to blur the lines of perception. The triangle is fundamental in composing even the most complex polygonal structures. Carved of tessellated triangles, 180° is a large wood surface designed for video projecting forms based on user inputs.

• Vyne Bystro – 110 Paseo de San Antonio Walk map

  

  Andrew Wallace Solo Exhibit

  To extract the essence of humanity is to reduce the many to one. The solitary figure, repeated throughout Andrew Wallace’s work, conveys the sense of human fallibility and the inconstant desires possessed. The permanent shadow cast from the industrial revolution transformed philosophical and social ideals still upheld today. Inspired fromm early 19th century prints and photographs, Wallace, seeks a period free from the current mainstream societal decay.

CONTINUED EXHIBITS…

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

  
  Image credit: Benito Rangel de Maria, Microcosm Chandelier, 2015. Mixed media on paper.on paper.

  MACLA presents, the 17th Latino Art Now! Exhibition & Auction

  Featuring over fifty works by contemporary Latino artists. You can preview the art works for sale on Flickr anytime or during gallery hours. Save the Date: 25th Anniversary Celebration & Art Auction May 16, 2015, 6pm doors open

  

  Capoeira of San Jose, 8pm

  Enjoy the rich history, movements and music of Capoeira and experience this unique Brazilian martial art that combines dance, acrobatics and music.

• Seeing Things Gallery – 30 North Third St. map

  
  

  Artist’s reception: “BLOOD SWEAT TEAL” by Jason Adams

  Jason Adams has made a living out of his expertise with a stick. His precision movements can be seen in countless videos and photo shoots, which span two decades. His Campbell garage is filled with monuments to his craft. The scars of past accomplishments cover his body like the damage on a derby car that just won’t quit. Jason Adams is a professional skateboarder, and visual artist. He’s also a devoted Sharks fan.

  “I started getting into the Sharks about 8-9 years ago out of local pride,” Adams reveals about his fondness for the team, “I grew up Skateboarding in the streets of San Jose. I never had too much interest in team sports of any kind; but that all changed, when I found a huge interest and respect for the game of hockey and hockey players.”

  Being a world-recognized visual artist, it didn’t take Jason long to start transferring his admiration of his Sharks to his canvases. His style is primarily based on layers of handcut stencils that give the art a sense of urgency, and mettle that underlies the beauty of what immediately catches the eye. In his newest show, Adams has chosen to dedicate the entire body of work to his San Jose Sharks.

• 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!

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  Psycho Donuts San Jose current show is a continuation of an un-themed collection :
  Featuring recent updated works by Christine Benjamin, John Hageman, Michael Foley, along with art by: Laura Callin Bennett, Mike Borja, Valery Milovic,

• Studio Climbing Gym – 396 South First St. map

  
  

  “Into the Mountains” by Michael R. Reynolds

  Michael R. Reynolds is a filmmaker and an award winning landscape and nature photographer based in Berkeley, California. He has spent extensive time hiking and climbing in the Sierra Nevada. His portfolios include images from the Southwest, the mountains of the western United States and the Pacific costal area. His fine art prints have been displayed in numerous exhibitions, galleries and are held in private collections. He is also passionate about creating time-lapse videos that feature the mountain environment.

• Third Space Fitness – 550 South first St. map

  

  “The Tracks Show” featuring artists: Carlos Rodriguez, Renee guilt, Helene Ehrlich, Magic Gil, Brandon, Steve, Eli Lippert, Max Dehart and Selah Peña

  An eclectic collection of artists brought together by The Tracks studio to express community, culture, diversity and the unification of San Jose artists.

• South FIRST FRIDAYS presents
  8th Annual SubZERO Festival June 5th & 6th
  6pm–midnight in the SoFA District

  

  Focused on emerging and present subcultures thriving in our region, SubZERO is a DIY, artistically bent, hi/lo-techno mashup where street meets geek. Now two days! Come out either night (or both!) and enjoy open galleries, 100+ artists, performers, indie businesses and live bands celebrating the creative spirit!

  http://www.subzerofestival.com