JOIN US for the next South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk & SoFA Winter Mrkt on FEB 5th from 7–11pm and FEB 6th Noon-6pm. RSVP

The South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk is a self-guided, nighttime tour through galleries, museums, and independent creative businesses featuring eclectic art exhibitions and special performances. SoFA Winter Mrkt is an official “Super Community Event” for residents and visitors to the Bay Area here for Super Bowl 50.

All Art Walk venues are FREE & open to the public.

NEW EXHIBITS…

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

  
  

  Artists’ reception: “Quartet” solo exhibition of new works by Barron Storey and “End of Time” performance by Cellista and the Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble

  On January 15, 1941 French composer Olivier Messiaen premiered his seminal work “Quartet for the End of Time” within the confines of Stalag VIII A, a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp in Silesian Germany. The ensemble (clarinet, violin, cello, and piano) played upon broken instruments in front of an an audience comprised of his fellow prisoners and prison guards.

  On Friday February 5th, 75 years after this premiere performance, Anno Domini Gallery will present a Messiaen-inspired exhibition of new paintings by renown artist Barron Storey entitled “Quartet” and a preview of the three performances that will take place on February 20th, March 12th & 13th. In these performances entitled “End of Time,” Cellista (Freya Seeburger) and her Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble will reconstruct the premiere and its truth-telling by merging a full performance of Messiaen’s “Quartet” with elements of theater.

  Join us for the artists’ reception on First Friday February 5th 7–11pm. Barron Storey will be in attendance. Cellista and the Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble will perform excerpts from Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.” Cellista will also present a preview of her concert monologue to be performed in conjunction her February and March concerts.

• Art Ark Gallery – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  

  “The People Next Door: Selected works from the SJSU Foundry”

  The SJSU Foundry has been part of the San Jose Art Community for over forty years. This exhibition showcases work from artists spanning those decades.The show incorporates the work of emeritus faculty, current faculty, alumni, students, staff and volunteers that have added to the facility’s interesting past. While known for metal casting and fabrication, the artwork produced at the foundry is as diverse as the artists who have worked there. From installation art to small castings this show ranges in scale and includes diverse media.

  Opening Reception: Friday, February 5th 6-9pm with live music by Avery Burke

  Participating artists: David Kimball Anderson, Jackie Baxton, Martins Bluzma, Ryan Carrington, Edward Clapp, Nathan Cox, Keith Daly, Lynn Dau, Steve Davis, Alyssa Eustaquio, Jason Hanna, Andrew Hedges, Genevieve Hastings, Benjamin Hunt, Julia Jacobson, Isaac Lewin, Nick Lomoro, David Middlebrook, Diana Mihalakis, Harry Powers, Valerie Raps, Byron Ryono, Samantha Snider, Adon Valenziano, Linda Walsh, Tom Walsh.

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

  

  For February First Friday, come see us at WINTER MRKT… . Find everything you need to entertain whether tailgating or watching the Big Game at home with friends and family. Chips & dips, tumblers, platters – we have it all!

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  
  

  KALEID Gallery presents: “USE THE FORCE129” by Fernando “Force 129” Amaro, Jr.

  “USE THE FORCE129” is an on going series of mixed media art works inspired by the cult classic film’s imaginary world of characters visualized through the eyes of the artist.

  Amaro will also debut “USE THE FORCE129” a 30 page coffee table art book at the artist’s reception on First Friday.

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

  
  

  “Journey into Existentialism”

  The creation of art is something i have come to use in daily life.

  I have personally found through the process of creating art in any capacity is a way of externalizing my thoughts and emotions. In this way, i gain perspective from a created third person physical manifestation of something i can look at and hold in my hands.

  Once my thought, feeling, or emotion is externalized in this form of art, i can then observe and study it from an external perspective. This free’s me from having attempt to understand it from within, which can be a daunting undertaking amidst the morass of other abstract feelings and emotions that are distractions. In my work with art in this respect, i’ve been able to work through some of my own stories and hopefully making myself a better person in the process through not having to be burdened by them as much.

  When painting, i prefer to paint in the abstract. I like giving a thought, emotion, or feeling a physical shape and color as sort of a “snapshot” in time or an encapsulation of a story that i have experienced. i prefer to have the image as far from anything discernible in the real world so that the viewer is free to hopefully project onto the piece and allow for their own story to unfold.

  I have learned a lot about myself in understanding art this way. I believe in working through the stories which burden us as individuals, we can make the world a better place. By shedding some of the negativity we wear as a result of siad stories, and possibly not even being conscious of them.

  My works in the sand are much the same with exception to the observance of the arts ephemeral and transient nature. In the sand i usually start with a thought, feeling, or emotion which will give way to shape and then the rest of the process is the documentation of the story one shape at a time in a contiguous symmetrical order. Most of my works in the sand only last hours after they have been created, sometimes not even that.

  Some of my most rewarding and moments of reflection is watching the tides erase my artwork and return the beach to its natural state. In this way in consistently reminded of the permanence of impermanence of any human endeavor or situation. Also by the waves eroding what i created, i feel if the catalyst for the creation of the piece was less than positive, the world in a way is helping me shed some of that stories burden.

• San Jose Public Art at Parque de los Pobladores (Gore Park) map

  

  “PEEP” by Jonathan Fung

  This shipping container is a symbol of global trade—including the trade of human beings. In PEEP, Bay Area Artist Jonathan Fung creates a metaphor within the venue of a peep show to address the loss of freedom for the faceless victims of human trafficking. The wooden toy blocks symbolize a loss of innocence of those exploited by sex trafficking and are juxtaposed against rows of sewing machines that evoke the plight of those forced into labor.

  In association with Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and on display through the first weekend in March will be local artist Jonathan Fung’s Peep in Parque de los Pobladores in SoFA. Peep is a brightly painted 20’ shipping container that upon closer inspection reveals a compelling investigation of human trafficking. The artwork gives visual and auditory form to this often unnoticed and unseen atrocity. The shipping container is a symbol of global trade—including the trade of human beings—as well as a metaphor for standardization, commodification, and mobility. Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide and is a particular concern during large sporting events. OCA is partnering with the County’s Office of Women’s Policy and the Office of District Attorney Jeff Rosen to produce this important artwork.

  If you are a victim of human trafficking or see something suspicious, call The National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888)373-7888.

• Silicon Valley Ballet at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  

  Silicon Valley Ballet presents “Up Close & Personal” a dance demonstration among the quilts at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles 7:45pm–8:45pm.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  Image: M. Kent Norton, Henri Rousseau does Super Bowl 50

  “SUPER Hunger Anti-Valentine BOWL Games Part 50”

  In celebration of American football, competition, love, violence, and all that is Spring in this land, Works presents this open community exhibition. From head trauma to broken hearts, an immense range of local artists honor, diagram, describe, lampoon, and skewer the sport and the season.

• ZERO1- City Hall Plaza – 200 E. Santa Clara St. map

  

  The Office of Cultural Affairs is partnering with ZERO1: The Art & Technology Network to present Chico Macmurtrie’s “Border Crossing” during the week leading up to SB50.. The artwork is a nearly six-story inflatable conceptual representation of the historic San Jose light tower. A gently moving soft sculpture will partially collapse and rebuild creating a dynamic presence on the plaza. MacMurtrie is well-known for his large scale inflatables, and Border Crossing is also a visual precursor to the 2016 ZERO1 Biennial that will occur in the fall of this year.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  “Travel Notes…” by Robertino Ragazza

  It is said that traveling is a way to getting to know the world, meeting new people and learning about their lives. It is a daring experience and adventure that allows you to explore and to get to know one self.

  When I was younger, I lived vicariously and curiously through someone else travel experiences. The quote: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” by St. Augustine, resonated deeply within me and the book “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway, was the catalyst that inspired my sense of wanderlust, thus my journey began.

  Through travel, I set out to fill the empty pages in my “Travel Notes”. I filled each page with images and fragments of memories of places I explored. I became the storyteller of my own experiences.

  For me, travel is the greatest experiment. It brings forth the curiosity and the urge to investigate the experience of being alive and it permanently influences our perspective on life. It offers a new beginning, new experiences, and endlessly changing horizon. In the beginning, there was no real plan, just a vacation that became a journey. As Henry Miller once said, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

  In my “Travel Notes” exhibition, I present photographs which illicit memories of great experiences and moments that took my breath away. Travel is an inspiration and my images are ingrained memories. To travel is to live….

  “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway

  Live music by Q&A, an Asian American folk / R&B music duo native to San Jose. Q&A consists of artists Quynh-Mai Nguyen and Alice Chen. Their music is comprised of harmonized soulful voices accompanied by their multi-instrumentalist stylings that they perform simultaneously. Striking together the instrumental lullings of folk acoustic guitar pickings, melodica, harmonica, accordion, violin, ukulele, flute, cello, and percussion serenaded by pretty and gritty vocal harmonies, Q&A derives their alluring sound from the inspirations of nature, love, culture, and connecting the heart back into our community. Q&A strives to cause a ripple effect of creativity and positivity through their music that inspires people to know and love themselves first in order to spread and give love to the world.

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library – 150 E San Fernando St. map

  

  New Works by Galen Oback

  A number of recent figurative works featuring the fanciful and the nostalgic.

• LGBTQ Youth Space – 452 South First St. map

  

  “Struggle and Oppression: An Exploration” an exhibition of works by local LGBTQ youth and young adults.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  “Don’t Let It Get to Your Head”

  An eclectic mix of work from Nicolas Caesar, Julie Meridian, Michael Foley, Kimi Star, John Hageman, Jr.

• SoFA Market – 387 South First St. map

  
  

  “Paintings from the Inside and Outside” by Al Preciado

  Enjoy paintings from the voluminous archive of Painter, Sculptor, and Educator Al Preciado. Al has shown his work internationally and has had a lasting impact on the local community through his tireless efforts to beautify the world with his own work and his teaching at a local high school. His lyrical, gestural works on canvas will be available for viewing in SoFA Market, a food hall and event space located in the heart of the SoFA District.

• SoFA Street Intersection Design Print- S. 1st & E San Salvador St.map

  

  “Symphony of Style; Color, Light, and Sound”. is a new street intersection art print design by San Jose artist Scape Martinez. The 30 foot art print will be revealed during the First Friday Art Walk on February 5th with the artist in attendance. Martinez was awarded the commission (by a SoFA subcommittee in partnership with the San Jose Downtown Association) based on his vibrant funky design proposal that resonates with the neighborhood’s artistic and creative businesses and residents. “Looking at the architecture, the nightlife, the Creative Energy that is in the air; there is an element of newness there, so I wanted to create something that reflected this energy… this is my interpretation of these ideas.” ~Scape Martinez

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  

  “Sticker Critters” by Darius B’Alexander

  The whimsical creations of Darius B’Alexander. Using the tiny scissors on his Swiss Army Knife, and half of a shipping label, he will astound and amuse you by cutting a Critter right before your very eyes. This will be Darius’ 2nd appearance as a TechShop resident artist. This time he will be exploring many of the options available for transferring his Critters to other mediums; everything from T-shirts and jewelry, to furniture and coat hooks.

• Third Space Fitness – 550 South first St. map

  

  “Surroundings” by Rachel Wadlow.

  Rachel Wadlow explores the concepts of vulnerability, shame, joy, and beauty in her series, “Surroundings.” Her whimsical, seemingly haphazard style of applying paint echoes her belief that the chaos of life can come together to form something meaningful and beautiful.

• Vyne Bystro – 110 Paseo de San Antonio Walk map

  

  Gianfranco Paolozzi

  Marking on surfaces moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, year by year…just like the journal.

CONTINUED EXHIBITS…

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

  
  Image Credit: Marcos Gaitán, Rey of Sunshine, 2008. Photo Credit: Damian Kelly

  MACLA presents, “Custom Lives: Rasquache Renaissance”

  Work by Carlos Rolón/Dzine, Marcos Gaitán, Sergio García, Luis Gispert, Nery Gabriel Lemus, Gilbert Magu Luján, Melina Ramirez, Betsabeé Romero and Ana Serrano.

  An exhibition that explores the many ways we customize ourselves, our lives and the environments around us.

  

  Live music bySantos Perdidos at 8pm
  Santos Perdidos is an acoustic Latin band based in the heart of the Mission, playing an eclectic mix of Son Cubano, Rumba Española, Bolero, and Afro-Peruvian Lando.

• 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!

• Studio Climbing Gym – 396 South First St. map

  
  

  “Vertical Wilderness Submersion” by photographer Dirk Summers

  These images come from climbing landscapes around the natural world. They were captured in all different seasons, in a variety of locations, and emphasize the great natural beauty inherent in many of the places in which we climbers are lucky enough to enjoy our passion.

SoFA WINTER MRKT
Friday FEB 5th 7–11pm & Saturday FEB 6th Noon–6pm
S 1st Street (btwn San Carlos & William streets)

In addition to the all of the participating venues in the South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk, join us for a special Big Game Winter Mrkt featuring over 50 artists, creatives and innovators. Both days will also feature great San Jose DJs, a variety of gourmet food trucks with Lagunitas Brewing Co. on Friday night and local craft beers by the Bay Brewers Guild on Saturday afternoon.

Participating Artists, Creatives & Innovators:
Sandi Billingsley, Michael Borja, David Canavese, Classic Loot, Content Magazine, Crossroads Trading Co. , Donbon, Drew & Barb, Emo Gonzales, Fatal Jewelry, Force129 & Betty Proper, Francisco Franco, Jodi 408, Galerie d’Art Cher pour les Porcs Riches, Haley Goodlett, Maytal Gotesman , John Hageman, Benjamin Henderson, Higher Fire Clayspace , Jeffrey Hemming, Human Art Collective, Joyful Expressions, Denis Korkh, Korrupt Clothing, Kristian Kabuay, Scape Martinez, Masetas Rotas, David Mejia , Naked Filter, Never Elsewhere, No Shelter & Sara Cole, Out of Print Vintage, Gianfranco Paolozzi , John Paulson, Joe Perea, Petite Galleria , Al Preciado, Revolights, Linda Ritter, Marilyn Roaf, Drew Roulette, San Jose Bicycles, Curt Schauer , Sea Senorita Studios, Sean’s Celtic Creations, Slave Labor Graphics, Space Palette, Steamy Tech , Tinkertart, Audrey vanBroers, Michelle Waters, Susan Drews Watkins, Works San Jose, Zee Bezabeh Photography, Zonkey Toys and ZTE.

Music: Chale Brown (Sonido Clash), DJ Coco, El Otro Mundo Collective, Turbo Sonidero (Sonido Clash), & Haptic Synapsis

Gourmet Food Trucks:
3 Brothers Kitchen, Barefoot Coffee, Cheese Bandits, Falafel Fresh, It’s All Gravy, Quick Dogs, Rice Rockit, Soulnese & Street Fusion

The Art Walk and SoFA Winter Mrkt are free and open to the public.

The SoFA Winter Mrkt is made possible with the support of the San Jose Downtown Association, the Knight Foundation, Lagunitas Brewing Co., the Bay Brewers Guild, Two Fish Design, and all the participating artists & vendors.