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

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

  
  Various & Gould, “Pick A Poison”, screenprint, collage and acrylic on wood, 29.5 x 20.50 inches, Berlin 2016

  Opening reception galleryTWO: “Permanently Improvised” new works by street art duo Various & Gould (Berlin, Germany).

  Dada turns 100 – long live the nonsense! Infected with these high-spirits, Berlin based artist duo Various & Gould has locked itself in the laboratory for several months creating new, surreal artworks for their first solo exhibition “Permanently Improvised” at Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose.

  Berlin based artist duo Various & Gould have worked in close collaboration since 2005. The artists often deal with socially prominent themes such as work, migration, gender, death,religion or the financial crisis in a playful, intuitive manner. Vivid colors combined with typography and encrypted messages are the characteristics of their work. Various & Gould are known for constantly reinventing themselves. Their creation is based on the simple but striking formula: 1+1=3. Interests such as the love for paper, the enthusiasm for accidental beauty in everyday life and especially the artistic work in public spaces form the basis for their teamwork. Screen-prints and collages are their great passion.

  Suitably, the title “Permanently Improvised” is a tribute to the DIY culture, and a reference to everlasting workarounds, precarious existences and a fundamental attitude towards life.

  
  Barron Storey, “Rehearsal”, mixed media on canvas, 18” x 14”

  On view galleryONE: “Quartet for the End of Time” solo exhibition of new works by Barron Storey in tribute to Olivier Messiaen​.

  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.

  Now, 75 years after the premiere performance, Anno Domini presents a Messiaen-inspired exhibition of new paintings by renown artist Barron Storey entitled “Quartet”, and live concert performances entitled “End of Time,” and performed by Cellista (Freya Seeburger) and her Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble. During these concerts Storey painted a metamorphic temporary mural on the gallery wall which will be on view for the last time during the April 1st art walk.

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

  

  “NCECA 2016 Conference Redux”

  Did you miss it? 8,000 potters and clay educators brought their finest works and convened in Kansas City last week to discuss & celebrate all things clay. Our staff photographed exemplary art works from celebrated contemporary ceramic artists, historical works, and more…#ClayEveryDamnDay #NCECA pretty well sums it up!

  For April First Friday, join us at Higher Fire for “Mini Kansas City”, a mind-blowing slide show, videos and a BBQ-themed potluck. Bring your favorite BBQ, side dish, drinks or fixins — or any kind of dish to share. Potluck begins at 6:30pm. Slide show starts at 7:30pm.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  KALEID Gallery is proud to present two new feature exhibitions by gallery resident artists Sandi Billingsley, and Rosa Younessi.

  
  

  “Beautiful Garbage” by Sandi Billingsley

  The goal of this body of work is to continue awareness of the need to recycle. Working in various states, in many homes and living with clients for months at a time, I am witness to the fact that it is still rare to recycle. In fact almost every home uses disposable cookware, cups, plates and utensils for every meal. Not only is this a questionable use of gas to transport the goods, and power to make the disposable goods but it all ends up in a landfill. I would like to encourage a change in mindset from a disposable to sustainable by creating beauty out of garbage.

  
  

  “Colors of Dreams” by Rosa Younessi

  “Colors of Dreams,” In all my paintings in this exhibit, I try to mix emotion, fun, and lots of colors to come up with a painting that signifies beauty.

  Creative expression holds a natural place in Rosa Younessi’s life. Her father being a master painter, Rosa started painting at a young age of ten with his supervision. She remembers best the lessons of building layers of paint to create imagery or the very first time she was given a canvas to paint on and experiment with oil on canvas. Her development as an artist evolved through her studies in High School and University. She attended Georgia Institute of Technology and majored in Electrical and Computer Engineering. With her formal education completed, Rosa began the process of establishing herself as an artist. She expanded her studies of Oil on Canvas, Abstract, Landscape, and Abstract Expressionism. She later traveled to several regions of Europe like Zurich, Geneva, Amsterdam, and Venice to gain a better understanding of the European fine art history, and today’s oil painting techniques and methods. Her creative success brought her to California where she now lives and continues to work and exhibit Fine Arts.

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

  
  Image: Melanie Cervantes, El Corazón de Pan Dulce, 2016.

  MACLA presents the 18th Latino Art Now! Exhibition
  View the very best in contemporary Latino art from the Bay Area and beyond. Save the Date: Art Auction Saturday, May 14, 2016

  Work by Pilar Agüero-Esparza, Jose Maro Alvarado, Carmen Argote, Efren Ave, Jesus Barraza, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Victor Cartagena, Diana Contreras, Melanie Cervantes, Aaron De La Cruz, Yvonne Escalante, Luis Fitch, Jaque Fragua, Juan R. Fuentes, Marcos Gaitán, Mariana Garibay, Nereida Garcia-Ferraz, Elizabeth Gomez, Jorge Gonzalez, Brooke Guerrero, Adler Guerrier, Rogelio Gutierrez, Wayne Healy, Ester Hernandez, Francisco “Pancho” Jimenez, John Jota Leaños, Gilbert “Magu” Luján, Fa! Lujan Waisberg, Gustavo Martinez, Patrick Martinez, Scape Martinez, Michael Menchaca, Gwen Mercado-Reyes, Julio Cesar Morales, Antonio Nava Torres, Bernardo Palau, Elina Peduzzi, Miguel “Bounce” Perez, Poesia, Juan Carlos Quintana, Melina Ramirez, Armando Ramos, Benito Rangel de Maria, Daniella Rascón, Eugene Rodriguez, Patricia Rodriguez, Jorge Rojas, Veronica Rojas, Dzine/Carlos Rolón, Rosemarie Romero, Ana Lilia Salinas, Santos Shelton, Pablo Soto Campoamor, Paul Valadez, M. Victoria Vargas, Cristina Velázquez and more!

  

  Silvestre Mitz and the East Bay’s Conspiracy, 8 pm

  Silvestre Martinez was born in Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, Mexico and grew up in a large family of musicians who played chilena, merequetengue and charanga music – Afro-Mexican music from the coast. Having traveled, taught, performed and studied throughout Indonesia, Europe, Asia, Mexico, Cuba and the United States, Silvestre Martinez has performed with the legendary musicians such as Louie Romero, Paquito D’ Rivera, Oscar Stagnaro, Karl Perazzo, Orestes Vilato, Coto Pincheira, Jorge Santana and more. He comes to MACLA with the East Bay’s Conspiracy ready to throw a dance party performing Son Cubano, Latin Jazz, Salsa and more!

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  art work by Jack Toolin

  Artists’ reception: “Badlands: Borders from Within”

  “Badlands” is presented by Works as part of the Border Cantos program of exhibitions with San José Museum of Art. Artists Lordy Rodriguez, Jack Toolin, and Wanda Waldera explore borders from a macro to micro perspective—mapping imaginary terrains, contrasting landscapes, and evoking individual isolation.

• 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! In addition to opera night, we have two new exhibitions opening during April’s South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk.

  

  Downstairs Gallery: Photography by Cheyenne Moore

  my heart has no limit. it creates a home for every moment i’ve felt alive, and every time i’ve wanted to die. i’ve felt my soul sing as the sun set, and my eyes sting when a lover left. i’ve lost myself in other people, and forgot to love myself.

  places are important in my memory. they are worth documenting.
  because people come and go, but places stay the same.

  and I’d rather fall in love with places anyway.

  

  Upstairs Gallery: Ink paintings by Jose Eduardo Castro

  “I don’t envision a very long life… I’ve designed it that way.”

  Townes Van Zandt did not request any sympathy, or desire to be rescued in his slow suicide. He designed it that way, revealing an awareness of a voluntary self-destructive lifestyle: the consequence from the absence of a sanctuary.

  Van Zandt’s words compose these frame ink paintings. Each word is illegible because it was written on stationary spinning at the frequency of a vinyl record, 33 revolutions per minute. The combination of text on spinning paper, results in chaotic lines that have no fidelity to organized linguistic structure. Instead, the distorted words read the turns of his life, here embalmed in modest pine.

  Van Zandt embraced his own mortality, awaiting sanctuary in death. His songs captured the blues of exaggerated truths. Mere words, strung across chords, the hymns tailored to the weight of my shoulders. His records are the relics of a canonized bohemian who I fortunately discovered.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us after Vinyasa Flow class with Susie (5:30-6:45pm) as we open our doors to art patrons and the downtown community for the South First Fridays Art Walk.

  DYS features Pablo Zavala with his architecture exhibit, “The Engagement”: Where there is art, architecture thrives. Where architecture is liberated by the expression of art, new venues of expression and design are open ready to expand the human condition, opening the mind to possibilities where design can inject life to a larger cosmology of creativity. The future is not here, it is there, already waiting for a clapping hand to envision the place we can become. Design, art future and transformation…Engage the words.

  Pablo Zavala’s futuristic visions blur the line between art and architecture creating a poetic dialogue between form and possibility. He believes wholeheartedly in the creation of a better society through design, and in the continued development of a body of knowledge in which physical spaces are the source of inspiration for, and mystification of, the body, soul, and spirit of the human experience. Pablo’s experience and skills include architecture, environmental graphics, interior design, creative city interventions, and sacred space.

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

  

  Artist reception: “Rituals for the Word God” Book Art Collages by Guy Benjamin Brookshire

  Guy Benjamin Brookshire creates Book Art Collages by destroying works of science, history, and art. His Paracosmic works explore the oneiric world of Wordsea in order to visually and poetically grapple with the problem of a universal history. All works are handmade with paper, precision blades and glue.

  Special collaborators The Laughs will perform the music of Wordsea.

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

  
  

  Photography by Diane Kreiter

  Diane Kreiter is a Fine-Art photographer living in Santa Clara, working primarily with small-format (35mm), black & white film, making unique toned silver gelatin photographs. This current exhibit presents examples from an expanding body of work that concentrates on industrial interiors, exteriors, remnants and machinery found at working and abandoned factories, both in Silicon Valley and Louisiana and Georgia. While scouring various industrial environments for potential images, Diane is drawn mostly to the more intimate interiors, and especially the mechanical relics, which eventually result in a photographic still-life that speaks to the surprising beauty found in our rapidly fading industrial landscape.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  “Spring Refresher” A new season brings wonderful works of art by some of the bay’s hidden gems.

  Works by: David Mejia, John Hageman, Lori Herbst, Chris Shary, DonBon, Dylan Kelly, Jared Konopitski, Julie Meridian, Nicolas Caesar, and Michael Foley.

• Studio Climbing Gym – 396 South First St. map

  
  

  “Earthscapes” by Huggen Angeles

  Huggen Angeles is sharing his black-and-white photographs of some of the rich and dramatic “earthscapes” in Northern California. With inspiration from Ansel Adams, Huggen attempted to capture each image at the most unique moment in time without the complexity of colors. One of the images ranked 3rd place at the 2014 USA Landscape Photographer of the Year competition.

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  

  Artist reception: “Lost in the Middle,” Khela Designs by Maria Amigo

  “Lost in the Middle” is a collection of intricate designs mapping my journey of personal growth from my hometown, a Mediterranean city in the south of Spain, around the world, and through 2 years living in California.

  Like an unspoken diary, each line tells a story, each layer represents a lesson, and each finished piece a milestone along the way. My designs are my way of expressing something I don’t yet understand – a sense of my deeper self that I am still trying to figure out. Already embarked but not yet arrived, I find myself lost in the middle of this journey of self-discovery. It is my hope that my work inspires you to feel connected to a journey familiar to anyone. The Journey of self discovery is what it is to be human and, in that, an experience we all share. I invite you to follow along as I continue my journey, using my work as guideposts along the way. With any luck, and with an open heart, within my journey you might find echoes of your own.

  This collection is expressed using various media including canvas, wood and paper. The motifs are influenced and inspired by mandalas, geometry, and nature. You will find some of my most popular pieces of different sizes, heights, colors and shapes. I pour myself into each design and they become part of me. How it connects with you is where the journey becomes your own.

• Third Space Fitness – 550 South first St. map

  

  Artist reception: “A Disney Spin” by Melissa Garnica

  “A Disney Spin” is a collection inspired by the artist’s love of Disney movies.

  Bake Sale by Whipped Sweets’n’Treats

CONTINUED EXHIBITS…

• Art Ark Gallery – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  art work by John Ediger

  Silicon Valley Open Studios Preview Exhibition

  Silicon Valley Open Studios is an organization of visual artists in the Bay Area that are fluent in all mediums of visual art from painters to photographers to artists in 3D mediums such as jewelry designers, potters, sculptors, etc. Hundreds of artists open their creative spaces to the general public for art sales and fun inspirational conversations as part of the Silicon Valley Open Studios in the first three weekends in May each year. The participating artists are innovative and emerging on the scene with fresh new ideas and wonderful new works to share. The Sneak Preview is an opportunity to see some of their diverse and creative art and meet some of the most active and talented artists under one roof from Silicon Valley Open Studios 2016 at the Art Ark Gallery.

  Closing reception: Friday, April 1st 6-9pm
  Live music by Didier Bouvet

  Participating Artists:
  Anne Pegolotti, Barbara Grauke, Cecilia Mases, Hadi Aghaee, Harriet Helfricht, Janet Trenchard, John Ediger, Judy Bingman, Lynn Aisawa, Marika Anderson, Michelle Lorrie Feulner-Castro, Natalia Lvova, Rafael DeSoto, Jr., Rana Ghanma Ayoub, Ross Sheehan, Sally Rayn, Sarah Soward, Susan Ashley, Susannah Jackson

• 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.

• 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.

• Social Policy – 200 South First St. map

  

  “Thanks for the Invite” photography by Lola Saba, Phil Bordallo, Michael Boehnker, and Ryan Cosentino-Roush

  “Thanks for the Invite” showcases the work of four local artists-&-friends who share an obsession over the photographic process. Whether along in their daily routines or shootin’ the shit in the streets, these photographers have trained themselves to catch fleeting moments of beauty & structure within a disorienting world in flux. Although their subjects are at times disparate, they are united by a mastery over formal visual elements. Each artist has accrued a unique visual language from a genuine love for discovering their environments and the people & things which populate them.

• Vyne Bystro – 110 Paseo de San Antonio Walk map

  

  “Studies” by Carlos Espindola

  The body that structures an exhibition has a process of a study. These are the works that take you through that process of working.