The South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk invites you to a unique evening of great exhibitions in galleries, museums and art supporting businesses. ArtwalkSJ hours are 5–9pm, free admission, all ages welcome, rain or shine.
FEBRUARY EXHIBITIONS
ANNO DOMINI // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 S. First St. map
Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design is proud to present:
Map to the Path Céline Lyaudet (France) debut solo exhibition
After many years as a Set Designer in the theatre, I started painting in response to some difficult and traumatic events in my life. I’m exploring the complexities of womanhood and my own personal experience as a human being, attempting to balance my unconscious visual response with the material world.
This body of work attempts to capture and map my interior landscape. I have Synesthesia, which means that neurologically, information meant to stimulate one of my senses stimulates several of my senses. This can also be described as an intertwining of senses, giving my perceptions of the world an added dimension. Colours and shapes often appear as sounds to me so when I’m painting so every artwork has an accompanying soundtrack.
What started as an expression of my most intimate emotions has evolved into something akin to a meditation or a trance state where I allow the subconscious mind to determine the outcome of each work. The key consideration for me is to feel or inhabit the work without intellectual or critical intervention, channelling the organic, human, and animal forms that populate my oeuvre.
I exist in the contemporary world but I am seeking a lost connection to the primal, natural state that is devoid of critical thinking or theory.
Artists I repeatedly turn to include Ana Mendieta, Hilma af Klint, Georgia O’Keeffe and Seraphine de Senlis, all of whom have a deep connection with the natural world and a lineage to ancient cultures. I feel a deep kinship with the work of primitive, unknown artists that expressed their creativity on the walls of caves or rock faces throughout the world.
“The pictures were painted directly through me, without any preliminary drawings, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to depict; nevertheless I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brush stroke.”
~Hilma af Klint
Art Ark Gallery – 1035 S. Sixth St. map
Tiny Wonders by Yunan Ma: Fiber Art Solo Exhibition
“Tiny Wonders” is a collection of fiber art pieces that Yunan made between 2019 and 2022, delivering a storytelling experience inspired by the artist’s perspective of love and life. She finds the energy of life in fresh flowers, in satellite images of Earth, and in cells of plants and insects from Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations. She absorbs the energy and transforms it to art forms with both realistic and abstract approaches.
KALEID Gallery – 320 S. First St. map
KALEID Gallery is proud to present:
222 new works by Force129
This new series of work includes mixed media art works on various surfaces created in the past 2 years. These selections are displayed together to show my creative journey from my daily studio practice of expressing my ideas.
Fernando “Force 129” Amaro, Jr. is an artist & designer living & working in San Jose, CA.
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KALEID Gallery is proud to present:
222 New Journals by Gianfranco Paolozzi
Marking on surfaces
moment by moment,
hour by hour,
day by day,
month by month,
year by year…
just like a journal.
Gianfranco’s life began in San Pietro Avellana, Italy, a small town in the mountains of Central Italy. During the ’60s and ’70s, he participated in exhibitions and art contests across the region. In 1974 he moved to California following his girlfriend. After their marriage, the couple settled in Sunnyvale. From the mid-70s to the present Gianfranco has exhibited extensively throughout the entire Bay Area. Currently, his studio is at the Citadel complex in San Jose.
MACHU PICCHU Gallery of the Americas, Est 1974 – 199 Martha St. map
San Pedro de Cajas Weaving from Peru
“Mi Pueblo” / “My Town”
High in the Andes, there is a town called San Pedro de Cajas.Men and women card the wool, and weave them creating designs that tell the story of the lives and their humble communities. They grow their own sheep and they make their upright looms to weave.The designs are made with thick, but lightly spun wool. The designs are drawn in the warp (the vertical threads in the loom) and the spaces woven with different colors (horizontal threads) to make the desired “picture”.
First Friday, February 4th 3-8pm
To enter, text 408 529 2296 or email MachuPicchuGallery@hotmail.com
MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 S. First St. map
On view: Beyond the Diaspora
Artists: Breena Nuñez, Diamela Cutiño, Patricia Encarnacion, Robert Trujillo, Anna Lisa Escobedo, Vanessa Wallace, Thomas Jones, DJLeydis
This exhibition will showcase the work of Afro-Latinx artists and will pay tribute to their roots and showcase the artwork we actively consume without realizing its connection to African culture. Beyond the Diaspora will look at both visual and performance art and its connection to the African diaspora in Latinx culture.
Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose – 560 S. First St. map
On view: Conrad Egyir: A Chapter of Love and Chapters of Light
The ICA San José is excited to show Conrad Egyir: A Chapter of Love, a large-scale commission of new work from artist Conrad Egyir presented in partnership with Facebook Open Arts. Egyir is a Ghanian artist based in Detroit, who creates bold, bright, graphic narrative paintings and portraits that stylistically pull from Pop Art, political propaganda, and religious art. The imagery in A Chapter of Love will center around community, family, and child-rearing inspired by Egyir’s experience growing up in West Africa.
The Facade Project installation coincides with a major solo presentation, Conrad Egyir: Chapters of Light within the ICA San José. Chapters of Light will premiere a series of monochromatic works in which Egyir blends the subject’s clothing, surroundings, and background with a nod to the graphic style of Pop Art.
On view: David Pace: Speaking Through Images
Kind, warm, and always full of enthusiasm, David Pace was a soft-spoken man who spoke from his heart and through his art and images. He was an integral part of the ICA, serving on the board of directors for 25 years and chairing the curatorial committee for more than a decade. He guest-curated well-received ICA shows, including “This is not a Book” in 2001 and “Photographer Unknown” in 2002, and, for many years, provided installation shots for the website for almost every exhibition.
His photographic work includes a decade-long project on life in a rural village in Burkina Faso that was featured in Venice during the 2019 Biennale; a series of photographs he called “Velocity” taken from the Shinkansen bullet train between Tokyo and Kyoto; and a series documenting collections of plumb bobs, tin cars, shoes, and toys, “Re: Collections.” (David himself was an avid collector of old toasters, plastic saints, and power ranger action figures.) Working frequently with other artists and writers, he created award-winning music videos and books.
San Jose Jazz – 310 S. First St. map
San Jose Jazz Summer Fest Performance Excerpts
San Jose Jazz presents performances projected with sound on its video wall on San Carlos Street and First (San Carlos side).
Closed this evening.
SoFA Market – 387 S. First St. map
TBA
Works San Jose – 365 S. Market St. map
The (Anti) Valentine Show!
Works’ (in)famous (Anti) Valentine Show returns in-person at Works for 2022! With so much tension in the world, and so much need for love, we put out an open call for artists to submit up to 2 pieces: one Valentine-ish work and one anti-Valentine-ish work. Art has arrived with a wide range of statements and in a wide range of media: painting, photography, sculpture, video, and digital images as well. Come celebrate our shared love of local art!
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The South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk is produced by CURATUS in collaboration with the participating art venues, local artists, musicians and independent businesses.