The South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk is resurfacing, safely but surely in compliance with current COVID-19 safe practices. In this newsletter, you can find current in-person and online art exhibitions and cultural happenings that you may attend and or view beginning First Friday, June 4th. We look forward to seeing you downtown. Stay healthy, happy and strong and keep an eye out here as our culture finds new and creative ways to help keep us all inspired.
JUNE In-Person EXHIBITIONS
ANNO DOMINI // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map
11.75″ x 8.25″, 2016
Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design is proud to present:
galleryONE: INVENTARIO exhibition by Pablo Martín (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Pablo Martín’s series of works on paper are small and full of seemingly cryptic mysteries. Innate shapes take the form of symbolic language–most often “Cabecitas” (small heads in Spanish) – like talismans imbued with esoteric knowledge never meant to be spoken, but only viewed and understood intuitively.
INVENTARIO by Martín consists of 50 original works on various papers used intentionally for their sense of age or different utility. The use of only black (ink, acrylic, watercolor and natural pigments) keeps the focus on the image while avoiding emotional distraction one may have to color. His visual narrative in each image stands powerfully alone, yet it reaches even greater depth when seen in close proximity to other images adding more possibilities to its meaning limited only by our imagination.
“What moves me to work is the search for what I understand as the human factor. For that I am nurtured by the art of native peoples, popular art, outsider and African art. Although I feel that my roots are there, they are also in the present, which allows me to bring those resonances to a contemporary practice that includes objects, installations, graphics, as well as ceramics, murals, painting and drawing.
“I paint and draw using small sticks, on found papers and wood. I choose to use tools and supports that bring me closer to the primal and visceral, to nature, to what is marked by time.
“A recurring image is that of the Head. For years I have been investigating the complexity within that archetypal form, which is mask, face and object. The collective is ruled by ritual, and I am interested in making it visible: human relationships with deities and with our natural environments. Geometry takes the form of imaginary symbologies that build spatialities, links, and hierarchies.” ~ Pablo Martín, Buenos Aires, May 2021
About the Artist:
Martín is a graphic designer and a self-taught painter having studied with such notable artists as Eduardo Stupía, Marina de Caro and Matias Duville in studio workshops. He has exhibited in public venues in Argentina such as Centro Cultural Borges, CC Paco Urondo, La Casona de los Olivera and Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández. In 2009 he created Periódica, Grupo de Gestión along with his partner Florencia Fernandez Frank, producing shows, fairs and publications for underrecognized artists. He’s been an active member of Proyecto La Estrella – a socially inclusive project based in providing artistic tools to marginalized children from Buenos Aires suburbs. He was invited to participate in art residencies in Mexico DF and Oaxaca (México), Tilcara (Jujuy, Argentina) and Salta (Argentina). In 2015 he obtained recognition under Drawing category at Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, Palais de Glace. He exhibited internationally in Mexico, Austria, Germany, France and United States.
Martín lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Exhibition dates: May 7–June 12, 2021
Free admission, all ages, mask required.
Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design is proud to present:
galleryTWO: Play is Soul Food (b. 1984, Mexico City, MX)
Mexico City based master experimental printmaker, Ivonne Adel- Bureos, aka Play is Soul Food, shares her intimate and unique body prints and drawings created insitu at Anno Domini in March 2021.
Printmaking with bodies: Play Is Soul Food (PISF) and Anno Domini have teamed up and created an exciting new mixed medium body printmaking exhibition, with full sized direct body prints and drawings. The collection of more than 10 large, medium, and smaller scale works, created insitu at Anno Domini will be presented in the show, also titled Play Is Soul Food.
During her visit to California earlier in February this year, Play Is Soul Food spontaneously organized a rare performance with Cherri Lakey and Brian Eder, owners of the internationally known artspace, Anno Domini. These distinctive, one of a kind creations are the artifacts of that performance presented as a cohesive exhibition accompanied with a short documentary video which gives the viewers an introspective/impression of the actual live performance which took place late March 2021.
Play Is Soul Food, and Brian Eder, co-owner of Anno Domini, worked together for the first time during this secret performance to create this selection of elegant, provocative, and playful mixed medium paper-based art pieces. With their instinctive spirit and the perfect mixture of trust, communication, precision, and respect needed, the two created an impressive collection of raw, touching, and delicate artworks. The outcome of this unique performance is now forming the key elements of Play Is Soul Food.
Play Is Soul Food invites the viewer with her Play Dirty performance and artworks to explore the impact and power of Play. The artist strongly understands playing as an activity for all ages, way beyond being a child. The exhibition reveals and elevates specifically the importance of Adult Play.
In this new collection of raw, fine art prints and drawings, Play Is Soul Food takes us into a visual journey to question, rethink, and nurture the true importance of play in our daily lives, not just with the people who surround us, but also the relationship we have with ourselves; confronting our insecurities, celebrating our imperfections, experimenting with our sexualities, and finding balance within our physical and cosmic realities.
About the Artist: Ivonne Adel- Bureos (a.k.a Play Is Soul Food) has created works that challenge the senses and broaden the understanding on what ‘Play’ really means in todays societies and cultures through experimental printmaking.
Play is a powerful tool in creating bridges, refining skills, using the imagination, and invention. It’s how we evolve and develop on our own and with others as teams. In collaborations, we create new languages and stories. Creating our own history with the materials we leave behind.
“Play is so important in our lives and has been ever since we were born. It’s how we learn, develop, grow, evolve, motivate and inspire ourselves and others…”
Raised in Scotland, and worked and lived in many cities around the world, Play Is Soul Food returned to Mexico to explore further the meaning and understanding of printmaking in today’s society.
Formerly a fine art printmaking technician at top print workshops like Pace Editions, New York (now known as Pace Prints), and STPI, Singapore (Singapore Tyler Print Institute), Play Is Soul Food has also collaborated with some of Mexico’s most exciting street artists, painters, and designers such as Said Dokins, Satterugly, Raul Pardo & JIS (just to name a few). Her experimental limited edition prints and unique artworks are created and published at Ugly Food House in Mexico City; an international Fine Art printmaking studio & workshop she co-founded with Satterugly in 2016.
Opening reception: First Friday, May 7th, 5–9pm
Free admission, all ages, mask required. Artist will be in attendance.
Exhibition dates: May 7–June 12, 2021
Gallery hours: Thursdays & Fridays Noon–7pm, Saturdays Noon–5pm
Art Ark Gallery – 1035 South Sixth St. map
Opening reception: Into That Dark Sea: Seven Artists Explore Fragments of Photography
Featuring: Kimberley Acebo Arteche, Angela Kahoali’i Casagrande, Sean Healy, Dan Herrera, Amy Hibbs, Centa Schumacher and Joshua Solis
These explore unique techniques inspired by photographic techniques. This exhibition is a wonderful collection of textiles, sculptures, installations and more all connecting to photography.
Live event First Friday: Centa Schumacher will be doing Oracle readings.
Exhibition dates: June 4 – June 28, 2021
KALEID Gallery – 320 South First St. map
Without a plan in the Spirit of the Material sculptures by resident artist Rachel Karklin
Opening reception: First Friday June 4th, 5–9pm.
Free admission, all ages, mask required.
Artist will be in attendance.
Materials are parts of all our spaces, physical and mental.
They come from their own places and have different pasts of their evolvement. It results in their beautiful and so distinct properties. I see them as having their personalities and laws of behavior. We can’t change their properties, we have to follow laws and use it to our advantage.
In art, by creating we give the material a great extension and broadening of their spaces. We can bring different materials to a beautiful co-existence even when it does not exist in nature.
In over 10 years of making art, I have worked with clay, stone, wax, bronze, steel, concrete, and resin. I love the process, I am open to any constrains that a specific material presents to me, I am meeting the challenges with excitement, I am looking for the advantages that a material can give me.
I start my projects with a very general idea of what I want to see at the end. Each material would take me on its own path. The result is a fusion of my ideas with the properties of the material.
I want you to like my materials!
About the Artist:
Rachel Karklin is a self taught sculptor that has been exploring the possibilities of materials for the last 10 years. Originally from Latvia, Karklin received her degree in Computer Science from the University of Latvia and has had a long career as a computer programmer.
Rachel has been a resident of the Bay Area since 1989. She has studied casting and sculpture from many accomplished artists such as Jason Arkles, Yori Seeger, David Ogle, Andy Ruble and Moto Ohtake. Rachel has been featured in numerous juried exhibitions in the area and is a member of the Pacific Rim Sculptors guild.
Exhibition dates: June 4–July 17, 2021
Indian Mythology Explored in Colors
paintings by Minesh Kher
Opening reception: First Friday June 4th, 5–9pm.
Free admission, all ages, mask required.
Artist will be in attendance.
Color and the juxtaposition of colors that our vision encounters; every moment plays an important role in how we celebrate life.
My goal is to create a glimpse of the past using color as the coalescing force, be it the serene lit faces of a buddha, or a shiva, or through stories from Indian mythology to find joyfulness and meaning in that canvas.
About the Artist:All my life, I was in awe of artists – engaging in their creations, deciphering their thought process with colors, lines, and textures, and in the end celebrating them. I had no idea, 9 years back, that trying to gel with my younger daughter would allow me to find my life’s passion. My daughter was taking an art class and to spend some quality father-daughter time, we ventured into a joint painting session. We chose a simple landscape Youtube video, a small pack of cheap tube paint, a few cheap brushes, and an eager father and daughter duo ready to make the ‘masterpiece’ of their lifetime.
I ended up discovering my passion and voice in art and from then forward have put my heart and soul into creating art as a self-taught artist.
My goal is to bring to life the richly storied and colorful mythological folklore of India, esp; the Puranas, inspired by fauvist figurative expressionism styles. But, at heart, I am a storyteller and experimentalist fascinated and drawn to a new style, medium, color palette and topic inspired by his own dreams and other master artists, living and dead.
Exhibition dates: June 4–July 17, 2021
Refactor recent tech art by Lucidbeaming
Combines modern microcontrollers with found objects, rusted tin, and rice paper. Explores glitch aesthetics and the emotional dissonance of interfacing with machines.
About the Artist:
Lucidbeaming is an art and technology project of San Jose artist Joshua Curry.
“My work combines old and new technology to explore human experiences. It is modern folk art, pulling from the new natural world of machines and screens. It explores our struggle to co-existence with them and retain our humanity. I use a diverse background in machine tinkering and computer programming, along with a foundation in fine art. My recent work seeks to find an integrated path forward, combining these disparate contexts into something unified.”
Exhibition dates: May 7–July 17, 2021
Gallery Hours: Thursdays & Fridays Noon–7pm and Saturdays Noon–5pm
Free admission. Social distancing and mask required at all times in the gallery.
MACHU PICCHU Gallery of the Americas, Est 1974 – 199 Martha St. map
SHIPIBO, Rainforest of Peru Folk Art and Contemporary Textile Inspired
Featuring work by Shibibo tribe and Olga Enciso Smith
Flying over the dense rainforest of Perú years ago, I was overwhelmed to view the magnitude of the vast territory. I could see the intense shades of green vegetation like a very thick carpet. This “thick carpet” completely covers and hugs the Peruvian and Brazilian land. The vastness is at various areas separated by silver color lines. Each curving, undulating and kilometers long are wide rivers tributaries to the awesome Amazon River. “These silver lines are like the Creator’s gigantic handwriting on our earth”, says Olga Enciso Smith, founder of Machu Picchu Gallery of the Americas. She continues: “Upon landing, I visited the Shipibo village where the Native people showed my group and I their handmade creations. The lines—some curved, some geometric in the cloths and ceramics were just like the rivers I had just seen from the air. In fact, the Shipibo say the lines are the rivers of the land. The earth tone colors are acquired from their natural environment such as: ashes and plants. They paint with fine brushes made from their own hair”.
First Friday June 4th hours: 3- 8pm
Exhibition dates: June 4–June 30, 2021
Gallery hours: 2-5pm all other Fridays of the month, and by special appointment. Visitor must text first for access Citadel building: 408-529-2296 or email MachuPicchuGallery@hotmail.com
MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map
Opening reception: Natalia Anciso Solo Exhibition
The pandemic continues to devastate the world and is disproportionately impacting Latinx and other marginalized communities of color. This series of work will reflect on the stories of the people in these communities who are experiencing the most devastation, shedding more light on the racial and socioeconomic disparities. The Natalia Anciso Solo Exhibition will share untold stories, honoring unsung heroes (particularly essential workers) and those who have passed due to COVID-19, while also taking us through a survey of the artist’s work.
Exhibition dates: June 4th- August 15th, 2021
Live music at 8pm by Antigone outside of the MACLA’s Teen Tech Center.
SoFA Market – 387 So. First St. map
Graffiti Art In Urban Culture by Akeem Raheem
Akeem Raheem is a Bay Area native graffiti artist with ties to Detroit, Michigan. He transformed from illegal graffiti-art on walls to graffiti-inspired art on canvas. Akeem is very vocal about the irony and humor he sees in life, and advises you to laugh at life too. This is graffiti art that you normally see on walls and trains on a take-home canvas.
Exhibition dates: May 7 – June 3, 2021
LATER This Month…
The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is thrilled to announce that we will be reopening this June with new hours and new exhibitions!
On June 11-13, we will have a Members & Artists Only weekend; we’re encouraging those who are not members currently to become one today and join us for this special preview!
On June 18-20, we will be open to everyone! Reservations are recommended but not required. See below for important info!
- New hours! Visit us on Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 11am – 3pm.
- Make your reservations and learn what to expect when you visit, here.
- New exhibitions including Kira Dominguez Hultgren, Ryan Carrington, and American Tapestry Biennial 13. Get a sneak peek here.
Join us on Facebook ArtWalkSJ
The South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk is produced by Two Fish Design in partnership with the participating art organizations and independent businesses.