|
SAN FRANCISCO -- If the San Francisco art scene is dead, you'd never know it
at the 28th annual SF Open Studios. Art-seekers can avoid dour downtown galleries
or posthumous exhibitions at SFMOMA this month, because for the next four weekends,
SF Open Studios bring to life the work of 800 local, contemporary artists, including
Rik Livingston, Tofu, and Charles Stinson. Artist Rik Livingston, 44, the
director of Visual Arts at the Whitney Young Gallery in the Haight, hopes that
this month art enthusiasts will look outside the mainstream art venues for fine
art. "The fine arts scene is really coming back with cool galleries popping
up in the Mission, and now we have a gallery in the Haight," he said, sitting
in his showroom housed in a century-old, gray Edwardian mansion turned gallery
at Page and Masonic. The Kansas-born artist, who became notable in this
city for transforming found objects into humorous works of art, once showed at
five local galleries. But when the galleries were shut out during the
dot-com boom, he was left without any outlets for his work. To gain a forum for
his art, Livingston connected with SF Open Studios in 2000. "It's important that
San Francisco, a world class art city, have an event that showcases art," he said,
"aside from Downtown galleries with high rent that mainly exhibit established
artists." His theme at this year's event is "Quality," with an alumni show
featuring the most professional artists from previous shows, according to Livingston.
"If patrons see a whole bunch of stars at one location, they're more likely to
come," he said. Among the humorous cartoon-like paintings at his exhibit,
visitors can expect to see an acrylic painting on three wooden panels inspired
by Rousseau's "The Dream," depicting a masked Livingston toasting his muse in
his former living room, before a mythological background. "It's a humorous take
on creative inspiration," he said. Across town, in a converted furniture
warehouse in Duboce Triangle, Texas-born sculptor Charles Stinson, 51, shared
Livingston's excitement about SF Open Studios. "It's a wonderful venue for emerging
artists to show amazing, bizarre art that wouldn't make it to the galleries,"
he said. Stinson, who has been involved with the event since 1997, said
that SF Open Studios is a blessing for San Francisco sculptors. "I think it's
hard for some genres of art and media to show in this city," he said, "especially
sculpture, which is heavy, costly and three-dimensional." |
Stinson's poignant sculptures ponder everything from Sep. 11 to the war in
Iraq. He crafted "Mars," a small bronze sculpture of a torso supported by a twig-like
crutch in response to the most recent U.S. war. "It's disturbing and beautiful
at the same time," he said, "and symbolizes catastrophe and rebirth." Finding
creative inspiration closer to home, Lower Haight artist and curator Tofu, 41,
will exhibit his art at his carpeted live/work studio for the sixth time at this
yea''s event. "It's nice for my ego that customers come back, rather than just
going out and barfing," he said. Obsessed with travel, the Buffalo, NY
native has always used maps in his trademark collage and mixed media on canvas.
"I've always liked maps," he said. "If 'Jeopardy' were all geography, I'd go on
and be the million-dollar winner." Attending Open Studios for the first
time in 1997, Tofu found the event very accessible, since most artists showed
out of their own apartments. He joined the following year. "It's weird opening
your house and letting people come in, but most people with maps are great, as
opposed to Jehovah's Witnesses," he said. To amaze his clients, Tofu created
"Map of SF," which includes every city block constructed out of international
map cut-outs. "Each area is cut out of somewhere else, because everyone in this
city is from somewhere else," he said. Through his participation in the
event, Tofu said he has garnered a gallery exhibition and good money. "It's a
hell of a lot of work, so it's nice to make a chunk of change," he said. But
all three artists would agree that money is only part of why they continue to
do Open Studios. "Art is part of our evolution," Rik Livingston said. "We can't
function imaginatively and our society can't evolve without it." Rik
Livingston will show at the Whitney Young Gallery at 1101 Masonic St. on Oct,
4-5 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tofu will show at 860 Oak St. #8 on Oct. 4-5, from
11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Charles Stinson will show at 69 Belcher St. on Oct. 11-12
from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.sfopenstudios.com.
|
