Art! Ruth Asawa part 1, Liz Hernandez & the Office for the Study of the Ordinary, Leah Rosenberg

the start-of-the-month post

Man oh man friends, did I see some good stuff this past month! There are wonders to behold and tales to tell, lemme tell you. Some of which I already alluded to in last week’s missive because it was all just too inspiring to keep to myself for another whole week. But now we get to dive into the visual feast of the artwork itself. Ready? Let’s go!

Ruth Asawa (part 1)

The hotly anticipated Ruth Asawa show at SFMOMA is everything you’ve been hoping for and more. Vast, comprehensive, and beautifully displayed, this is far, far more of Asawa’s work than I, or I believe most people, have ever seen in one place before (much of it from private collections). And it is exquisite. So much so that I have had to take the unprecedented step of breaking my reportage on it up into two parts for you. Today I’m going to show you my favorites from amongst the great abundance of sculptures — mostly, though not all, the woven wire forms for which Asawa is best known. Next month I’ll be back with part 2, focusing on her works on paper, because the number of gorgeous paintings and drawings in this show is frankly ridiculous. I figure this makes ok sense because the show is up through August, so I can reasonably tantalize you with it for a while (and I’ll almost surely see it again sometime in the course of May).

Liz Hernandez & the Office for the Study of the Ordinary

Liz Hernandez recently completed an artist residency at San Francisco State University where she conducted a vast social practice project with students and faculty in the School of Art and beyond, called the Office for the Study of the Ordinary. The aim was to focus “on investigating the everyday, and documenting hidden narratives through the creation of objects, images and writing” and to foster “cross-disciplinary collaboration, vulnerability, curiosity, and experimentation.” I saw the culminating exhibition at the SFSU Fine Arts Gallery (a show that is no longer up, alas) which included furniture and materials from the physical office Hernandez created, as well as artwork from many members of the office community. I loved it. Of course I did!

Libby Black

Kualii

Ellie Lee

Zixuan Zhang

Leah Rosenberg

The talented and prolific Leah Rosenberg (if you think her name rings a bell, you’re not wrong—her installation at the Jewish Museum was in October’s art newsletter, and her giant paintball at Minnesota Street Project was just in January’s!) is at it again with a beautiful new show at Park Life Gallery. Called Sticks and Stones, this is a series of many small paintings depicting letters of the alphabet all constructed only from circles and lines. But in true Rosenberg form there’s more to it, and the more of course has to do with color—each painting is rendered only in colors beginning with the letter in question (a “T” that’s teal, tangerine, and taupe, for instance). This show is only up though May 18th, so if you’re local, get in there!

xo

b