SanFranBananasReception: 10/25/2003 City: San Francisco
ArtVan at the Whitney! (at the bottom of this press release):
The Whitney ain't no blue nose museum and it don't have no Nu Yawka art-itude. In October, the west coast alternative takes on the Big Apple...by going BANANAS! Located in the world famous Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, "The Whitney", i.e. The Whitney Young Cultural Center Mansion, is a gallery unlike any other and soon will be recognized as the civic treasure it is destined to be, by working artists, savy art buyers and art critics hip to the zeitgeist. Whitney Young, the man, was a champion of the people, and Whitney Young, the Cultural Center, will be known as the people's gallery.
"They" can start to see us, from up there in their Ivory Towers, but "they" don't quite realize it's all connected - the outsider artists, graffittiers, neo-pop, Mission School, even small press cartoonists and tatooists: The artists that dare to use imaginative imagery, color and (gasp) even HUMOR in the face of the aloof coolness of current art trends and the fearful seriousness of the headlines.
Artist/curator Rik Livingston, assembled last year's successful "Urban Folk Pop" exhibition, to prove that the new Mission School of art was not just regulated to the Mission. None of the artists in that show (Attaboy, Z-Man, DAVe, Rik Livingston and Michael-Brian Norris) actually lived in the Mission, yet they all employed "material rooted more in an 'up with people' spirit, and sometimes a messy, childlike ethos"
Now Livingston has tested his theory further, by inviting artists, not just from the Bay Area, but from California and beyond.
"There's a humanness to this art,"accounts Livingston, "and it's positive. Fun, even. " And, as this exhibit demonstrates, not just fun, but FUNNY!
Loosen up your tie! You've seen a bunch of artists before, but never a bunch of bananas like this! Step away from the terror, the malaise. It is still all right to enjoy yourself sometimes! Besides, how many art centers do you know of that have a children's playground? So bring the kids and the whole family.
Take a bit of happiness home. Not only will you feel better, but 80% of your purchases goes directly to the artist and the other 20% goes to a children's art program.
SanFranBananas - You'll find it a-peel-ing!
Painting and Sculpture by:
Lee Puffer
Lucy Traeger
Melinda Stelzer
Egil Knutson
Arianne Dar
Amy Yvonne Yu
Patricia Thornton
Carolyn Hinman
Patricia Herbert Crowley
Eliza M. Schmid
Rik Livingston
Photography by:
Nell Angelo
Liza Hennessey Botkin
Installations by:
David Hevel
Dirk Wyse
With:
Ho-Ho Hors D'oeuvre by chef Val Enerlich, from WOW Award winning Global Gourmet Catering
After Dark Slide Show by Z.A.P! Zono Art Productions Comikz
"Cheap Sweat Shop Art" by chained children in the ArtVan
Music:
Cleve-Land (8-10pm both nights)
Sponsor:
First 5 of California
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