CURIOSITY | New Work by Francesca Pastine at Eleanor Harwood Gallery

Mel Prest, a Bay Area artist/curator made an impromptu video of me talking about two works: The Astronaut and Solaris after Tarkovsky, which are in my show, Curiosity, at Eleanor Harwood Gallery.
Please excuse the alarm that goes off at the beginning of the video.

TOTEM

ARTFORUM 49, Ori Olokum, Mask Series

ELEANOR HARWOOD GALLERY

1295 Alabama Street

San Francisco, CA 94110

January 10 through February 21

Opening Reception: January 10, 4 - 7 pm

THIS IS HOW MY BRAIN WORKS exhibit at Radiator Gallery

 

This is How My Brain Works

Donovan Barrow, Brian Belott, Natasha Bowdoin, Max Clarke, Floto+Warner, Sara Klar, Todd Knopke, Michael Lee, Elisa Lendvay, Abraham McNally, Andrew Mount, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Francesca Pastine, Javier Pinon, Leslie Siegel

Curated by Michael Lee

September 7 – 30, 2012

Radiator Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of its sixth show This Is How My Brain Works, a group exhibition that inaugurates the gallery’s second season.  With over 30 works made by sixteen artists, the show examines the practice of collage through its many iterations and permutations ranging from works on paper to artist books, photographs, sculpture, textiles, digital projections and video.  Through the presentation of visually diverse but not conceptually disparate works, the show helps define collage as both a working method still robust at the turn of the 21 century but more importantly as a manner of processing information either willfully or uncontrollably.  The show’s title is a comical send-up of the precognitive jumble that is the necessary basis for the eventual creation of meaningful logic in the human brain.

Whether culled from magazine pages, scavenged from a neighbor’s recycling bin, plucked from the uncharted corners of the internet--or the physical corner of an urban street—this group of artists shares a love for material with a history.  It can be cultural memory, what artist Christian Marclay describes as the “recognition of the source material with the pleasurable violence of transformation”, or it can manifest itself in the physical wear objects undergo with the passing of time.  Whatever the case, the audience’s synapses begin to fire upon seeing this new/old thing well before a fully formed idea congeals in their heads.  This is what all art is about.  Collage highlights this fact.

The current generation of collage and assemblage artists is conversant in the standard and accepted history of the form as modernist paradigm par excellence.  While this history obviously informs artists in this show, they have an advantage over their predecessors in contextualizing this working method as pre-modern far more easily due simply to their place in time.  The palimpsests of ancient cities and the collage roots of film projection start to seem much closer when looked at from this perspective. What was once considered an artistic reaction to the specific age of communication can be seen in retrospect as a responsive method to connect art and the world in any age. 

Michael Lee is an artist and teacher. This is his first curatorial effort. He was awarded a residency at Cooper Union in 2005 and at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Studio in 2008. Michael earned a BFA in art history from The University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in painting from Hunter College in New York. 

A catalogue will be published in conjunction with This Is How My Brain Works.  Please also find related events and documentation at www.radiatorarts.com.  For more information and images, email info@radiatorarts.com or call 347 677 3418.

A newcomer to the burgeoning art scene surrounding MoMA PS 1 in Long Island City, Queens, Radiator Arts was started by Tamas Veszi in 2011 as a venue dedicated to giving independent curators and artist-curators access to space and providing an opportunity to strengthen the vital artist community of north Brooklyn and western Queens. 

Radiator Gallery

10-61 Jackson Ave

Long Island City, NY

REVIEW IN ART Ltd.

My work is reviewed by DeWitt Cheng in Art Ltd.

Artforum, the art magazine published in New York City (after a childhood in San Francisco and adolescence in Los Angeles), is accorded ecclesiastical status by many art worlders, despite its history in the 1960s and '70s as the de-facto Ministry of Formalism, a purist doctrine now fallen into disrepute: an undoctrine, almost, in Orwell-speak. Francesca Pastine's sculptural interventions with copies of the magazine for the past four years, then, have a certain sly humor. Notes Pastine: "They were familiar fixtures in my friends' homes, nobody wanted to throw them away. I was intrigued by their square format, particularly when the bloated art market was reflected in their one-inch thickness... Starting with the covers, I cut, bend, manipulate, pull, and dig my way through them, revealing a visceral topography of art trends... My X-acto blade mimics a pencil, subtracting rather than adding... Through physically intervening with these familiar icons of the art establishment, I suffuse the inanimate with emotional power, creating a palpable complexity of form and information." Pastine's intricately cut assemblages resemble, variously, quilts, lava flows, tree fungi, clouds, and kids' pop-up books; some of them, labeled "unsolicited collaborations," name names--of famous, envied cover artists. From May 26 to July 7 at Eleanor Harwood Gallery.

BAY AREA CURRENTS AT PRO ARTS IN OAKLAND

Bay Area Currents 2011

Selections by Julio César Morales

Exhibition: July 19 - September 2

Artists' Reception: Friday, August 5, 6 - 8 PM

Artists' Talk: Friday, September 2, 6 - 8 PM

Selected Artists

Matthew Cella
Pablo Cristi
Dana Hemenway
Julie Henson
Amy Ho
Emily Hoyt
Gregory Ito
Jeanne Lorenz
Cathy Lu
Fiamma Montezemolo
Francesca Pastine
Suzy Poling
Maggie Preston
Lisa Rybovich Cralle
Surabhi Saraf
Sunaura Taylor
Linda Trunzo
Chris E. Vargas

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Pro Arts
150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland
(at Oakland Art Gallery)
Phone (510) 763-4361
Fax (510) 763-9470

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Juror Bio

Julio César Morales is the Adjunct Visual Arts Curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. He is an artist, education and curator. His curatorial projects include the PAUSE II Practice & Exchange series at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and various exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Morales is also founder and co-curator for Queens Nails Projects, an artist-run space in San Francisco.

Press Release

Unbound: A Brief Survery of Book Art

I am in an exhibit at the Bedford Gallery that opens on July 15 between 6 and 8pm: Unbound: A Brief History of Book Art

Unbound
A National Exhibition of Book Art
July 11 - September 19, 2010

Sir Francis Bacon said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” The artists in our summer exhibition Unbound: A National Exhibition of Book Art have other ideas in mind. This show features 65 artists who tear, paint, puncture, and sew the pages, covers, and spines of books to create new two and three-dimensional works. Some of the artists recreate the book form in ceramic or fabric and others create one-of-a-kind books that pop up, fold out, or hang on the wall.

Regardless of the popularity of the electronic book, Kindle, iPad, etc., the traditional book form of paper between covers has a protected place in the hearts of readers. The book has been the body of human thought for many centuries and those who cherish the written word also cherish the book. Many artists in Unbound have produced books that are creatively hand-built and bound, while others have embraced the book as medium to repurpose its shape and content into meaningful objet d’art.

Although the work in this show is extremely diverse, the artists all seem to be borrowing the intimacy and profundity of the book into their personal works. At times the objects might be barely recognizable as book parts, but they still provoke nostalgia for those portable, private companions we love to hold in our hands. Unbound includes artworks in every media from drawing, painting, and printmaking to ceramics, photography, and video.

Bedford Gallery presents Unbound concurrently with the grand opening of the new Walnut Creek Downtown Library. The library will house several art works purchased and commissioned by the city including Christian Moeller’s Portrait in 12 Volumes of Gray, Marta Thoma’s Journey of a Bottle, and other works by Lorene Anderson, Jennifer Bain, Amy Blackstone, Catherine Courtenaye, Guy Diehl, Don Farnsworth, Sheila Ghidini, Peter Goldlust, Susie Grant, Joyce Hsu, Norie Sato, Gina Telcocci, and Peter Tonningsen. Guided tours of the library art will be offered by Bedford Gallery docents beginning in July. The Walnut Creek Downtown Library opens to the public with a celebration on Saturday, July 17th.

- Carrie Lederer, Curator of Exhibitions

This exhibition has been generously funded by a Lesher Foundation grant and Diablo Regional Arts Association. Thank you as well to our media sponsor, Contra Costa Times.

artists

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Kim Anno • Richard Baker • Kelly Ball • Cara Barer • Michael Bartalos • Tony Bellaver • Doug Beube • Squeak Carnwath • Macy Chadwick • Julie Chen • Sas Colby • Claire Dannenbaum • John DeMerritt • Carl Dern • Marie Dern • Lauren DiCioccio • Arián Dylan • Marcel Dzama • Daniel Gonzalez • Susannah Hays • Lisa Hasegawa • John Hersey • Charles Hobson • Lisa Kokin • Richard Lang • Hung Liu • David Mamet • Mary Marsh • Emily McVarish • Tucker Nichols • Abner Nolan • Catie O'Leary • Lisa Onstad • Francesca Pastine • Pamela Paulsrud • Nora Pauwels • Emily Payne • Stan Peterson • Nigel Poor • Maria Porges • Laura Raboff • Ehren Reed • Jim Rosenau • Luz Marina Ruiz • Ed Ruscha • Dickson Schneider • Ward Schumaker • Nancy Selvin • Tim Sharman • Richard Shaw • Helen Stanley • David Stein • Inez Storer • Travis Summerville • Erin Sweeney • Robert The • Peter & Donna Thomas • Andie Thrams • Jina Valentine • Andy Warhol • Allison Weiner • Gail Wight • William Wiley • Alison Yates

I am in a show opeining on May 28 at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio http://www.manifestgallery.org/about/schedule.html

GuideBook
Contemporary Collage and Assemblage

Creativity and cultural expression find sources of inspiration in surprising places, and within unexpected materials. One might say that the truly creative life is one lived in such a way that ordinary things, or those not commonly considered ‘artful’ are suddenly seen as being sublime. Certainly many types of art can provide a glimpse into this creative way. But works of collage and assemblage might do it best. So, with GUIDEBOOK Manifest sets out to assemble an exhibit which explores such work - an exhibit that may in fact serve as a guidebook to a creative, enlightened way of seeing and being in the world.

For this exhibit 207 artists submitted 470 works for consideration. Eighteen works by the following 13 artists were selected for presentation in the gallery and catalog.

Mary Snyder Behrens

Terrence Campagna

Brian Christensen

Jonas Criscoe

Alisa Henriquez

Janalyn Hubbell

M.A. Papanek-Miller

Francesca Pastine

Billy Renkl

Margaret Suchland

Cheryl Wassenaar

Margaret Whiting

Michelle Word

ICA Monoprint Marathon

The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art held their Monoprint Marathon Auction Saturday. Above is my contribution.

LAB Auction

My ArtForum Excavation piece, Pray, is in the Live Auction at the LAB tonight, so thinking of heading down there, but then again, it's always tough to see ones work on the auction block. http://www.thelab.org/events/426-auction2010.html

Interdependencia | Interdependence

Here are Images from my Current Exhibition at the Mexican Consulate, Interdependencia | Interdependence:

Depth of Surface

I am in an exhibition opening February 27th at the Fine Arts Gallery at the San Francisco State University.

DEPTH OF SURFACE

Exibition dates: February 27 - March 25, 2010
Opening reception: February 27, 1:00 - 3:00
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 11 am - 4:00 pm

featuring the work of Northern California artists exploring the language of textiles through various media. The exhibition includes Julie Chang, Victor De La Rosa, Jennifer Ferré, Dustin Fosnot, Taraneh Hemami, Andrea Higgins, Ernest Jolly, Katie Lewis, Mung Lar Lam, Victoria May, Ali Naschke-Messing, Francesca Pastine, Anthony Ryan, Jeremy Chase Sanders, Lisa Solomon and Jina Valentine. Organized by the Fine Arts Gallery with Assistant Professor Victor De La Rosa, and presented in association with “Reinvention,” a national conference about surface design and contemporary textile art held on campus March 19 -24, 2010


The Fine Arts Gallery is located in Rm. 238 of the fine Arts Building on the main SFSU campus, 19th and Holloway Avenues, San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.gallery.sfsu.edu or call 415 338 6535.

Group Show at Dean Jensen Gallery

I am participating in the second Big Bang Exhibition at Dean Jensen Gallery. They will be showing work from my Spiderweb Project and Supermarket Cart Project. http://www.deanjensengallery.com/bb2_index.php

Headlands Photos: Front + Center

I went to the Headlands on Sunday to install one of the ArtForums. The light can be described as still. Like the Artforums, the galleries are a stratum of time and memory. I am very happy to have the work in that space. Kimberley Johansson curated the exhibition and, along with Jessica Brier, installed the show in creative and unexpected ways. Beautiful!





Urinals on the ground floor of the Headlands Center for the Arts