Past Exhibitions
YOU MAKE ME MAKE YOU
Suzanne Husky Solo Exhibition
May 22 - June 29, 2008
For her ambitious installation at Triple Base, Suzanne Husky has crafted a series of soft sculptures that include Chinese factory workers, Mexican laborers, “counter-mainstream hipsters”, and a series of inventive Berkeley “eco-heroes.” The work depicts extreme labor, oppression, community, superficiality, unmindful expending of resources, and white guilt. This show is sure to entertain if you like stories, using your imagination, and thinking critically about the world we live in today.
The artist explains, “In this project, the audience members are invited to become visual anthropologists. What do the portraits of people, ideas, and scenes reveal about a sample of local culture and society? In each piece the details are based on observation and the analysis of the subject simultaneously captures a specific individual or concept as well as a broader lifestyle. As a whole, the growing inventory format of the installation unveils the nature and complexity of a community. The represented figures are striking in unusual ways and together reflect cultural diversity and environmental awareness.”
The Dinner Lecture Series event will take place on Friday, June 27th and features special guests Amy Franceschini and Michael Swaine of Futurefarmers.
Past Exhibitions
MISFITS
New work by Todd Bura
April 3 – May 4, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, April 4th; 7-10pm
Triple Base Gallery is pleased to present Misfits, an exhibition of new work by San Francisco based artist Todd Bura. This will be Bura’s second solo show at the gallery. Misfits will include works on paper, works on canvas, and sculpture. However, Bura's inventive material combinations simultaneously collapse and assert traditional definitions of these categories. This provocative exhibition emphasizes the artist’s search for an end to his fascination with painted and drawn images.
While some of the works' surfaces bear few marks, others are completely covered. One image brings to mind a face while another seems to reference only itself. Bura manipulates a medium on paper or canvas and then alters its meaning once again in the gallery space, creating an installation out of the individual works. Bura’s considered process is indicative of the human impulse to make connections and create order from what is random. When grouped together these varied images "allow a subtle chain of effects to echo and punctuate one another, calling one another, saying how either nothing or everything is accidental."
A Dinner Lecture Series event featuring guest lecturer Kenneth Baker (art critic, San Francisco Chronicle) in conjunction with this exhibition will take place in a satellite Mission loft space on Friday, April 11th.
Todd Bura’s work will also be featured in a coinciding group show Form + curated by Lawrence Rinder (Dean of California College of the Arts) at Meridian Gallery, San Francisco from March 13 – May 3, 2008.
San Francisco Bay Guardian Review by Johnny Ray Huston
Past Exhibitions
Starting with Blade...
March 6 - March 23, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, March 7th; 7-10pm
Participating Galleries Include:
LOYAL, Stockholm, Sweden
Sumi Ink Club at SITE LA, Los Angeles
Nakaochiai Gallery, Tokyo
Charlotte Fogh Contemporary, Denmark
Little Cakes, New York City
KQED GALLERY CRAWL VIDEO for STARTING WITH BLADE...
Michelle Bade
I Declare This War is Over, 2007
Acrylic and Calligraphy Ink on Dura-lar
View selected works in the show
View more of Michelle Blade's work in the Flat Files
The premise of this exhibition starts with Triple Base's founding intention of being one "base" of many international art spaces; interconnected in a dialog about contemporary art making and experimental gallery practice. Triple Base proposes one San Francisco-based artist, Michelle Blade, to be the starting point for the show. Blade investigates the transformative roll of public gatherings where social hierarchy dissolves and abrupt moments of collective completion occur.
Triple Base curators selected galleries in other cities that likewise strive to create innovative, artist-centered gallery programming and many share a common aesthetic, non-competitive spirit, artistic alliances and affinities. These participants also do more than present and sell work – they offer artists and patrons alternate entry points to the artwork through drawing events, studio visits, lectures and experimental curatorial projects. Participating galleries include: LOYAL, Stockholm, Sweden; Sumi Ink Club at SITE LA, Los Angeles; Nakaochiai Gallery, Tokyo; Charlotte Fogh Contemporary, Arhus, Denmark and Little Cakes, New York City.
Each curator is asked to select an artist(s) whose work creates a dynamic pairing or friendly allegiance to Blade's work in either concept or form. Curated as a chain reaction of sorts, this group show makes connections between artists working in a similar vein and forms an international web of like-minded art spaces.
In conjunction with the exhibition, LA-based Sumi Ink Club drawing collective (founded by Sarah Anderson and Luke Fischbeck) will organize a multi-city simultaneous drawing event open to the public at Triple Base (San Francisco), SiteLA (Los Angeles), Little Cakes (New York), Shoboshobo (Paris) and more venues TBD on Sunday, March 23st, 2-5pm.
Click here for images and info about this event
Past Exhibitions
An Equal Playing Field: New Work by Peter Stegall
Curated by Dina Dusko
January 17 - February 17, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, January 18; 7-10pm
An Equal Playing Field, 2007
gloss enamel on masonite panel
10" x 14"
Triple Base Gallery and guest curator Dina Dusko are pleased to present An Equal Playing Field: New Work by Peter Stegall. This is the Sacramento painter's first Bay Area solo show and the culmination of Stegall's 30 year immersion in the “powerful playing field of color.” His investment yields a body of work ever-changing with each subtle stroke, careful composition and color choice. In striving for a certain kind of perfection, the work emerges new, a near surprise to the artist who exclaims, "Color has me on the end of a string!" Stegall dedicates himself to the fundamentals of painting, this exhibition of small-scale gloss enamels on masonite is his personal variation on those fundamentals.
Stegall earned his M.A. in Art from California State University, Sacramento. He is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and an Adolf and Esther Gotleib Foundation grant. His work was included in the Crocker Art Museum exhibition "Neo Mod: Recent Northern California Abstraction" and “Color and Geometry” at Mills College Art Gallery curated by Phil Linhares.
__________________________________________
LIMITED EDITION POSTER AVAILABLE
It is designed and hand screen printed by Miles Stegall and Fiona Bruce of Idiot or Genius? in Portland, Oregon.
View poster
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VIEW
Selected works in the exhibition
Installation shots
Works on paper in the Flat Files
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PROFILE
Peter Stegall cv
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INTERVIEW
Peter Stegall interview by curator Dina Dusko
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PRESS
"Peter Stegall prefers small, subtle statements"
by Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle
Past Exhibitions
Abidin Travels
Installation by Adel Abidin
November 17, 2007 - January 5, 2008
Organized by Montalvo Art Center
Presenting partner:
Graduate Program of Fine Arts at California College of the Arts
Previously at the Venice Biennale and now in San Francisco. Artist Adel Abidin created an installation that has transforms Triple Base gallery into a travel agency promoting vacation trips to Baghdad. Abidin Travels uses humor and sarcasm to invite visitors to explore the realities of life in Iraq. In addition, a kiosk allows visitors to make reservations online and also receive printed tickets.
Rijin Sahakian, the project's curator said, "What is happening in Iraq today is beyond the parameters of a strictly political discussion. By providing individual histories, experiences, and artistic practice, we explore the questions that emerge regarding what these enormous losses of life, culture and humanity mean for society as a whole."
Adel Abidin was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1973 and now lives and works in Helsinki. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in both Baghdad and Helsinki. He is currently the artist in-residence at Montalvo through November.
IMAGES FROM OPENING
View more of Adel Abidin's work
Review of Adel Abidin’s "Baghdad Travels" by Laura U. Marks
THE GRADUATE OF FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT
Past Exhibitions
The Clouds Carved the Mountains: A Dialog Between Sound and Space
October 18 - November 11, 2007
Musicians + Public Reception: Friday, October 19, 7- 10 pm
A Dialog Between Sound and Space is a solo exhibition and collaborative music project by San Francisco-based artist Drew Bennett. Bennett's project confronts the traditional anti-social nature that can often exist in visual art practice. The major focus in this Triple Base project is to shift this perspective, which Bennett achieves by transforming the gallery architecture into an environment ripe with visual and musical inspiration. Each Sunday, audience members explore the space with the lead guide being the musical performers. Bennett has joined forces with sound and light installation artist Joshua Churchill and together they will carve out the interior of the gallery and construct a landscape that functions as a gallery stageroom. The constructed space will challenge artists and musicians while enveloping the audience.
In this month-long exhibition, Bennett and selected Bay Area sound artists and musicians to respond to the broad concept of space. Collectively, their response is presented as an ongoing site-specific installation. There will be a Sunday Sound Series consisting of selected performances throughout the run of the show. Each performance will consider the sentiment of the installation and use music and vibration to explore the parameters of the gallery space.
San Francisco Weekly mention
October 21st
Sean Horchy, Simulcra, Lucky Dragons, Ship, Pumpkins
IMAGES
October 28th
Bert Bergen, Fortune Tower, Cones, iXi, Ascended Master
IMAGES
November 4th
Kushi Puri, Nobody Beats, Moot, Hannah and Raven, Snowblink, Pale Hoarse
IMAGES
November 11th
John Willhoite, 60 Watt Kid, Mike Sempert of Birds and Batteries, Tussle, and
Jascha Ephraim Memorial Library
IMAGES
IMAGES AND VIDEO TO COME!
DOUBLE BLIND: New Work by Bryson Gill and Jay Nelson
September 7 - October 7, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 8; 7-10pm
Triple Base Gallery is pleased to announce Double Blind, a two-person exhibition featuring Bryson Gill and Jay Nelson. San Francisco-based artists and long-time friends, Gill and Nelson will present new paintings that illustrate both of their common sensibilities and recent divergences. Gill and Nelson attended California College for the Arts together and often influenced one another in their art practice. Previous to this exhibition, Gill held an influential residency in Leipzig, Germany and Nelson has been working towards his MFA at Bard College in New York. In this time, each has honed their individual skills and created experimental works. The artists intentionally prepared for this exhibition without viewing the other's work as an experiment to see what differences or similarities emerge. The exact outcome is yet to be determined but you can expect to see large-scale, ambitious paintings by both Gill and Nelson.
In conjunction with the exhibition, a limited edition artist book will be produced by Triple Base Gallery.
Past Exhibitions
KYLE MOCK
DO NOT DISTURB
July 13 - August 26, 2007
Triple Base Gallery is pleased to announce Kyle Mock’s first solo exhibition, Do Not Disturb. Perhaps you have wondered what it would be like to step into one of your favorite paintings or even into the mind of an artist you admire. This is your chance to do just that. Mock’s large-scale installation, acting as a three-dimensional drawing will allow you to enter an imaginative space created by one of San Francisco’s most promising young artists.
Do Not Disturb is an art installation that transforms Triple Base Gallery into a minimalist bedroom designed for quiet reflection and examination. Each participant enters the quirky, solitary scene and is given a pair of specially designed eyeglasses to wear in Mock’s imagined environment. Viewers are invited to explore the space alone in order to contemplate their own relationship with the prescribed setting. For some, this time alone could be the first in quite a while or if your life is similar to Mock’s, the scene may be very familiar. Within Mock’s fabricated sleeping chamber one may sense the presence of a young person desperate for physical connection, simultaneously striving to become his or her ideal self.
Most of Mock’s previous work consists of small-scale paintings and drawings. Each one is executed with meticulous precision and skill, all the while strikingly clever. While Mock’s attention to detail and humorous nature are equally apparent in this new installation, the large-scale format and use of materials are entirely new to his practice. As with most young artists, Mock continually challenges himself. In the time leading up to his solo exhibition, he was working on ways to increase the scale of his two-dimensional works. For Do Not Disturb, Mock worked closely with Triple Base curator Joyce Grimm, who purposed that he try translating his work into a full scale installation, which would require him to learn new sculptural and spatial skills. The curatorial assignment, along with Mock’s technical research and recent travels to Berlin and Copenhagen, have given him solid footing to explore his formal ideas and concepts.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Triple Base Gallery produced an 80 page, limited edition book titled "Legend of the Sunset". It is complete with Mock's intimate sketchbook drawings, Grimm's curatorial essay and lively interview with the artist. Click here to order one.
This project is made possible by the San Francisco Arts Commission Equity Grant Program.
Click here to see images:
Kyle Mock Works in the Flat Files
Mock in studio
SCRAM: THE END OF THE NIGHT PERFORMANCE
Kyle Mock was born in 1981 in San Jose, California. He graduated from the California College of the Arts in 2005 with a B.F.A. in Painting/Drawing. Most recently, he was included in Cali in CPH, Co-lab Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark; The Secret Fire Escape, My Hero Gallery, Montréal, Canada; One and OH, Park Life, San Francisco, California; and Affair, Tart, San Francisco, California. His work was also included in The Family Room Show, Cinders Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (2005/06), For Landscape, Queen's Nails Annex, San Francisco, California (2005); and Infinite Fill Show and Foxy Production, New York City (2004). He performed in Music for Artists, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (2005). Mock currently lives and works in San Francisco.
Past Exhibitions
From Mind to Hand: Artists and Graphology
April 7 - May 20, 2007
What is graphology? Graphology is the analysis and interpretation of a person's character traits through handwriting. Triple Base Gallery has invited Los Angeles-based graphologist and musician Susanne Shapiro to interpret the handwriting of a varied group of contemporary artists: Jim Drain, John Dwyer, Erica Eyres, Tara Lisa Foley, Jona Frank, Bryson Gill, Sam Gordon, Frank Haines, Todd Hido, Xylor Jane, Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, Philippe Halsman, Tom Marioni, Ester Partegas, Jon Rubin, Kyle Mock, Myles Langlois, Scott Snibbe and Jeffrey Vallance. These original handwriting samples and Ms. Shapiro’s analyses will be placed on exhibit alongside images of the artists’ work so that the viewer can compare and contrast the artist's various modes of expression. A library of interpretive materials on graphology will also be available to the public for perusal.
Our goal is to look critically at the value placed on interpretation and to ask: how closely related is the artist’s personality, as read through graphology, to the work he or she creates? And how relevant is it for us to try to understand the artist and their work beyond what we read individually?
Typically, a critical analysis of an artist’s work is made by art historians, curators, and art critics. In many cases these individuals rely heavily on their own method of analysis intermixed with studies based in critical theory, psychology, and philosophy. As the field of art practice continues to deepen and intertwine itself to the various areas of study and critical thought, it will be interesting to see how another form of analysis, when introduced in relation to art, is perceived in a gallery exhibition.
Click here to view the artists's handwriting samples and partial analyses by Ms. Shapiro.
Click here to view installation shots of the exhibition.
IMAGES FROM THE OPENING
Related Event:
Dinner Lecture Series
Sunday, April 29th; 6:30-10pm
Featuring an interactive lecture by graphologist Susanne Shapiro in conjunction with upcoming exhibition "From Mind to Hand: Artists and Graphology."
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Opening Night on April 7th is a Rail action
www.railsf.blogspot.com
Rail is an independent alliance run by a group of cultural workers (visual artists, curators, among others) based in San Francisco. Rail was founded in Fall 2007 and looks forward at producing a number of exhibitions, artist presentations, discussions, film screenings, and performances. Additional to its own program Rail occasionally serves as a host for related external activities and projects.
Past Exhibitions
Noise Pop and FREEDM present:
a n t s y:
portraits by alissa anderson
February 28 - April 1, 2007
Alissa Anderson, Espers- Big Sur - 2006, C-print
Alissa Anderson has heavily documented the contemporary San Francisco music scene with her images gracing the records of Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and The Coachwhips. Also a member of the band Vetiver for the past 5 years, her photographs are featured in their new record "To Find Me Gone." Anderson's portraits of musicians have been published in RES, SOMA, XLR8R, and SPIN. Triple Base Gallery will feature Alissa Anderson's portrait photography, spanning her entire career. This will be Anderson's most comprehensive show to date, including a limited edition publication of photographs and essays that will be available for signing on opening night.
The multi-talented artist also produces a line of recycled clothing and accessories called "m i t t e n m a k e r" that has been included in exhibitions at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and California College of the Arts, local fashion shows, sample sales, and boutiques. In 2005, Alissa was featured as a "Style Icon" in Venus magazine. Alissa Anderson's photography has been shown in venues including Adobe Books, Blackbird Space, and New Langton Arts in San Francisco; New Image Art in LA; and Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York.
Click here to see images from a n t s y
Click here to read essay by curator Dina Pugh
Past Exhibitions
Frank Prattled
November 18 - December 10, 2006
Opening reception: Saturday, November 18th, 7-10pm
Frank Prattle-a-thon Live from Triple Base: Sunday, November 19th, 11am-7pm
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO FRANK PRATTLE ARCHIVES INCLUDING INTERVIEWS FROM NOVEMBER 19th AS WELL AS VIEW PHOTOS.
SF GUARDIAN REVIEW.
San Francisco is a hornet's nest of art activity...what surprises me is the lack of critical dialogue that transpires here," says Zefrey Throwell describing the impetus behind his radio show "Frank Prattle." Triple Base presents a survey exhibition of Throwell's radio program archives as well as Throwell's cunning portraits of his past show guests. On Sunday November 19th, Triple Base will host a marathon day of live radio interviews featuring artists, arts professionals and live music in the 24th Street storefront gallery.
Frank Prattle introduces Bay Area-based and visiting artists, gallerists, critics, curators, and writers to a wider public. The show educates the local community about various art exhibitions while contributing an essential critical voice and dialogue that is lacking in the region. Zefrey Throwell, a recent transplant from Portland and Alaskan native, recognized this void in his new hometown and quickly acted to provide a solution. Past guests have included Larry Rinder, Jack Hanley, Kate Fowle, John Trippe, Harrell Fletcher, Eleanor Harwood, Courtney Fink, and Chris Perez just to name a few.
Zefrey hosted 8 hours of radio programming at Triple Base Gallery on Sunday, November 19th as part of Neighborhood Public Radio Listen to ongoing programming on 87.9fm, or stream it live at: www.conceptualart.org/npr/)
Off the pedestal and on to the mic, we got down to the nitty gritty and did some Frank Prattling. There were interviews galore, as well as art-stars hosting their own programs. Listen in if you happen to miss it!
Guests included:
-Apsara DiQuinzio (SFMOMA)
-Rene de Guzman (Yerba Buena Center for Arts)
-Meg Schiffler (San Francisco Arts Commision)
-Stephen Wirtz (Stephen Wirtz Gallery)
-Renny Pritikin (Nelson Gallery)
-Berin Golonu (Yerba Buena Center for Arts)
-Glen Helfand (Artforum, SFAI, CCA, Mills)
-Steven Wolf (Steven Wolf Fine Arts)
-Courtney Fink (Southern Exposure)
-Robert Shimshak (Collector)
-Alan Bamberger (Art Business)
-Tony Labat (Artist, SFAI)
-Laurie Lazer (The Luggage Store)
-Sue Costabile (Egopark Gallery)
-Kyle Mock (SF Artist)
-Kevin Slagle (Egopark Gallery)
-Jonathon Keats (Artist)
-Chris Duncan (Artist)
-Heather Marx (Heather Marx Gallery)
-Steve Zavattero (Heather Marx Gallery)
-Brion Nuda Rosch (Artist, Adobe Books)
-John Trippe (Fecal Face)
-Jon Brumit (Artist, NPR)
-Lee Montgomery (Artist, NPR)
"I drove in from Mendocino to appear on Frank Prattle and it was worth it."
-Larry Rinder, Dean of CCA
"It was a little now and a little wow. All that I hoped for and more. It was especially nice that Frank didn't harsh my mellow."
-Jack Hanley, Jack Hanley Gallery
This is made possible by the generous support of Southern Exposure and a Creative Work Fund Grant.
Past Exhibitions
Give Me a Simple Life
Installation by Tara Lisa Foley
October 19 - November 10, 2006
Opening Night Reception: Thursday, October 19, 7-10pm
Triple Base is pleased to present San Francisco-based artist Tara Lisa Foley's first solo show "Give Me a Simple Life." The installation is a drastic departure from Foley's regular practice of painting and drawing. She will transform both the exterior and interior of the gallery to create a three-dimensional landscape of fiberglass trees, kinetic sculptures, wall paintings, a musical soundscape and more to be discovered. Using unexpected materials and innovative methods, Foley expands on her thinking around one's relationship to nature and the modern world. In line with Triple Base's mission that encourages site-specific, experimental projects, Foley has abandoned her typical goauche on panel and paper works and has worked for weeks within the gallery space to create this installation.
Video Tour of exhibtion
Click here for Fecalface.com review and images of the show
Past Exhibitions
In the Valley of the Sun
New Work by Kottie Paloma
September 8 - October 1, 2006
Opening Reception: Friday, September 8th, 7-10pm
Kottie Paloma, On a Day Like This, 2006
Recycled wallpaper and graphite
A new exhibition by Kottie P.
Including: Books on Tape Vol.II KQED The Writers' Block
Video Collaboration with Liz Walsh
and a 23 Track Compilation album called "Kottie and Friends!"
download music
WHY SHOULD YOU SEE IT:
"Because you want to know what it is like to get inside someone else's head. OR You may be a very kind and intelligent person but find yourself getting irritated by the abundance of political correctness in San Francisco. Kottie Paloma makes works that are tragic, humorous and often poignant by simply responding to his immediate surroundings. One aspect of his solo show will be a new series of constructed books consisting of his drawings and accompanied by audio recordings produced by Brian Pedersen. Paloma's artwork resonates with people who pay attention to the details of urban living and to those who may be fortunate enough to have once lived outside of its harsh reality. You can not experience his art without having a reaction, that would be simply impossible."
-Joyce Grimm
Click here to see images of "In the Valley of the Sun"
Barry Bonds interviews Joyce Grimm about Kottie Paloma's solo exhibition Download file
Click here to see images from the opening
Beth Cook: It's Not You, It's Me
August 24 – 27, 2006
Opening night event: Thursday, August 24, 7-10 pm
Beth Cook, Hamburger Theory of Love, 2005, pencil on vellum
The Triple Base Flat Files are a brand new, one-of-it’s kind collection of works on paper that highlight emerging local artists. All works may be viewed by the public during gallery hours -- just put on your white gloves and explore some of the most exciting artworks in the Bay Area. The affordable works in the Triple Base Flat Files benefit the project space’s experimental arts programming and the contributing artists. “Out of the Flat Files” events are designed as educational programs to contextualize the practice of individual artists featured in the collection. The inaugural pair of “Out of the Flat Files” events will feature two intriguing and diverse local artists: Todd Bura and Beth Cook.
From Thursday, August 24 to Sunday, August 27, 2006 Triple Base features “Beth Cook: It’s Not You, It’s Me” guest curated by Zoe Taleporos. Fashioning herself as a relationship anthropologist of sorts, San Francisco-based Cook creates elaborate diagrams detailing the history of her romantic, sexual, emotional, and creative life. These text based works use the scientific rhetoric of charts and symbols to form a non-linear autobiography complete with humor, sarcasm and charmingly blunt honesty. While examining the nuances in the quest to understand oneself and the need to connect with others, Cook’s work takes us through the all too familiar scenarios of unrequited love, dysfunctional relationships and obsessive introspection. Through bravely offering us insight into her character, Cook celebrates the fallibility of human emotion and intimacy by turning them into an art practice.
For the opening night of “Beth Cook: It’s Not You, It’s Me” on Thursday August 24th at 7pm, the artist will give a one-night only performance taking the form of a dating and relationship seminar. This is the chance you have always wanted to get closure with your ex, indulge in emotional catharsis or revel in the messy world of dating. Periodically throughout the night, “office hours” will be held where you can sign up for a personal one-on-one session with the artist. So bring your tissues, your love letters to burn, and embrace the crazy world of looking for love.
Click here to see images from “Beth Cook: It’s Not You, It’s Me”
Click here to read a review of the show by Zefrey Throwell for Shotgun-Review.com
Click here to see more images of Beth Cook's works in the Triple Base Flat Files
Past Exhibitions
Todd Bura: Mighty Pretty Rain Crow
August 17 – 20, 2006
Opening night event: Friday, August 18, 8-10 pm
Todd Bura, Untitled, 2006, watercolor on paper
At noon on Thursday, August 17, 2006, Triple Base will present “Todd Bura: Mighty Pretty Rain Crow” a four-day exhibition which will showcase the intimacy of Todd's miniature works of minimalist complexity, memory, and music. Todd draws on found paper with watercolor paints and pinpricks. The limited-capacity opening on Friday, August 18 at 8pm includes an informal interview between the artist and guest curator Dina Dusko.
New Jersey-born Todd Bura currently lives and works in San Francisco. His recent exhibitions include Four Star Video in San Francisco, 38nine Studio, Dumbo Arts Festival, and Visual Arts Gallery in New York.
Kenneth Baker's SF Chronicle Review of “Todd Bura: Mighty Pretty Rain Crow”
Todd Bura interviewed by Dina Dusko Download file
Click here to see images of “Todd Bura: Mighty Pretty Rain Crow”
Past Exhibitions
Cosmic Satellites
July 12 – July 30, 2006
Opening Reception: Wednesday, July 12, 7 – 10 pm
Special live performance by Usun (Mark Borthwick, Hisham Bharoocha and David Aron)
Mark Borthwick, Untitled C-print, 2005; Sam Gordon, The Muster, 2005; Arik Roper, Cat Tree, 2005; Josh Petherick, page from Nieves Books & Zines
"Cosmic Satellites" celebrates the intimate, handmade, the beloved souvenir and the special gift. Guest curator and art director Betty Nguyen will set up a temporary shop at the Triple Base gallery carrying limited edition art works, merchandise, clothes and media by an international roster of artists — many of whom are featured in Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' simultaneous exhibition "Cosmic Wonder."
Satellite artists include Ara Peterson, Paperrad, Cory Arcangel, Nieves Books and Zines, Tagbanger and Textfield, Cosmic Wonder, Andy Hershey, Mike Pare, Soft Circle, Eric Bauer, Michael Williams, Sean McKinnon, Jos Pollard, Willshine, Hanna Fushihara Aron, David Aron, Hisham Bharoocha, Mark Borthwick, Feathers, Sam Gordon, Sabrina Gschwandtner (KnitKnit), Yukinori Maeda, Ports Bishop and many more.
In both the "Cosmic Wonder" exhibition and satellite show, Nguyen strings together a community of artists from New York, Los Angeles, Japan, and San Francisco that work between aesthetics of transcendental, digitally tight and homespun. "Cosmic Satellites" is a contemporary cube of intricate jewelry, silk-screened and digital posters, couture clothes, humorously clever tee-shirts, documented zines, ephemeral paintings, and recursive videos that highlight the varied creative endeavors of these multi-talented artists.
Click here to see images of "Cosmic Satellites"
Click here to read a Fecalface.com review of opening night by Jennifer Maerz
Past Exhibitions
Chris Cobb: Everything in a Drawing and Nothing in a Drawing
March, 2006
With the assistance of 30 people San Francisco artist Chris Cobb has made a series of drawings that are as messy as they are colorful. Questioning authorship and originality, Cobb's upcoming exhibition at Triple Base Gallery shows what happens when 30 friends and fellow collaborators draw layer after layer to make dense, luminous drawings.
While Cobb sets forth a basic idea or structure, each picture made by the group is unique. The idea is to create a new experience with each drawing, and each person represents a certain color. This choreographed art was inspired by a rather existentialist text sent to Cobb by the Japanese artist Kazumasa Noguchi. Noguchi described time as being revealed in layers of meaning.
Curator Joyce Grimm has established this assignment-based project as the first No.4 exchange with Triple Base's sister gallery, Nakaochiai Gallery, located in Tokyo. Both spaces support interrelation, expansion, and exchange for a growing network of international artistic communities. "Everything in a Drawing and Nothing in a Drawing" originated with an invitation to Nakaochiai Gallery to recommend a Tokyo artist who had a great understanding of space and would be interested in lending their artistic and poetic sensibilities through a descriptive text that would then be translated by artist Chris Cobb. Nakaochiai Gallery recommended artist Kazumasa Noguchi and it was with his poetic text this project began. A future project will involve a reciprocal exchange in Japan.
Click here to see images of “Chris Cobb: Everything in a Drawing and Nothing in a Drawing"
Past Exhibitions
Switchback: Matt Gerring and Jay Nelson
January-February, 2006
Jay Nelson, The Joy of Nature (detail), 2006, graphite on paper
"Switchback: Matt Gerring and Jay Nelson" presents two emerging San Francisco-based artists who explore spirituality as seen through the popular California pastime—camping. Both Gerring and Nelson use their practice to explore their personal connection to the natural world within an increasingly technological modern age. While the two artists share a common point of interest, their artistic processes are inversely related. Nelson creates subtle patterns of negative space in his large-scale drawings by rubbing an eraser over layers of graphite, while Gerring embellishes his fabric canvases with detailed hand embroidery.
Matt Gerring investigates the phenomena of “home-grown” spiritual questing and aesthetics arising from 1960s psychedelic culture through the medium of embroidery on camping equipment such as sleeping bags and tents. Gerring's newest work will be on display in the Triple Base gallery's storefront windows. These new pieces made of the frayed rope and deconstructed rigging mechanisms used in mountain climbing suggest a lust for adventure and risk that many outdoor enthusiasts experience. Gerring's embroidered camping gear remind one that such products act as an intermediary between the body and the elements, only allowing a person to “get back to nature” while wrapped in state of the art petroleum by-products. Gerring's detailed work simultaneously comments on the imported spiritual philosophy of Asia and the appropriated teachings of Native Americans. Gerring is a recent MFA graduate of California College of the Arts, a recipient of the prestigious Skowhegan Residency and a current artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
Jay Nelson likewise finds the inspiration for his large-scale, psychedelic landscapes in nature. Building from early California photography and etchings, Nelson's epic drawings incorporate his own feelings of transcendence experienced while backpacking through the terrain of Northern California. Nelson's newest wall-sized drawings will cover the walls of the gallery, creating an installation that envelops the viewer.
Click here to see images of “Switchback: Matt Gerring and Jay Nelson"