A certain mixture of commercial interests and art seems all the more common these days, with endless projects sponsored by such diverse companies as manufacturers of jeans, liquor and cars. The results are mixed, but that’s no reason to despair (though there may be others); any group of exhibitions/projects will have its hits and misses. 

Artist Carey Lin seems to have found a way to navigate a commercial operation, the much loved Tartine Bakery, as a site for her strange, time-lapse-like painting. A cynical way of looking at this: we in the bay area (well, maybe everywhere) loves pictures of ourselves; note the endless stream of Golden Gate Bridge photographs at both the street fair and major gallery scale, or shows of portraits where all of the pictured proudly pose for pictures next to their likeness. But I think Lin’s practice offers more than this, the paintings distill the dynamic aspects of specific parts of the restaurant across a stretch of time into vibrant, vibrating works. (the opening is Thursday, lets hope for pastries)

Stairwell’s, a curatorial partnership between Lin and Sarah Hotchkiss (the best bargain for their money the Alternative Exposure grant has ever gotten), continues to produce events and projects. They find themselves also in a commercial context as residents of the excellent Little Paper Planes shop in San Francisco. The shop is fantastic, filled with the work of artist(ans) from all over whose productions have found themselves in wonderful, well edited company. (full disclosure:  I DJ’d at owner Kelly Lynn Jones’s wedding recently) Their residency is made of several events, with a mixture of ‘stairing contests’ on Saturday evening  at the shop.