Curiously Direct Direct // Issue #11 // Best of 2014

December 30, 2014

A quick warning: this is going to be a long one, a special year ender, so bear with me/us...Before I share some of your (and my) favorite exhibitions of 2014, this NYE week isn't without a few highly recommended things. Friday, coinciding with an awkwardly-located-on-the-calendar first Friday is After-Hours, a solo show of new work by Carrie Hott. I've been excited about Hott's research-based practice for a long time and her recent work is no exception, with the object making portion of her practice getting better and better. Interface Gallery had a great 2014... we'll get to that in a bit. Also of note is a talk at Real Time and Space with New York-based artist and current resident Ashley Carter and director of the Lab Dena Beard on Saturday, January 3rd.

And with that, please excuse the lack of a calendar on the bottom of this email as, well, those two events are the events.

One more thing: Here's a podcast of Jackie Im and my favorite music from 2014, I'm trying to write about the year but I've writers block which has slowed progress.

2014

Plan: minimal editing to what was sent to me, so please excuse the mix of styles and formats. Note my request last week for a favorite exhibition (singular)... art people are so difficult :) I could skip my opinion as it pretty much overlaps with these folk's picks completely, but I'll add it on the bottom of this list anyways.

Jackie Im:

It seems wrong to say that some of my favorite exhibitions have been at Et al., if only because I have the pleasure of sitting with them for so long. But here are the other exhibitions and works that I loved - I missed more (Kiria Koula!), so consider it unfinished.  

Chen Xiaoyun's 5-Channel Video piece in Landscape: the virtual, the actual, the possible? at YBCA

Rhonda Holberton's "skin" yoga mat at Royal NoneSuch

Zarouhie Abdalian An Overture at Altman Siegel

The Presence of Present at di Rosa

Greg Ito at City Limits and Mission Comics

Sofia Córdova Every Night I Tell Myself I Am the Cosmos at Royal NoneSuch

Conrad Guevara No Can Handle at City Limits

Teresa Baker's Turnesol Award Show at Luggage Store

n/a and Pied-a-terre at Bay Area Now 7

Carson Fisk-Vittori in Tom Kha Ga (Hot Silk) at Moroso Projects

Christine M. Peterson at Backstock Gallery

krm mooney understudy at n/a

a.k. burns at n/a

Dominique Gonzalez-Forester at 303 Gallery (NY)

Ken Price at Matthew Marks (NY)

Julie Ault, Martin Wong, Danh Vo, Laura Owens, Susan Howe at Whitney Biennial 

Jonah Susskind at Important Projects

Josh Minkus at Important Projects

Puppies Puppies at Important Projects

Jaqueline Kiyomi Gordon at YBCA

Vincent Fecteau at Matthew Marks (NY)

Sanya Kantarovsky at Casey Kaplan (NY)

Sherrie Levine at Paula Cooper (NY)

Mika Rottenberg at Andrea Rosen (NY)

The Optimists at Stephen Wirtz

Bonanza at Interface and SHED Projects

Jonah Susskind and Emmy Moore at SHED Projects

Sigmar Polke at MOMA (NY)

Markus Schinwald at Wattis

Alice Channer lecture at SFAI

The excerpt of Joan Jonas' DIA performance during her lecture

Sterling Ruby at Hauser & Wirth (NY)

Evan Reiser:

"Rot Farm," a show by Quintessa Matranga and Rafael de la Cruz at garage gallery 1038 in Cole Valley, was the most surprising and interesting show I saw in the Bay Area this year. Reservoirs of Jell-O and hay were shoved into nooks and crannies of the garage floor. Wall works included very minimal, graphic paintings by Matranga and de la Cruz's digital collage, best described as Japanese videogame clip art, fastened to the wall with bolts directly through the work and again with caulking. There was, for some reason, a large stenciled portrait of Kurt Cobain. The show was off the charts on the good-weird scale, and the installation looked completely unprecious and intuitive.

Maggie Hass:

Amie Siegel at Ratio 3 - I went because I knew people locally who were doing live sound and was excited to watch, not just hear, a foley artist at work.  I ended up totally loving something I don't usually have a ton of patience for: long, cinematic/narrative work screened in a gallery setting. But in this case, the context of the cyclical, ambiguous video kept changing as live performers arrived and departed, and what had appeared like a vague and pretty architectural story became dense with nuance. Unlike many shows where I'm visually ready to go on to the next thing, or I want to know more because I think the artist needs to justify an otherwise unimpressive display, this left me curious for more in the way a good novel does. Ostensibly about (and other viewers might have gotten other snippets) the end of the world, it posed some scary questions about who our communities are (do we isolate or engage? is the aim of community safety?). Also I though Amy M. Ho kinda kicked butt here locally with the strong show at Et Al and as a highlight of group shows...

Kelly Lynn Jones:

I second the Amie Siegel, also the symposium: Valuing Labor in the Arts was really great. Lastly I was really glad to learn about Guy de Cointet at the Kadist.

Matthew Kerkhof

Best of the Year- Bay Area 

@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz

In an art scene, art market and art world that seems increasingly escapist, elitist and decorative, Ai Weiwei brought a powerful voice to the Bay Area. The installation, strongly embracing location and fighting against the white-box norm, came with an aggressively conceptual and political agenda. The artist and his army of assistants not only created great art, but they found a way to present it to a huge swath of the population, art-inclined and otherwise. This project was a breath of fresh air, a perfect counterpoint to the Bay Lights and one of the only reasons the greater art-world cast its attention towards the Bay Area. 

Takeshi Murata Screening at Ratio 3

I know this occurred towards the end of 2013, but it feels like 2014 to me. This screening was a profound gift to the community courtesy of Ratio 3. The videos served as a mini-retrospective for a consistently engaging artist and a great introduction to his practice. It was funny, poignant and extremely hallucinatory. I loved the work and the generous spirit of its presentation. On a night in December, a packed house in the Mission had its collective mind blown again and again. 

Best of the Year

Jeff Koons at the Whitney: It was just so damn beautiful. 

Roula Seikaly:

24-hour marathon at The Lab. It's thrilling to see an historic space infused with Dena Beard's great ideas!

Savash Erenler:

Green circle, black diamond - Ratio 3

Laeh Glenn - ordinary objects - Altman Siegel 

Ben Barreto - surround sound - highlight gallery 

David Bayus and Ben bigelow - city limits

Dena Beard:

I liked Matt Borruso show at Steven Wolf, particularly the back room, Olivia Mole's exhibition in her garage, the Robert Zhao Renhui show up now at Kadist, Rick Prelinger's talk on appropriation at the Wattis, Jac Leirner at Museo Tamayo (don't know if that counts here). Otherwise this year was pure hell.

Ajit Chauhan:

Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible at BAM. it put the heart back into art or the pet back into poet

Conrad Guevara:

SF/Bay

1. Alice Channer's talk at SFAI

2. n/a, Bay Area Now 7, ybca

3. krm mooney, understudy, n/a

4. Will Rogan, BAMPFA

5. Kate Bonner, et al

6. Jaimie Healy and Sahar Khoury, Second Floor Projects

7. Lisa Raydon, Pied-a-terre

8. Mitzi Pederson, Ratio 3

9. Lindsay Tully, Service Industries

10. "Becky", Mission Comics

11. Nando Alvarez, League Gallery

12. Tamra Seal, Ever Gold

13. Lisa Cralle, West Coast Craft Fair

14. Aidan Koch, City Limits & Mission Comics

15. That one Harvey Quaytman painting, BAMPFA

16. "The Optimists", Stephen Wirtz

17. Jonah Susskind and Emmy Moore, S.H.E.D. Projects

18. Mykki Blanco/T.E.A.M.S., elbo room

19. Clare Rojas, Paule Anglim

20. "Something Completely Different" City Limits

Michael Schoolnik:

I’m sorry. I couldn’t name a favorite show. Counting back 2014, the following were my favorite shows, with kudos to Quintessa Matranga of Mission Comics for mixing local and out-of-town artists in some of the freshest shows mounted in the back of a Mission comic book store. And a fond farewell to Important Projects who put on some of the best shows in the entire Bay Area over the past few years.

December: “CoCo Confidential” @ Mission Comics curated by Centre for Style and Quintessa Matranga

November: Kiria Koula’s inaugural show in SF @ 20th/Capp

October: “The Landscape Show” @ YBCA

September: Alistair Mathews contribution to “Suntan” @ Morosso Projects

August: Kate Bonner, solo show; “The Path of a Free Agent” @ Et Al Gallery in SF

July: BAN7 @ YBCA

June: David Bayus & Ben Bigelow @ City Limits in Oakland and Caron Vittori-Fisk’s contribution to Tom Kha Gai (hot silk) @ Morosso Projects

May: “Riding the Earth Boy 40” @ Mission Comics

April: “April 11th, 1954: The Most Boring Day in History” @ Aggregate Space in Oakland

March: Chris Hood, “Tony Clifton Eats for Free” @ Et Al in SF

February: “New New New Abstraction” @ Toomey Tourell, curated by Jenny Sharaf

January: EverGold Anniversary Show and Leah Glenn @ Altman Siegel

Aaron Harbour:

Maybe I'll organize this by spaces, but first, k. r. m. Mooney had an excellent year with great work at n/a and at Bay Area Now... 

n/a // Gone (?) because we can't have nice things... every show here was vital and new.

Moroso Projects // Especially Carson Fisk-Vittori's works in Tom Kha Ga , and Alistair Matthews' work in Sun Tan

Kadist // Too much is riding on the shoulders of this strange organization, as our risk-adverse and/or in construction institutions sleep, but they continue to bring smart, ambitious projects, artists and thinkers to the Bay Area

Royal NoneSuch // A great year of programming, with Sofia Cordóva and Rhonda Holberton being highlights (I missed a few good looking other shows here)

Southern Exposure//White Hot Lamp Black ... I remember nice work by Carrie Hott and Hillary Wiedemann. I like Southern Exposure's whole program, but especially when they just use the space for an art show (so old fashioned!)

Steven Wirtz//The Optimists, Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel: We Make You Us, Billboards and Evidence... a sorely missed gallery, they had a few of the best shows this year.

City Limits // A solid year of programming, the highlight definitely being Conrad Guevara's solo here, the best solo show I saw in the Bay this year

Important Projects // Alison Veit! Jonah Susskind! Puppies Puppies! Bunny Rogers! Derek Frech! There was some wonderful stuff at this gallery as it ended its excellent run.

Matthew Marks // A bunch of Ken Price (3 different galleries full!) and a stunning Vincent Fecteau show. 

Backroom Gallery // Not sure whats going on here currently, but Kristine Eudey and Christine Peterson's shows were pretty great

..........

Having finished typing this, I realize we DID loose a lot of spaces this year, not the big commercial whatnots, but SHED Projects, Moroso, n/a, Important Projects... thank goodness for Mission Comics and other new projects, many of which I've yet to go to,A suggestionYOU: There is plenty of room in this scene for whatever wild idea of an art space you want to make! It is a pretty small pond... join in the mess-making.That's all for now, let me know if you have any other highlights to mention we missed, or other suggestions/comments CONTACT. We'll be back at reviewin' shows in the next week or so, and hopefully adding a few other new features, essays, and things I've yet to dream up and over-promise about.

ps, THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING! 

pps. I'm holding a series of dinners at the gallery Et al. in the coming weeks to support some projects and I'd love to see you at one. The first went well; fun times, good food, lots of drinking. Go to the facebook event page, or email me for more info.

One more plug, a mixtape of music by me :)