The Making of ‘@Large, Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz’
The title of international art star Ai Weiwei’s installation on Alcatraz, @Large, is a contradiction, since the artist himself is anything but. Ai was imprisoned by Chinese authorities for 81 days in...
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Exploring Freedom and Confinement on Alcatraz
Listen to Mina Kim’s KQED Radio News report on @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz: http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio//2014/09/20140925aiweiwei.mp3 The only way to get to the exhibit is to hop on a...
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Listen Up: A Journey from India, a Magic Wand, and More
With Cy Musiker out this week, Suzie Racho and David Wiegand scout the Bay Area for things to do and turn up movie stars in Marin, big-time art on the Rock, dueling dancers and plenty more....
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Postcard From The Rock: A Review of Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz
First, an admission: I’d never been to Alcatraz and only recently had my first visit. Its histories of isolation and displacement were always amplified in my mind by its sorrowful emptiness. Why would...
View ArticleArt Behind Bars: On Alcatraz, Ai Weiwei Celebrates the Silenced
Artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s exhibition on Alcatraz Island opens to the public Saturday. The Chinese dissident has been a relentless critic of his own government, especially after shoddy...
View ArticleHow Artists Use Their Skills to Pay the Bills
In May, KQED’s Christian L. Frock asked her Facebook network of friends, colleagues, artists, writers and curators, “what do you need?” The answers were so thought provoking, sincere and...
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‘Shift’ Is the New Black for Heather Marx
It was a canary in a coal mine moment when Heather Marx and Steve Zavattero announced on August 1, 2012 that they were leaving 77 Geary in search of another location for their eponymous art gallery....
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Finding ‘Fertile Ground’ in Northern California’s Art History
Though it spans eighty-five years and includes some of art history’s biggest names, Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California, at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA), is far from a survey...
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John Zurier on Iceland, Light, and Landscape
Berkeley-based painter John Zurier’s first solo museum exhibition, Matrix 255, on view at the Berkeley Art Museum, includes twenty-two new paintings that demonstrate a subtle effect on the viewer,...
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Honoring Life with ‘Boxes of Death’
Event Information ‘Boxes of Death’ Edgy exhibit of coffin art. Oct. 8, 2014 Gauntlet Gallery Details After my mother died, my sisters, my dad and I talked about finding the perfect urn for her ashes....
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Failing Dorothea Lange
One of the most iconic images of the twentieth century is a photograph of a 32-year-old woman, Florence Owens Thompson, looking beaten down but not defeated. Two of her children crowd close to her as...
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Creating a New Reflection at ‘Life is Living’ in Oakland
Event Information Life is Living Festival Day-long celebration of West Oakland. Oct. 11, 2014 DeFremery Park Details and tickets There’s an old saying in journalism, “If it bleeds, it leads”—meaning...
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The Society of California Pioneers Shares ‘Treasures from the Archive’ at New...
“Everyone comes to California for the same four reasons,” explains John Hogan, the Education & Gallery Manager of the Presidio’s new Pioneer Hall. “To get rich, to become famous, to be around...
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Artists Set Santa Cruz Aglow with ‘Light and Fire’
Suffering from Post-Burn Blues? The GLOW Light and Fire Festival might help. The two-night event is spearheaded by local artists Steve Cooper and Drew Detweiler. Cooper brings the Fire, curating his...
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How Jewish Émigrés Impacted the Birth of Film Noir
The 1942 classic Casablanca follows a complicated love story between two star-crossed lovers, played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. But it’s also about refugees fleeing their home country for...
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Ephemeral Graffiti in Demolished Alameda Warehouse
When we heard there was a huge, abandoned warehouse with wall-to-wall graffiti in Alameda that was about to be demolished, we were chomping at the bit to get pictures and find out which Bay Area...
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Job Fair for Bacteria at Modernism Gallery
It wasn’t clear that Mark Zuckerberg was going to show up, but Jonathon Keats was hopeful. Tuesday night was the launch of Microbial Associates, the world’s first corporate training academy for...
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Berkeley Resident Petitions Authorities to Punish Park Vandal
A Berkeley resident filed a petition on Whitehouse.gov Wednesday requesting that authorities pursue charges and the maximum punishment allowed for a New York artist who vandalized at least 10 national...
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Radio Show: The Lonely and the Dead
Cy Musiker and David Wiegand share their picks for great events around the Bay Area this week. http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/thedolist/2014/10/20141024tdl.mp3 Pegi Young & The Survivors...
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Animal Magnetism: Examining the Beauty of Beasts, in Reno
There’s a small museum in Reno that’s having a global impact on the arts. Five years ago, the Nevada Museum of Art, the only fully accredited art museum in the state, created the Center for Art +...
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