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Your Device Becomes a Portal in Headlands’ ‘Twilight Engines’
Twilight Engines is not, as it sounds, a fanfic crossover between the Twilight series (vampires and werewolves in the Pacific Northwest) and the Mortal Engines series (futuristic steampunk cities on...
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Art-Horror-Comedy ‘Velvet Buzzsaw’ Paints In Broad But Colorful Strokes
“Critique is so limiting and emotionally draining.” — Morf Say this much about L.A. art critic Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal) — he’s right about the act of criticism. It’s reductive by nature, and it...
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At Gagosian San Francisco, ‘Laws of Motion’ Destroys American Icons
When people endeavor to frame the present in the context of art history, the artist they most frequently turn to is Andy Warhol. By those measures Warhol is a perfect reference point, the provocations...
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Wisconsin Boy Is Hooked On Crocheting And Giving Back
Jonah Larson taught himself how to crochet at the age of 5 by watching YouTube videos. Now 11, he’s been described as a “crocheting prodigy.” He has his own crochet business called Jonah’s Hands, based...
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‘Beneath This Mask, Another Mask’: Identity is Unfixed in CJM’s ‘Show Me’
The story of French artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore—neé Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe—is long and rich enough to fill multiple exhibitions, or multiple volumes. But here’s the abridged...
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In ‘East Meets West,’ Even the Back Scratcher is Jewel Encrusted
Valentine’s Day approacheth. Those of you still scrounging for an outing that’s equal parts sappy, heartfelt and thoughtful, look no further: nothing fits the bill quite as well as a visit to the...
View Article‘SoMA Nights’ Offers a Glimpse into SF’s Queer Club Scene of the ’80s and ’90s
For many LGBTQ+ people, nightlife is where we build community, express ourselves and experience healing through dancing and having fun. It’s never just about the party. This is as much the case now as...
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Monet, Monet, Monet Makes the World Go ‘Round
“You may think you know everything there is to know about Monet,” teased curator Melissa Buron at the press preview for the de Young’s Monet: The Late Years, implying shocking, revelatory secrets to be...
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Christine Wong Yap Asks: Where Do You Feel a Sense of Belonging?
Do you feel belonging in your local library, a neighborhood bar, a regular meeting in city hall? Or do you carry your sense of belonging with you from place to place? New York-based artist and Oakland...
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The Artist’s Way is the Only Way in ‘Never Look Away’
The light above Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s head is flickering. We’re in the empty bar of a Nob Hill hotel and I’m asking the 6-foot-9-inch-tall director about a scene in his third film, Never...
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Dinh Q. Lê and the Art of Weaving Memory
Dinh Q. Lê was born in Vietnam. He lives there now, since moving back there in 1997. But he also grew up a refugee in Simi Valley, California after the end of the Vietnam War. His memories of the...
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Spurred by Possible Sale, Tenants of Vulcan Arts Lofts Rally for Rent Control
“Is this your whip?” Andrew Pulkrabek was on the dancefloor of his neighbor Bri Crabtree’s loft at the Vulcan, a sprawling live-work community of some 200 residents in East Oakland, inspecting a...
View ArticleSan Francisco’s Balboa Pool Reopens with a Splashy New Mural
Waaaaay back in late October of 2016, Balboa Pool (situated in San Francisco’s Balboa Park) closed for renovations. Some of the items on the to-do list: renovations to the pool and its surrounding...
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Leila Weefur Renders Black Experience Dreamlike in ‘Between Beauty & Horror’
Leila Weefur’s Between Beauty & Horror started as a dream. The two-channel video installation, projected large-scale on opposite walls of Oakland’s Aggregate Space Gallery, runs just over 17...
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Arthur Jafa Does Not Want to Be Known as ‘The Found Footage Guy’
Yes, the work that catapulted Arthur Jafa to art world fame, 2016’s Love is the Message, the Message is Death, is a powerful compilation of found footage of black joy and pain set to Kanye West’s...
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Drawing the Oakland Teachers’ Strike
When Thi Bui learned that Oakland Unified School District teachers were going on strike, she knew that had to do something. As a former teacher at Oakland International High School for seven years, she...
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Rightnowish: Refa One, Spraypaint in Hand, Honors West Oakland’s History
I stand on the corner of 14th and Peralta in West Oakland, marveling over a mural painted on the broad side of the Sav-Mor liquor store. With a brilliant blue background, African Adinkra symbols along...
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Aggregate Space Gallery Faces Displacement, Despite Doubling Budget
On Monday, Feb. 18, Conrad Meyers addressed roughly 40 supporters of Aggregate Space Gallery convened for dinner in the workshop adjacent to the nonprofit, artist-run space in Oakland. He wore...
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Rightnowish: Gavin Grant’s Visions in Woodworking
Gavin Grant didn’t set out to be a wood sculptor. In college, he signed up as a teacher’s assistant in a wood shop class—just to earn a few credits so he could graduate. And then he fell in love with...
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Photographer Robert Buelteman Will Force You to See the Natural Beauty Around Us
Montara-based Robert Buelteman made his reputation with breathtaking black-and-white photographs of the Peninsula’s wild spaces. His photos have helped raise money for local environmental groups like...
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