Owen Smith

Building the Iron Horse

On May 27, the Golden Gate Bridge turns 75. If you were one of the 300,000 who walked across the bridge when it turned 50, you remember the unsettling sway, and the later reports that the convex profile of the bridge had been flattened by our collective weight. And you remember that it didn't matter. Euphoria was high. Dianne Feinstein (who was mayor at the time) tossed the $800 Fedora of Willie Brown (who was speaker of the Assembly) into the sea like a Frisbee. Half a million people pushed together on the waterfront to see the bridge turned into a golden waterfall; even with advances in pyrotechnics, few fireworks displays have been as lovely. Why? Because the bridge is gorgeous.

That's the only reason an art exhibit titled "Artistic Visions of the Golden Gate Bridge" could be anything but cheesy crafts-fair death. That is the title of the exhibit at George Krevsky Gallery -- the show opened just this week and is one of 75 tributes to the bridge -- and it's in good hands. (Remember this is the same gallery that brought us "The Art of Baseball," which was far more than just a rah-rah for the hometown nine.)

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Kellen Breen

American Boys and Girls

Get past the miscellany of dogs and beer, and you'll find a surprisingly refreshing art gallery in the back of Place Pigalle, Hayes Valley's no-frills culture destination.

The exhibition "Paintings by Kellen Breen and Scott Inguito" opened Saturday night to a familiar crowd that was more mainstream than art geek, less tech and more street -- a rare blend of normalcy that was surprisingly more interested in the artwork than being seen. The large-scale oil paintings -- some measure five feet across -- are impressive and thought-provoking without being overwhelming. Breen and Inguito, who share a studio in the Mission, clearly work well together in close quarters, and their work exhibits harmoniously side by side. Where Breen's paintings are visually stimulating and complex, Inguito's focus and nuanced study on the El Camino -- the car, not the road -- is sublime.

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When it launched in 1952, there had been nothing like MAD -- a comics magazine dedicated to humor and satire aimed at a broad range of targets. In particular, MAD exposed the cultural fakery behind familiar and beloved images that originated on television, in the movies, and in sports and politics. Led by creators Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines, MAD's cartoonists peeled back these images to expose calculated manipulation of the American populace by newly powerful postwar corporations. A retrospective exhibit on MAD opens this weekend at the Cartoon Art Museum.

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Clouds of crimson billow across one wall as if from an open wound. A length of stained gauze decays seemingly before your eyes. Jagged streaks of rusty-red fluid erupt into the ether. No, these aren't scenes from the set of Hollywood's latest vampire franchise. It's the new solo show "Haemoscuro" by artist Jordan Eagles that opens Thursday -- a First Thursday -- at Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art. Eagles uses a most unusual material in his work: animal blood. Vegans and those who are weak of stomach take heed. Sourced from slaughterhouses, Eagles' blood is the real deal and is certainly unsettling.

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The economy sucks, but we don't care -- the Bay Area is home to artists so talented they deserve to take over the world. That's why the Masterminds grants are given to three local and emerging artists who need that little push to become even more awesome.

SF Weekly has narrowed down the potential winners to 10 finalists, with the three winners being chosen Feb. 16. at Public Works during Artopia. Until then we're going to fall in love with their creative work all over again by featuring the profiles (written by our arts critic Jonathan Curiel) of two finalists each day right up until the event. Today, meet Dohee Lee and Michelle Tholen:

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Remedios Varo

Useless Science or the Alchemist

A woman sits in shadows, wrapped in a great checkered cowl. Behind her, golden light pours from a contraption of cogs, bells, tubes, and funnels that reach into the clouds. The conduits draw rainwater into small elixir bottles. It's Useless Science or the Alchemist, a painting by Remedios Varo. "Indelible Fables," the first exhibition of her work held in the Western U.S., is at Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern.

Her fanciful allegories -- rivers that flow out of wineglasses, troubadours who play music on strands of women's hair, men's coats that become boats -- are frequently inured by themes of isolation and confinement. Not surprising, given that the Spanish anarchist fled Europe before the start of World War II. Though it was not Varo's intention, Mexico City became her lifelong home. And while her strongest artistic influence remained her tutelage by French surrealists such as Andre Breton, it was in Mexico where she delved into studies of alchemy and sacred geometry, which set her work apart. At the time of her sudden death at age 54, Varo was tremendously popular within the exile community, but despite her inventive and inspired body of work, she is strangely absent from art histories.

"Indelible Fables" continues through Feb. 25 at Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern, 161 Jessie (New Montgomery), S.F. Admission is free.

Click through to see more of her work.

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Bob Holmgren

Dragon

Most of our smartphones contain digital cameras that rival the best that money could buy less than a decade ago. We often pay hundreds of dollars for these devices. And what do we do with them? Filter our 8-megapixel masterpieces through apps such as Hipstamatic and Instagram, to lend that elusive "shitty camera" sheen of yesteryear's cheap point-and-click models. It makes a persuasive case for Devo's grand theory of devolution -- as a race, we're going backward. But whether the trend toward faux-distressed photos with blown-out colors is mindless fun or the worst kind of kitsch, the results definitely lack the authentic charm of photos taken with a real, bottom-shelf, analog camera. Said cameras are becoming harder to find, but RayKo gallery director Ann Jastrab must have a secret stash, which she dispatched for "the International Juried Plastic Camera Show," which opens tonight (Wednesday). Jastrab describes the show as an exhibition of "the best images from the worst cameras."

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Fabio Arnad

"MCD LAB #3: Fake Sunset"
Fecal Face Dot Gallery
Jan. 7, 2012

After moving around town like a craigslist addict, even escaping a fire and enduring water damage at its recent Lower Haight location, Fecal Face Dot Gallery has found a new home. Located on Mission between 18th 19th streets, FFDG's space is situated to be the start of a typical Mission adventure: art, food, music, and bar hopping. We stopped by Saturday for the opening of the exhibit "MCD LAB #3: Fake Sunset."

Three San Francisco artists -- Matt Furie, Aiyana Udesen, and Jeremy Fish -- were invited to join seven Brazilian artists to Sao Paulo to explore the iconic California sunset. Sound a little wacky? Here's more explanation from the gallery website:

The artists explored California's influence, through images of beaches, palm trees, and "vibrant colors that arrived in Brazil through movies, magazines, records, video clips and even video games to be reproduced by young people, invading even concrete cities where the skyline (and the sunset) are obstructed by buildings." Hence, "Fake Sunset."

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Yoshi Sodeoka

Evil Erector

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." We like that line from REM, but we understand it more now after seeing this exhibit. It's called "Remains in the End Times," and it might sound pretty dark - as in, the remains of living things and objects. But "remains" can also be a verb, as in "[The Human Race] Remains in the End Times." And that's closer to what organizers of this group show at the Popular Workshop had in mind. They theorize that the end of the world is not impending, as many people insist, but rather that "society is already immersed in this so-called doomsday" - that we've slowly adapted to accept (and even embrace) things such as smog-ridden skies and omnipresent white noise from always-on televisions, computers, and smartphones. This vision is expressed through video, audio, sculpture, and prints.

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Karen Zack

Man Kind

Conduct any level of research on feminism and related concepts such as "the male gaze" or "objectification," and you'll fall into the crossfire of intellectual warriors shouting at one another. "Man objectifies woman through his unwanted gaze!" says one. "Even if the gaze is wanted, woman reinforces patriarchal oppression by accepting it!" adds another. "Man cannot bear the burden of having the gaze put upon him!" exclaims a third. That final remark is put to the test in "Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze," which opens Friday at SOMArts.

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