David Yun

David Yun examines how photography and video alter the content and manner of our memories. Three intertwined, unique bodies of work comprise his study, and mirror the three stages of memory: "Encoding", "Storage", and "Recall".

"Encoding" examines the first stage of memory making. David erases most of the background in select photographs, allowing the photo's subject and a hint of where they are to remain, suggesting our reliance on photographs supports our memories. In "Storage", David isolates single frames from found VHS home movies, and uses the premise that we assume our memories are eternal (but our lives inevitably change and our relationship with the memories change as a result). For example, why would a home movie of a wedding or the birth of a child lose its value? David creates a visual metaphor to memory by exploiting the low fidelity and short lifespan of found VHS tapes, and using selected, photographed pieces of the tapes where information began to degrade. His choices and retention of select parts of the original tape, become, like a memory, remnants of the original event. The images impart an illusory feeling of something universal and familiar, like a common memory. Finally, with "Recall" David studies the idea that organic, unadulterated memory is impossible to achieve, because anything we recall from our past is inevitably colored by experience. He seems to say, "We store memories, that change over time, and are affected by the relationships we create from one memory to the next." David illustrates this process of recall with a video installation of a floating screen, that could be viewed from all sides.

David's strength in video lies with his choices of imagery. He consistently shows beautiful and lyrical images (previous videos: "Hug", "Flowers") that flow seamlessly one from the other, creating a strong visually pleasurable experience. His successful achievement of this experience is repeated with "Recall" - a quiet video, a collage, of images that could have come out of anyone's family archive. And while the floating screen seems a gimmick, it's minimal and sensitive to the slightest movement of air. The result is a video presentation of sweet, softly moving images pendent on the environment - much like our memories.

Networks

This evening, I went to a 'private' reception hosted by a new gallery in town. Happy to welcome the newcomer (I will do anything to encourage art business - if its good for my colleagues, it will be good for me), when the (elegant) invitation was personally delivered at our gallery a couple of days ago, I looked forward to meeting my new colleague.

The new gallery is beautiful (galleries are supposed to be beautiful), and this one didn't disappoint, really. Fresh white walls, open windows overlooking a busy street, the work was spare, minimal (surely there was a message somewhere), the pseudo disco ball made from chocolate was unusual (... a lot like your realtor putting chocolate chip cookies in the oven to entice a buy, you know?), but what really threw me was the awesome cold shoulder from the new gallerist after introductions and 'Hello'. Wow, I don't think I've ever been so obviously or thoroughly examined from head to toe, and made to feel so wanting. So, dear new colleague, thanks for the invite and graceless reception. I think I'll pass on the next invite.

Kristiina Uslar

Last night was an opening reception evening for many of our neighbor galleries (our building hosts openings on the first Thursday of the month regularly - making it easy for everyone to find the party!). As a result, even though we weren't hosting a reception for our current exhibition, we love a party and want to be good neighbors, so we stayed open a little later than usual ... wow ... what a crowd! Is it the après-holidays effect, or is everyone just tired of groaning about the economy? It was neither ... just lots of lovely, lovely crowds of art aficionados browsing every beautiful artwork by every gallery on every floor of our gallery-packed building!

Kristiina Uslar's work was a consistent favorite with its visual play of exquisitely delicate appearance (it looks like lace) and obvious industrial inspiration. Working in pâte-de-verre (literal translation: Fr. glass paste, it is actually a very fine grained leaded glass medium), Kristiina sculps her forms in a classic manner: creating a wax sculpture, a mold, rendering the wax, and pouring the pâte-de-verre into it before kiln-firing the work. The resulting sculpture, in the refined hands of this Estonian artist (yes, she lives and works there), is an object that is immediately recognizable as an industrial turbine of some sort, but has such fragility one wonders if a breath of air will make it move, or blow away ...

Michelle Knox

Michelle Knox is a New Jersey native who relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997. She attended and graduated from The California College of the Arts in 2000. Michelle won both the Saxe Family Scholarship for Pilchuck Glass School and the Richard Ritter Scholarship for Penland School of Crafts. Most recently, Michelle was nominated for the Corning Award from Pilchuck Glass School, after a session as an Artist Assistant in the summer of 2007. Over the past several years, she attended other glass institutes such as Public Glass (San Francisco), Urban Glass (Brooklyn), and BAGI (San Jose). In 2008, she won her first Public Art grant with the Richmond Art Center, to produce a permanent public art piece in the city of Richmond CA. Michelle is currently the Executive Director at Public Glass in San Francisco. She is emerging into her career and shows locally throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Some of her venues include the Oakland Museum, The Museum of Craft and Design, and the National Liberty Museums’ annual auction, along with other fine art galleries. Trained classically as a glass blower, Michelle has recently ventured into sculpturing and painting on glass. She has several different bodies of work that have multiply ranges of topics and materials. She states, "The motivation behind making my artwork comes from a deep-rooted desire to affect my world and create a positive sense of self. I completely enjoy the feeling that creating something unique brings to me. I choose glass as a medium because it is so alluring, so fragile and so representational of the human condition. The combination of material in my work allows me to play on the tension and fragility of glass as a metaphor and the rigidness of metal as a foundation to balance that fragility."

Naoko Okabe

Born in Japan and now a San Francisco resident, Naoko Okabe's porcelain sculptures carry a fascinating appeal, imbued as they are by their maker's philosophies of life. In her statement, Okabe states she is the destroyer and healer, using classic teddy bear forms because of their inherent representation as messengers of our childhood memories. For reasons that seem very personal to the artist, she perceives the act of art making as a redemption from the 'bad' aspects of her life for which she suffers guilt. The resulting sculptures, in their forms and in the process of art making (from concept to firing to destruction, and occasionally, the video recording thereof) become a cleansing, soothing and balancing activity.

A newly graduated MFA student from the California College of Art, Okabe's work is fragile, but possesses considerable universal visual appeal, transcending the delicacy and fragility of her sculpture.

David Ruth

David Ruth's excellent adventure in the Antarctic was chronicled in an interview published in a recent GLANC newsletter by San Francisco Bay Area glass artist Susan Longini, where he humorously details the voyage from receiving a national grant, to the company of filmmaker Werner Herzog, to the minutiae of daily south pole life.

To hear David's story (read his blog), the Antarctic was a veritable mine of artistic influence that resulted in a new series of sculpture based on the Antarctic ice, where form and color are pure and (forgive the pun) glacial. This collection of work, and first issue of David's work in a limited edition series (nine per casting), remains true to his formalized tradition of forming an inner work captured within the outer confines of his sculpture, and is spectacularly imbued with light, as he captures spectacular, glittering optical effects rendered by labor-intensive polishing (and decisions where not to polish). David's concept behind the series studies and delivers samples of crystalline formations found only in the rarest circumstance, and demonstrates what may forever be lost under changing planetary conditions. Two works from this series, Norsel and Gamage, were recently shown to considerable acclaim at SOFA Chicago 2008 and our newly launched Winter Salon 2008. Bravo, David!

Chantal Royant

As the new kid on the block at 49 Geary Street, San Francisco's reputed den of art activity, our introduction of glass sculpture to art aficionados continues to draw surprising response - from congratulations to outrageous curiosity. For our first Winter Salon, a group exhibition of blown and kiln-fired sculpture, digital art, and video, one of the artists whose work has elicited some of the most interest is Chantal Royant.

Born in France, Chantal Royant's work infuses personal philosophies and poetry, creating a lyrical visual work, dynamic with color, drama, and form, yet infinitely delicate. Chantal's work possesses fascinating exchange of light and optics, which forms the sculpture within a sculpture, a classical hallmark of polished cast glass artwork.

Questions about Chantal's work range from the ubiquitous, "What is it?" (It's kiln cast lead glass, commonly known as crystal), to "How did she achieve such a distinct bubble pattern?" (The bubbles are formed by gases trapped during the kiln-firing process).

According to her editor, Edith Herlemont-Lassiat, Chantal's sources of inspiration are infinite and permanent, everything brings her back to the creative act: a moment of particular light, a work of art, an emotion, a look, a promise of beauty. Nourished by childhood in Brittany and memories of granite and rain, the paradox between materials and matter influence an attentive sensibility of space. Presenting contrasts of shape, color and clarity in tandem with formal presence, Chantal's work of highly polished sculptural mass is belied by effervescent air bubbles suspended in surprising clear forms. Strands of glass thread in unlikely silken weavings, colors are saturated or transparent, always intense - her sculpture, with its definitive interior and exterior shapes, capture a moment that is forever suspended in light and delicate space.

David Yun

David Yun's work was shown with great interest Bridge Art Fair New York and Miami, with Micaela Gallery this year, and he is rapidly climbing the ranks of young video artists to watch on collectors' lists. He will show his work, with Gerald Cannon and Jenna North, at Micaela Gallery next month beginning January 20. His work will also be included in an upcoming exhibition at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. You can see his piece "The Pain with Being Thirsty" on display starting at the end of January.

I Do It For My People (January 23, 2009 – March 8, 2009) - The Museum of the African Diaspora's new exhibition, I Do It for My People, examines how contemporary artists articulate demands and issues unique to their groups: ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, and religious. Issues specific to people of color serve as a starting point as we draw connections to concerns of other minority groups. Within such a rich and complex society, we must reach outside our own silos to both understand ourselves as well as seek a broader view of the people and cultural values of our world.

The jury at the Alternative Film/Video Festival in Serbia recently chose Yun's piece "The Pain with Being Thirsty" for the List of significant achievements of the festival. The award includes the right to realize a new film/video produced by the Academic Film Centre (AFC) with full use of all production facilities and technical equipment. The authors will be provided with accommodation and restaurant service within for a period of 1 month. Their awarded films/videos will be published on the non-commercial DVD ALTERNATIVE FILM/VIDEO 2008.

In addition, Yun's work has been showing regularly within the Bay Area and around the world. Here is a partial list of recent screenings of Yun's work:

- 22nd Stuttgart Filmwinter Festival for Expanded Media Stuttgart, Germany,

- Platforma Video 8 Athens, Greece ;

- Jordan Short Film Festival Amman, Jordan;

- 21st Dallas Video Festival Dallas, Texas;

- 6th Detroit Docs Detroit, Michigan;

- 2nd Oblo Film Festival Lausanne, Switzerland;

- Document 6 Glasgow, Scotland;

- Austin Asian American Film Festival Austin, Texas.

His work was also included in the film/video screening at the 10th APAture Festival of Emerging Asian Pacific American Artists which took place at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Yun was recently the recipient of the annual Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship awarded by the San Francisco Foundation to the most promising MFA students in the Bay Area. As a result, his Digital Scratch Films were included as part of the Immediate Future exhibition at the SF Arts Commission Gallery this fall.

Gary Clemenceau

Gary Clemenceau's successful gallery debut last summer was a precursor to our first Winter Salon (2008) and his first exhibition at Bridge Art Fair in Miami earlier this month. A prolific artist, his work is based on digital media and complicated (and dangerous, he tells me) electromagnetic and engineering processes. A trained photographer, Gary manages to create consistently irresistible visuals compelling the viewers' approach. His first series, 'City of Glass', presented squares of electric, saturated colors printed on archival papers and sealed within a slick matrix of polished polycarbonate (I think that's plexi) and aluminum. For the Winter Salon, Gary presents a concurrent series, 'Tough Audience,' a sinister world where pseudo-figurative shapes are dark, menacing, and an undercurrent of oppressive control pervades.

Peter Bremers

Peter Bremers' work draws unadulterated awe for its quiet, pure expression of sculpture. He describes his work as an offering of gratitude for the overwhelming emotion he feels when confronted by the majesty of nature. While this probably sounds florid to the casual American reader, to view his work, one marvels how (no, not just technically, but how) he managed to capture the essence of the silky dark ripples of a deep arctic sea and all its mysterious colors. Peter's work will be on exhibition at the Winter Salon 2008 through January 17, 2009.

(image by Paul Niessen, left:
Iceberg+Paraphernalia 2005-52, kiln cast Reichenbach glass, 53 x 36 x 8 in., 2008)

Micaela Gallery began its Salon program in the summer of 2005, to offer invited artists a curated exhibition venue and promote an active exchange of ideas in an informal setting. As the Salon d'Ete grew, Director Micaela Van Zwoll expanded the Salon program to offer a broader, more formal direction featuring contemporary fine art emphasizing conceptual artwork in drawing and digital art, glass sculpture, paintings and video art. Invited artists share a commitment to conceptual discipline, formal methods, rigorous process, and mastery of their chosen medium. Today, Micaela Gallery hosts COLD+HOT and Winter Salon - two annual group exhibitions that introduce, and open, the gallery's following program season. For submissions to COLD+HOT 2009, please click this link.

Winter Salon 2008 Opening Reception

Micaela Gallery's inaugural reception of Winter Salon 2008, and of its new home at 49 Geary, was a fabulous success! Attended by collectors, artists and a surprising number of gallery followers, the reception featured local San Francisco Bay Area artists, Gary Clemenceau, Naoko Okabe, and David Ruth's presentations of their newest works to the public. (images: Opening Reception, 12.04.08)

Micaela Gallery began its Salon program in the summer of 2005, to offer invited artists a curated exhibition venue and promote an active exchange of ideas in an informal setting. As the Salon d'Ete grew, Director Micaela Van Zwoll expanded the Salon program to offer a broader, more formal direction featuring contemporary fine art emphasizing conceptual artwork in drawing and digital art, glass sculpture, paintings and video art. Invited artists share a commitment to conceptual discipline, formal methods, rigorous process, and mastery of their chosen medium. Today, Micaela Gallery hosts COLD+HOT and Winter Salon - two annual group exhibitions that introduce, and open, the gallery's following program season. (images: Winter Salon 2008 installation view)

More Miami Post-Mortems!

My new friend, Scott, sent this email to me this morning:

Incidentally, here is a blog about some impressions about Miami. It also links to Paddy Johnson's blog -- she had a lot of negative reports about Bridge -- I don't think this reflects on your gallery at all, but rather the organizing body and the troubles with the economy. Specifically, the unwillingness for them to adapt and change how their fair might be presented. http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/2008/12/miami-debriefs-summary.html.

Well, I did what anyone would do when given a freebie like that ... I clicked on the link. WHOA!!! What a bomb full of Art Basel Miami news! It's confirmed - I need to refine my searches. So, I'm passing on my friend Scott's gift to you, and if you have a few hours, enjoy.

What happened??? Bridge Art Fair 2008 Postscript

I know, I'd like to know what happened too! It's too easy to fling vile epithets and make another jab at the national economy, after, all, how many times can you punch a villain? Not enough, and certainly not enough when it's affecting everyone and the livelihood of all our artists. So here we go ... apparently, there were no crowds at the biggest, most amazing art fair in the art world. So, I can't give you fabulous war stories about how well we did, and which celeb floated by ... Yes, of course everyone blamed the economy (and after that boring refrain, the organizers were the next favored target), let's join the fray (grrrr ... sour grapes, anyone?)!

Disappointment? Sure. We would have loved to bring back beaucoup bucks, instant fame and gallons of South Beach's delicious cafe con leche, especially as Natalia took our most promising artists to this year's Bridge Art Fair at Art Basel Miami 2008. This was our second foray into the annual Art Basel Miami cultural whirlwind, so we can no longer claim to be novices at the art fair scene, and I wish I could tell you it was all fun in the sun, but as you'll probably see from our images, below, it was grueling work transforming a (how many stars was that again?) rated hotel room into an avant-garde art exhibition. Challenges were choice - delivery obstacles, teeny-tiny room (ours came with a repair man to finish installing tile and fix the broken shower), paucity of exhibitors in our hotel, oh ... and where was the promised press? No matter, I guess, for a few thousand dollars (to buy in to this shindig), our job - to present beautiful artwork and introduce the work of our artists - was to see how far-flung galleries face adversity, right? Enough said. The artworks we showed, and the efforts of Natalia and Ashley, were beyond the pale and truly beautiful. Some of our visitors found works by Scott Kiernan, Tobias Tovera and David Yun cool enough to take home ... congratulations and thank you, Gentlemen!

Here's a small gift for those of us who didn't go - before, during and after shots of our exhibition! Thank you, Natalia and Ashley (now veterans of the Miami international art scene), for your hard work and for the images to show us our show!

Bridge Miami 08

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Bridge Art Fair|Miami Beach 2008 - Catalog

Bridge Art Fair|Miami Beach 2008 Catalog

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Bridge Art Fair|Miami Beach 2008

DECEMBER 4-7, 2008 Catalina Hotel, Room 124 1732 Collins Ave., Miami Beach

Micaëla Gallery presents the work of Gerald Cannon, Peter Foucault, Scott Kiernan, Scott Kildall, Taliaferro Jones, Jenna North, Lorraine Peltz, Tobias Tovera, Anne Yalon and David Yun at Bridge Art Fair|Miami Beach 2008 from Dec 4 through Dec 7. Read more...Current Exhibition Previous exhibition: Stig Persson | The Big Silence: works 2003-2008 Fairs: SOFA Chicago 2008, Bridge Art Fair|Miami Beach 2008 Gallery Calendar Exhibition catalogs are available for purchase.

The Weather Reconnaisance at the Garage Biennale

This evening (cold and foggy), I attended the Weather Reconnaisance show at the Garage Biennale this evening with my new neighbor, George Lawson (Room for Painting Room for Paper). The Weather Reconnaissance show was everything I expected from Jenna North and Peter Foucault - dramatic, edgy and formal - as MFA graduates are taught. Sparely curated, the works by young emerging local artists showed a common atmospheric thread, environmental awareness and hope for socio-political debate that is meaningful and communally enriching. The images shown were extemporaneously taken with an iPhone (apologies for the quality) and meant to share a sense of this short-lived exhibition (4 hours, 1 night only).

Peter Bremers at Ebeltoft

I first met Peter Bremers at SOFA Chicago two weeks ago. We corresponded a little, about travel and world culture. I can't remember who approached whom, and we began to write because one of us thought we should meet and both of us thought I should show his work. The reaction from other artists that he joined our exhibition was curious - mixed and excited - he is respected among his peers. It's easy to see why. Aside from his handsome physical appearance - lithe, with a fresh, outdoor complexion, twinkling eyes and a ready smile - he's irresistible. Most importantly, Peter is articulate, well published, has a wide international following of collectors and admirers, and his work is meticulous - perfectly polished, flawless, and clearly representative of the ice formations he recently travelled to study.

Currently showing at the Ebeltoft Museum, slightly north of Copenhagen in Denmark, Peter's work joins a small group of internationally established artists who sculpt using glass as a primary medium. His work will be on exhibition through April 2009. Below is a short video taken by the Ebeltoft group of his exhibition and posted on YouTube for you to enjoy.

Ned Cantrell at the Contemporary Arts Centre of Virginia

Ned Cantrell wrote to me this morning, in response to something I'd said about this year's SOFA Chicago. He said something I've felt for some time about the world of glass sculpture - that the exhibitions at SOFA are underwhelmingly (is that a word? no, I'm not quoting him) short of contemporary expression, and that glass world seems often to be out of touch with tendencies in the art world. True, how true, especially when viewers are dazzled by booth after booth of polished cast work in lead glass by artists from New Zealand, Eastern Europe and China...I fully agree with Ned and support this thought with a nod to work carried by Silica Galleries, a novice participant at this year's SOFA. The works they showed possess a ton of youthful expression, and the artists seem skilled and interested in creating work that is meaningful. This is so important - for glass sculpture to grow and continue to be accepted as a medium in fine art, refinements of its use as an expressive medium needs to grow as technical mastery is now an accepted standard. The image above is Ned's "Cherub" (blown glass and mixed media, approx. 6 x 6 x 3 in.), 2008.

Okay, speaking about favorites here, since we don't seem to be pulling any punches...aside from the works we presented (!), my other favorite works were by an imported local confederate, Clifford Rainey (shown at left, "Philosophical Boy - Job No. 4" [glass, ceramic apple, wire, pins, gesso, maple plinth. 43.5 x 19 x 15, installed including base], 2005). I heard Mr. Rainey speak at the Glass Art Society conference in Portland, Oregon, last summer. He explained that his glass sculpture is a filtered chronicle of ideas and visual iconographies gleaned from his many travels. The works are acquired points of reference, that (after hearing him speak) are enriched by Mr. Rainey's native European penchant of the double entendre and complicated cultural convergences ... nice. I also enjoyed the newbrow/lowbrow aspect of Joshua Opdenaker's work, image left: "Blackened Chicken Skewer" (glass, 26.5 x 12 x 13 in.) 2008, and Gregory Nangle's, "Take Everything" (glass + bronze, 23 x 8 x 8 in.) 2008, image right. Sit up everyone and take notice of these guys, they have fun, they are good, and their work is very very cool.

Next up for Ned in the US is a group show "Ashes to Ashes" with the Contemporary Arts Centre of Virginia. Good luck, Ned, and stay warm in Denmark!

Jenna North and Peter Foucault at The Garage Biennale

The Weather Reconnaissance, jointly curated by Jenna North and Peter Foucault
The Garage Biennale, 2830 Pacific Ave. , San Francisco, CA
November 22nd 2008 7PM – 10PM

Artists can tune their antennas like no other species, and the Weather Reconnaissance is an attempt to exhibit a diverse range of creative work in response to both the micro and macro interpretations and influences of this force that affects everything from mood to doom.

Also showing: Angela Baker, Lisa Blatt, Zack Eichelberger, Peter Foucault, Sid Garrison, Jessica Haggenjos, Rachel Jablo, Scott Kiernan, Keira Kotler, Mary Anne Kluth, Yoon Lee, John Melvin, Andrew Mills, Jenna North, Shalo P, Kevin Parks Hauser, Jackson Patterson, David Sanchez Burr, Larry Sheradon, Patrick Wilson

Performances by: Pete Ippel, Dori Latman, Jsun Adrian Mccarty, Bryan Reuter of Cloud Archive

Curated by Jenna North and Peter Foucault

Winter Salon 2008

MICAËLA GALLERY PRESENTS: Winter Salon 2008

Micaëla Gallery is proud to present Winter Salon 2008, an exhibition of work by Peter Bremers, Gary Clemenceau, Scott Kildall, Michelle Knox, Naoko Okabe, Stig Persson, Chantal Royant, David Ruth, Thomas Scoon, Ron Starr and Kristiina Uslar. The exhibition summarizes Micaela Gallery's 2008 presentation of glass sculpture, introducing new works, while presenting an elegant and slightly decadent je ne sais quoi embrace of 2008, befitting a year of unprecedented international and cultural change.

Winter Salon 2008 inaugurates Micaëla Gallery's new home at 49 Geary, San Francisco.The exhibition opens on Saturday, November 15 and will be ongoing through January 10. The opening reception, with some of the artists in attendance, is Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 5 pm. We hope you will drop in and say hello. While Micaëla Gallery ends its 2008 season of glass sculpture with Winter Salon 2008, its annual exhibition program of glass sculpture will continue next summer, along with its tradition of introducing new artists and glass sculptors from near and far to you.