MAYHEM

This past spring, I was part of a national juried exhibition called Mayhem at the Arc Gallery in San Francisco. One of the very cool things about the Arc’s national juried shows is that they have an opening reception with the juror in attendance AND a closing artist talk and reception.

I have been to several openings where my work has been shown, but I have never been to a closing artist talk. I planned my trip outside so that I could attend this event.

I know this will seem a little dumb, but for some reason, I did not fully grasp that an artist talk would mean that I would be speaking. So on the morning of the event, when I got an email from Priscilla Otani, Arc Partner, saying,

“We will begin the artists’ talk at 12:30 pm. Please arrive at the gallery before that time. Each artist will have about 10-15 minutes to discuss their piece in the show, their inspiration on the theme, and their art practice (medium used, body of work, etc). We will give time for interactions with the audience.”

I was totally surprised. I guess I thought I would be attending an artist talk where certain artist’s talked and those certain artists did not include me. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I had about an hour to figure out what I wanted to say.

It’s a good thing I love my work, and my friend Jen was willing to let me practice talking about it for the entire drive from Pacifica to San Francisco.

My friend Jen in front of a mural we saw the day we went to the Arc Show.

My friend Jen in front of a mural we saw the day we went to the Arc Show.

The Arc Gallery was wonderful. The pieces in the show were artfully hung with good breathing room between the pieces. In the excitment of the event, I did not do a very good job of taking photos. To enjoy the entire show–both the pieces in the physical show and the virtual show–click here.

Getting to hear the artist’s talk about their work was way better than a traditional opening in my opinion. I wish we could have heard from all the artists. For this photo gallery, I decided to put a photo of the art work and then a photo of the artist with their work. My photography was really not up to standard on this day, so again, I will say check out all the pieces on the Arc Studios and Gallery website.

The Arc Gallery’s next national juried show is called Structures. After that, they are asking artists to submit work inspired by Tom Waites. I’m looking forward to that. All Stripped Down or Big in Japan? It’s gonna be a hard decision.

This entry was published on June 15, 2013 at 6:41 PM and is filed under Art in Place. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

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