Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Summer exhibition going, 2013 version!

Greetings! The SJSU Campus is in the quiet of June, but the museums and galleries of the San Francisco Bay Area are popping. My first excursion of the summer was to the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. I attended the opening reception for two ongoing exhibits, NextNewCA and Mari Andrews: Over, Under, and Inside Out, both of which will be up through early September. I was very excited about the NextNewCA exhibit, as two recent SJSU MFA graduates, Barbara Boissevain (MFA Photography, 2013) and Jennifer Groft (MFA Spatial Art, 2013) have work in this show. The works of both these artists, Boissevain's large prints and Groft's oversized wooden clothes pins, engage scale to draw your gaze. In particular, Boissevain's capture of the colors and shapes of the salt flats of the South Bay provide an interesting overhead perspective.

These works contrasted nicely with small works of art from nature highlighted in another exhibit, Mari Andrews' finely crafted displays of found objects. While some of her creations are wall sized installations, they are made of very small, delicate parts. Looking at the arrangement of seed pods, pine cones, and shells immediately brought to mind the pleasure of discovering and holding nature's artwork, like a sea urchin shell. Walking back and forth between the work of these three women artists, I was seized with the hallmark feeling I get from being in a good exhibit, which is counterintuitive to staying longer, the feeling of "hurry home! Go find that shell! Wait, go look at a map of where the salt flats are located, no, first go find a clothespin and think about the scale of the ones in the gallery"...and other buzzing thoughts.

It is a compact but mighty combination of exhibits, NextNewCa and Mari Andrews' Over, Under, and Inside Out. I feel certain these, as well as the other items to see at ICA, will set your mind buzzing too.

The ICA is located at 560 South First Street, you can check their hours at their website: http://www.sjica.org/. I know that now, in lazy June, September is hardly possible to contemplate, but it will come quickly so get down to First Street before then!

What's on your exhibition list for summer? Up next for me, Impressionists on the Water at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco!

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