_ Varnish Fine Art are set to open—on February 25—Beginning to End: Ron Garrigues, A Retrospective of the Last Quarter Century. There will be a reception from 4 to 7 p.m.  at 16 Jessie Street, #C120  San Francisco,
Saturday February 25, 2012. The exhibit runs through March 31.

Ron Garrigues work spans 33 years and this exhibit consists of 33 bronze sculptures, 33 sumi ink paintings (on silk) and 33 etchings (clayboard).

Garrigues first came to the notice of the art world with his solo exhibit, in 1961, at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. This beat culture inspired exhibit was truly groundbreaking. More recently Garrigues has been working in clayboard and sumi ink. In part these materials are used to call attention to the planet’s population growth and sustainability.

_ Lyons Wier Gallery in NYC is set to open Resourced: The Influence of Photography in Contemporary Art.  The exhibit runs from February 2 to 25th. There will be an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 542 West 24th St. New York. Normal gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11 to 6 p.m.

The exhibit consists of the work of eight current artists who use photography to inspire or create art. Artists include;  Ryan Bradley, Mary Henderson, David Lyle, Tim Okamura, Fahamu Pecou, James Rieck, Aristides Ruiz, and Cayce Zavaglia.    


Some of these artists were show by Lyons Wier at Pulse Miami in December and they are really worth a look.

All of these artists use or take from photography in a different way from self portraiture to re-contextualizing photos in other media (and likely more than this).

There will also be an installation by Greg Haberny titled Mommy’s Little Monster in the back gallery. Haberny is set to open a solo exhibit at Lyons Wier in October, 2012.

_ Andres Waissman is an Argentine artist born in 1955. His work has been shown or is in the collections of numerous institutions—often in collections with a specialization in Latin American art. Waissman is a major artist in Argentine contemporary art. His work was shown by Gachi Prieto Gallery in Buenos Aires.You can see better representations of his work on their website.

He works in multiple media and takes inspiration from cartography, sociology and history. He was lived in the USA and France but currently lives and teaches in his native country. He created a Studio Cri Program for Visual Arts in Buenos Aires, as a place for young artists to work and interact.

_ Javier Téllez’ solo show, Rotations, runs from Friday January 20 until February 25, 2012 at Galerie Peter Kilchmann. The opening, with the artist present, takes place from 6 to 8 p.m.

The gallery is located at Zahnradstrasse 21 (next to Prime Tower) in Zurich.

Téllez is a Venezuelan video and installation artist. His work incorporates what some might call “art therapy.” For instance he has worked with the mentally challenged to rewrite classic literature. His work is neither purely fiction or documentary. His work has been show extensively around the world in group and solo shows.

_ Chris Roberts-Antieau’s work sort of speaks for itself doesn’t it? At least Monkey Pioneer of Outer Space spoke to me. It may have actually SPOKEN to me.

Roberts-Antieau’s work is all sewn fabric with hand painted frames. The ridiculously bad photos representations of her works here in no way do them justice. You should first go to the Red Truck Gallery website and then make an effort to see her work (hell, maybe even buy it…and there will be an article about buying art soon).

You can also find more info about Roberts-Antieau at her website.

_Roberts-Antieau’s website mentions her first (and last) day of art class and how her first drawing was singled out for ridicule by the professor. She walked out. I would have punched him in the face but then I was sort of anti-social when I was school-aged.

Roberts-Antieau has since seen her art as clothing in addition to fine art. Her work is the sort of thing people will say “I could do that” when you show it to them. Always say this in response “OK, so DO it.” See, they REALLY cannot do it but the see an image of what they thought they could do, what they wanted to do, what their brain told them they were doing, as a kid.

That is pretty deep. I really should lay off the cold medicine when I do not actually have a cold.

_ Craig Larotonda’s angry monkeys appeared at just the right time. On the day I saw these I was not sure if I was supposed to find the representations amusing or be frightened. It had been a long day. Several without sleep. These seemed fitting images to see precisely at this moment.

It was kismet Sleep deprivation meets an angry monkey holding a bloody human bone.

Likewise I did not make note of who was actually showing the pieces. You can, however, find out more about Buffalo, New York’s Latonda at the Revelation Art website.

_
Larotonda is a sculptor, painter and illustrator. His work as an illustrator has appeared in publications ranging from Time Magazine to Juxtapoz. His paintings have been featured in several major motion pictures (including Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic).

Both paintings and sculptures uses mixed media and “aging techniques” to creat the surreal, grim, elegant pieces. His work has been shown in solo shows in Paris, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

_ Varnish Fine Art Present, Mind Spring, new installations, paintings and limited silk screens from Chuck Sperry, Chris Shaw and Ron Donovan.  The exhibition runs from January 14 through February 18, 2012 at Varnish Fine Art,  16 Jessie Street, #C120, San Francisco. There is an artist reception Saturday, January, 14 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The piece Mind Spring (look to the right of this text..yes, that is it). Sperry has created an iconographic image of the Occupy and Arab Spring movements. It is an image full of the promise of political and social change that we all had a whiff of in 2011.
Sperry, over the past decade and a half, has become one of the world’s best known rock poster artists. His work is, likewise, recognized by fine art aficionados. It is wonderful to live in a time where rock poster artists are seen AS artists isn’t it? Sperry is a resident of San Francisco but works worldwide.

Shaw is likewise a rock poster artist (as is Donovan..but we will get to him in a second, no diss intended but you have to write this in SOME order). You may have seen Shaw’s work in the book, The Art of Modern Rock. He is also all over rock magazines and newspapers.

Shaw sells paintings of seashells by the roadside. Ok. He doesn’t. He also makes rock posters. The image of the Madonna with a 40 of Colt 45 (Madonna of the 40oz) is his work.

Donovan and Sperry opened The Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company together. Donovan’s work is filled with satire and perhaps even piss and vinegar. The piece Ganesh, is Donovan's.

This isn’t the first exhibit the three have done together.  In 2011 they had a six month long exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

NOTE. Initially I mixed up the pieces by Shaw and Don

I confess a LITTLE confusion here but it has to do with phonetic translation as much as my own stupidity. I had her name written as "Wu."  I have mistaken one artist for another before and, although I KNOW this name is translated phonetically, it still gave me pause.

This kept me from posting this AND other pieces as well. I believe I am correct! The work was shown by Contemporary by Angela Li.

The artist I believe this to be ins Nancy Chu Woo, fro Hong Kong. She studied traditional Chinese water color and then pursued studies in the west. She has a BFA from Cornell and an MA from Columbia.

After her education in the USA she returned to Hong Kong to teach. She has exhibited in China and in the United States. Her work is an interesting mix of East and West, abstract and colorful but also “real.” Her work also includes landscapes, nude portraits and more.

She uses layers of paint on rice paper, as she learned in her early training. I wonder if there are young Western artists out there (Woo’s education in the West took place in the 1970s) learning first in the West and then heading East for graduate training?

It would be an interesting contrast.

_ Waterhouse & Dodd will hold a retrospective of French artist Georges Folmer From January 18 ( a private viewing will be held on January 17) to February 15, 2012. There will be a reception January 17 with the artist’s daughter, Catherine Folmer Santoni.

This show will include 44 paintings, sculptures and three-dimensional works. All pieces are from between 1928 and 1968. There will also be a 60 page catalogue.

Waterhouse & Dodd is located at 104 Greene Street in Soho. 

I cleverly neglected to write down or photograph the name of this piece by Fang Lijun. Fang is an artist currently working in Bejing. His work has shown at prestigious museums and galleries around the world.

His work is part of the "Cynical Realism" movement and makes use of the traditional Chinese art of woodblock printmaking. His work, if you look at other pieces, has a startling range of styles. You can find out more at the

This piece was presented at Scope/Art Asia Miami 2011 by Ethan Cohen Fine Art.