Artist Libby Black talk: this Thursday

...as part of the "Object Agents: Contemporary Sculpture and the Social Life of Objects" series I curated:

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SFMOMA has a bienniale award show for "hot new SF artists" and this year two of my friends, amy franceschini and kota ezawa, were winners. For a night the museum was taken over by those of us who would ordinarily play quite far away from the place on a friday night...


courtney and malika in front of the kota ezawa lightbox


jackie and joseph...jackie's just visiting for a spell from her artist residency in dublin. she also has an awesome curly mohawk with little hasidic curls at the sides...


amy and packard rock the hats


jackie, mikey, and ryder

After dinner and drinks I went to see Numbers play at the Elbo Room, then the next day visited friend Brendan at Eleanor Harwood Gallery.






Eat, breathe, sleep, dream art.

More images on flickr...

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together at last! obsessive blowout sale show!

ahhhh! faythe from paper boat boutique in milwaukee just sent me jpgs of the show announcements that are going out...Kate Bingaman of Obsessive Consumption and I are having a two-lady show that will bring together our love-hate relationships with commodities and consumerisms. Go go go go!





My only reservation is that I think Wisconsin in the dead of February will be bruuuutal cold. Argh! As a Cali girl, i think i will be in shock. Brrrrrrr.....

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Counterfeiting in CRAFT magazine!

The latest issue of Craft magazine has hit the stands and has a spread on the Counterfeit Crochet Handbag Project! We had such a fun time on the photoshoot in downtown SF back in December (despite the horrificly cold weather I had to pretend like everything was just warmish and peachy-keen for about three hours--ouch!). But it was awesome and the photos turned out great. Thanks so much to the fabulous Garth Johnson (yes, the same guy who runs Extreme Craft blog--what a superstar!), for writing a sassy article about the Project.



The sad part is that there was a big plug for Anti-Factory in the article and right now i have nothing up in the store :( due to busyness and a short hiatus for the teaching gig. ah, well..this, too, shall pass. Hang tight, ya'll!

:D

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'Tini's at the Knockout

Saturday night was a let-loose and thank-god-the-workweek-is-over night. The Knockout is fast becoming the place to go to for dancing and drinks, and that night was *free* hip-hop DJing, and it was tres awesome...


hey brendan! let's go have martinis!!!


i eats the glasses when i finish 'em...


cheers!


finding $$ for the photo booth...


MGD afterparty at Mikey Shoun's house--check out the gorgeous Victorian-era wallpaper ;)


ann + rebecca

more here on flickr...

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sac'to redux

So, Sacramento was oddly beautiful. As California's capitol, it has more of a "business-y" feel to it and they sort of redid their "old town" area to look like a Wild West theme park, which is sort of weird. But it feels more old-timey and has more brick buildings than SF it seems. I was only there for one night (Sheraton, see below) but I had a fun time by myself wandering around and then buying one of those movie-on-demand things from the TV in my hotel room. Alas, it was "Marie Antoinette" which, although rather ambient, was quite a bit of fluff. I kept getting distracted by other things and falling asleep several times. Too bad Kirsten Dunst's head didn't get chopped off in the end--they didn't get that far along the historical train.


sunset over sac'to


old-timey old downtown


yellow bridge over the delta



there are OAK trees in Sac'to--very rare in San Francisco...


the delta is always beautiful...farmland surrounds Sac'to.


there are magic sparkles coming out of my camera!


hotel view during a.m. Note the lovely california haze!

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she-she-sheraton

i'm at the Sheraton Hotel in Sacramento and it is bizarrely awesome...up on the 25th floor with the glittering city below and lots of space to spread out--niiiiiiice! I'm being put up for a night by the Crocker Art Museum and it's fancier than I thought it would be (did a lecture tonight and will do a workshop tomorrow so since it takes about 2-3 hours to drive back and forth from San Francisco they just stashed me in a hotel).

I LOOOOOOVE staying in nice hotels on someone else's dime. It's oddly luxurious and feels like you're all high class and stuff They have a pretty darn impressive lobby, too. The movies on demand are like, the latest and greatest, too--there's actually 2-3 I would pay to watch...!

Yay hotels! Yay someone else's expense account!

Earlier today was the first day of the Graduate Seminar class I'm teaching--"Material Worlds". And it went damn well! There were almost thirty students attending, and I can only accept 12. I'm having them write me personal emails explaining why they really want to be in the class and making a good case of it before I can accept them. I'm super excited by the class and think it will be awwwwweeeeessssooooommmmmme :)

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neue video

YouTube is one of the most genius things around. Has anyone "curated" a set of YouTube videos yet? Like, come up with some kind of curatorial theme like what would be done in an art gallery? that would be hilarious. i may have to do this...oh my god, it would be crazy amazing.

like this DIY nugget of genius:

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lately

OK, pushing through things...thanks for the notes re: last post. it sort of comes and goes, the sadness. Yesterday (tuesday) was a loooong day of dealing with school stuff and being "on" in terms of having to think of many other things. this sunday there will be a memorial service. if you know her and know what i'm talking about and want more info, get in contact with me and i'll give you the info as it comes...

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take a deep breath

It's starting off to be an intense week.

school starts tomorrow and my list of things to do is insanely big. everything from xeroxing my syllabus for my "material worlds" class (and goddamn if it isn't like, 300 pages. ok, maybe not, but the damn thing is thick and my students will freak out), actual classes (Tuesday and Friday), getting together the "Object Agents: Contemporary Sculpture and the Social Life of Objects" lecture series I'm curating this spring, the first in the lecture series tomorrow where I have to stand up in front of a large lecture hall audience and introduce my idea for the series, an art opening this Wednesday at Mills College, and a Friday lecture at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento (that i have to drive 2 1/2 hours away right after my Friday class to make). Then on Saturday i'm doing a youth workshop at the Crocker where we make things similar to my "Grey Market" piece.

All this pales in comparison to finding out this afternoon that a dear friend of mine died yesterday in a tragic accident. i'm in shock and grief and it's been so hard to process. today was really hard and a mix of feeling distracted, distraught, and oddly calm. if anything, it sometimes helps to put things into perspective. All the deadlines and personal matters I was worrying about today went by the wayside and I had to just put it all aside to deal with the loss of my friend. And I'm thankful for the time I set aside, because it makes me feel human as opposed to a machine, which is what i've been feeling lately as i charge through deadlines, projects, and to-do lists. Fuck all that. Sometimes you just have to really really really feel.

Tomorrow is another day. I'll finish some things up. But it also feels like my perspective has been shuffled. Maybe that's a good thing. I spent more time than I have in a long time talking on the phone to friends and just trying to process what happened. Just feeling, really. It's so hard to come to terms with something like this when it happens. Like the cosmos has been robbed of potential, the possibility that could have been if the person were able to have seen their future through.

god, this sucks.

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Exhibition opening: "Take 2" at Mills College, Oakland

Here's the invitation for this Wednesday's art opening! It's a fabulous line-up of artists and I'm extremely honored to be a part of it. If you're in the Oakland area this Wednesday, 1/17 from 5:30-7pm, do stop by!



I took a bunch of installation photos last week, too. It's sort of fun to see really expensive artworks by famous people lying on the ground and stuff :)

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lord!

you know it's crazy when it's one in the morning and a bunch of us art whores are up emailing each other press releases and syllabi that have to get out in the next few days regarding the start of the spring semester. you'd think we'd have a life. or a normal sleep schedule :/

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workaday

today was a work day. a geniuine one in that i felt i made lots of calls, got stuff together, and was generally incredibly responsible. some things:

--mornign: talked to friend Brendan and caught up on his artwork projects and goings-ons. I miss brendan.

--morning until 1pm: emailed and called lots of people regarding the special lecture series I'm organizing for the California College of the Arts in conjuntion with the graduate class I'm teaching called "Material Worlds." The lecture series is called "Object Agents: Contemporary Sculpture and the Social Life of Objects" and focuses on object makers dealing with catalytic objects. Sounds sort of obscure but will post more on later. Am totally excited about it tho--quite a few out of town artists i'm getting to come in and they're all awesome.

--1pm: went to my studio, grabbed some shelving brackets that i forgot to bring to mills college in oakland for the art show opening next week, then hi-tailed it out there to install the last bit of the work. took about an hour total. saw the catalog for the exhibition and it looks totally awesome. was very happy. talked to show's curator and all was well. left.

--met artist friend anna at the xerox place by the CCA Oakland campus and we traded different articles for each of our syllabi. Two heads are better than one! made lots of xeroxes. felt ultra responsible and brainiac-like.

--went to the CCA San Francisco campus to check in with department managers and talk to some grad students about the class i'm teaching that starts next week. checked email numerous times in lobby and made calls.

--howled and sang really loudly to TV On the Radio in my car as I drove home across the Bay Bridge to a gorgeous sunset, taking bunches of cameraphone photos in the process and probably endangering my safety in the process as I was driving.

--stopped by Pacific Super (Asian supermarket close to my house) and bought a giant bottle of Nigori Sake (unfiltered, milky sake) to be chilled in fridge for later.

--went home and worked on a flyer PDF file for the first artist lecture in the "Object Agents" series. felt pretty good about the design and graphical quality.

--talked to one of my best friends Rebecca for hour-and-a-half on phone while sipping previously chilled Nigori and caught up on all the gossip and stuff going on in her world.

--watch Letterman on TV. gosh, how I like Dave. makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

whew!

tomorrow night rebecca and i are planning to go to 12 Galaxies for a few bands (Eats Tapes, Fuckwolf, etc.) and merriment. YES. it sounds like a friday to me!

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cameraphone phuntimes

this whole cameraphone thing is so new to me--i know i have it and every now and then i use it, but i never downloaded (or emailed them) to my computer to look at them. i just did a few and i'm totally surprised at how generally great they look for a tiny lens and phone. wow! now i know that in times of crisis when i just don't have the ole camera, i just whip out de phone :)

voila, a selection:

today, zooming across the bay bridge from oakland to san francisco during sunset, singing at the top of my lungs (one of my favorite things to do when alone in the car with the stereo cranked up!). i regret that the colors and feeling of the sunset, plus the awesome view of the city aren't quite apparent here...



in the parking lot a of a mall a few weeks ago. remember jesus, folks!


the roof of the madrid airport from the baggage claim area. taken during summer when i had a show there...


a madrid apartment complex built in the 60s and looking something like a sci-fi spaceship vessel thing...and taken from a speeding car, i might add.


overall, i'm pretty impressed that the colors and general clarity came out so well (for lo-res photos, that is). awesome!

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happy b-day mitchie!

This holiday season feels like it's neverending...all tomorrow's parties are in full effect and it's making me wonder how long i can stay on this pony ride until it needs new horseshoes. ah, well! worry for another day...



Last night was Mitchie's birthday and we all trooped out to the Latin American Club for libations and merriment. (side note: funny how the Latin American Club never has any Latin Americans in it). God I love the Mission on a cold Sunday night--tons of parking, no bridge and tunnel people, etc. It's like it was in the good old days before hipsters and Urban Outfitters, you know?

flickr set of the evening here.

Tonight is Donuts night at the Knockout--bands and more merriment will ensue. I'm thinking of Katherine G from Cleveland and how our lives seem to revolve around a merry-go-round of bands and shows these days. Fun times!


maximum love overdrive: philip n mitchie!

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tidbits and procrastinations

Right now i am in the midst of doing what is traditionally spelled out as p-r-o-c-r-a-s-t-i-n-a-t-i-n-g. Which you probably are doing right now by reading this here post, eh? ha! I really should be writing a press release for the lecture series I'm putting together (will fill you in later), as well as a host of other productive and fruitful things. But alas!

Let's partake together in the distractions, shall we?

My friend Jovi sent me this tidbit of joy:


Read this lovely writing in the paper today: author and local Rebecca Solnit on a "prediction" of the future between now and 2027. Of course it's ultraprogressive but great to see spelled out. My heart was filled with a strange sense of joy and possibility, actually...

Want to read this book that was also reviewed in today's paper: Barbara Ehrenreich's new tome on the history of public displays of joy (i.e. dancing). You know, the stuff of bacchanalian festivals, rock concerts, dance parties (like my NYE variety!), parades, and even perhaps art openings? Here's to more public displays of joy!!!

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andrew's photos at adobe books backroom gallery

Last night was the opening of Andrew's photo show at Adobe Books and it was a local art and music scene reunion of sorts. Andrew owns Adobe Books and helped start the back room gallery portion of it about five years ago, which then went on to kickstart a lot of what is now known as the san francisco "mission school" of street/graffiti/skate/mural/music creativity...


kurt & cheoss/chris

cheoss and amy r

party in the bookstore


the photo that was the crown of the exhibition: chris johansson and chris corales looking all dewy after a hotel nap together in Los Angeles after a show...it's not what you think but my is it sweeeeeeet :)



more on flickr...

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dum dum dum dum, dum dum dum dum dum dum dum

(hum the title to the tune of that foreboding ditty).

The NYTimes says today was 72 degrees in Central Park, a record breaker--holy shit! That's blowing my mind...i mean, when i was there in mid December it was in the high 60s but i thought for sure it would chill out in January. Things are not looking good there and if this isn't a bad sign i don't know what is...

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workin' workin'

yep, the mess is officially ON. after the holidays, the grindstone is back in action. how depressing, really...working in the studio is always fun (but cold--thank the lord for space heaters to keep a nice cement warehouse slightly warm), but then there's the masses of emails and correspondences and work that must be done to satisfy what is the academic college front of the teaching game.



more studio action shots here. i'm having an opening in less than two weeks. and teaching in about a week and a half.

anti-factory is a bit on the backburner these days. i have good intentions but not time, it seems...i need four more arms, really. sigh!

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yoko-ono-awesome

my new favorite song: yoko ono's "whole lotta yoko". found on "her" myspace page. yeah, right, is that *really* ms. ono up there? me thinks not, but me loves it anyway! maybe i should try to be her friend... :)

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hands down: one of THE best dance parties I've ever been to happened last night! It rated right up there with the Mexican rave at the Tijuana jai-alai court back in 2001. I laughed, I cried, I saw the best of best friends and danced my ass off..!



Despite the almost maudlin previous post on lamenting the absence of my friend John from this year's festivities, all was well in the world during midnight and much fun was had! Cliff -n- Scott had their infamous New Year's party and there was so much love in the air and old friends that it felt like going to prom with all the people you always wanted to go with and everything was super rad and cool. This year they had to post someone at the door to turn away crashers, so that also meant that only friends made it in, which is why it was like a giant San Francisco social scene reunion. They have a flat above an autobody shop, along with complete access to a giant rooftop. Bedecked with colored lights and a cleared out living room, the dance floor was in full effect and a string of DJs took turns spinning Soul, 70s, 80s, and hip hop...


dancedancedance!

wendy rocks her rainbows

me -n- karla

at one point i got picked up by my friend johnny and got launched into a bout of crowdsurfing, floating across the room. i totally look like i'm in pain but i'm actually having a ton of fun. until they dropped me accidentally. ouch!

moi and kurt

me, amy, and stijn

second crowdsurfer of the evening. they got it right this time and didn't drop him.

Andy and Devendra spin some Fleetwood Mac

we are running to the party...


more photos here on flickr!

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