KEVIN CHEAH PHOTOGRAPHY @ GALLERY NORTH

Opening Night

Saturday, October 12, 7-9pm

1790 Shattuck Avenue

KEVIN CHEAH

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT

October 5 to 31, 2013

Over the past few months art has become very therapeutic for me. Adjusting back to living in America has not been an easy process. I am at a big crossroads in my life; happy in the present and excited for the future, with a vivid nostalgia of people and places of the past. Photography is an eternal reality of time, allowing documentation of the places I will go and all the places I have been. Social media is the forefront way of staying connected with friends and family these days. With a click of a button, smart phone applications make it easy to feel the connection we long for on this lonely planet. My new series of work entitled “Art Therapy” involves some of the lovely people I have met and places I have been in the four years I spent abroad. Riding my bike around Berkeley, I began snapping photographs of things in my neighborhood. Then, I sent out 4x6 postcard sized print outs of 24 selected images to a select group of 24 friends from around the world. Along with each image, I wrote a handwritten letter:

"Dear Friend,
I am writing this to you. Yes you! You have changed my life in more ways than you may think you have. Every smile we shared, every laugh we made, all amount to a special moment that was shared in one moment in time. That moment will never happen again exactly the way it did.
You and I were a part of that moment. I will never forget it. I will never forget you. Although we are miles apart (Even just those who are only a few miles away), I wanna say that I miss you. Let’s reunite in another moment in time. Adding up a lot of moments with you is all that it would take to make me happy for eternity.
Because of you, I am the person I am today. Experiences are the world to me, and I am glad I got to experience them with you. Love, kevinHcheah"

Furthermore, I requested that they take a few photographs of things around their respective neighborhoods and email the images back to me. Proceeding, I took their image/images and my original photograph and collaged them together. Using a self-developed printmaking technique on tape, I proudly present to you the outcomes of my artistic therapeutic sessions.


Posted by: Julia Lazar
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MIXED MEDIA MIXER @ ADELINE ARTS HANGAR

Dorian Cohen's MIXED MEDIA MIXER has been a superb exposé of local music, video and photography artists, painters, foodies and performance artists.

In June 2013, the MMM falls on the day of the annual Juneteenth parade, a festival coordinated by a local group of merchants: "Along a five-block stretch on Adeline Street, between Ashby Avenue and Alcatraz Street in South Berkeley. The acclaimed festival will kick off its 26th celebration on Sunday, June 23, 2013 from 10am to 6pm and will feature arts, crafts, music, cultural events and ethnic foods."

Since the Firehouse Adeline Arts Hangar location is smack in the middle of this annual event, we have in the past, created an Art Bazaar in our collaborative Firehouse style.

This year, it's the MMM's turn, to take the spot light.

Here are some photos of last month's Mixed Media Mixer, photos by Julia Lazar for FAC.

It will be a cool chill zone in contrast to the hectic outside activities, starting at 3pm going to 8pm, with an incredible line up of talent:

Music:
LESSONS
How about in the Jaguar?
WILES
2birds

Artists:
Shervin Rostami
Maddy Westcott
Heather Holton
Zephyr Ian Farris
Marvick Garcia
Danya Aletebi
Lindsay Focht
Eder "cheda" Rangel
Tom Myers
Erik Vincent

Videographers:
Mauricio Ageno
Heather Lund
Josh Dennis
Taylor Baldschun
Zac Goldstein
Dorian Cohen
Mikey Garcia
Nick Ambe
Daniella Flores
Paul Nester

More about The monthly Mixed Media Mixer here.

Posted by: Julia Lazar
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Jenny Lemper - photography exhibit

Firehouse Gallery North
June 4 to July 2, 2013
OPening Night, Friday, June 14
7 - 9pm

1790 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley CA 94709

Jenny Lemper, Photography exhibit
"No Lines Between: The Georgians of Abkhazia and Samegrelo"

With the fall of the Soviet Union, the world’s map was dramatically reconfigured. The collapse set off conflict and turmoil in the Caucasus. Instability and uncertainty continue partially as a result of geopolitical strategizing by outside nations. A more hidden war has replaced the Cold War as East and West vie for influence and control. Access to Caspian oil and gas is of primary importance in the power struggle. Various disagreements block western-bound oil and gas transport except through the Republic of Georgia, a convenient land bridge between Azerbaijan’s Caspian coast and the Black Sea. Whoever has the most influence there can better control the western market. For this reason Georgia is being pressed diplomatically by the West and geographically by Russia. Three of Georgia’s former territories: South Ossetia, Kodori Valley, and Abkhazia are manned with Russian troops.

The 1992-93 Abkhazian/Georgian war pushed 45% of the population out of Abkhazia. Most were Georgians. Many have been allowed to return to their homes in Gali district; however, most live in Samegrelo on the Georgian side of the border. In 2010, I began the documentary project No Lines Between: The Georgians of Abkhazia and Samegrelo. It attempts to represent the people residing along the conflict border who are trying to live as a singular, undivided community despite the twenty year old division line running through it. Though the housing crisis affecting displaced people is key to this project, its scope widened in response to the web-like dynamism of the post-conflict environment. Subject matter has varied through out the process: from displaced people living in abandoned institutional buildings called collective centers, to those selected for new housing, to the larger community and landscape. To photograph in this community requires openness: to the people, to their history, struggles, and achievements. It requires a willingness to absorb all that is there as my own: the beauty, sadness, hope, regrets, frustrations, and determination. I keep my eyes alive, remembering to concentrate on the mood and aesthetic, the angles and shadows, and take the photographs. Each image represents a vast realization. Together, the photographs create an inclusive composite picture, an ever-expanding map of understanding.

Artists Bio:

Jennifer Lemper is a Californian artist experienced in painting, drawing, silkscreen, and film photography. In 2005 she received a BFA in photography from San Jose State University. She photographs in a subjective documentary style, focusing on the social, cultural, environmental, and political aspects of contemporary reality. Her work utilizes both spontaneous and deliberate methods and explores local as well as international occurrences. Previous projects include collaborating artistically with individuals in San Francisco to create images that investigate gender roles and sexuality and photographing New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Since 2010 she has been working on an ongoing project, documenting people affected by conflict on the Georgian/Abkhaz border.

Posted by: Julia Lazar
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Art commentary by Molly Walls

I don’t know at what age art became untouchable. In my early years, art was about passion and making mistakes—messy blurs of paint and crayons, wildflowers bleeding and blooming out of watercolor and ink. But at a certain point, some separation occurred, a layer of self judgment and discrimination between myself and the work, like looking through frosted glass.

The world around me seemed to confirm this criticism—art had a distinct stigma, sets of unspoken rules on how to view it, how to experience it, and how to create it. Gone were the days of childlike wonder, where everything beautiful and everything ugly could be transformed.

Since interning at Firehouse, art has begun to shed this layer of pretension and division, and become an experience again—something to be excited about, a way to ask a question or receive an answer, a way to release and to give. 

Tom Franco’s Art Attack at the YBCA embodied this playful collaboration. 

Performers experimented and communicated through their work; the line between the viewer and the artist blurred until every guest was participating in some larger piece, a sustained and pure moment of beauty and expression. 

I began to notice this collective experience with Sha Sha Higby’s moving sculpture performance, her intricate costume and the ambient sound filling the room melded together to create a lyrical and captivating narrative—a conversation between the audience and the artist. 

The absence of a stage and the inclusive seating encouraged this creative progression, and each consecutive artist used the space to converse and to give, without the removed or condescending aura that contemporary art can sometimes emit. In short, the evening brought me back to the art of my childhood—sidewalk chalk kisses on the knees, every living thing as moving, breathing sculpture—but with the maturity and artistic acumen of adults. 

Art can fill a moment, give time a heavy ripeness, sound, light, and movement rushing together in eloquent freedom, and the Art Attack took full advantage of this possibility for collective experience and collaboration.

Posted by Molly Walls

From Portland, Molly studies liberal arts in Vermont at Bennington College

To view Mollie's photography click here.

Comments are always welcome, let us know what you think.

Stephan Hawk & Amanda Verwey exhibit @ Gallery North

OCTOBER 2012

PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHAN HAWK

ILLUSTRATIONS BY AMANDA VERWEY 

Opening Party on second Friday, October 12, 7-9pm

1790 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto

We are so happy to have these artists on exhibit for the month of October 2012.

Stephan, we met in West Oakland living next door to our art live loft and he brought Amanda on board, who works for YBCA in San Francisco as an illustrator.

The Vernissage is hosted by Tom Franco, includes live music, spoken word, complimentary treats and a donation bevvy bar  including 23Monkeytree Kombucha microbrew.

American Family at Children's Discovery Museum

Yesterday we installed this little photography show in the art gallery at Children’s Discovery Museum and in the few hours it's been open, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Not only is the content of the show exciting to me, it was a particular pleasure to collaborate on a project that came together so quickly- just a few weeks, concept to install. With a quick timeline and the promise of a limited engagement, we were able to work in a way that felt much more experimental and responsive than what I'm used to.

I collaborated with art educator and gallery curator Lisa Ellsworth to plan, design and install American Family. She chose seven photographs from Courteney Coolidge’s American Families project to highlight one Bay Area family with two gay moms. To make sure the show felt relevant for all our visitors, Lisa developed an interpretive approach that focuses on the meaning of family and we wrote labels in the form of questions that invite visitors to talk about their own families.

The show opened just in time for San Jose Pride weekend, August 18-19. The Pride festival takes place on the Museum’s front lawn and this is the first year we’ll have Pride-related offerings in the museum itself.

The gallery is in a challenging space- it's part of a hallway that extends around a corner, framed by bathrooms and a defibrillator unit. Most visitors take a glance down the hall and if they don’t have to pee, say, “Oh, there’s nothing down this way- let’s go back downstairs.” Not exactly prime real estate.

But we made the most of it. We placed the larger photographs in strategic sight lines to draw interest from down the hall and positioned a table and chairs in the center to invite the kind of thoughtful lingering that we hoped would happen in our talk-back station. The photos are hung at kid-height so children know the photos are for them and for a bit of extra fun we extended the gallery experience into the rest of the second floor of the museum by including additional questions in places like the bathroom and the elevator.



As soon as the gallery opened, grown-ups were reading the questions on the wall to their children and the clips in the talk-back station filled up immediately. Many visitors have said they really like the photographs and Lisa and I are happy to see visitors spending more time in the art gallery. We're already talking about what's next.