First Friday in Oakland galleries on 25th and Telegraph

Thanks to Foster Goldman, I was able to find a way to join him at his artist, Diane Rosenblum's gallery, the Slate Gallery, for her reception, in a group show.  Diane and I visited and I looked through both of her publications; she has a wide range of credits.  I love her sky and cloud photographs, a motif, since Constable, brought through Modernism by Stieglitz, not forgetting the German Romantic treatment...and my summer in NEH exploring clouds in O Keefe, so Naturalism through Modernism, and then of course, it goes into Surrealism and forward...in any event, a longer topic than I want to explore today.  

The scene is lively, with most people participating in the mall walk and food festivals, drink and Eritrean  and Ethiopian foods being highly popular, though I caught my bus, at the stop in front of the Commonwealth (Irish) pub which was well frequented and lively in watching a sporting contest - the Giants.  ?  Noted the neighborhood then becomes a Korean area, with many restaurants and shops...

The Vessel gallery  www.vessel-gallery.com   turns out to be the one that got the "best gallery of the year" award, in The Oakland Magazine 2013 and 2012 in East Bay Express and Best of the Bay 2011 by San Francisco magazine.  ;  and proved to be my favorite as well with its "The New Bay Bridge" exhibition, with new works by Christy Kovacs and Sculptures by John Ruszel.  .   The sculptures were very minimalist, for the most part, and evocative of and a homage to the new spansion bridge, over which I made my first journey at sunset, on Thursday night. The exhibit is on through September 28.   "Classical Revolution" quartet was making a new version of chamber music upstairs, next to the terrace.  What a pleasure!  I hardly went further down the avenue, and my allocated time was pretty much spent here...lliking Cyrus Tilton's sculptures, which got a great review from a former NYT writer, citing Beuys.  The critic  might also have considered Louise Bourgeois's spider when viewing Tilton's  oversize "locust".  A surreal "landscape with trees" on the back of a headless horse was the most compelling, along with a goat gnawing on, or holding a stick or rod with a hornet's nest in tow. This artist definitely has a sense of humor and don't we need that!   Also noted in passing,  at Mercury 25,  Joan Weiss's "This Tilting World", canvases that seem consonant with viewing of Diebenkorn's "Berkeley Years"  now at the De Young.  Interesting spin in canvasses "inspired by looking at Agnes Martin canvasses in Taos, New Mexico but a little more plastic than Martin's zen grids, at www.mannagallery.com  "Elaine Maute's Into Silence'.  .   Nice vibes from the people in attendance.  Opened up new territory for me, and restores my option of looking at contemporary art production, and meeting the artists and gallerists, one  of my pleasures, a shore against the destructive forces in man in our world.  .  

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