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[Crawl] Space
An SF Has [No] Culture Art Crawl, a DJ-ed Ethiopian dinner party, and a Netflix star takes the musical stage
I anchored my one day as a solo tourist in Paris on croissant ratings. Sotheby’s sent me to Paris to make our European counterparts “more efficient” (a fun but failed experiment), and I had all of Saturday to wander the Parisian streets. I pinned two pastry shops on my printed map and called upon the flâneur spirits as I wandered for hours on the way to each location. The Musée Picasso, Centre Pompidou, and the purchase of an art du basic coat-turned-closet-staple all became a part of my journey and my mission for croissants composed of little more than a crackle and air.
Wander Oakland with me on East Bay Art Day, hear renowned artist Carrie Mae Weems speak at FOG Design+Art, and if you have the stomach for it, digest artists and professors alike debating the underpinnings of democracy.
San Francisco Has [No] Culture: East Bay Art Crawl
Category: Art
Date: Saturday, January 25th @ 10am (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Johansson Projects - Pt. 2 Gallery - Creative Growth - Drake’s Dealership (East Bay)
Price Range: Free (RSVP Requested)
Why I Care: I love gallery hopping, especially with a crew. Come join my art gang as I pop around Oakland galleries (and one beer garden) to make the most of SF Art Week’s East Bay Art Day. These institutions hold a special place in my heart: Attending a Johansson Projects opening blossomed into a 1:1 studio visit with artist Nimah Gobir; Creative Growth has popped up as far away as Switzerland when I visited their booth during Art Basel and as close as one BART stop away for their Beyond Trend Runway Show.
Concerned about your gallery stamina? Pt. 2 Gallery will have a coffee pop-up, but I also support joining for as long or little as your feet desire. This is for you! See Partiful and Google Calendar invites for our walking schedule.
Dua Saleh
Category: Music
Date: Tuesday, January 21st @ 8pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: The Independent (SF)
Price Range: $32
Why I Care: I was today years old when I discovered Dua Saleh of “Sugar Mama” was the same Dua Saleh who played Cal, the first non-binary character in the Netflix series Sex Education. A refugee from the Second Sudanese Civil War, Saleh draws from the poetry of Arabic and Sudanese culture to produce their music and express their identity in a way that best represents their spirit. Saleh’s musical contributions have been honored with accolades such as the Gay Times’ Rising Star in Music, so watch out for Saleh’s future EGOT.
Opening Reception: Facetune Portraits
Category: Art
Date: Thursday, January 23rd @ 4pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Gray Area (SF)
Price Range: Free+
Why I Care: Artist Gretchen Andrews landed in the Bay with perhaps the most ubiquitous tech job of all: Google Product Manager. She walks hand-in-hand with that technological expertise to produce works that question power through code and glitter. Gray Area couldn’t be a more fitting vessel for her message: the nonprofit’s mission is to intertwine “art, technology, science, and the humanities” in the name of community and cultural regeneration.
Witness how Andrew integrates society’s infamous pocket-sized plastic surgeon into oil paintings as part of SF Art Week.
Community Movie Night: Democracy Noir
Category: Film
Date: Monday, January 20th @ 5pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: The New Parkway Theater (East Bay)
Price Range: $16
Why I Care: You have quite the contemporary drama when Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, and Viktor Orbán are a film’s top billing. Bay Area Book Festival is hosting a community movie night with the New Parkway to discuss the rise of authoritarianism in a once-democratic nation: Hungary. The filmmaker (and Academy Award nominee) Connie Field will lead the post-screening panel alongside Berkeley Sociology professor Arlie Hochschild and several other respected writers in the Bay.
Or if you’re paralyzed by the thought of engaging in politics today, celebrate joy at the Museum of the African Diaspora’s MLK Jr. Free Community Day.
Artist Talk: Carrie Mae Weems
Category: Art
Date: Saturday, January 25th @ 5pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (SF)
Price Range: $35+ (FOG Design+Art ticket entry)
Why I Care: FOG Design+Art fair is the anchor event for SF Art Week. Similar to Art Basel, the fair provides a center of gravity around which galleries, artists, and cultural figures can build programming across the city. FOG itself is chockablock full of panels, including a talk with artist Carrie Mae Weems, the first Black female visual artist to win the National Medal of Arts just last year.
Hear from Weems herself about harnessing her artistry in the name of storytelling, social justice, and elegant photography.
Éthiopiques Vinyl Dinner Party
Category: Culinary + Music
Date: Saturday, January 25th @ 5pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: couchdate (East Bay)
Price Range: Free to enter
Why I Care: Ethiopian cuisine may be my favorite comfort food. I try and block out how much the injera will expand in my stomach when I’m powering through a vegetarian combo platter, but honestly, the overstuffing makes the proceeding nap all the more satisfying. Couchdate and local favorite Cafe Colucci are keeping you simultaneously glutted and alert through a DJ-ed dinner celebrating Ethiopian dishes and vinyls. Hard pants highly discouraged.
Opening Reception: Infinite Hope
Category: Art
Date: Tuesday, January 21st @ 5pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Jenkins Johnson Gallery (1150 25th St) (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: The New York Times heralded artist Kwame Brathwaite as “the photographer who captured the beauty in Blackness.” Photographer Gordon Parks centered the working Black mother as protagonist, directed the classic blaxploitation film Shaft, and memorialized the civil rights movement. Ming Smith was the first black female photographer in the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) collection. These artists’ works will be on exhibition alongside that of the estimable Renée Cox in a museum-scale exhibition at Minnesota Street Project. Ming Smith and Renée Cox will participate in the 6:30pm artist talk alongside representatives from the Kwame Brathwaite Archive and Gordon Parks Foundation.
Come early and stay late for SF Art Week libations just around the corner.
Next Drop: Thursday, January 30th