BLINK is a series of micro-posts that will focus on individual artists. Honing in on select work or works, each post will be a fleeting snapshot of art activity from around the world, one that hopefully inspires and prompts deeper investigations.
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If you’ve lately lamented the lack of craftsmanship in the art of galleries today, the current show at “Hard Time Mini Mall” in San Francisco showcases an answer to your plea. The hand-stitched paintings of Chris Roberts-Antieau and other labor-intensive works of the group show are proof that art with an emphasis on craftwork still resonate in the world of contemporary art.
Chris Roberts-Antieau, Chimpanzees are Dangerous, applique quilt and hand painted frame
Hours of work and miles of discarded jeans, matchboxes, intricate chandeliers, and graffiti created with an indigenous technique of the Huichol involving colorful wool thread and a dark orange beeswax particular to Mexico, the various works created by 11 artists of “Hard Time Mini Mall” have just one thing in common–– labor. Curated by New Orlean’s Red Truck Gallery and featured at San Francisco’s Shooting Gallery, this won’t be your usual gallery opening or art exhibit.
Owner of Red Truck Gallery, Noah Antieau, has an affinity for artists working with unconventional methods, stemming perhaps from a childhood spent among craft fairs with his mother, the very same self-taught textile artist of the work shown above. In keeping with this premise, Red Truck Gallery is a traveling gallery characteristic of a no frills art attitude (they serve whiskey in red plastic cups at their booths at fancy art fairs from Miami to New York). The gallery showcases the work of folk, outsider, visionary, and self-taught artists–– offering a breath of fresh air for those with headaches from the balloons filled with light, magnets, and projectors on show in galleries today.
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Additional Information
SHOOTING GALLERY
“Hard Time Mini Mall” – Group Show
Exhibition: April 15 – May 4, 2013
886 Geary Street
San Francisco, California
More Information www.shootinggallerysf.com
See more work by Chris Roberts-Antieau: www.chrisroberts-antieau.com/wordpress
Red Truck Gallery New Orleans www.redtruckgallery.com
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Blog entry by Sarah Gretsch in Berlin; Sunday, Apr. 21, 2013.
This article is part of our BLINK series, which introduces the practices of artists around the world. To read more BLINK articles, click here.
