Art Beat Bay Area

David Ireland House (interior view); upstairs hallway with “Broom Collection with Boom” (1978–88), “untitled chair,” and “wallpaper patties,” 1978; photo: Henrik Kam, taken November 2015, courtesy 500 Capp Street Foundation

Back from a holiday hiatus (and emerging from a jet lag fog), I am excited to dive into 2016: it’s going to be a thrilling year for the Bay Area art scene. To get started, here are a few shows and openings I’m particularly excited about.

5oo Capp Street, the David Ireland House, San Francisco: Opening Friday, January 15, is this unique artist house/exhibition and performance space. This is the house legendary conceptual artist Ireland called home; having a practice that melded life and art, for Ireland, his home functioned as much as a curated exhibition space as functional living quarters. This current iteration of the location finds it functioning much the same way, but now it’s open to the public. This comes on the heels of eight years of meticulous renovations and conservation, in order to return the home to its original luster, as it was when Ireland lived there. The house will feature changing exhibitions, events, and, beginning in 2017, an artist-in-residence program. This is an excellent opportunity to see the work of this seminal art figure, as well as experience living life as art. There will be several events taking place at the 500 Capp to celebrate the opening.

Additionally, two exhibitions, at SFAI’s Walter and McBean Galleries (Jan. 14 to Mar. 26) and at Anglim Gilbert Gallery (Jan. 20 to Feb. 27), featuring the work of Ireland and its influence will be on show in conjunction with the opening of the Ireland House. The SFAI show will feature important and rarely shown works by Ireland, and the Anglim Gilbert show, titled “Dumbball: David Ireland and his Circle,” will feature works by Ireland as well as by his contemporaries and artists he influenced.

David Maisel, “The Fall,” at Haines Gallery, San Francisco (through Mar. 12): This show features a gorgeous new series of aerial landscape images Maisel shot while in Spain. These meticulously rendered works (while taken in 2013, Maisel wasn’t finished with fine tuning them until about eighteen months later) are a continuation of Maisel’s exploration of land altered by humans; here an abandoned urban development project and farm land. As much as these works serve to document a place in time, they are also a study of interconnected forms and subtle but rich coloration, to the point of being painterly (Maisel cites Richard Diebenkorn as an influence, and it is no stretch to draw such a comparison). An exceptional show.

kurimanzutto travels to Jessica Silverman Gallery, “from here to there,” at Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco (through Mar. 5): This group exhibition features both historic and new work by thirteen artists represented by renown Mexico City–based gallery kurimanzutto, which has been known for its unorthodox practices and “risk-taking” exhibitions as well as its efforts to expand the reach of the contemporary Mexican artists it represents: kurimanzutto has arranged shows in Paris and Warsaw, and now San Francisco. This show features sculpture, textiles, videos, and more; it is a special opportunity to get a taste of Mexico City’s acclaimed art scene.

Other happenings to note this month . . .

FraenkelLAB is opening soon (kind of): January 13 to 17, Fraenkel Gallery’s new project space, close to Zuni Cafe on Market Street, will feature a preview of its “adventurous” programming to come. On show will be Oliver Beer’s Reanimation (Snow White), which will be viewable from the street, dusk to 10 p.m. The gallery’s first exhibition will open April 14; titled “Home Improvements,” the show is being curated by cult film legend, artist, and part-time SF resident John Waters.

The Berkeley Art Museum reopens January 31 at its new location (2155 Center St., at Oxford), designed by New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro!

The San Francisco Arts Commission opens its new gallery space at 401 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 125 (on the ground floor of the War Memorial Veterans Building). A celebration will take place opening day, Friday, January 22, from 6 to 9 p.m. (remarks at 7 p.m.); three exhibitions will be on show.