Borders at Root Division

another preview!!!

Root Division this Saturday!!! Stopped by the gallery today and the show was looking really good. The folks at Root Division have really worked on this one. See ya'll there!

DENIZEN

PReView....

Come by Lobot Saturday to see the real thing!!!

Save the Date!!

Just got word that a piece of mine will be in this August show:

Axis Gallery
5th National Juried Exhibition

August 7 - 29, 2010
Juror, Joe Amrhein, artist and director of Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY


Axis Gallery
1517 19th Street, Sacramento, CA 95811
info@axisgallery.org 916.443.9900
Hours: Saturday & Sunday 12pm to 5pm or by appointment


I will post official PR when I have it

Salon des Refuses

My work has been included in this presentation, and in the coming days I expect there to be additional links. Here's a link to the conference info including when, where, and what if you happen to be in Baltimore this Thursday.

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Salon des Refuses – Sights Unseen

Posted by Stuart Keeler On June - 17 - 2010

What has been realized?…What has been dreamt and yet still a reality in the eye of the artist? In a true honouring of the precedent of the original Paris – Salon, 133 artists have been accepted into the Salon des Refuses – Sights Unseen, from 4 continents, 11 countries, ranging from well established artists; Janet Echleman, Mierle Laderman Ukeles to Vito Acconi and Buster Simpson - to emerging artists and newly minted unknowns engaging the sphere of public art with strong aesthetics of performance, process and thinking that represents a new dynamic in to address art in public space.

After reviewing ALL of the submissions and reading the narratives provided, my only question is this: What is the future of public art when great ideas are not realized? Can temporary site interventions now take a forefront to spur change and build a dialogue about art with communities? How can artists and vision be supported in new ways that might catapult the aesthetics of art in public space and help the jury process/curatorial choices become about amazing art? What about video and new media…not so new – yet, we are all new to the experience, and the viewers in all communities and neighborhoods value the same thing, to be thought of with a meaningful dialogue.

The presentation is a scrolling visual dialgoue with an introduction on the themes, the process and the value of the artist in public realm, and how to inspire invention for truly dynamic spaces.

Salon des Refuses will be presented by Stuart Keeler as part of the Americans for the Arts Public Art Preconference, Thursday, June 24, 7:45-9:00 PM at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel.

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Borders at Root Division

Borders:

Root Division is thrilled to exhibit work by 23 artists from 9 states, representing 9 ethnicities, exploring how we define and interact with the borders that surround us. Borders, an exhibition about lines and how we cross them, includes a range of art forms such as interactive sculpture, video, photography, installation, performance, and new media.

Borders form an edge that can define geographical, political, religious, biological, or aesthetic entities. They are places between things, places where one thing becomes another, places where identities shift and where an end becomes a beginning. Borders can be indistinct, such as those separating gender, or glaringly obvious, like those between warring countries. A border can be a place of control and limits, or it can present an opportunity for new unions. The simplest boundary might be a line drawn in the sand, the most complex: one that governs social behavior.

The artists in this show touch on a variety of these themes and encourage the viewer to re-evaluate the political, geographical, and moral divisions that define our current condition.

Juried by:
Julio Cesar Morales: Adjunct Curator, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Visiting Faculty, SFAI; Artist
Lucy Kalyani Lin: Artist, Independent Curator, & Program Associate, SF Arts Commission
Michelle Mansour: Executive Director, Root Division; Curator; Artist

rtists:
Michael Boonstra Jessica Cadkin
Venetia Dale
Crisanta de Guzman
Dean Dempsey
Fiamma di Montezemolo
Susan Doyle
Gaby Esteves
Hyeon Kim
Cathy Lu*
Annabel Manning
John K. Melvin
Leigh Merrill
Susannah Mira
Mimi Moncier
Scott Polach
Maggie Preston
Tori Purcell
Maja Ruznic
Kyle Sharp
Ian Treasure
Scott Tsuchitani
Kit Yi Wong
*Root Division Resident Artist

Opening Reception:Saturday, July 10th, 7-10 pm
Exhibition Dates: July 7th – 27th, 2010

Gallery Hours: Wednesdays - Saturdays, 2-6 pm (or by appointment)

ROOT DIVISION GALLERY
3175 17th Street (at S. Van Ness)
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.863.766
www.rootdivision.org

Art Show - Denizen

Denizen
Date:
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Time:
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:
Lobot Gallery
Street:
1800 Campbell Street
City/Town:
Oakland, CA


Artists: G. Cole Allee, Barry Beach, Lisa K. Blatt, Christopher Burch, Ross Campbell, Matthew Cella, Brett Goodroad, Vita Hewitt, Elyse Hochstadt, Jeremiah Jenkins, Ken Jensen, Geraldine Lozano, John K. Melvin



DENIZEN is a group exhibition that will articulate historical filters, circumstance and perception, through form, material use, collaborative action and improvisation. Each artist invited to participate in Denizen wrestles with notions of fragility, guidance, upheaval and habit. Each work included reflects creative contemplation, empowered by shifting boundaries.

World Collapse Explained in 3 Minutes

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0a_FA_J6Sw&feature=youtube_gdata

JKM
www.johnkmelvin.com

object non object

something i've been working on...

Art Expo At Climate Theater SF!!!

For Immediate Release

Media contact: Victoria Heilweil
(415) 642.1046; victoriaheilweil@gmail.com
High resolution images available.

Eidolon
(Illusion/Delusion/Allusion)

Friday, May 21st and Saturday, May 22nd
8pm-11pm
$5 admission

@ Climate Theater
285 9th St (at the corner of Folsom)
San Francisco, CA 94103
www.climatetheater.com

Eidolon, from the ancient Greek, connotes a "phantom double, an apparition, or an ideal; a mere image or semblance of something visible, but without substance".

On Friday May 21st and Saturday, May 22, Climate Theater will host MicroClimate's Eidolon: a two-night art exhibition, music and performance event. For these two evenings, a diverse grouping of Bay Area artists, musicians and performers respond in an array of genres to this illusionary theme.

A few highlights of the evening will include: Elyse Hochstadt's sculptural installation "half truths and uncertain realities" which deals with the construction of memory with it's aspects of myth and fantasy; Philip Greenlief's solo saxophone performance of the original composition, "Mirrors," with which he will "seek to destroy the security blanket of western harmony;" Vita and Bryan Hewitt's scanned x-ray photographs, which allude to the collective memory of place, specifically, of San Francisco, in all it's true and fictive transience; Pantea Karimi’s prints, which combine iconic imagery from her homeland of Iran and the U.S. in a metaphoric layering that alludes to cultural identity, societal restriction, corporate hegemony, and political censorship; Terrance Graven's performative installations which use ritual materials to explore mortality, loss, and the frailty of the body; and John Melvin’s site-specific installation exploring the idea of transitional states.

trompe de l’oueil/mirage/apparition/ignuus fatus/after image/ figment/chimera
pipe dream/flim flam/distortion/camouflage/mimicry/monkey business
sleight of hand/legerdemain/duplicity

We hope you will join us for this unique event!

Participating Artists, Musicians and Performers:
Brendan Aanes: video and audio installation
Elisheva Biernoff: painting
Terrance Graven: performative installation
Philip Greenlief: solo saxophone performance
Vita and Bryan Hewitt; photography
Elyse Hochstadt: sculptural installation
Pantea Karimi: printmaking
Honey McMoney: sculptural installation
John Melvin: site specific sculptural installation
Sarah Ratchye: painting
Elizabeth Stark: reading/performance
Parker Tilghman: handmade book
Jeong Im Yi: painting

MicroClimate Collective is a team of artist-curators committed to creating opportunities for Bay Area artists to share experimental, collaborative and ephemeral projects in all genres. MicroClimate is currently: G. Cole Allee and Victoria Mara Heilweil.

G. Cole Allee is a photo-based artist whose work explores landscape as cultural iconography and addresses the shifting relationships between place, myth and memory. She holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BA from Reed College. Her work has been exhibited in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland Oregon, and Tokyo.

Victoria Mara Heilweil is a nationally exhibited photographic artist, educator and curator. She received her MFA in Photography from California College of the Arts in 1995. Victoria was the curator and co-owner of Points of Departure, a cooperative art gallery in New York City. Victoria is also an Adjunct Professor at City College of San Francisco and California College of the Arts. http://www.victoriaheilweil.com

Climate Theater is an alternative arts space in San Francisco's SOMA district that encourages the development of non-traditional performance and experimental work with a focus on collaboration and exploration. Established in 1985, Climate is known for such innovative landmark programs as the Solo Mio Festival, which presented such prestigious performers as Spalding Gray, David Sedaris, Allen Ginsberg and Margaret Cho. Climate is currently home to a monthly music series, MicroClimate Collective, and a wide variety of new circus and other theatrical events, including a thriving resident artist program. Climate is run by artistic director Jessica Heidt.


CALENDAR LISTING

What: “Eidolon”
A Two Night Art and Performance Event, curated by MicroClimate Collective

Where: Climate Theater
285 9th St (at the corner of Folsom)
San Francisco, CA 94103
www.climatetheater.com

When: Friday May 21st and Saturday May 22nd, 8pm-11pm

Cost: $5

absence

An excuse of sorts, I was traveling through South East Asia, if you are intersted I have posted a vast amount of photos here. Printed copies can be obtained by contacting me at jkm@johnkmelvin.com

cheers.

Fwd: Raw review @ Visual Art Source

http://www.visualartsource.com/index.php

> Recommendations. . . .
>
>
>
> Colby Claycomb, White Picket Fence, linoleum, plastic edging, at Root Division. RAW features mixed-media works that assert their materiality and overt identity as artifacts "made in an honest manner," according to curator/artist John K. Melvin. One of the ten artists, Barry Beach, writes of "constructing nature. . .from organic and synthetic forms, mixing and experimenting salvaged and new materials. . .not knowing exactly what will emerge," inspired by the hybrid areas "between city and country, urban and rural, nature and culture." Memorable works embodying this post-conceptual/DIY aesthetic stance (some of which incorporate the gallery's architectural elements) include: Colby Claycomb's "White Picket Fence," a wall relief composed of black linoleum shards arranged concentrically, like a fingerprint, from whose center erupts a floral spiral of coiled plastic faux-fence edging; Ruth Hodgins' "Sword in the Stone," a surrealist bat-and-ball sports (and testosterone?) parody; Brandon Truscotts's "Made by Memory," a recumbent baby doll wrapped by and suspended from strands of glossy brown audiotape; and Jesse Walton's "John Deere and the Last Frontier," a "construction detritus" installation symbolizing the industrial domestication of the wilderness. RAW anticipates, with humor and imagination, a coming era of higher-priced energy and "lowered expectations" (California's Zen governor Jerry Brown is back, after all); of creative re-purposing and applied bricolage (at Root Division, San Francisco, California).
> - Dewitt Cheng

Thanks for the memories.

RAW Sculpture coming to Root Division!!

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Art lovers,

I am pleased to announce that an art exhibition I have been working on for a year now, will be opening to the public this coming Saturday, November the 14th. The exhibition will feature a particular and unique range of material oriented sculptors from the Bay Area. If you are in town, please feel free to stop by. Details from the press release are included below.

Thanks for all your continued support,

Best,


John K Melvin
Visual Artist

http://raw-rootdivisionsf.blogspot.com
http://www.johnkmelvin.com/
http://johnkmelvin.blogspot.com/


--

ROOT DIVISION PRESENTS: Second Saturday November 2009

RAW
An exhibition of new Bay Area sculpture and installation

Curated by John K. Melvin

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Root Division is proud to present our November Second Saturday event, an exhibition of new Bay Area sculpture and installation, guest-curated by local artist and curator John K. Melvin.

The work in RAW has a distinct materiality, and each of the artists is uniquely aware of its presence. Whether assembled from found objects or crafted from items not typically associated with fine art, the sculptures and installations featured in this show work to declaim the fundamental appeal of objectness.

Artists like Colby Claycomb, Brandon Truscott, and Sarah Willis evoke their own personal narratives by exploiting the built-in meaning of used materials. Others, like Barry Beach, John K. Melvin, and Kit Rosenberg take a more detached approach, boiling down a conceptual premise to its most essential material elements. But regardless of how each artist approaches their work, there is a shared enthusiasm to maintain the integrity of the chosen medium.

Details are on-line at http://raw-rootdivisionsf.blogspot.com

Artists:

Barry Beach
Colby Claycomb
Benjamin Echeverria
Sean Olson
Christophe Piallat
Kit Rosenberg*
Brandon Truscott
Jesse Walton
Sarah Willis

*Root Division Resident Artist

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 14th, 7-10 pm
Sliding Scale Suggested Donation: $2-$20
Exhibition Dates: November 11th-December 5th, 2009
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays- Saturdays, 2-6 pm (or by appointment)

ROOT DIVISION
3175 17th Street (at South Van Ness & Shotwell)
San Francisco, CA 94110
www.rootdivision.org
415.863.7668

ABOUT ROOT DIVISION:
Root Division is an arts and arts education non-profit located in the Mission District of San Francisco. Root Division's mission is to improve appreciation and access to the visual arts by connecting personal inspiration and community participation. We provide subsidized studio space to working artists in exchange for their service in creating shared learning opportunities for the community. Artists develop creatively and professionally by teaching art to underserved youth, leading adult education classes, and producing exhibitions that showcase local emerging artwork. By combining multiple opportunities for creative exchange, Root Division cultivates an artistic ecosystem that enriches life throughout the Bay Area.

Root Division is supported in part by grants from Grants for the Arts: SF Hotel Tax Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund. The Second Saturday Exhibition Series is sponsored by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission through a Cultural Equity Grant/Organizational Project Grant, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

Castles in the sky

Funny.  When I was maybe ten years old or so I remember drawing and thinking about freeways being converted into apartments and parks.  This beginning may explain the orgin behind my freeway project series.  As for castles in the sky it seems I wasn't the only one.  

"The Bay Line, a proposed retrofit of the Bay Bridge's eastern span with a park and housing, has become a sleeper hit in the blogosphere, and now even has its own website. The thought experiment was initially put together by Oakland's Rael San Fratello Architects and submitted as an entry to WPA 2.0, a public works design competition put on by a UCLA think tank. The idea: what if, after the eastern span gets replaced, we kept it around and used it for something instead of getting rid of it? And what if we, say, loaded it up with 7,000 homes? Thought-provoking! But the Bay Line didn't make the final cut at WPA 2.0, while another Rael San Fratello proposal did: the U.S./Mexico border project, which includes seesaws among its varying delights."

http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2009/10/30/seriouser_and_seriouser_the_bay_line_condos_on_the_bay_bridge.php

Jon Carroll

"But I don't like social gatherings. I don't like all the people, I don't like the overlapping noise, and I don't like meeting new people because, you know, I already know more people than I can comfortably accommodate with minimum friendship requirements. I've lived in the same city for 30 years. I have a family; surely that's enough.  "

Read the whole article here:

http://mobile.sfgate.com/topic/3767-All%20Entertainment%20Headlines/articles/194189527

Wonderland on the News!!!

wonderland got covered today on the local ABC news!

follow the link below:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7069365

RAW is coming!!!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 3, 2009
ROOT DIVISION PRESENTS: Second Saturday November 2009

RAW
An exhibition of new Bay Area sculpture and installation

Curated by John K. Melvin

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Root Division is proud to present our November Second Saturday event, an exhibition of new Bay Area sculpture and installation, guest-curated by local artist and curator John K. Melvin.

The work in RAW has a distinct materiality, and each of the artists is uniquely aware of its presence. Whether assembled from found objects or crafted from items not typically associated with fine art, the sculptures and installations featured in this show work to declaim the fundamental appeal of objectness.


Artists like Colby Claycomb, Brandon Truscott, and Izumi Yokoyama evoke their own personal narratives by exploiting the built-in meaning of used materials. Others, like Barry Beach, John K. Melvin, and Kit Rosenberg take a more detached approach, boiling down a conceptual premise to its most essential material elements. But regardless of how each artist approaches their work, there is a shared enthusiasm to maintain the integrity of the chosen medium.

Details are on-line at http://raw-rootdivisionsf.blogspot.com

Artists:


Barry Beach
Colby Claycomb
Benjamin Echeverria



Sean Olson
Christophe Piallat
Kit Rosenberg*
Brandon Truscott


Jesse Walton
Sarah Willis
Izumi Yokoyama
*Root Division Resident Artist
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 14th, 7-10 pm
Sliding Scale Suggested Donation: $2-$20
Exhibition Dates: November 11th-December 5th, 2009
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays- Saturdays, 2-6 pm (or by appointment)

ROOT DIVISION
3175 17th Street (at South Van Ness & Shotwell)
San Francisco, CA 94110
www.rootdivision.org
415.863.7668

ABOUT ROOT DIVISION:
Root Division is an arts and arts education non-profit located in the Mission District of San Francisco. Root Division's mission is to improve appreciation and access to the visual arts by connecting personal inspiration and community participation. We provide subsidized studio space to working artists in exchange for their service in creating shared learning opportunities for the community. Artists develop creatively and professionally by teaching art to underserved youth, leading adult education classes, and producing exhibitions that showcase local emerging artwork. By combining multiple opportunities for creative exchange, Root Division cultivates an artistic ecosystem that enriches life throughout the Bay Area.

Root Division is supported in part by grants from Grants for the Arts: SF Hotel Tax Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund. The Second Saturday Exhibition Series is sponsored by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission through a Cultural Equity Grant/Organizational Project Grant, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

WONDERLAND: Wonderland in the NYT!

http://wonderlandshow.blogspot.com/2009/09/wonderland-in-nyt.html

http://www.enjoy-surveillance.org/

New and improved website

Friendly promotion:

Fung Collaboratives has updated their website. Check it out below.
One of the many new additions is the FC Community page!

http://www.fungcollaboratives.org/

JKM
www.johnkmelvin.com