Wednesday, September 30, 2009
San Franciso Trip Days 3 and 4
San Francisco Day 2 – Friday, September 25, 2009
Our first stop on Friday morning was at the studio of Walter Robinson and Ray Beldner. Ray began discussing his work and various projects of working with currency, collecting homeless signs, using found words, such as two-word phrases. Walter also mentioned his interest in two-word phrases and how he was interested in the certain archetypes, such as icons in advertising. His more recent body of work, Transport series, looks at the fall of the automotive industry.
At SFMOMA we had a brief tour of the current exhibit Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004 then ended our tour at the new rooftop before heading to lunch.
Our next stop was at Amy Ellingson’s studio. Amy discussed her interest in formal repetition. In Identical/Variation series (2004-2006), Amy essentially creates works that are the same form, but vary in subtle color differences and order of layering. Through this process, Amy creates an interrelated system of forms.
In our visit to Kelli Yon’s studio, we saw some new photographs as well as series from as early as 1997. Often working in series, Kelli works with subjects that are intimate and close at hand, such as her family, unusual landscapes, and estate sales.
Our final stop of the day was at Queens Nails Projects (QNP). QNP is an artist-run space that is dedicated to presenting experimental projects for artist and curators. Julio Cesar Morales was the co-founder in 2004. We were greeted by co-curator Zoe Taleporos who gave us a background of the alternative space and its mission. Ian McDonald whose work is currently showing at QNP discussed the blurring in his work of hierarchy and between function and design. We were pleased to learn that Ian is originally from Laguna Beach where he was first exposed to ceramics. Behind QNP there are several studios and CCC had a chance to meet with photographer, Maggie Preston. Maggie aims to use photography to capture itself. 
And finally, the CCC ended the evening with a fantastic dinner at Bar Bambino
San Francisco Day 1 – Thursday, September 24, 2009
The CCC arrived in San Francisco in the early afternoon and headed out for lunch at the popular Slanted Door restaurant. Afterward, the group walked to the first appointment to see the Gap Collection with a walkthrough given by Abner Nolan. The first work we saw was the impressive 60-foot tall Richard Serra sculpture, Charlie Brown (2000). Doris and Don Fisher (Gap’s CEOs) began collecting in the mid-70s and believed early on in collecting artist’s works throughout their lifetime, providing an insight into an artist’s entire career and practice. Most of the art collected are made after WWII by American and European artists and the collection includes artists such as Duane Hanson, Sol le Witt, George Segal, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Agnes Martin, Georg Baselitz, Chuck Close, and William Kentridge.
After an impressive tour, we were blown away again at the home of Robin Wright, the co-chair at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). The private collection included works by Sol le Witt (just at the entrance), Tara Donovan, Liza Lou, Marcel Duchamp, Lawrence Weiner, Carl Andre, Martin Creed, Ed Ruscha, Sigmar Polke, Bruce Nauman, Thomas Ruff, Richard Prince, and Joseph Bueys, just to name a very few. It was impressive to learn how Wright’s family lives so intimately with the art, often working with artists on commissioned works.
The following day, we read in the paper that the Fisher’s collection will be housed at SFMOMA:
And just two days later, we learned that Don Fisher died at the age of 81: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/28/MN6E19TL93.DTL.
Donald Fisher with Brice Marden's "The Sister," a piece in his collection.
Photo: Mike Kane/ The Chronicle