PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS & WORKSHOPS:

2121 ART SPACE WORKSHOP SERIES

Impulse to Draw

Impulse to Draw – RECEPTION & Impulse to Draw BOOK SIGNING
Saturday, September 9th & 23rd 4:00
Everyone Welcome

Drawing Jam Session 2 – FORM & FANTASY
Saturday, September 9th & 23rd 2:00 – 4:00
$40 / $20 Student – Drawing Supplies Included
Sign-up here

Tap into the transformative power of drawing…
Visualize and imagine space in entirely new ways…
Art enthusiasts of all levels welcome to sign up!

2121’s first workshop series, Drawing Jam Sessions, lead by Slusky and Sullivan. Art enthusiasts of all levels are welcome to sign up to attend what promises to be a unique experience, an inspirational creative journey.

Art theory and technique are presented with vitality, breaking down barriers while changing perspectives; insight that does away with the formulas, a dynamic and inspirational approach to creativity.

20 Years in the making, Drawing Jam Sessions are based on lesson plans developed by Slusky and Sullivan for UC Berkeley courses beloved by students. 

This workshop presents an entirely new philosophy about creativity that taps into the transformative power of drawing, enabling artists to visualize and imagine space in entirely new ways. Part philosophy, part poetry, and more abstract than generally found in art instruction.

Joe and Chip inspire with humorous allegories together with substantive processes that unlock potential. Always unpretentious yet focused, they get directly to the core of creativity, guiding the artist to have faith in their ideas while removing inhibition. 

GALLERY EXHIBITION:

Impulse to Draw: Joseph Slusky & Chip Sullivan

A Shared Vision
Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture

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Exhibition Dates:
August 5 – August 26, 2023

2121 Art Space has joined forces with the Thomas Reynolds Gallery for the month of August to present San Francisco: Still Beautiful, an exhibition of cityscape paintings by San Francisco artist, Veerakeat Tongpaiboon. 

San Francisco has provided inspiration for the artist for three decades. “Wielding a loaded brush, Tongpaiboon attacks his canvases boldly, favoring intense colors and skewed perspectives,” wrote Southwest Artist magazine. In the artist’s own words: “I like speed, I like buildings, I like cars. The energy of the streets of San Francisco continues to inspire me.”

A native of Thailand, Tongpaiboon has been painting since he was 10 years old, winning major international competitions even as a teenager. Encouraged by his family to follow a more practical path, he received his degree in design and went on to work with his brother, a Bangkok architect. In 1992 he came to San Francisco to further his education in Fine Art. He received his M.F.A. degree at the Academy of Art in 1994 and has been a full time painter since. His work is in collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.

This exhibition marks a return to San Francisco of the Thomas Reynolds Gallery, a fixture on Fillmore Street for 25 years before relocating to Santa Barbara in 2020. The show will also feature Small Treasures by other artists represented by Reynolds.

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A San Francisco Drawing Group:
The Figure & Points of Departure

Exhibition Dates:
June 17 – July 15, 2023

Dwight Been
Henry Bridges
Daisy Eneix
John Goodman
Susan R. Kirshenbaum
Pamela Mooney
Alex Rosmarin
Peter Steinhart
Barbara Tonnesen
Dieter Tremp

About the Exhibition…
George Krevsky, Guest Curator

“The itch to make dark marks on white paper is shared by many artists.” 
– John Updike

Paul Klee wrote that a good drawing is an artist “taking an active line for a walk, moving freely without a goal,” some are curved, some are jagged, some are dots, some shaded. Drawing is the discipline of discipline for the artist’s trade, the foundation on which Fine Art is built. For centuries Classical artists such as Da Vinci…Rembrandt…Daumier, Modernists such as Milton Avery, Ben Shahn, and Raphael Soyer…and Bay Area Figurative Artists Manuel Neri, Robert Bechtle and William Wiley…all of them have used drawing the human figure from life.

The simplicity of shape, using pencil, oil stick, or charcoal to produce thick and thin lines fill a blank sheet of paper with an image that may or may not emerge into a painting, a watercolor, or a sculpture. Each artist’s style, much like handwriting, is distinct, producing what I like to call “an artists vocabulary.” It makes no difference what the subject is, the important thing is how one draws it, shaped by the personality of the artist, using the right side of their brain.

The Figures and Points of Departure in this exhibition have evolved from a group of ten artists who have been meeting for over 30 years, now located in the Box Factory Lofts. Host John Goodman describes it as “a weekly fellowship of 10 smart, talented and congenial people, dealing with the “why” and sometimes “how” they draw. Sharing the cost of hiring live models (and snacks to fuel the process) the group comes to the studio with blank paper, drawing materials, and creative enthusiasm. The models and the poses, each interact with the artist, morphing into a human figure, a landscape, or even an abstraction that knows no form. Shapes, gestural movements, chance and spontaneity emerge on paper into what one of the artists (Dieter Tremp) describes as a “synthesis” of layers of drawn images in the hands of an artist.

In 30 years as an art dealer in the SF Bay Area I have been fortunate to have been taught to look at art through the lens of some great teachers…people like Robert Flynn Johnson, Peter Selz, Jack Levine, and Charles Campbell. View art from the lens of these ten  artists, as they focus on the Figure and Points of Departure and see the creative process in a new way.

“Nothing so well records a life as a face.”
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti who hosted a similar group in his Hunter’s Point studio

George Krevsky, Director of Krevsky Fine Art, began in the art business in San Francisco in 1978, and spent 22 years directing the George Krevsky Gallery. Mr. Krevsky has served as a board member and Co-Chairman of the San Francisco Art Dealer’s Association.

MICHAEL McDOWELL
Spun Sugar

Exhibition Dates:
May 13 – June 10, 2023

Inspired by his everyday surroundings and interactions as source, McDowell’s use of objects and words as symbol began more than thirty years ago. Painting these symbols (generated consciously and sub-consciously) provide the artist with a means of sorting through and coming to terms with a range of ideas pertaining to culture, history, religion, politics, sociology, psychology, and emotions. The results present a curious and engaging experience for the viewer.

McDowell, who received his BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, 1989 and 1991, is fascinated by artwork from various cultures throughout history. Applying historical techniques he examines what happens when layers of paint cover one another obscuring the previous layer: each layer becomes a response to the previously generated image. This process of refinement occurs until the surface of the painting is appropriately luminous and a “fetishistic” patina is achieved.

Sheila Cohen, former representative of Michael McDowell at Bucheon Gallery in San Francisco, writes… 

Michael’s paintings are best seen in person, because so much of the subtle nuance is missed if simply seen in a photograph. A photo is a tease. The luscious and silky surface is not clearly evident. In person the surface is so seductive you almost want to lick them!

Above: String of Pearls, 2022, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

Above: Palloncino Rosso, 2022, oil on canvas, 52 x 60 inches

Above: Internal Rhythm, 2022, oil on canvas, 52 x 60 inches

Above: Lucky Star(t), 2022, oil on canvas, 52 x 60 inches

Above: Cinque, 2022, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

Above: MetaCarnation, 2022, oil on canvas, 48 x 58 inches

Above: Joie de Vivre, 2018, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches

DAVID MAXIM
Abstraction and Other Matters

Exhibition Dates:
April 8 – May 6, 2023

My early mountain pictures morphed to sail constructions. Then came simple machine structures that integrated the canvas; then behind-the scenes, changeable, abstract  picture-constructions, and then came a return to straight studio paintings of famous dead artists. 

This show picks up with work done after all of that but continues to incorporate some of it. The emphasis on process continues in small abstract paintings that have hovering, mutable, grid-like forms and other pictures that have strings that I used as painting implements.  Process is also highlighted in sculptures of (usually male) figures that are metaphors for emotional sides of the human condition. 

Significantly, I have also added imagery of animals and landscape scenes depicting weather to my painting vocabulary in recent years. Like so many artists, I now have a preponderant concern for the state of the planet, its occupants besides people, and what it’s all leading to. My studio self asks me, “How can this be ignored?” This continues to absorb my time here. 

David Maxim
March 6, 2023

DAVID MAXIM
Abstraction and Other Matters

Earth Day
Exhibition Walk-Though
Artist Talk & Discussion
April 22nd
2:00

Spotlight Series:

Norfolk Press Book Release & Art Exhibition
ENIGMA – THE ART OF WILLIAM WALLACE REID
Book Signing with the author, S Duncan Reid
Saturday, March 11, 2023
4:00 – 6:00 pm

Art Exhibition – Extended Dates
Friday March 17 & Saturday March 18, 11:00 – 5:00
William W Reid – Figurative Surrealism of the 1940’s 1950’s & 1960’s

As a young man in St. Louis, Missouri, William Wallace Reid studied with such renown artists as Max Beckmann, Werner Drewes and Fred Becker, at Washington University’s prestigious School of Fine Arts in St. Louis. While at art school he was provided the opportunity to study in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with Jose Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo. 

Reid’s prize-winning artwork was featured in the Library of Congress and select museums across the country. Following a move to San Francisco in 1953 and subsequent 1954 exhibition, he remained productive but did not circulate in the Bay Area art world. From 1980 onward, Reid gradually lost his creative drive and had only one more show before his death in 2020. 

A limited selection of original works are available for sale in addition to fine art reproductions.

12 x 12 Invitational – 2023

Exhibition Dates:
February 11 – March 4, 2023

Artwork by more than 30 Bay Area artists in a range of mediums, the only requirement being the use of a 12×12 inch panel provided in advance by the gallery. Net proceeds benefit the San Francisco Art Mentorship Program. The inaugural exhibition opening made a big splash, with a great turn out of artists and buyers! And, a little attention from the press, BrokeAssStuart.com

Jennifer Ewing, Spacious Space, 2023, oil and mixed media on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Michael McDowell, Crying & Not, oil on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Fariba Bogzaran, Alchemy of Gaia, 2023, mixed media on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Matthew Bergstrom, Ukraine Unbroken, 2023, glass beads on panel, 12 x 12 inches

This work consists of thousands of shimmering glass beads sourced from Eastern Europe. It represents the hope of the Ukrainian people despite the scale of the tragedy and destruction wrought by the war. On close inspection, what might appear to be crumbled, broken glass is instead a shimmering Ukrainian flag. Suffering has not shattered the Ukrainian spirit. Ukrainian society has never been more unified and determined to save their families, their homes, and their country. The artist, Matthew Bergstrom, and his wife Amber are the proud parents of three children who were born in Ukraine. They will donate any net proceeds from the sale of this work to charities providing aid to the Ukrainian people.

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Peter Englander, Entropy / Harmony, mixed media intaglio print, unryu and india ink on panel

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Debra Walker, Everybody’s Fault, 2023, oil on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Joe Slusky, Ithaca, 2023, pencil and acrylic on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Sam Lucas, A Fathom Below, 2023, pen and ink on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Rudy Lemcke, Untitled, 2023, acrylic on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Jennifer Banzaca, Soft Fluster, 2023, mixed media with acrylic paint and acrylic yarn, 12 x 12 inches

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Fuzz E Grant, Mr. Orangutan, Don’t Go Yet, 2023, mixed media collage, 12 x 12 inches

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Michael Brennan, High Noon, 2023, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 inches

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Katie Hawkinson, Euphorbia, 2023, acrylic on panel, 12 x12 inches

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Rob Cox, Girl in White Tank Top, oil on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Nikki SF, Twilight, 2023, acrylic on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Alon Picker, San Francisco Paradigm, 2023, in camera multiple exposure photograph, archival print, 12 x 12 inches

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Kathryn Kain, The Days That Are No More, 2023, printed paper, paint, and wax on panel,12 x12 inches

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Gustavo Ramos Rivera, 2023, Paseo, oil and paper on wood panel, 12 x12 inches

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Kim Frohsin, Basic Bread: A Still Life, 2023, acrylic, ink and gouache on panel, 12 x 12

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Bruce Hasson, Four Horses, 2023, paper and wax on panel, 12 x 12 inches

Proceeds to benefit children suffering from the recent Turkey and Syria earthquake. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, better known as UNICEF, is in Syria and prioritizing water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition, and also focusing on helping unaccompanied children locate their families.

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Diana Krevsky, True, 2023, collage on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Elliot Bamberger, House Catalog, 2023, archival pigment print on luster paper, 12 x 12 inches

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Linda Trunzo, I didn’t know I was so fragile, 2023, oil, graphite, and watercolor on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Peter Shaw, Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together, 1984-2023, paint on paper with collage on gessoed panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Ant, Happiness is being on the ‘Same Cycle,’ 2023, ink and watercolor on paper, 12 x 12

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Rhonel Roberts, VW Wagon 1960, acrylic on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Marina Sole, NFTea, 2023, oil on gessoed panel and vintage ceramic tea pot, 15 x 12 inches

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Stacey Carter, The Hawk That Died in my Backyard, 2023, mixed media on panel

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Chip Sullivan & Elizabeth Boults, Wisdom of Place: Truth Revealed in the Forest, 2023, ink and watercolor; collage, 12 x 12 inches

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Jane Ivory, Abandoned Store, Bodie, 2022, image on vellum, moon gold gilding, 5 x 7 inches image size, 12 x 12

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Dieter Tremp, Golden Ratio (Symphony in EarthTones), 2023, acrylic over structure medium on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Gary Bukovnik, Amaryllis, 2023, acrylic on panel, 12 x12 inches

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Lauren Elliot, Mask No. 1, watercolor on paper on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Qorey Golob, Woman with Fan #48, After Jawlensky ‘The Red Veil’, 2023, acrylic on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Alex Wolf, Fog, unique print 1/1, archival pigment on paper, 12 x 12 inches

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Brian Moore, Corked, 2023, mixed media and found objects, 12 x 12 inches

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Archana Horsting, Hedges, after Michael Kenna, From Photo Translation Series, archival pigment print and acrylic on paper on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Jock McDonald, Orange Tahoe, 2023, mixed media acrylic on panel, 12 x 12 inches

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Matthew Bergstrom, Yosemite Falls, 2023, mixed media, gelatin silver photograph, map, wood frame, 12 x 12 inches

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