Entering Misson 17 gallery is mazelike, first a coded door, up a freight elevator, down a red brick wall hallway then a short wait for an attendant to let me in. The experience of access was in sharp contrast to my tour an hour earlier at the 49 Geary art complex where everything is quite obvious.

The first thing I noticed in the bright sunny gallery was a tower of vintage athletic prize trophies dominating the floor of the room, a piece by Packard Jennings called “Empire” 2003. These trophies were found at the dump; despite being scavenged they emitted a distinct aura of struggle and competition even in their precarious shabbiness.

In conversation with this accumulation of prizes is an installation piece by Paz de la Calzada. She crafted an impressive pair of legs out of packing tape that translucently dance out of the wall; they sport a well traveled pair of gold spray painted dancing shoes. This piece declares, “All that glitters is not gold.”

Next I allowed myself to feel weird and strange inside as I watched familiar faces from the art community smear a pearlescent cream over one another’s face in an uncomfortable loving manner in Jennifer Woffards video “Inappropriate.” This piece catapulted me into the sensation that this was not merely an art show but a creative deviation of a secret self- help group masquerading as artists.

In the info art tradition, attached to the wall was a line up of postings of particular talents and services to be employed by individual artists followed by business cards so you may in fact seek their talents. The services range from personal hipster shopper, fine dining while listening to metal, game playing, driving directions and interestingly enough, conflict resolution by an artist who is formally trained in non-denominational spiritual studies. The headhunters of this enterprise are Virginia White and Rebecca Millsop.

In this show there is a trend or willingness to help in reality or with in the message of content, as with a wooden board wall piece covered with condoms that form a design that I thought looked like the ghost from Pac-Man but I later figured out was actually the Pope. This is hopeful considering the title of the show is “Cronyism” curated by Emily Sevier and Clark Buckner.

My question is where did the romantic notion of the isolated misanthropic artist go? My question was answered by Cathie Davies Vinyl Crest named “Transactional Epiphany” depicting two hands in the process of clasping while one holds a lethal scorpion that is concealed to the other. The crest states, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This is something we can all relate to weather you are a cured misanthrope or not.

I left this show with a sense of relief at the interest all of these artists have in other things besides the manufacturing of hard sellable objects, In fact it was a mini convention of the other assets of their beings that make them capable artists and comrades in the navigation of the art world, as we know it or... just plain old life.

Exhibition dates: January 20th- February 25th, 2006

http://www.mission17.com