First off, for those who have never been there, Ratio 3 is one of the hidden gems of San Francisco. Tucked away on the edge of the mission at 903 Guerrero, it is located up the steps of an apartment building on the corner of 21st.. It consists of two rooms at the front of a flat and a third room as an office/storage in the back. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in intimacy. Ratio 3 is run by Chris Perez who has booked a museum-worthy show in what could be your friend’s house (a rich friend, that is).

The show is called “Liquid Paper / Pure Land” and it is actually two shows. “Pure Land” is a sculpture show in the first room consisting of 3 artists, Patrick Hill, Mitzi Pederson, and Vincent Fecteau. The piece that immediately struck me when walking in this room was Patrick Hill’s piece. Wood and glass circles balanced by the hands of a true craftsman in a wooden beam on the floor. The vacancy in the larger circle suggests that there is a mirror in it and it took several walk-arounds and witnessing someone else touch it to fully confirm that it was not a mirror. (There was a guard posted by it to make sure no hooligans tipped it out of it’s gentle perch, but I watched some mad man give it a good poke. Oh, the forbidden pleasure of touching “High Art”!) This piece reminds me of everything that I like about 70’s classy minimalism.

-Patrick Hill
Sex and Violence, 2006
Wood, glass, canvas, dye, oil and glue
42 1/2 x 36 x 48 inches

The true ace of this show is the other half of the gallery though, titled “Liquid Paper” (a play on the viscous feeling of the work with the old stand by of correctional fluid). It is a figurative, works on paper, primarily black and white show. It has a star-studded cast with R. Crumb, Raymond Pettibon, Barry McGee, Kara Walker, and Robert Lazzarini, and others all packed together, hung salon-style, in a small room. Surprisingly though, the standouts were not the heavyweights, but some of the lesser knowns. Colter Jacobsen’s twin pieces, one done from a photo of a seaside killing scene and the other done from the memory of that drawing, both echoed the marks of a budding genius.

There are two Moriceau + Mrzyk pieces of twisted hilarity. Psychedelic-bestiality, mixed with the Michelin Man giving pony rides to a buxom lass, and a dash of a gay-cowboy threesome, makes one of the pieces the most intriguing from a pervert’s standpoint. (And let’s be honest here, we’re all perverts…)

-Jean-Francois Moriceau + Petra Mrzyk
Untitled, 2005
Ink on paper
22.2 inches in diameter

My favorite would definitely have to be the piece by Matt Saunders (Untitled). It is a tender portrait of a woman on a date with a mystery-man. She is staring down into her classic Coke glass with her hand on her head and you can almost feel the giddy energy of a date gone wrong. The panicky feeling of knowing that you can’t cut and run quite yet because the glasses are full; that you have to sit in the prickliness of your uncomfortablity for at least as long as it takes to finish this drink… It made me want to leave the room just looking at it.

-Matt Saunders
Untitled, 2002
Ink on mylar
8 x 6 1⁄2 inches

Over all, it is not a show to miss. This caliber of work rarely gets viewed in anything outside of a mega-gallery or an institution, so catch it while you can. It runs until August 6th. The gallery is open on Sundays from noon-5 and by appointment.

http://www.ratio3.org/