Chekov II, 2009; acrylic on canvas; 16 x 19 in. Courtesy of Silverman Gallery, San Francisco. Luke Butler's exhibition at Silverman Gallery is as exclamatory as its title. A composite of his Enterprise (2008-09) and Leaders of Men (2009) series, Butler's "Captain!" explores the tropes of TV and media representations of masculinity. Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" drew on the poetic device of the heroic couplet to memorialize President Lincoln and perhaps accustom the American imagination to a more erotic power relationship. Similarly, Butler's paintings and collages are profoundly accessible even while they awaken a provocative empathy. Still... Read More

Hammer Films, 2009; acrylic on canvas; 16 x 12 in. When classic campy entertainment is rendered in paint, the remediation restores some of the earnestness to the original enterprise. Thus, Captain Kirk is once again an empathetic hero--casting off the pop cultural taint of William Shatner's long career--in the canvasses on display in Luke Butler's exhibition "Captain!" at Silverman Gallery. The compositions, lifted from still frames from Star Trek episodes, seek to invest the sci-fi drama with the iconic power of a pictorial tableau. Lurking across the gallery are collages of vintage gay erotica spliced with the heads of... Read More

Édouard Vuillard. Mother and Sister of the Artist (Mère et soeur de l'artiste), 1893; oil on canvas, 18.25 x 22.25 in. (46.3 x 56.5 cm). In the 1893 painting Mother and Sister of the Artist, by Édouard Vuilllard, a young female figure presses her hands and legs against the wall behind her and leans forward toward the center of the painting. The pattern of her dress blends with that of the wallpaper, and this partial dissolution between figure and ground-- this camouflaging--suggests either her desire to be swallowed up and disappear, or conversely, her attempt to escape the surroundings... Read More

"Things belong to those who need them", my grandmother used to say, meaning you would hardly ever find clothes or appliances lying around her house indolently collecting dust. Life had taught her about precariousness and she had learned to share and give away things that somebody, anybody, else might need. Just as clothes and school books went from older to younger to youngest daughter, a worn chair or a chipped pot quickly found a new home when they were replaced by newer items, their life span extended well beyond their average life. Still, she held on to a few things... Read More

The United States of America is both a nation and an idea. Since its inception, the nation has built itself around contradictory narratives such as freedom and imperialism, justice and oppression, opportunity and classism, or creativity and cultural hegemony to name a few. Two international curators working in the U.S., Jan Van Woensel and Hou Hanru, examine the icon of the United States and apply their unique perspectives in concurrent exhibitions within the country in question. Ben Shaffer and DJ VIOLENT VICKI, Mixed media sound machine by Ben Shaffer Belgian curator Jan Van Woensel orchestrated the dense and eclectic Bad... Read More