It seems somehow unfair that I have to review The Gatherers: Greening our Urban Spheres in 500 words or less. The artists in this exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts certainly were not held to any kind of word count. The Gatherers investigates urban landscapes and food systems in this era of climate change and growing organic consciousness. The exhibition reads like a natural history museum or science fair crammed into a closet. A timeline of ecological events collected by the curators and artists lines the walls, snaking around text heavy documentation of the artists' socio-political interventions. I... Read More

Misako Inaoka,Urban Habitat Re-Creation, 2008. Bay Area Now, the triennial group exhibition at Yerba Buena was designed as a sort of stock-taking or triennial report, if you will, on the state of visual art in the Bay Area. Its localized emphasis is not restricted to emerging artists but those operating at various levels of their career, in a range of media and approaches. This year's incarnation, however, sets itself an additional theme that in effect broadens the show even beyond its original boundaries; i.e. Bay Area Now 5 is neither restricted to Bay Area artists nor is it exclusively... Read More

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco describes The Way That We Rhyme as a showcase of "the politically charged work of a new generation of women. Emphasizing performativity, collaboration and coalition building, the works are influenced by the feminist ideologies and activist movements of the past, while also speaking loudly and clearly to the issues facing women right now. Adhering to the notion that there is strength in numbers, the show culls together work from women of differing backgrounds and disciplines to highlight the common goals of their practices." There is, unfortunately, no resemblance to this... Read More

Have you ever wondered what kind of artwork a rock star would make if someone gave them the use of a gallery? Well, it seems that Brian Eno, the rock star in question, does not make objects; he makes installations that take ten thousand years to watch. Recently at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts he set up his newest art show titled77 Million Paintings. Eno appeared at the opening to speak about his work. To me he seemed like a very ordinary middle aged-man. He was dressed rather unremarkably and did not project the aura I thought he would.... Read More

Seeing Joe Goode's new work Humansville at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is like wandering through a psychiatric ward and medically observing individuals who are severely self-involved, experiencing physical pain due to psychological damage, or have an intense anxiety to take action. You can watch two scantily clad men convulsing in identical sterile chambers, a woman in hysterics, or two poor souls so timid they cannot even leave their chairs. Humansville is divided into two parts, the first being an installation and the second a multimedia performance. In the first half, viewers have the opportunity to interact with the... Read More

The Collective Foundation is currently on exhibit at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. As a gallery guide, I had the opportunity to lead a group of teenagers and their mentors on a tour of the installation one Saturday in May. At the beginning of the tour I asked the group, "What is a collective?" A few replied, "A collective is something you collect." I then asked, "And what are you doing when you collect something?" One of the boys replied, "You're gathering a bunch of things." I then asked the group, what does the color red mean or... Read More

During the YBCA exhibition of "Black Factory" by William Pope L. which involved contributions from gallery visitors, we (your SR editors) decided to parallel this model via experimentally opening-up the review process by setting up a computer station overlooking the exhibition. This resulted in 27 short responses included here. Lori: I have always appericaed art that lets me make my own conclusions. "Black Factory" is that type of Art. You are made aware of what the artist is attempting, but not led to that conclusion. Many people have complained about the randomness of the items. But to me that is... Read More

Robert Crumb's work makes a slightly uncomfortable fit with a gallery space, which has more to do with the personality of the artist than with the format of his work. It doesn't seem odd at this point to have pages originally published as underground comics carefully curated and nicely framed - the loop of culture is as permeable as it's ever been. But while Crumb is a genuinely towering presence in the comics world, he became that crowning figure in part through the practice of self-mockery. The confessional, warts-and-all approach to the contents of his head made him revolutionary -... Read More

Note from author: This was originally going to be a collective review, but it didn't work out that way. The failed attempt at collective art criticism has given me greater respect for collective art making.... Read More

Collectives are a new hot topic for museums across the country, institutions attempting to reaffirm their anti-establishment street-cred by showing work that challenges the organization's own purpose as cultural mediator. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is hosting a year-long investigation into the phenomenon of artist collaboratives and the current Whitney Biennial is also featuring an number of artist groups such as Reena Spaulings, The Bernadette Corporation, The Wrong Gallery and Otabenga Jones & Associates -- all monikers for a larger body of artists working together with a particular mission, one that usually questions the role of the museum or... Read More

The title of the exhibition belies it's true nature, the work by Cornelia Parker currently on view at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is not so much new as it is recent. In fact, the exhibition presents Mass (Colder, Darker Matter), an older work from 1997, contextualized by a new work created from nearly identical materials imbued with inversely significant social relevance. Yet again, perhaps the exhibition title is fitting. As with much of Parker's work, ambiguity is at the core of the experience.... Read More

The transformation happens almost immediately. As soon as I sit my ass in the bus seat I realize it: I'm a tourist in the city I've lived in for the past 12 or so years. Oddly enough, it feels fun and strangely liberating. As we pull away from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts I find myself looking out the window at the same buildings I've passed a thrillion times as if I've never seen them before. The tourist gaze. All it takes is a seat on an air-conditioned custom coach. Of course, the effect is completed when Kate Pocrass's... Read More