Gold Rush: Artist as Prospector @ The Lab

Featuring Patricia Diart, Felipe Dulzaides, Packard Jennings, Pang Hui Lim, Ben Needham, Kate Pocrass, Marija Mojca Pungercar, Alice Shaw, and Lee Walton
Curated by Sonja Hinrichsen & Genevieve Quick

Exhibition runs: May 13 – June 6, 2009
Opening reception: Friday, May 15, 6-9 PM
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays – Saturdays, 1-6 PM
This event takes place at The LAB, 2948 16th Street @ Capp, San Francisco

The Gold Rush and dot-com boom urged many opportunistic, desperate, and hopeful Americans to take a gamble and venture west to try their hands at prospecting and entrepreneurship. While some '49ers and dot-commers did accumulate vast amounts of wealth, most did not. These eras live on in our collective memories as Americans hoping to strike it big as a result of luck, perseverance, or gall. The legacies of the Gold Rush and dot-com boom have shaped the general character of the West Coast and informed the practice and strategies of many artists.

While the nine artists in Gold Rush embody the audacity, inventiveness, fortitude, and at times recalcitrance that are part of the Western ethos, our current economic crisis has created a new context that challenges optimism and industriousness. Our current economic crisis, like those of past (e.g., the Dutch Tulip Bubble, the US Great Depression, and the South Sea Bubble) has created a malaise, anxiety, and scrutiny about our expectations, desires, and priorities. In a moment when we are less confident, and some may say less egotistical, the art world is responding in ever more inventive ways.

Gold Rush: Artist as Prospector seeks to address the pioneering spirit and moxie that is mythologized in the American West. This show examines how contemporary artists find, organize, and select materials and experiences to intervene in, or disrupt the banal to mine moments and transform the everyday.











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Controlling the Sublime Featuring Sherri Martin in the Front Gallery

Exhibition runs: May 13 – June 6, 2009
Opening reception: Friday, May 15, 6-9 PM
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays – Saturdays, 1-6 PM
This event takes place at The LAB, 2948 16th Street @ Capp, San Francisco

Sherri Martin creates vivid miniatures depicting the junction of arctic wilderness and human intervention. Polar bears and seals confront buoys and canoes in scenes referencing natural history dioramas, carefully crafted from found materials such as styrofoam and paper. Martin gently reminds us that conceivably these landscapes will one day become only nostalgic souvenirs. While Martin hints at the potential destruction wrought by global warming and human encroachment, the intimate scale of the pieces, and the accessible, comforting way in which these monumental scenes are rendered creates an engrossing, complicated warning. In this work, Martin draws on personal experiences of growing up in a paper mill town in the forests of Ontario, and her understanding of the delicate balance struck by a community enriched by natural beauty, but economically reliant on natural resources.










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