886 Geary Street · San Francisco, CA
Open Tues - Sat 12PM - 7PM

Day in the Life: Jason D’Aquino

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“Me (Jason D’Aquino) having my coffee..”

Miniaturist Jason D’Aquino contributed 16 pieces to the group show Hard Time Mini Mall, curated by the Red Truck Gallery. His graphite sketches are richly detailed, and fit onto the inside of matchbooks. The Shooting Gallery displayed his work with magnifying glasses, so that viewers could observe the minutiae of every drawing. When he’s not creating fine art of pulp novel sirens on found vintage paper, Jason is a tattoo artist in Buffalo, New York at Blind Dog Tattoo. He was kind enough to send us some photos of his work as well as some pics of him prepping for the show (a good shave is necessary to put your best face forward). Hard Time Mini Mall is running through May 4 so there’s still time to catch D’Aquino at his finest!

The artist also has a solo show coming up with us in the SG Project July 6-27, 2024.

Follow the jump for more photos from D’Aquino with his captions. Read more »

“C215 Explores Haiti in Full Color” (Huffington Post)

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C215. Port Au Prince, Haiti. April 2024. (photo © C215)

Last week The Huffington Post covered this feature from Jaime Rojo and Steven Harrington of Brooklyn Street Art, highlighting Parisian street artist C215‘s trip to Haiti. C215 last exhibited in the Shooting Gallery in 2024 with the solo show Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.  In this interview with BSA, C215 explains what it’s like to paint in the streets of Haiti, and how he accommodated his work to respect the people’s native customs. As dictated by Voodoo culture, its considered inauspicious to render the likeness of an individual who has died, so C215 made sure all of his subjects were alive and well.

C215 explains his stylistic shift from a black and white palette to a wildly radiant one, where his latest murals are ebullient and colorful. The artist explains that he began working with a fuller chromatic spectrum after suffering a bout of meningitis, where he was shut up in a dark room for over a month to recover.

C215 mentions that painting with a fuller range of color means it takes longer to execute a piece, a drawback for artists painting on the street, since a minimized install time reduces the likelihood of dealing with the police. We think the extra time has paid off with beautiful results.

Read the full interview here and check out more photos after the jump. Read more »

SG Project Space: “Tame Nor Sane” by Van Arno

For Immediate Release:
Contact Shooting Gallery – Justin Giarla
Justin@shootinggallerysf.com

Shooting Gallery Project Space Presents:
Tame Nor Sane
New Work by Van Arno

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The Shooting Gallery Project Space is pleased to present Tame Nor Sane featuring five new oil paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Van Arno. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 11, 2024 from 7-11pm and will be on display, free and open to the public, through June 01, 2024.

Van Arno’s work channels the exalted emotion and mystical underpinnings of romanticism into a highly-charged eroticism all its own. In Arno’s hands the classical nude is contorted into positions meant to fully embrace a lush physicality of form. Hints of Caravaggio’s knack for exaggerated foreshortening make it clear the artist is drawing inspiration from the old masters, though the work is more brazen than anything in the grand tradition. In this exhibition Arno revisits mythology, both American and classical, turning the timeless subject matter into compositions that are at turns startling, humorous and lasciviously compelling.

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Van Arno was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri where he attended a Christian science school from kindergarten through high school. He was accepted at Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles where he studied under influential artists such as Carol Caroompas and Lita Albquerque, supporting himself working late nights as a bouncer in nightclubs and adult video arcades. Van Arno’s hyper real depictions of the human form are as cartoonishly expressive as they are plastically pornographic. Dubbing his style as “uber-mannerism” he has shown extensively in Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa Fe, Nashville and New York and has been featured in Juxtapoz and Arrested Motion.

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The Shooting Gallery opened its doors in 2024 to the edgy Tenderloin district of San Francisco; one known for its diverse culture and history. Owner and curator, Justin Giarla, founded the space to offer a welcoming environment for viewing the art he loves. Giarla has long since recognized the necessity to provide lowbrow artists with a platform, which is exactly what The Shooting Gallery has done for a full decade. In addition to the exhibition of leading shows in pop art, street art, and outsider art, the Shooting Gallery also participates in art fairs around the world and hosts annual fundraisers for local nonprofits.

Media Opportunities:

Interview with Van Arno
Interview with owner/founder/curator Justin Giarla
High-resolution images available upon request

Event Information:
“Tame Nor Sane,” by Van Arno
Opening Reception – May 11, 2024, 7-11 pm
On View Through June 01, 2024
@ Shooting Gallery Project Space (shootinggallerysf.com/projectspace)
886 Geary Street, San Francisco CA 94109

Red Truck Gallery’s “Hard Time Mini Mall” (SF Arts Enthusiast)

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Gallery goers view the photographs of Frank Relle

The SF Arts Enthusiast posted this photo feature on the Red Truck Gallery‘s group show Hard Time Mini Mall in the Shooting Gallery. While the Red Truck Gallery is based in New Orleans, where its curator Noah Antieau calls home, the collective travels widely across the United States, “The gallery’s traveling exhibitions model supports extensive exposure for its artists and the gallery and reflects the internationalism perhaps now necessary in the art world.”

The post lists all of the artists involved in Hard Time Mini Mall, and describes their inclusion in an “intriguing group show of the many iterations of contemporary Folk Americana.” The show will run through May 4, 2024

Follow the jump for more photos. Read more »

Press Release: “Toy Box” A Solo Show by Robert X. Burden

For Immediate Release:

Shooting Gallery Presents:
Toy Box
A Solo Show by Robert Xavier Burden

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Shooting Gallery is pleased to present Toy Box, a solo show by Robert Xavier Burden. Join us for the opening reception Saturday, May 11, from 7-11pm. The exhibit will be open to the public for viewing through June 01, 2024.

Toy Box will consist of 16 oil paintings both on canvas and on panel, all of which place childhood icons into compositions of reverence and majesty. Backdrops that appear like ecclesiastical stained glass or elaborately woven rugs from afar reveal something different at closer view; characters once only at home in comics and cartoons are crossing over into the realms of oil portraits with the help of Burden’s imaginative eye and deft detailing.

But Burden isn’t simply a nostalgia merchant; his work deliberately re-imbues childhood icons with the magic they once possessed. Though Burden’s larger-than-life size representations of what are commonly mass-produced action figures naturally opens a dialogue on commodity fetishism, Burden’s pieces ultimately affect the viewer on a more visceral than conceptual level, with an honest evocation of the wonderment that children see radiating from their favorite toys.

From the artist:

In 2024 I began a series of large-scale oil paintings based upon the small action figures that I played with as a boy. I remember these figures as being magnificent. They represented power, beauty, good and evil, and they captured every aspect of my imagination. As a young adult, these toys are wonderfully nostalgic, but they’re no longer amazing to me. The patterns that adorn many of the canvases are often taken from fabric, rug or wallpaper patterns from my childhood home. The original toy is often framed in a shadowbox attached to the painting, acting as a modern reliquary for these figurines. The ineffability of what can turn a cheap yet coveted piece of plastic into an almost talismanic object was the original inspiration for this work. I am also motivated by the amorphous line that is drawn between imagination and reality, childhood wonder and adult practicality. There is an obvious irony in spending hundreds of hours to create a single painting that glorifies a cheap, mass-produced toy. And while that irony could reflect issues of commodity fetishism, consumer addiction, Peter Pan Syndrome or even shallow idolatry, I want these paintings to represent something positive in my life. There is nothing profound about commenting on the minor tragedy of losing one’s innocence, or the struggle to maintain one’s idealism. I just want to renew my faded sense of awe.

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Robert Xavier Burden lives and works in San Francisco and has exhibited extensively throughout North America. He has received honors such as the Irene Pijoan Memorial Painting Award from the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship Award from the San Francisco Foundation.
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The Shooting Gallery opened its doors in 2024 to the edgy Tenderloin district of San Francisco; one known for its diverse culture and history. Owner and curator, Justin Giarla, founded the space to offer a welcoming environment for viewing the art he loves. Giarla has long since recognized the necessity to provide lowbrow artists with a platform, which is exactly what The Shooting Gallery has done for a full decade. In addition to the exhibition of leading shows in pop art, street art, and outsider art, the Shooting Gallery also participates in art fairs around the world and hosts annual fundraisers for local nonprofits.

Media Opportunities:
Interview with Robert Xavier Burden
Interview with owner/founder/curator Justin Giarla
High-resolution images available upon request

Event Information:
Toy Box, A Solo Show by Robert Xavier Burden
Opening Reception – Saturday, May 11, 7-11 pm
On View Through June 01, 2024
@ Shooting Gallery (shootinggallerysf.com)
886 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

Inside Look at Ian Berry’s Studio

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Ian Berry’s studio with his work “Solitude.” Photo by Emil Langvad.

Ian Berry (aka Denimu) is currently featured in the Shooting Gallery‘s group show Hard Time Mini Mall, curated by Red Truck Gallery. He recently sent us some photos from his studio in Sweden, which look like a cross between the defective garment section at a Levi’s factory, and Bruce Springsteen’s walk-in closet. It’s amazing to see what the work Ian makes from this abundance of material.

The artist creates two-dimensional collages from layering and gluing pieces of denim and he is deftly able to portray distance with vanishing points by carefully selecting gradations in color with the prolific, blue material. In a post on Ian’s work written today, Jane Kenoyer from Hi-Fructose remarks on how every work is truly an undertaking, “On closer inspection the characteristics of the denim material slowly emerge and the hours of labor are revealed.” via You can see a few of Berry’s works that are currently on display in the Shooting Gallery in these studio shots, such as Journey Home.

Hard Time Mini Mall runs through May 4.

Follow the jump for more from Ian’s studio. Read more »

Herakut Paint A Moving Mural at Coachella (Cartwheel Art)

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Photo by Paul Koudounaris.

The two artists who comprise Herakut, Hera and Akut, recently painted a mural on a moving snail sculpture at Coachella this year. We hosted Herakut’s show Loving the Exiled last year at 941 Geary, and anticipate their upcoming exhibition in the Shooting Gallery on September 14, 2024. Lisa Derrick from Cartwheel Art reported on the duo’s site-specific mural, which they had to paint in less than a day before venturing off to China. The locomotive snail was designed to move slowly across the field – though at one point, it went rogue and started heading into a crowd where the Smith Westons were playing.

View more photos of the audacious installation below. Read more »

Interview and Photo Journal of Noah Antieau: Curator of the Red Truck Gallery

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Noah Antieau, curator at the Red Truck Gallery. “Armed to the teeth at an art show.”

Noah Antieau is the curator of the Red Truck Gallery: an art collective whose caliber of talent is only surpassed by its medley of personalities. They recently came to the Shooting Gallery for their group show Hard Time Mini Mall, which runs through May 4. The camaraderie among these guys is palpable, as they travel together across the nation displaying their work collectively. Noah is the ringleader whose vision has set the mission for Red Truck, and he is never far from his cohort and business partner for their eatery Lonesome’s Pizza, Nic Sin. Noah discusses screening prospective artists based on personality, the reason why New Orleans will always be his home, and why Conceptual Art is such a hustle. Below, he included photos with captions from his travels, though some of the most provocative images were sent without any explanation needed.

Read the interview and see scenes from Noah’s daily life, after the jump! Read more »

Opening Photos: the Shooting Gallery’s “Hard Time Mini Mall,” Curated by Red Truck Gallery

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This past Saturday, the Shooting Gallery opened its group show Hard Time Mini Mall curated by the Red Truck Gallery, while the SG Project Space was busy hosting Mary Iverson‘s solo show Tangle at the same time. The exhibit displays a remarkable spectrum of talent, from the denim collages of Ian Berry, the automata of Tom Haney, the book art of Joe Decamillis, and the cloth paintings of Chris Roberts-Antieau – to name a few. Each artist was designated their own space that they richly filled with their work. The show runs through May 4, 2024, so there’s still time to swing by if you missed the opening.

View photos from all of our openings this past Saturday in our Facebook album.

More photos after the jump! Read more »

Opening Photos: Mary Iverson’s “Tangle” in the SG Project Space

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The SG Project Space was full this past Saturday with people who came to see Mary Iverson‘s new solo show Tangle, while the Shooting Gallery put on Hard Time Mini Mall curated by the Red Truck Gallery. The artist included a large scale mural for the show, amidst the small, detailed pieces of shipping containers in natural landscapes. Iverson also attended the opening; she is currently based in Seattle, and has been traveling the world this year; she visited Singapore this past February to paint a public work, and it was wonderful to have her in our city. Come see Mary Iverson’s Tangle, which runs through Mary 4, 2024.

See photos from all of our openings on Saturday in this Facebook album.

View more photos after the jump. Read more »

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