Can you throw a good party and also save your city’s soul?
That was the existential question at the heart of this year’s San Francisco Art Week, which has enthralled the glitterati for seven days of parties, even as they reeled from the unwelcome news that the city’s oldest art college would be shuttering. As happens every January, when the showpiece Fog Design+Art fair takes over Fort Mason, there’ve been exhibition openings, exclusive parties, and the kind of high-figure transactions that happen when collectors, curators, and celebrities converge.
But there was also serious grousing about the city’s abandonment of the California College of the Arts, which announced it would be closing at the end of the next school year before handing the keys to its campus to Vanderbilt University. The announcement came after a brutal year for the SF art scene, when five major art galleries closed their doors, citing a serious drop in sales.
Adding to the ill feelings, an influenza plague seemed to be ravaging the city (opens in new tab) (and this reporter). On Friday morning, while waiting at Walgreens on Fillmore, I found myself in line behind Fog Director Sydney Blumenkranz, who was picking up Theraflu.
“I cannot get sick,” she said, bundled in an overcoat, her labradoodle, Max, in tow.
She wasn’t alone in her anxiety. In the days leading up to the fair, Fog workers rushed to install more than 60 booths for prestigious galleries from around the world. It’s a good thing gallerists aren’t notoriously fastidious. One worker confided that after Wednesday’s gala, they had to microdose MDMA just to settle their nerves.
The party extended outside city limits to Blunk Space in Point Reyes Station.
The Lehmann Maupin booth at the FOG Fair was a standout. The top of the pyramid
For the movers and shakers of the art world, SF Art Week started Thursday night at the Transamerica Pyramid’s atrium and redwood garden, with a VIP opening of the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco. The warm crackle of Ethiopian jazz on vinyl filled the air.
Comedian and actor Nick Kroll was among the first to arrive, sporting dark-red dress shoes and a green linen suit, a bold choice for January, although the weather was unseasonably warm. Kroll was energetic, capturing videos of Mayor Daniel Lurie and beaming with pride over his wife, the artist and Mill Valley native Lily Kwong, who was showing her work. Kwong’s “Earthseed Dome (opens in new tab),” which featured on-site 3D printing of “seed-impregnated living soil” blocks extruded in a brown sludge, will be reassembled in the redwood garden. Imagine a pinecone-esque dome that will bloom with California native wildflowers.
“Dance performance is starting!” Kroll yelled to a crowd of stragglers as his wife’s work was paired with a dance performance choreographed by the renowned Madeline Hollander. One gallery worker remarked on the similarities between Kwong and Hollander, quipping that the show could have been called “A Meditation on Movements.”
Sam Mondros
Kwong’s 3D printer extruding synthetic mud imbued with seeds.
Among the crowd was Gap Creative Director Zac Posen, wearing hunter-green woven Timberland boots and a matching safari hat tipped way down low. (Who was he hiding from? Me?)
Giving his welcome speech, Lurie commended the art scene. “Our creative class is what drives San Francisco,” he said. “Long before tech, long before anything else, we were always and will always be known as the center of culture and creativity, and just know, as your mayor, I am always going to push the envelope to get behind people like [ICA Director] Ali Gass, get behind institutions like the ICA.”
The remarks received a wave of claps from the crowd but were later debated — and occasionally derided — throughout the week by scenesters irate about his embrace of Vanderbilt University’s CCA takeover.
Drinks were served, gossip was traded, bubbles were burst.
“Ultramarine Brain over Yellow Waters,” center right, by California painter Loie Hollowell, sold for $450,000.
“That announcement — he bungled it,” said one influential Bay Area art-world figure of Lurie’s remarks (opens in new tab).
Asked to respond to criticism that Lurie was glib in his announcement of CCA’s closure, the mayor’s office told The Standard, “Mayor Lurie has said repeatedly and feels deeply CCA’s decision to close is a loss for San Francisco and our arts community, and honoring their legacy is an important responsibility for Vanderbilt and our city.”
The event ended early, and everyone went to their respective Jackson Square reservations. Philanthropist, art collector, and Fog steering committee member Susan Swig led a group into the gallery Rebecca Camacho Presents for a showing by artist Christy Matson (opens in new tab), where author and journalist David Sheff was seen perusing the textile works.
Nearby, at a corner table at Kim Kardashian’s go-to SF restaurant, Cotogna, Laurene Powell Jobs held court with “The West Wing” actress Anna Deavere Smith and former president of the National Gallery of Art and the Ford Foundation Darren Walker. (A few days later, it came out (opens in new tab) that Walker has been named president and CEO of Anonymous Content, a production studio Powell Jobs funds.) Also with them at dinner was designer Stanlee Gatti. On Gatti’s wrist gleamed a Rolex with a black face — a gift from former Apple designer Jony Ive, I’m told.
The next day, the party spread to Point Reyes Station in West Marin, where Blunk Space opened “100 Candleholders (opens in new tab)” — a show featuring more than 100 artists from around the world inspired by the oeuvre of the late West Marin craftsman J.B. Blunk. (opens in new tab) The gallery, run by the artist’s daughter, the curator and designer Mariah Nielson (a CCA grad), drew a packed crowd. Actress and Bolinas resident Frances McDormand was there, admiring a peice made by Nielson.
More than 100 candleholders were made by artists from around the world for Blunk Space’s show. | Source: Courtesy Blunk Space / Rich Stapleton
On Tuesday, art insiders gathered at a decidedly less high-brow destination for Fraenkel Gallery’s exclusive bowling party in the Mission, cohosted this year by New York gallery Lisson and the trailblazer of Mexico City’s art scene, Kurimanzutto.
“The real Art Week gala is tonight at Mission Bowling,” said Darius Himes, international head of photographs at the auction house Christie’s. “It’s the scene.”
Potrero Hill gallery, CULT Aimee Friberg, put on an interactive booth featuring work by artist Jasko Begovic.
Jasko Begovic sews work at CULT Aimee Friberg.
SFMOMA director Christopher Bedford, who was having a busy week, showed up late, after his predecessor Neal Benezra. “Oh, all the museum directors come to this, but they won’t come to my openings!” one young curator complained.
San Francisco’s best photographers seemed to be among the most dedicated to bowling. Andrew Owen was glued to the far left lane, while Richard Misrach shot cannons all night.
Champagne first, checkbooks second
When it comes to the Fog Preview Gala, the more you pay, the earlier you shop. Tickets to the gala —which in addition to a good party, allow prospective buyers the chance to check out the work on offer before the fair opens to the public — ranged from $250 to $20,000.
Among the earliest to arrive were prolific art collectors (opens in new tab) and philanthropists Bob and Randi Fisher. SFMOMA curator of architecture and design Joseph Becker strode in just before 4 p.m. with a wide smile, eager to place branded consideration cards on artworks he was interested in adding to the museum’s collection. Becker beelined it to a booth operated by Marta, a Los Angeles-based art and design gallery, to claim a quilted fiberglass piece by Minjae Kim.
“Illusion, Sister of Icarus (after Rodin)” by Minjae Kim was purchased by SFMOMA.
Krzysztof Strzelecki pieces at Anat Ebgi Gallery.
This year’s fair had more exhibitors than last year’s, a quarter of which were leased by local gallerists, who boasted Bay Area artists like Jesse Schlesinger and Clare Rojas, whose work appeared at multiple booths.
There were no caviar carts as there were at past galas, but there was plenty of sushi, dim sum, and bao. Dirty martinis flowed freely and, occasionally, swished dangerously close to precious artworks. Everyone was hopeful Julia Roberts would show up, though this reporter never came upon her in the crowd. (She was spotted at the fair Friday morning, apparently preferring the down-low daytime experience to the spotlight of the gala.) Famed 95-year-old philanthropist Roselyne “Cissie” Swig, was there looking defiant and fabulous in her Sketchers, arm in arm with party-promoting grandson Adam Swig.
Dress code was cocktail attire. Not everyone got the memo.
Many outfits stunned, like this fringe number.
Celebrities, artists, curators, and the Bay Area’s most powerful art world figures were in attendance at the Fog Design+Art fair gala.
More than $8.8 million in artwork was sold the first night, according to a report from Fog Design+Art. As of Thursday morning, the largest sale was “Solar Space,” a 1971 painting by American artist Jack Whitten, which sold for more than $1 million through Hauser & Wirth. The mega-gallery, whose clients include Powell Jobs, has plans to open a Palo Alto location this spring. Over at the booth of blue-chip gallery David Zwirner, The Standard spotted San Francisco’s first lady, Becca Prowda, perusing the pricey works in a grey tartan suit.
Solar Space, a painting by Jack Whitten, sold for more than $1 million.
| Source: Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
In San Francisco fashion, as the clock struck 10 p.m., attendees spilled out of the former military complex and into their automated rideshares. Those looking to keep the party going headed to the after-parties that best fit their respective social order. A few hot tickets were art adviser Kelly Huang’s secret soiree with Art Basel folks at the ultra-chic Ama in Jackson Square and Jonathan Carver Moore’s party at the Rumpus Room near his eponymous gallery on Market Street.
At philanthropist Sonya Yu’s party at her SoMa events space Four One Nine, handsome men in black ties were handing out THC edibles. “We have poppers too!” enthused the bouncer.
Sometimes you need to look at art from a different perspective.
Works on display at Ippodo Gallery.
One renowned local artist sniffed a popper, then nearly fell over. She quickly regained her composure. The clothes at this party were far more casual than the getups at the gala. Designer Yves Béhar arrived in a patterned mauve-tone bomber jacket over a faded blue tee, accessorized with a talismanic pendant and red knit cap. Call it abstract-art camouflage.
Any lingering bad vibes brought on by the prior week’s news seemed to dissipate through the loud music, cold cocktails, and lack of oxygen from the poppers. The fact remains that, even with galleries in flight and colleges closing, art is still everywhere in San Francisco. And there are still deep-pocketed people very much interested in celebrating it.
For those hoping to get in on the action, Fog Design+Art is open to the public for the rest of the weekend.