Mark Your Calendar: Weekend Art & Home Happenings

It looks like a busy weekend is shaping up for Bay Area art lovers and nesters!

FRIDAY, JUNE 6

The monthly Oakland Art Murmur gets the party started at Uptown's galleries from 6 to 9 p.m. or so. There are several great new shows worth checking out:

* Johansson Projects' current exhibit, Portals, features work from Jen Stark (above), Anna Fidler (at top and below), and Jana Flynn (bottom).

The show "ventures into unknown, mystical apertures through spiritually charged, innovative paper creations. Offbeat, and at times explosive, Portals ignites the senses and impels the mind to investigate the dynamics of the divine."

(If you haven't already, click here to nominate Johansson Projects for "best local gallery" in the East Bay Express annual reader's poll. Kimberly Johansson has totally earned it this year with one incredible show after another.)

* Stop by Esteban Sabar for an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. for two new shows: Scott Hove (top left) and Bethany Ayres' (bottom left) joint The Hot Salon, and Patricia Gillespie's solo Willing to Go There (right).

* At Rock Paper Scissors Collective, the group Genderqueer show explores art from a community that doesn't fit neatly into traditional gender, sexual, or biological sex categories. The opening reception runs from 6 to 9 p.m.

* 21 Grand holds its 8th Annual Benefit Art Sale from 7 to 10 p.m., featuring works from more than 70 local artists, including Ben Reisman (above left) and Jeanne Lydon (right). Nothing is priced over $200, so swing by to check out some fab affordable art. (If you can't make it Friday, the sale continues Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.)

* Rowan Morrison Gallery is hosting a reception from 6 to 10 p.m. for Adam5100's The Heart vs. the Mind in a Fight to the Finish, a collection of photorealistic stencil paintings, lightbox sculptures, and prints.

The gallery also has new, limited-edition prints available from Patrick Rowe (top) and Deth P. Sun (bottom).

* Join artists Ce Ce Iandoli and Jill McLennan from 6 to 9 p.m. at Mercury 20 for the opening of their new solo shows, Lilacs in Somerville and Cuentas de México.

* Blankspace is holding a reception from 7 to 10 p.m. for its new show, Cacophony, featuring the work of ten local and national artists who have illustrated releases for local music label Gold Robot Records.

* At WELL, there will be a reception from 7 to 10 p.m. for Johnny Sui's new show, Where Are All My Thylacines?

* Bop on over to Old Oakland's Mignonne boutique, which is hosting a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. for local artists Nicole Hanshaw (top) and Gary Comoglio (bottom). (Pssst -- the shop has a new blog and is now open on Sundays as well.)

* For more on the Murmur, see my recent photo essay.

The Oakland Museum stays open until 9 p.m. as part of its monthly First Fridays After 5 program. There will be live blues music, Taiko drumming, a film screening, and a cash bar. Visit the Museum's current Birth of the Cool and Cool Remixed exhibits, and then stay for the party. Museum admission is $8.

Across the Bay, San Francisco's Rare Device hosts a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. for Amy Ross' Shapeshifter, featuring the Boston artist's lovely watercolor depictions of plant-animal hybrids. (If you can't make it in person, pieces from the show are available for purchase right here.)

SATURDAY, JUNE 7, and SUNDAY, JUNE 8

At the Temescal Street Fair, you can sample goodies from local eateries (including Bakesale Betty -- yum!), make art with the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, shop for artisan-made crafts and Oaklandish goods, hear live music, and visit the Green Zone or kids stage. Noon to 6 p.m. Saturday only.

During the East Bay Open Studios, more than 400 local artists will open their homes and studios and be on hand to discuss and sell their work.

Participating artists include (clockwise from top left): Stephen Day, Jana Grover, Sheila Metcalf Tobin, and Sarah Haba. Note: Open Studios continue next weekend, June 14 and 15.

During the Sunset Celebration Weekend, the magazine's sprawling Menlo Park campus morphs into a giant festival for home-improvement junkies. There will be product exhibitors, cooking demonstrations, gardening talks, and even an Eco Lounge where you can learn about Earth-friendly products and practices. The event also features live music, food vendors, and a kids' play area. I can't go, sadly, but if I could I'd head straight to the Secondhand Sunset booth, where editors will be selling off props from photo shoots, projects created for the magazine's pages, and their own vintage goodies to benefit Friends of the Urban Forest. Event tickets are $12 for adults.

Photo by B_G

Up in San Rafael, the Marin Home Show & Benefit Jazz Fest takes over the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin Civic Center to showcase live music and more than 350 home and garden exhibitors.

Among them will be Emeryville retailer Klassik by Lynne, which will be showing off its expertly restored vintage Danish modern furnishings, above. Tickets for the show are $8.

More than 200 dealers from around the country will be hawking furniture, housewares, jewelry, vintage clothing, and other items dating from 1900 to 1980 during the Art Deco & Modernism Sale at San Francisco's Concourse Exhibition Center. Admission is $10. (Thanks for the reminder, Hannah.)

Finally, join artist Neil Freese and ReadyMade Magazine to learn how to make God's Eyes at San Francisco's Curiosity Shoppe. Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m. Free.

Whew!