Mark Your Calendar: First Friday Openings

Looks like another great collection of gallery shows at this month's Oakland Art Murmur, Friday, August 1, from 6 p.m. to 9-ish:

* The second anniversary party at Industrielle, featuring new work from Sita Rupe (top) and others

* The Sum of Its Parts, with art by Laura Ball (above) and seven other artists, at Swarm Gallery

* Radialvedic, with contributions from Kristina Lewis, Jill Gallenstein, and Kana Tanaka, at Johansson Projects

* Cityscapes, with images from a variety of fine art photographers, at Rock Paper Scissors

* A Sacred Subject, featuring work from Clay Cahoon, Hunter Mack, and Rocky Rische-Baird (above), at Esteban Sabar

* A.K.A. Graffiti, with Peeta and others, at FiveTen Studio

* Audrey Welch's Random Thoughts at WELL

You can find more info about the Art Murmur right here.

The Artful Home: Art by Sheila Metcalf Tobin

Colorful, kaleidoscopic, and unabashedly sensual, Sheila Metcalf Tobin's botanical art seems to burst off the canvas. Her fruit and floral subjects -- "the bounty of the earth" is an ongoing theme -- are at once instantly recognizable and intriguingly abstract, startlingly intricate and strikingly bold.

Rendered on sheets of birch and maple plywood, Tobin's works "interact with the material's surface and create a sensation reminiscent of the sensual experience of moving through a garden," says the Berkeley artist, an Art Institute of Chicago MFA who spent chunks of her childhood on her great grandparents' farm in rural Alabama.

Limited-edition, 22-by-28-inch screen prints (including "Primera Impresión," above, and "Falling in the Garden," below) cost $300, or $600 in hand-built maple frames. Tobin originals run $300 to $2,800.

A joint exhibition with Oakland painter Margaret Chavigny opens at Oakland's Mercury 20 Gallery on Friday, July 6 (in conjunction with the monthly Oakland Art Murmur First Fridays) and runs through July 29. (Among the new works shown will be "Emergent," left, $900.)

To see more of Tobin's work, visit her website.

Mark Your Calendar: Oakland Art Murmur's "First Friday"

Don't miss the Oakland Art Murmur on Friday, June 1.

On the first Friday evening of each month, galleries and artists' collectives in and near Oakland's newly bustling (but still edgy) Uptown area open from 7 to 10 p.m. for the coalition's monthly art walk. Participants include Rock Paper Scissors, Blankspace, Boontling Gallery, Rowan Morrison, 21 Grand, Creative Growth, Mercury 20, and Front Gallery, among others.

Affordable art is a key part of the mix: Original pieces by emerging artists can be had for as little as $20, while work from more established painters, illustrators, photographers, and sculptors runs several hundred to several thousand dollars.

Oakland has long been an artists' haven, but in recent years the art scene has exploded as high costs have pushed droves of working artists out of San Francisco in search of more affordable studio space. I liken it a bit to the arts pilgrimage from Manhattan to Brooklyn during the last ten years. (Indeed, Oakland is reputedly second only to New York in number of artists per capita.) The Oakland Art Murmur was born last year to showcase this growing local arts community.

So grab a coffee, a beer, or a bite to eat at Mama Buzz Cafe and then stroll from art space to art space. Among the artists exhibiting this month are Chris Truman, Carl Auge, Alexander Cheves, James Gouldthorpe, and Moira Murdock. Don't miss 21 Grand's "Small Works" fundraising sale, which features works from dozens of local artists, all priced at $100 or less. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket, too, and settle in for Asphalt Shorts IV, a series of short films about cities and urbanism that's being screened in the Broadway parking lot between 21st and 22nd streets at 8:30.


You're also likely to catch a drum circle, a bonfire, a guerrilla art performance, or a busking band amidst the milling students, hipsters, and art aficionados on the street. It's a happening Happening indeed.

Info, directions, and details here.

(Photos by Lane Hartwell for Oakland magazine.)