Mark Your Calendar: Auctions and Openings

Another fun weekend in store for Bay Area art lovers:

* On Saturday, March 21, from 4 to 7 p.m., Oakland's Johansson Projects hosts an opening reception for Kate Eric and Marina Vendrell Renaut's joint show, Flaming Furbelows. The exhibit "explores uneasy encounters between attraction and repulsion, tenderness and terror. From inside fleshy mounds of fur and yarn, Renaut's plush and bulbous monstrosities offer up wooly orifices and suggestive pleasures. Eric's 'Bug Wars' invoke similar unsettling dioramas of violence and seduction, as otherworldly insects wage battles across landscapes of post-apocalyptic glee and Dr. Seussian wonderment. Taken together, these artists present visions of a phantasmic post-natural world, where desire warps into perverse narratives and cross-contaminated forms." Johansson Projects is located at 2300 Telegraph Ave. at 23rd St. in Uptown Oakland.

* Over in San Francisco, the exhibition party for Hilary Williams's A City With Colored Dreams runs from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday night at the Frankee Uno. If you haven't seen Williams's incredible, surreal silkscreen prints of the City, you must rectify that immediately. Music, snacks, and libations will be provided. Frankee Uno is located at 1221 Divisadero St. at Eddy.

* Also on Saturday night, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., San Francisco experimental-arts organization the Lab hosts its 25th annual Silent and Live Auction. More than 200 local, national, and internationally renowned artists have donated work to the event, and most of the original pieces have a starting bid of just $25. Participants include Mike Arcega, Leo Bersamina, Michelle Blade, John Casey, Ajit Chauhan, Joshua Churchill, Gail Dawson, Victor De La Rosa, Tara Lisa Foley, Matt Furie, Bryson Gill, Taro Hattori, Cynthia Ona Innis, Xylor Jane, Jeff Kao, Tom Marioni, Karla Milosevich, Paul Mullins, Trevor Paglen, Hillary Pecis, Genevieve Quick, Ed Ruscha, Casey Jex Smith, Kirk Stoller, Stephanie Syjuco, Heather Wilcoxon, and many more. There's a sliding-scale, $10 to $25 admission fee, which includes snacks and drinks. The sale continues Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m., when admission is free. The Lab is located at 2948 16th St. at Capp in the Mission District. More info here.

* Finally, although Alex Lukas's new solo show, And Another Shall Rise to Take Her Place, actually opened at SF's White Walls Gallery last weekend, it looks amazing, so I had to include it for those of you who may not have checked it out yet. The show will be up through April 3 at White Walls, 835 Larkin St. at Myrtle in San Francisco's "Tendernob" area.

eBay Find of the Day: 20th Century 5 Charity Auction

Hey there! I hope everyone who's reading this Stateside had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and everyone abroad had a lovely autumn week. I didn't get nearly as much done as I needed to, but it was nice to play hookie for a couple of days. Anyway, it seems that the new eBay widget isn't working very well (sorry about that!). So until I figure something else out, I guess I'll do this the old-fashioned way ...

The big news on eBay this week is Winnipeg, Canada-based online gallery Modern Love's fifth annual 20th Century Design + Decorative Arts Auction. The auction, which benefits the Canadian Cancer Society, features iconic, pedigreed midcentury designs, all in pristine condition.

Some of the items I'm lusting after:

George Nakashima Four-Drawer Chest for Widdicomb. Current bid: $510

Eames DAR Shell Chair for Herman Miller. Current bid: $610

Charlotte Perriand Low Wooden Stool. Current bid: $760

Four Herman Miller Eames Shell Chairs. Current bid: $295

Hans Wegner Chair for Knoll. Current bid: $510

Anna Castelli RoundUp Storage Unit for Kartell. Current bid: $51

Eero Saarinen Tulip Task Chair for Knoll. Current bid: $103

Ettore Sottsass Valentine Typewriter for Olivetti. Current bid: $200

Eames Rocker Chair T-Shirt. Buy it Now for $28

Check out the entire auction selection right here; bidding ends the evening of Monday, December 8. Even if you don't bid -- and most of these items are way out of my league, too -- pop over just to drool over the stunning photographs and to read up on your 20th century design history.

Cool Stuff: Team Zoila!

Did any of you guys watch Flipping Out this season?

Remember that portrait the lovable (if slightly sadistic) hot mess Jeff Lewis commissioned of his feisty Nicaraguan housekeeper, Zoila -- without telling the artist that the portrait in question was a gift for the person she was painting? And that he then gave to poor Zoila in lieu of the one measly weekend off that she requested for her birthday?

The resulting portrait -- while kinda cool in an arty sort of way -- was unflattering in the extreme, and Zoila was understandably hurt. Umm, nice move there, Jeff.

Anyway, Bravo has decided to auction off the offending painting, with the proceeds earmarked for Miss Zoila's own bad self. (That's Zoila busting a move with my other Flipping Out favorite, executive assistant Jenni Pulos, swiped off of Jenni's Facebook -- because, yes, I am Facebook friends with the divine Ms. Pulos. Well, me and 913 other people. Is that cool or sad and pathetic? I can't decide.)

The auction started a little while ago with an opening bid of $500, and is already up to $2,550. Bidding ends on Tuesday, August 19.

So what are you waiting for? C'mon -- don't just do it for Zoila. Do it for put-upon reality TV minions everywhere.

(Via Scented Glossy Magazines -- which, by the way, just published a kickass interview with way-too-good-for-that-job former Jeff Lewis houseboy Chris Keslar.)