Events on Thursday, May 22

Jonah Raskin: <em>The Radical Jack London </em>

Books: Reading

The Radical Jack London

Thursday 5/22 @ City Lights

Jonah Raskin discusses Jack London's revolutionary writings at this City Lights event. Though London is best remembered for his wilderness tales,... 

Mates of State

Music

Mates of State

Thursday 5/22 @ Slim's

Once an ethos, then a (vaguely defined) genre, now a commercial force, "indie rock" has become infinitely fragmented and grossly commodified... 

Will Oldham and David Maisel: <em>Apocalyptic Sublime</em>

Special Event

Will Oldham and David Maisel

Thursday 5/22 @ Headlands Center for the Arts

Headlands' current artists-in-residence are disparate interpreters of the American Gothic aesthetic. Under his various monikers, troubadour Will Oldham uses American vernacular... 

Club NME SF presents Foals

Music

Foals

Thursday 5/22 @ 330 Ritch

After landing on the face of that hoary UK hype-beast, NME, and wowing a few crowds here 'round SXSW-time, London-based Foals... 

The Cave Singers w/ the Botticellis and Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death

Music

The Cave Singers

Thursday 5/22 @ The Independent

  The Cave Singers infuse their campfire songs with whiskey-soaked Americana and a gutter-punk sneer. It's a nice change of pace... 

Ongoing Events

Inkie Whang: <em>American Debut</em>

Art

Inkie Whang

Thursday 5/22 @ Frey Norris Gallery

Korean artist Inkie Whang's large-scale, pixelated landscapes explore the tenuous balance between his traditional heritage and the digital age. In the... 

<em>Flight of the Red Balloon </em>

Film

Flight of the Red Balloon

Thursday 5/22 @ Landmark Bridge Theater

Chinese director Hsiao-hsien Hou's glorious response to the 1956 classic The Red Balloon commences with a long, nearly silent scene of... 

Duke Ellington's <em>Queenie Pie</em>

Performing Arts: Opera

Queenie Pie

Thursday 5/22 @ Oakland Metro

Queenie Pie, jazz giant Duke Ellington's final large-scale work, receives the royal treatment from the Oakland Opera Theater. Ellington's muse was... 

<em>American Symbols: From Lady Liberty to the Stars and Stripes</em>

Art

American Symbols

Thursday 5/22 @ Museum of Craft and Folk Art

Recognized worldwide as a cultural symbol, the American flag is an object that elicits many personal and political emotions and interpretations.... 

David M. Stein: <em>Improbable\Unlikely</em>

Art

Improbable\Unlikely

Thursday 5/22 @ Eleanor Harwood Gallery

David M. Stein's first solo show of improbable objects should provoke double takes, plus a chuckle or two. In The Unlikely... 

<em>Reclaiming Materials: Four Sculptors Recycle</em>

Art

Reclaiming Materials: Four Sculptors Recycle

Thursday 5/22 @ Sculpturesite Gallery

One person's trash is another person's treasure — or sculpture, as is the case at Sculpturesite's current exhibition of art works... 

Gina Borg

Art

Gina Borg

Thursday 5/22 @ Jancar Jones Gallery

Bay Area artist Gina Borg's small works on canvas and paper are a gratifying addition to Jancar Jones' snug new gallery... 

William T. Wiley: <em>Punball: Only One Earth</em>

Art

William T. Wiley

Thursday 5/22 @ Electric Works

Pinball machines have largely been relegated to the scrap yard of nostalgia, but that hasn't stopped William T. Wiley from resurrecting... 

Tim Lee

Art

Tim Lee

Thursday 5/22 @ CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Although it's tempting to dismiss Vancouver-based artist Tim Lee's use of comedy-as-conceptual-device as lacking in depth or social concern, to mistake... 

<em>Within Two Hands: The Eye of the Collector</em>

Art

Within Two Hands: The Eye of the Collector

Thursday 5/22 @ San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design

Peter Voulkos founded the Arts Ceramics departments at both Los Angeles' Otis College of Art and Design and UC-Berkeley in the... 

Gareth Moore

Art

Gareth Moore

Thursday 5/22 @ CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Vancouver artist Gareth Moore takes hold of the reins at the Wattis, presenting the ninth solo exhibition in the gallery's ongoing... 

<em>Uncharted: Imaginary Landscapes </em>

Art

Uncharted

Thursday 5/22 @ Hayes Valley Market Gallery

Like intrepid cartographers, the nine artists featured in this exhibit navigate land and space from many angles. Their interpretations range in... 

Sarah Wagner: <em>Nuclear Family</em>

Art

Sarah Wagner

Thursday 5/22 @ Patricia Sweetow Gallery

Sarah Wagner turns out delicate textile sculptures that resemble tangled roots and vines. Her faux-plant shapes sprout from the gallery's cement... 

<em>The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art & Politics</em>

Art

The Way That We Rhyme

Thursday 5/22 @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

American culture always seems poised to pronounce feminism down for the count, when it clearly still has plenty of fighting to... 

<em>2nd Skin: Imaginative Designs in Digital & Analog Clothing</em>

Special Event

2nd Skin

Thursday 5/22 @ Exploratorium

With a futuristic, tongue-in-cheek vision, the artists featured in the 2nd Skin fashion exhibit challenge the standard notions of practical clothing.... 

Lacey Jane Roberts: <em>The Master's Tools (Decay Goes Both Ways)</em>

Art

Lacey Jane Roberts

Thursday 5/22 @ Little Tree Gallery

Little Tree Gallery has now been fortified, thanks to Bay Area artist Lacey Jane Roberts' handwoven barbed-wire fence. Even though every... 

Christopher Brown<em> </em>and Clare Kirkconnell

Art

Christopher Brown and Clare Kirkconnell

Thursday 5/22 @ John Berggruen Gallery

Christopher Brown and Clare Kirkconnell's concurrent exhibitions at John Berggruen Gallery have sympathetic interests: each artist makes work that quietly reinterprets... 

<em>Protest in Paris 1968: Photographs by Serge Hambourg</em>

Art: Photography

Protest in Paris 1968

Thursday 5/22 @ Berkeley Art Museum

Forty years after Paris' famous May 1968 protests, the true meaning of the uprisings is debatable — but that's not for... 

<em>Redbelt</em>

Film

Redbelt

Thursday 5/22 @ Various locations

Redbelt, David Mamet's latest, is an absorbing foray into the world of mixed martial arts. An unconventional fight film, Redbelt centers... 

Ryan McGinley: <em>Spring and by Summer Fall</em>

Art: Photography

Ryan McGinley

Thursday 5/22 @ Ratio 3

Ryan McGinley's metier is youth. The often smiling, and more often nude men and women cavorting in his photos are like... 

Special Event

Dykes on Bikes®

Thursday 5/22 @ GLBT Historical Society

Like chrome-and-leather-swathed valkyries rumbling down Market Street, Dykes on Bikes have long been the kickoff contingent of the San Francisco Pride... 

Amanda M. Smith: <em>Candy Garden and Sparkling Sabers</em>

Art

Amanda M. Smith: Candy Garden and Sparkling Sabers

Thursday 5/22 @ Jack Fischer Gallery

Little children run amok in Amanda M. Smith's series of exquisitely rendered ceramic reliefs. Set in a vivid world of flattened,... 

Peter Simon and Roger Steffens: <em>The Reggae Scrapbook</em>

Art: Photography

The Reggae Scrapbook

Thursday 5/22 @ Babylon Falling

The Reggae Scrapbook is a love letter from two eternal fanboys to Jamaica's best-known export. Drawing from their memories, publications, and... 

<em>Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Mid-century</em>

Special Event

Birth of the Cool

Thursday 5/22 @ Oakland Museum of California

Fashion designer Christian Lacroix put it most directly: "...the history of cool in America is the history of African-American culture." That... 

Alex Lukas and Brian Willmont: <em>Feudal Echo</em>

Art

Feudal Echo

Thursday 5/22 @ Park Life

Some may feel that the twin horrors of global warming and terrorism are hurtling humans into a fiery end of days,... 

<em>The Rape of the Sabine Women</em>

Art

The Rape of the Sabine Women

Thursday 5/22 @ SFMOMA

Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation's epic video-opera, The Rape of the Sabine Women, is a sprawling, beguiling exploration of classical... 

Paul Sietsema: <em>New Work</em>

Art

Paul Sietsema

Thursday 5/22 @ SFMOMA

Los Angeles artist Paul Sietsema presents an exceptional body of recent drawings and films in SFMOMA's New Work series. Sietsema straddles... 

<em>If... </em>(1968)

Film

If...

Thursday 5/22 @ SFMOMA

If… channels the anarchic current of 1968 with its bold switches between color and black-and-white, pillorying of authority, and violent climax.... 

Adam5100: <em>The Heart vs the Mind in a Fight to the Finish</em>

Art

Adam5100

Thursday 5/22 @ Rowan Morrison

The graffiti artist Adam5100 may have started out bombing derelict sections of Albuquerque, New Mexico, but he's brushed up on his... 

Weston Teruya and Michele Carlson: <em>How I Learned to...</em>

Art

How I Learned to...

Thursday 5/22 @ Intersection for the Arts

It's a pretty safe bet that elementary schools won't soon be competing with downtown museums and banks for a top architect's... 

<em>The Question Is Known: (W)here Is Latin American / Latino Art</em>

Art

The Question Is Known

Thursday 5/22 @ Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts

Artist Antony Torres curates this powerful exhibition of 30 artists showing paintings, sculpture, and installations exploring Latino identity. Highlights include the... 

<em>Portals</em>: Jen Stark, Anna Fidler, and Jana Flynn

Art

Portals

Thursday 5/22 @ Johansson Projects

This trio of artists transforms one-dimensional planes of paper into doorways that lead to strange universes. Armed with an X-Acto knife,... 

Annie Leibovitz: <em>A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005</em>

Art: Photography

Annie Leibovitz

Thursday 5/22 @ The Legion of Honor Museum

Working since the late '70s, photographer Annie Leibowitz has created both iconic celebrity portraits and intimate views of everyday people. She's... 

<em>In Collaboration: Early Works from the Media Arts Collection</em>

Art

In Collaboration

Thursday 5/22 @ SFMOMA

San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art was one of the first major museums to establish a department specifically dedicated to media... 

San Francisco International Arts Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

SF International Arts Festival

Thursday 5/22 @ Various locations

The International Arts Festival situates the Bay Area's creative microcosm in a global context. The calendar is brimming with performances at... 

Saskia Leek: <em>Thick Air Method</em>

Art

Saskia Leek

Thursday 5/22 @ Jack Hanley Gallery

Embracing the same kind of provocative ambiguity and loose brushwork found in Luc Tuymans' paintings, New Zealand native Saskia Leek structures... 

Veronica Graham: <em>Bonus Map</em>

Art

Veronica Graham

Thursday 5/22 @ CELLspace

Composed of more than 2000 hand-printed cloth swatches, Veronica Graham's sprawling installation Bonus Map takes over CELLspace's wall like cartographic kudzu.... 

Christian Marclay:<em> Stereo</em>

Art

Christian Marclay

Thursday 5/22 @ Fraenkel Gallery

Christian Marclay pioneered the turntable as a musical instrument in the late '70s, scratching out experimental sounds with vinyl found in... 

<em>Art & Artifice: 75 Years of Design at San Francisco Ballet</em>

Special Event

Art & Artifice

Thursday 5/22 @ Museum of Performance & Design

Emerging with a rejuvenated image and collection in March, the Museum of Performance & Design mounts an impressive exhibit chronicling the... 

<em>Quarter Century: </em>Creativity Explored's 25th Anniversary

Art

Quarter Century

Thursday 5/22 @ Creativity Explored

Creativity Explored has long been an outlet for local developmentally challenged adults to express their artistic visions. Now celebrating its 25th... 

Suzanne Husky: <em>You Make Me Make You</em>

Art

Suzanne Husky

Thursday 5/22 @ Triple Base

Suzanne Husky's installations resemble playrooms where the dolls have broken loose. But the miniature worlds she creates, rife with greed and... 

<em>After the Revolution: Contemporary Photography from Tehran and California</em>

Art: Photography

After the Revolution

Thursday 5/22 @ San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery

Between Azar Nafisi's memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran and Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel (and now animated feature) Persepolis, post-revolutionary autobiography has...