Events on Friday, May 23

<em>H&auml;xan: Witchcraft Through the Ages</em> (1922/1968)

Film

Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages

Friday 5/23 @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

YBCA kicks off its weekend-long season of the witch with the 1968 abbreviated version of Benjamin Christensen's 1922 documentary/horror classic. Mixing... 

Rosin Coven w/ Vagabond Opera and Jessica Fichot

Music

Rosin Coven

Friday 5/23 @ Cafe du Nord

Rosin Coven, the Bay Area's much beloved "pagan lounge" players, need little introduction. The classically trained instrumentalists attack strings and percussion... 

Ongoing Events

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

Art

Saskia Leek

Friday 5/23 @ Jack Hanley Gallery

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

<em>Mister Lonely </em>

Film

Mister Lonely

Friday 5/23 @ Landmark Lumiere Theatre

Harmony Korine's much-anticipated directorial return finds the former enfant terrible trying a little tenderness. Korine has always been fascinated by bands... 

Special Event

Dykes on Bikes®

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

Christian Marclay:<em> Stereo</em>

Art

Christian Marclay

Friday 5/23 @ Fraenkel Gallery

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

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

Art: Photography

The Reggae Scrapbook

Friday 5/23 @ 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>Quarter Century: </em>Creativity Explored's 25th Anniversary

Art

Quarter Century

Friday 5/23 @ Creativity Explored

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

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

Art

Feudal Echo

Friday 5/23 @ Park Life

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

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

Art

Christopher Brown and Clare Kirkconnell

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Art

Inkie Whang

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

San Francisco International Arts Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

SF International Arts Festival

Friday 5/23 @ Various locations

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

<em>Uncharted: Imaginary Landscapes </em>

Art

Uncharted

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Art

American Symbols

Friday 5/23 @ 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.... 

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

Art

How I Learned to...

Friday 5/23 @ 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>Reclaiming Materials: Four Sculptors Recycle</em>

Art

Reclaiming Materials: Four Sculptors Recycle

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Art

Portals

Friday 5/23 @ 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,... 

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

Art

William T. Wiley

Friday 5/23 @ 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

Friday 5/23 @ 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>Dalai Lama Renaissance</em>

Film: Documentary

Dalai Lama Renaissance

Friday 5/23 @ Roxie Theater

Beloved throughout the world as a symbol of enlightenment and peace, the Dalai Lama has achieved significant acclaim as a world... 

Gareth Moore

Art

Gareth Moore

Friday 5/23 @ 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>The Dark Crystal</em> (1982)

Film

The Dark Crystal

Friday 5/23 @ Landmark Clay Theatre

The Dark Crystal's characters aren't your run-of-the-mill Muppets. They come from the planet Thra, whose dominant race, the UrSkeks, split into... 

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

Art

Veronica Graham

Friday 5/23 @ 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.... 

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

Art

Sarah Wagner

Friday 5/23 @ 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>Art & Artifice: 75 Years of Design at San Francisco Ballet</em>

Special Event

Art & Artifice

Friday 5/23 @ 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>2nd Skin: Imaginative Designs in Digital & Analog Clothing</em>

Special Event

2nd Skin

Friday 5/23 @ Exploratorium

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

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

Art

Suzanne Husky

Friday 5/23 @ Triple Base

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

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

Art: Photography

Annie Leibovitz

Friday 5/23 @ 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>Protest in Paris 1968: Photographs by Serge Hambourg</em>

Art: Photography

Protest in Paris 1968

Friday 5/23 @ 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>Within Two Hands: The Eye of the Collector</em>

Art

Within Two Hands: The Eye of the Collector

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Performing Arts: Opera

Queenie Pie

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Art: Photography

Ryan McGinley

Friday 5/23 @ Ratio 3

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

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

Art

Improbable\Unlikely

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Art

Amanda M. Smith: Candy Garden and Sparkling Sabers

Friday 5/23 @ 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,... 

Gina Borg

Art

Gina Borg

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Special Event

Birth of the Cool

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

Art

Recession

Friday 5/23 @ Queen's Nail Annex

They say money makes the world go round — and although Maximo Gonzalez might agree, he's got his own cynical take... 

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

Art: Photography

After the Revolution

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Art

Paul Sietsema

Friday 5/23 @ SFMOMA

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

<em>Redbelt</em>

Film

Redbelt

Friday 5/23 @ Various locations

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

Paul Cesewski: <em>Carnaval M&eacute;canique</em>

Art

Paul Cesewski

Friday 5/23 @ SF Recycling & Disposal's Artist in Residence Studio

In another era, Paul Cesewksi might have run off and joined the circus — the latter-day carny tinkers with metal and... 

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

Art

Adam5100

Friday 5/23 @ Rowan Morrison

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

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

Art

The Way That We Rhyme

Friday 5/23 @ 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>The Question Is Known: (W)here Is Latin American / Latino Art</em>

Art

The Question Is Known

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

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

Art

Lacey Jane Roberts

Friday 5/23 @ 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... 

<em>Hopeless and Otherwise</em>

Art

Hopeless and Otherwise

Friday 5/23 @ Southern Exposure

With elections around the corner, many Americans are dreaming of change, but this group of artists remains skeptical, exploring moments of... 

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

Art

In Collaboration

Friday 5/23 @ SFMOMA

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

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

Art

The Rape of the Sabine Women

Friday 5/23 @ SFMOMA

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