San Francisco Art Institute - Walter and McBean Galleries
800 Chestnut St
415.749.4563
This event has passed.
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Yan Pei-Ming, Obama, 2008, Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner in New York, Photo: André Morin.
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Feb 20, 2009 – May 23, 2009
Tuesdays–Saturdays (11am–6pm)
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The large-scale oil paintings and watercolors in Yan Pei-Ming's first West Coast show bear the scars of an ongoing struggle with representational art. The gestural force of the artist's canvases, on which paint is scraped, splattered, or allowed to soak through like sopped-up blood, has as much of an impact as his subject matter. In YES!, that subject matter is life and death, and the larger political and historical forces which mete them out. The flag-draped coffins of soldiers returning from Iraq face a room of newborns, while portraits of current war vets hang adjacent to a stunning image of President Obama — the man who determines their future. However, the watercolors of US currency overlooking the rest of the exhibit suggest that nothing, not even hope, is above the almighty dollar.
