April 8 to April 23, 2016
Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street (at 24th Street)
San Francisco, 415 243 0825

For three weeks this April, CAPITAL, the San Francisco gallery co-run by Bob Linder and Jonathan Runcio, is flying its banner at Minnesota Street Project (a brand new art venue in the City’s Dogpatch neighborhood) with the group show “BLACK STANDARD.”

Three artists are featured in this pop-up exhibition: Davina Semo, a New York artist who showed at CAPITAL in September and October of 2015; Phil Wagner, based in Los Angeles; and the Bay Area’s Survival Research Laboratories (SRL), which was founded by Mark Pauline in 1978 and has been labeled a “robot art collective.” The exhibition — which encompasses a large gallery, an adjacent screening room, and part of the atrium — resembles an architectural construction site.

Two hulking SRL devices, Pitching Machine (1999) and Inchworm (1987), are currently parked in the Minnesota Street Project atrium. They’re gargantuan (each larger than a car) and capable of strange feats; Pitching Machine can launch two-by-fours at immense velocity, like a nail gun, while Inchworm’s stack of metal pincers can hoist, mash, and tear apart large objects. The machines are remarkable for their exposed components: gears, chains, wires, rivets, batteries and tanks are all discernible.

Running Machine (1992) stands in the main exhibition space, its lanky arm piercing the air above with a terminal knife-like appendage. Smaller wiry “props” dot the gallery floor, appearing like hazard beacons, all called Prop (Offspring) and made in 2015. The gadgets are exhibited in a quiescent state, but the unmistakable acrid odor of burnt fuel is a reminder that these are functioning contraptions. A raucous din emanates from the adjoining screening room in which footage from prior live performances depicts the machines in action. They tug, heave, crush objects and each other, spew fire and blast sound waves, enacting processes similar to demolition and gutting.

The walls in the main area are hung with four sizable paintings by Wagner and mixed media works by Semo. Two of Wagner’s untitled canvases, densely layered with the names of materials used in some of the art on view, offer an inventory of sorts: BRONZE, CANVAS, CLAY, FOAM, GLASS, INK, OIL, RUBBER, STEEL, VINYL, WAX, and WOOD. Lists and plans are alluded to with another pair of works featuring the word “AGENDA” painted repeatedly in vertical columns. Semo’s larger contribution, WE DON’T WIN ANYMORE (2016), is a giant “XX” rendered in black, powder-coated steel chain; it stands sentinel, like a safety barricade. Smaller square-shaped pieces — concrete slabs cast with steel, leather, glass, or other elements — utilize industrial materials in unexpected ways. For example, SHE HID HER FACE IN MY ARMS AND THE WATER STREAMING OVER HER HEAD MINGLED WITH HER TEARS (2016) is comprised of a concrete square layered with striated, woven carbon fiber-copper fabric, its face bisected by an embedded horizontal glass rod.

This show is especially appurtenant considering Minnesota Street Project was itself a place of construction merely a month ago. It also acknowledges the Bay Area’s current art moment. In addition to the debut of Minnesota Street Project, the home of conceptual artist David Ireland, at 500 Capp Street, was transformed into a museum; the new Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed BAMPFA opened its doors; and SFMOMA, currently undergoing a major expansion, is set to reopen in May.

In this context, the show’s title holds special relevance. The term refers to a black flag, which historically has been associated with revolutionary groups, symbolizing an ethos of “No Surrender.” “BLACK STANDARD” salutes the resilience of the local art community which, despite the “tech invasion,” gentrification and soaring rents, continues to lay exciting new foundations.

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October 9 to November 15, 2015
106 Forsyth Street (between Grand and Broome streets)
New York, 646 484 5478

In her first solo exhibition at Lyles & King, entitled ”WHERE LIFE IS HAPPENING,” artist Davina Semo uses industrial materials, evoking facets of urban life that feel simultaneously in-progress and unchanging. Made from concrete, leather, light, and glass, the works are installed in a way that asks the viewer to make decisions about how to move through the space, move around the works, and how to interact with the lights, some of which are too bright to look at. A piece entitled THE NOISE IS PITCHED TO A LEVEL OF PAIN SHE ABSORBS AS A PERSONAL TEST (all works 2015) is broken at the edge, concrete scattered a bit. There is a visual loudness like that of walking through New York City — encountering idiosyncratic obstructions and construction sites, comfortable walking paths and strange objects to look at and walk by, which the floor of the gallery, also an industrial concrete, reinforces.

The most captivating pieces are the pegboard-like vault lights of reinforced concrete and cast glass, with the many-colored glass pieces fit into small hexagonal openings in concrete slabs. The light casts these shapes on the walls. It’s hard to tell which side is which. I’m not sure there is a “front” or a “back.” Rather, the viewer is asked to look at both the top and the bottom — accessing the surface of the city and what’s underneath. Semo expands on vault lights, which are set into pavement and traditionally used to let light into whatever’s below. By isolating these jeweled sidewalk interruptions, Semo opens the space of the gallery.

At the back wall is I AM A PATIENT GIRL; I WAIT I WAIT I WAIT, consisting of seven folding chairs held together with zip ties. Beneath five of the chairs lie what appear to be cast steel box cutters, blades exposed and pointing rightward.

The titles activate the work. The consistent use of the female pronoun narrates while also pointing to a parallel universe where the titles exist as a work in and of themselves. A row of three reinforced concrete-and-glass sculptures lie diagonally about a foot from the floor via cylindrical stands. They are severely slanted and facing a bright light. The effect that this light has on the eyes is that of a construction light at night. Merciless and austere, it casts circular shadows on the floor and illuminates the already glowy multicolored glass rivulets. These resemble amped up pegs in an amped up pegboard. These three sculptures are titled:

SHE FEELS HER SMILE FLOATING IN THE AIR ABOUT SIX INCHES FROM HER FACE

SHE TOUCHES HIM, TOUCHES HERSELF, POINTS TOWARD THE FLOOR

SHE DOES NOT SPEAK OR ACT IN A NERVOUS WAY, BUT THERE IS A VIBE OF INTENSE TENSION ABOUT HER

The title of the show, “WHERE LIFE IS HAPPENING,” is indicative of a feeling of moving through the overstimulation of the industrial zones where objects often exist in the space between useful and out-of-commission. Semo uses polarity to great effect, as the hardness of the pieces point to breakability. Similarly, Semo’s hand feels present and also not; the sculptures almost seem found. There are three wall pieces that slightly offset the concrete floor sculptures. I MAKE MYSELF STILL, TO LISTEN is a concrete-and-leather wall piece with a chain in the shape of an X hanging just below another X pressed into the surface. There are two other leather and concrete wall pieces: LOOK AT NO ONE, REVEAL NOTHING, REMAIN STILL and AFTER A WHILE THE SUN MOVES AND THE SUNLIGHT COMES RIGHT ON THE BED. These actively witness the rest of the show, their titles address stillness and listening while the other titles in the show are action points.

The only floor sculpture which lies entirely on the floor, THE NOISE IS PITCHED TO A LEVEL OF PAIN SHE ABSORBS AS A PERSONAL TEST (mentioned above), made from reinforced concrete, rock salt, and cast glass, points to a level of overstimulation to the point of breaking. One hears about the ways in which urban noises impact the nervous system. This sculpture feels the most overtly human — with an inscription on the top: 2015 and on the bottom: SEMO. Like the other concrete sculptures, this is reminiscent of a pegboard — but more deflated and tired — a board at rest and broken at the upper right corner. “WHERE LIFE IS HAPPENING” is exciting because the viewer is in the midst of it — of Semo’s industrious world between useful and out-of-commission.

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