ART: Good Green Fun

Prev »

« Next

Every now and then an art exhibit comes along that is so in sync with the cultural meta-trends that we just have to let out a big ol’ yahoo! (Oops.) Historically speaking, the artist has always had a tenuous relationship with money. A group show opening at the SFMOMA Rental Gallery at Fort Mason promises a lively, fresh look at this uneasy affair.
The show includes fetishistic sculpture of shredded currency combined with found objects by Lisa Kokins and exquisitely detailed weavings and quilts made of worn dollar bills by Oriane Stender. Sculptor Ray Beldner plays on such powerful signifiers as traditional men’s business attire combined with coins. Robin Clark meticulously scrapes the ink off paper currency, leaving only a trace of the powerful symbols underneath, then preserves the scrapings in test tubes. Also included in the show are the Art Guys, a team of conceptual artists from Houston who have coined their images as part of an ongoing series of self promotional antics, and the infamous J.S.G. Boggs, who has garnered international attention for trading his creative reproductions of U.S. currency for goods and services. As a bonus, if you’ve never been to the rental gallery, the view is stupendous. – Kay Marie Jacobson.