'CO-LAB: New Generations'
Fine Arts Gallery, through Thurs/21; San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, through March 30

'YOU GET THE cooties if you touch it / So don't even munch it / Soft and green / If you know what I mean..." What is Chloe Enderdue's poem describing? Boogers, of course! The poems written by Enderdue and her peers represent just one of more than a dozen creative projects showcased in the CO-LAB exhibition. CO-LAB, a joint effort by the Fine Arts Gallery at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, teamed up local professional artists with groups of Bay Area youth to make art and encourage young artists. The results of their efforts are currently on display both galleries. Among the highlights at SFSU (besides the booger poem) is Faux City, a digital photography project led by Tana Johnson and David Goldberg. Their students began by taking pictures of the urban environment around them, focusing in particular on posters, billboards, and graffiti. Then they digitally altered the signs and pasted them into completely different city scenes. The final printouts are a hodgepodge of signage, creative visions of San Francisco that overflow with personal and political meaning. At the SFAC gallery, be sure to check out possible SIDE EFFECTS may include ..., a multimedia installation by Lise Swenson, Rene Garcia, the San Francisco Art Institute Youth Arts Collaborative, and members of Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools. As you enter the back room, a double row of TV sets bombards you with loud commercials for pain medications, diet aids, and other cures for your ailments. On top of each set a collection of pill bottles with customized labels spells out all the awful side effects of this commercial media oversaturation: anorexia, violence, and worst of all, your unconscious submission to corporate control.

Fine Arts Gallery: Mon.-Sat., noon-4 p.m., San Francisco State University, Fine Arts Building, Room 238, 1600 Holloway, S.F. (415) 338-6535. SFAC Gallery: Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m., 401 Van Ness, S.F. (415) 554-6080. (Lindsey Westbrook)