art

Art listings are compiled by Sarah Han. Because of space limitations, new art shows are listed the week they open (thereafter, shows are listed on a rotating basis), and we cannot list café exhibits. For information on how to submit listings to this section, see 8 Days a Week. Reviews are by Lindsey Westbrook.

museums

Asian Art Museum 200 Larkin; 581-3500, www.asianart.org. Tues-Sun, 10am-5pm (Thurs, 10am-9pm). $10 ($5 Thurs after 5pm), $7 seniors, $6 for 12 to 17, free for 11 and under. "Asia Alive: Celebration of the Philippines." Hands-on activities, performances, workshops, and other programs. Through Dec 30. "Commodore Perry's Black Ships and the 150th Anniversary of US-Japan Relations." Scrolls, prints, and photographs. Through Feb 29. "Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918 to 1392." More than 100 works, including celadon ceramics, Buddhist paintings and sculptures, illustrated sutras, manuscripts, ritual implements, metal crafts, and lacquerware. Through Jan 11. "Leaning Forward, Looking Back: Eight Contemporary Korean Artists." More than 20 mixed-media works. Through Jan 11.

California Historical Society 678 Mission; 357-1848. Wed-Sat, noon-4:30pm. $3, $1 seniors and students, free for six and under and members. "At Work: The Art of California Labor." An overview of labor themes in 20th-century California art. Through Sat/20.

California Palace of the Legion of Honor Lincoln Park (near 34th Ave and Clement); 863-3330. Tues-Sun, 9:30am-5pm. $8, $6 seniors, $5 for 12 to 17, free for 10 and under (free Tues). "Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Artists Books." Through Jan 4. "Degas Sculptures." An exhibition of 73 bronze sculptures by Edgar Degas. Through Jan 18. "William Bailey Prints and Drawings." About 30 prints and drawings covering three decades of Bailey's artistic career. Through Feb 8.

Cartoon Art Museum 655 Mission; CAR-TOON. Tues-Sun, 11am-5pm. $6, $4 students and seniors, $2 for 6 to 12, free for members and children 5 and under. "Too Hot to Handle: Creating Controversy Through Political Cartoons." Political cartoons by Rex Babin, Tom Meyer, Aaron MacGruder, Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, Rob Rogers, Dan Perkins, Mark Fiore, Clay Bennett, Pat Oliphant, Joel Pett, and Signe Wilkinson. Through Feb 1. "Small Press Spotlight: Derek Kirk Kim." Works by the self-published comic book artist. Dec 20-March 21. See 8 Days a Week.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 151 Third St; 357-4000. Fri-Tues, 11am-5:45pm; Thurs, 11am-8:45pm. $10, $7 seniors, $6 students, free for 12 and under and members (free first Tues; half price Thurs, 6-9pm). "Reprocessing Information." Works using information as primary subject and medium. Through Feb 8. "Diane Arbus Revelations." Photographs by Diane Arbus. Through Feb 8. "Fantasy and Function: The Furniture of John Dickinson." A dozen furniture pieces and more than 30 framed drawings by Dickinson. Through March 7. "Supernova." Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection. Through May 23.

San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum 401 Van Ness, fourth fl; 255-4800. Tues and Thurs-Sat, 11am-5pm; Wed, 11am-7pm. Free. "Hirschfeld: A Centennial Celebration." Drawings, paintings, and lithographs from the Hirschfeld Archives. Through Fri/19.

Seymour Pioneers Museum 300 Fourth St; 957-1859. Wed-Fri, 10am-4pm (also first and third Sat, 10am-4pm). $3, $1 seniors and students. "The City Rises: Etchings of a Revitalized San Francisco from the Drum Collection." Works by George Taylor Plowman, Lawrence Norris Scammon, and Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt. Through Fri/19.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 701 Mission; 978-ARTS. Tues-Sun, 11am-6pm (first Thurs, 11am-8pm). $6, $3 seniors, students, and youths, free for members (free first Tues). "Ten by Twenty." Ten newly commissioned works created in celebration of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' 10th anniversary. "Four in a Row." A series of performance-based installations by Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Matmos, Claudia Tennyson, and Bill Daniel. Both exhibits Through Jan 4. See 8 Days a Week.

Bay Area

Oakland Museum of California 1000 Oak, Oakl; (510) 238-2200. Wed-Sat, 10am-5pm; Sun, noon-5pm (first Fri, 10am-9pm). $8, $5 seniors and students. "The Art of Fred Martin: A Retrospective, 1948-2003." Works by the painter, teacher, and writer. Through Jan 4. "The Art of David Ireland: The Way Things Are." A retrospective of works by David Ireland. Through March 14.

UC Berkeley Art Museum 2626 Bancroft Way, Berk; (510) 642-0808. Wed-Sun, 11am-7pm. $8, $5 seniors and youths, $4 members and UC Berkeley students and faculty (free Thurs). "Hans Hofmann: Scintillating Spaces." Paintings by Hofmann. Through Dec 29. "Exhibiting Signs of Age." Almost 40 images that explore the perception and representation of age. Through Jan 18. "Matrix 209: Helen Mirra 65 instants." A new installation by Helen Mirra. Through Jan 24. "Awakening: Buddhist Paintings from Tibet, China, and Japan." Tibetan scroll paintings and other rare Buddhist works from BAM/PFA Chinese and Japanese collections. Through Feb 22.

galleries

Opening

Aurobora Press 147 Natoma; 546-7880. Mon-Sat, 11am-5pm. "Contours," new works on paper by Fraser Taylor. Through Sat/20. "Review 03," recent work by Brad Durham, Ricardo Mazal, Gustavo Ramos Rivera, Fraser Taylor, and Stephen Westfall. Dec 22-Jan 31.

Canvas Gallery 1200 Ninth Ave; 504-0060. Sun-Thurs, 8am-midnight; Fri-Sat, 8am-2am. Oil paintings by Daniel Price. Through Wed/17. "Placebo," new painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation art by Tony Brown, Elisabeth Ernst, Tom Fowler, Gregory Klassen, Chris Natrop, Giordano Pozzi, Alessandra Rebagliati, Carsten Stehr, and Tyrome Tripoli (reception Sat/20, 6-11pm). Dec 20-Jan 15.

Ongoing

Academy of Art College Galleries 79 New Montgomery; 274-2229. Mon-Sat, 9am-6pm. Pastel drawings by Gordon Silveria. Through Fri/19. 688 Sutter; 931-5892. Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm. "Senior Portfolio Group Show." Through Wed/17.

Anthony Meier 3007 Jackson; 351-1400. Tues-Fri, 11am-5pm; Sat, by appt. Works by Gary Simmons. Through Fri/19.

Baxter Chang Patri Fine Art Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason; 397-2000. Tues-Sat, 11am-7pm., and by appt. Hand-blown glass art by Giampaolo Seguso; works by Wess Dahlberg, Brad Howe, Jeremy Morgan, Ron Reihel, and Ed Martin. Through Jan 12.

Build 483 Guerrero; 863-3041. Call for hours. "O, Magnificent Heirloom!," new works by Bob de Vergera and Shiri Mordechay. Through Sun/21.

Catharine Clark 49 Geary, second floor; 399-1439. Tues-Fri, 10:30am-5:30pm; Sat, 11am-5:30pm. "Animal Crossdressing, Uninvited Collaborations with Nature, and One Small Act of Endurance." In "Animal Crossdressing," Nina Katchadourian makes two natural enemies – a snake and a rat – dress up as each other. The Animal Crossdressing video shows her coaxing their wriggling, struggling bodies into sewn costumes, and a series of photos titled Carla and a Friend shows the two once again undressed, playing and relaxing together in seemingly unlikely harmony. "A wolf in sheep's clothing"; "fighting like dogs and cats"; where do the hackneyed phrases end and the truth about animal behavior begin? Katchadourian only barely begins to answer the question. Instead she focuses on articulating it in fancifully contradictory terms, utilizing both digital technology and old-fashioned needle and thread. The costumes aren't designed to actually fool the animals – or us – into mistaking them for something else, nor does she try to convince us that the animals were quiescent, malleable coconspirators in her project. Again and again she foists her whim on her subjects, only to demonstrate that any sophisticated meaning we might perceive in their responses is a product of our own imaginations. Through Jan 3. (Westbrook)

Cricket Engine Gallery 499 Embarcadero, Bldg C, Oakl; (510) 522-0471. Fri-Sun, noon-5pm. "A Measure of Time," new work by Shalene Valenzuela. Through Dec 31.

Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery 49 Geary, fifth floor; 981-1080. Tues-Fri, 10:30am-5:30pm; Sat, 11am-5pm. "Salt Creek Seeps," oil paintings by Johnnie Winona Ross. Through Sat/20.

Haines 49 Geary, fifth flr; 397-8114. Tues-Fri, 10:30am-5:30pm (first Thurs 10:30am-7:30pm); Sat, 10:30am-5pm. "Run, Man, Run," works by electronic sculptor Alan Rath. Through Tues/23.

Heather Marx Gallery 77 Geary, second fl; 627-9111. Tues-Fri, 10:30am-5:30pm; Sat, 11am-5pm. "Social Studies," works by Dana Dekalb. Through Sat/20.

James Nicholson Gallery 49 Geary, fourth flr; 397-0100, www.nicholsongallery.com. Tues-Fri, 11am-5:30pm; Sat, 11am-5pm. "Strange Paradise." German photographer Thomas Wrede's first West Coast exhibition features selections from three of his recent series: "Small Worlds," large-scale views of ships, clouds, fields, and the like; "In the Mud Flats," images of people wading and playing in a vast plain of shallow water; and "Landscapes," pictures of massive, human-made structures inserted into nature. The Ship is an image of an actual sea freighter but looks very much like one of a plastic toy boat with its jewellike and supersaturated colors. Focused and blurry bands run horizontally across the print; Wrede created them not through digital postprocessing but by bending the film while it was in the camera. When shooting his pictures of mudflats, Wrede didn't need to manipulate the film, since the landscape created plenty of its own strange effects. Taken at a spot off the German coast where the shallow water stretches out for miles beyond the beach, the pictures show people hiking ankle-deep not only in the foreground but also as far out as the eye can see. All sense of scale is thrown askew, and you can't help feeling overwhelmed by the vastness of the watery plain and how easy it would be to get caught out too far as the tide was coming in. Through Sat/20. (Westbrook)

Jenkins Johnson Gallery 464 Sutter; 677-0770. Tues-Sat, 10am-6pm; Sun, 11am-5pm. "Small Works," work by various artists. Through Sat/20.

John Adams Campus City College of San Francisco, Campus Library, 1860 Hayes; 561-1946. Mon and Thurs, 9am-4pm; Tues and Wed, 9am-8pm; Fri, 9am-1pm. "Rebellion of the Border," photographs by David Bacon. Through Sat/20.

John Pence Gallery 750 Post; 441-1138. Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm; Sat, 10am-5pm. Recent oil paintings by Sarah Lamb. Through Sat/20.

Limn Gallery 292 Townsend; 977-1300. Wed-Sat, 11am-5:30pm; Sun, 9am-3pm. "microMODERN," an exhibit of art in science. Through Sat/20.

Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery 49 Geary, fourth fl; (415) 229-1138. Tues-Fri, 11am-5:30pm; Sat, 11am-5pm. "Honeymoon Suite Nothings," works by the Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. Through Sat/20.

Lola Gallery 2517 Mission; 401-6800. Wed-Sat, noon-7pm, and by appt. "Bizarre Bazaar," fine art, sculpture, craft, and fashion by California artists. Through Sun/21.

Meridian Gallery 545 Sutter; 398-7229. Tues-Sat, 11am-5pm. New works on paper and canvas by Leigh Hyams. Through Sat/20.

Morning Due 3698 17th St; 350-4640. Call for hours. Paintings by Fisher. Through Jan 14.

La Piazza 700 Columbus; 392-9290. "The Underworld," paintings by Teresa Moore. Through Fri/19.

San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery 401 Van Ness; 554-6080. Wed-Sat, 11am-5:30pm; Tues, by appt. "Ce ou minm' qu'a pare soleil pou moin/It is you who will protect me from the sun," work by Kamau Amu Patton. Through Sat/20.

Soularch Gallery 4033A Judah; 759-4100. Sat, noon-5pm, and by appt. "Mechanical Gestures," work by Nicholas Halligan. Through Tues/23. See Critic's Choice.

Space 743 743 Harrison; 777-9080. Wed-Sat, noon-5pm, and by appt. New work by Beth Ozarow. Through Sat/20.

Spanganga 3376 19th St; 821-1102. Thurs-Sun, 6-9pm, and by appt. "Out There," selections from Trillium Press featuring works by Richard Barnes, Sandow Birk, Enrique Chagoya, Timothy Cummings, Stella Lai, and others. Through Jan 4.

University of San Francisco 2130 Fulton, Gleeson Library/Geschke Center Lawn; 422-5762, www.usfca.edu/library/thacher. "Give and Take: Sculpture/USF/2003," USF's fourth annual free outdoor sculpture exhibit. Through Sun/21.

View 155 155 Grove; 554-6080. 24 hours. "Asteroid," works by Mary Button Durell. Through Sat/20.

Virginia Breier Gallery 3091 Sacramento; 929-7173. Tues-Sat, 11am-6pm. "Far Off the Runway," works by various artists. Through Fri/19.

Bay Area

Oakland Art Gallery 199 Kahn's Alley, Broadway and 14th St, Oakl; (510) 637-0395. Tues-Fri, 11am-6pm; Sat, 11am-5pm. "Circle of Memory," an exhibit dedicated to children who are missing or have died. Through Sat/20.