Yes, it is summer. And yes, you look great in your tankini chewing ice cream and leathering your face. I am aware that school is out of session and out of fashion. And I know the institutional dinosaurs in tweed make you sneeze. But school is cool again — or at least it's not as stale and stubborn as it once was.Read more »

arts@sfbg.com

VISUAL ART It's not immediately apparent walking around Catharine Clark Gallery's four white, well-manicured rooms, but the space's three current shows — by two white men and one Asian woman, from diverse locales — share some attributes. Visually, they go by the name Red No. 40, Yellow No. 6, and Blue No. 2; and conceptually, by the terms artifice and appropriation. Together they make for pleasant artificial coloring and sweetening for the eye and brain. Yet as conscious consumers know, that shit leaves traces of guilt, and worse, carcinogens. Read more »

arts@sfbg.comRead more »

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC Tino Sehgal doesn't like objects. But it's not just the thing-ness of things he shuns; it's also the traces of things. In addition to refusing any recordings of his work, Tino (his last name is too "thingy" even for me) also refuses to deal with artist statements or written contracts, or anything, really, that might leave a material residue. (Digital photos? Sorry, they can be disseminated and printed.)Read more »

arts@sfbg.com

VISUAL ART Amid day-to-day art world caprice, an event titled "Dynamic Adaptability: A Conference on New Thinking and New Strategies for the Arts" took place Jan. 28 at Herbst Theater. Rather than vie for stability, the organizers envisioned the gathering as an opportunity "to explore our changing environment and offer fresh ways of thinking about the future" of Bay Area arts. "This is a time," they asserted, "of tremendous potential for new ideas to take root." Read more »

VISUAL ART The global financial crisis continues to impoverish and displace those within reach of its residual tremors. Yet in the art realm, there have been signs of hope. Recent fairs — Frieze Art Fair in October and Art Basel Miami Beach earlier this month — brought reports of strong sales and optimism within the distressed economy. So why are artists everywhere worried about their futures, and more critically, panicking about their present tenses? The squeeze has to do with the work in artwork. Read more »

arts@sfbg.com

"Jacob Ciocci is," as Wikipedia attests, "an American [Pittsburgh] visual artist, performance artist and musician ... he is one of the three remaining founding members of Paper Rad, an artist collective ... He also performs and tours regularly ... in the band 'Extreme Animals'..." Ciocci's work, especially with his recent video collection release, 2 Blessed 2B Stressed (Audio Dregs), is almost entirely not his own. His videos recycle pop cultural detritus as fast and furiously as his band freaks beats. Read more »