New Kid on the Block

Comments (0) By Traci Vogel Wednesday, Aug 15 2007

More About

When Tina Butcher and Madison Young started Femina Potens in 2001 in a cramped garage in the Upper Haight, they tapped into San Francisco's energetic lesbian and transgendered arts scene. Six years later, having outgrown both the garage and a subsequent Mission District space, Femina Potens is moving into a 1,300-square-foot Castro District storefront space. Appropriately enough, the Grand Opening includes an exhibit by Francesca Berrini, who’s charted new worlds with her cartographic art, in which collages of old map bits are reconstructed to form convincing imaginary lands. From a distance, the land masses look reassuringly familiar. Up close, they dissolve into strange, alien fjords and mountains. Here there be monsters -- or at least witty commentary on our desire to conquer geography. Eliot K. Daughtry also shows papercuts, ink drawings, and laserprint transfers of robots and futuristic cityscapes. His graphically pleasing silhouettes have a Jetsons-esque aesthetic. The nonprofit LGBTQ art-and-performance powerhouse celebrates its new digs with two parties: Michelle Tea's reading series "Sizzle," featuring Tea and author Inga Muscio (Cunt: A Declaration of Independence), and an art reception for Berrini and Daughtry’s exhibit “I Like Long Walks and Sci-Fi Movies” on Aug. 18 at 7 p.m.
Aug. 18-Sept. 16