Art in the Park

One year ago, the Park Life Store opened its doors with excellent patron-bait: an art show by Andrew Schoultz, featuring his snorting warhorses and bird storms, and containers of hot food, much of it deep fried. The opening night party boded well for the success of the shop, which went on to bring a stellar list of local artists and a discriminating selection of books, curios, shirts, and paper goods to the Inner Richmond. If you've never made it out there, the "Park Life First Anniversary/Benefit Group Show" provides a crash course in the year that was, featuring more than 30 artists who've worked with the store. It's an absurd list of names, including Schoultz, Chris Ballantyne, Kelly Tunstall, Kyle Mock, Paul Madonna, Sean McFarland, Tucker Nichols, Sham Saenz, Ferris Plock, Maxwell Holyoke Hirsch, and Deth P. Sun. We're particularly pleased to see McFarland, whose otherworldly photographs of S.F., with their shifting perspectives and blurred backgrounds, make the city look like a model of itself and radiate an inviting, picture-book comfort, not unlike a certain Richmond hangout.
Nov. 2-Dec. 5, 2007