At the Intersection

Migdalia Valdes is living your life. She's watching your president on your TV, and she's looking out your windows, pondering your bay. Like you, she's riding a lot of MUNI and BART. She sees the same people you see on the sidewalks, and she sees the things those people write on cardboard. The only difference seems to be that every day for the past ten years, Valdes has taken a photo of this life we're living. At "Everyday in Black and White," she exhibits many of them, obviously not all, but a lot, as well as sound recordings, video work, and something called "sculptural journals." All of it points to one conclusion, one worth repeating: The line between the messy meaninglessness of human experience and art looks thin, but isn't. Valdes' work proves, profoundly, that an artist's vision and the will to document can transform the definition of humdrum into iconography of significance itself.
April 4-May 23, 2009