We’re as fond of Banksy as anyone of our general socioeconomic background and sensibility, admiring his work, his audacity, and his ability to elude authorities like some street-art Roadrunner. But for sheer guerrilla art cred, Banksy has a rival in David Choe, who spent three months in a... More >>

Hearing Michael Musika for the first time is a bit of a Bob Dylan experience, in the fountain-of-words sense and in the unorthodox-vocals sense. But while Musika is a folkie and a rootsie, he's no traditionalist; some say it's because he's probably from outer space, from the sparkliest... More >>

Last year, rapper and slam poet Ise Lyfe raised quite a few eyebrows with "Hard in the Paint," a song about Oscar Grant — the man shot and killed by BART officer Johannes Mehserle — that advocated civil unrest, specifically the throwing of a trash can. "I was just validating the anger... More >>

It’s a sign of desperation, more than anything, that flotillas and films are the prevailing Palestinian tactics at the moment. While seagoing attempts to breach the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip are aimed at easing domestic shortages (of medicine and cement, for example), documentary... More >>

We are all looking for a way to brighten our interior and exterior lives in these economically stupid times, and the “Art in Storefronts” program is bound to hit all your experiential sensors in the best way. You may or may not feel like empty storefronts are rubbing the crappy times... More >>

We’re told abstract paintings often have a “template.” That is, the blue part actually “is” the sky, and the brown part might actually “be” the mud. Thus, to the artist, it may be a perfectly literal description of a sunny field, but to everyone else, artistic... More >>

We have ached, as you may have, to hear the horrible story of Clay Greene and Harold Scull, two old husbands in Sonoma County who were forcibly separated when Scull took ill and Greene was put in a nursing home. Their living wills, naming each other executors, were ignored when Scull died alone... More >>

Dave Eggers is guilty of being famous, and those who sentence people for that have been sentencing him for years. He writes books? Opens writing schools? Publishes a one-day rocket-car newspaper? He's like a fucking criminal. If he sucked, we would get it, but he doesn't. Eggers works. He... More >>

In Vacation, Patrick Dintino paints the iconic resort trip, just bands of color, shimmering in the heat. Squint and you’ll see fruity drinks, poolside massage, air-conditioned suites, pillowy deck furniture, and two, maybe three lines on a nightstand. In Too Sexy for You, you don’t... More >>

Over the past two years, on rooftops, walls, and fences, Albert Reyes has been painting the alphabet. Sometimes the letters move; he also paints them on trucks. Many are as ornate as the fancy initials that launch chapters of important books — his P is like that, 15-foot-tall gilded... More >>

Oakland artist Robb Putnam takes bits of trash and makes dogs out of them. Really good dogs. It's easy to see how things could go rotten, however, because Putnam makes his dogs out of bits of old blankets, rags, plastic bags, thread, that sort of junk, which he sort of packs together —... More >>

At “Past Forward: African Spirituality in Contemporary Black Art,” several Bay Area artists dig into old, old rituals and magics. “Through my art, I want to be a shaman, who is guided by the spiritual acumen of the ancestors, that shows others how to reach the other side of... More >>

Your refrigerator reveals a lot about you. We've always known this, in a medicine-cabinet sort of way, but it took artist Mark Menjivar to really freak us out. He traveled around the country with a large-format 8-by-10 camera, quickly opened the doors of people's refrigerators, blocked any... More >>

The success of Andy Goldsworthy’s Spire means we get more outdoor art in the Presidio. Yes! Nevada City–based art group For Site (“art about place”), emboldened by the crush of people who come to see Goldsworthy’s poignant pile of sticks, now gives us “Presidio... More >>

In these times of uncertainty, the most pressing issue confronting our nation is ... junk mail? Well, no. But as a symptom of disposable consumer culture run amok, it makes for an effective symbol. "So Many Products So Little Time: The Junk Mail Show" revels in the disposable nature of the crap... More >>

In a photo from Jennifer Karady’s exhibit, “Soldiers’ Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Army Sgt. Pyle sits in rubble, bayonet in hand, ready to strike an unseen attacker. Right behind him, his wife and seven children enjoy a barbecue in the yard, oblivious to his... More >>

Math art. Moebius aluminum siding. Bauhaus Escher. Timothy Nolan's art can make your eyes cross if you look at it too hard, or too long, but it's worth it, and fun. His new exhibit, "Tilt," is anchored by a piece called Pitch, which looks like someone origami-ed a mirror. His wall work is... More >>

Painter Clare Rojas likes wrinkles on people's faces. While this makes her a near-terrorist — if anyone stops trying to stop aging, capitalism may grind to a halt — it's only one of her many defiant ways. She also likes to paint full-frontally naked men, and that's just, you know, not... More >>

During the California wildfires of 2008 and 2009, Youngsuk Suh grabbed his camera and captured picturesque landscape shots of smoke toying brilliantly with the atmosphere, with tiny people — he often shoots overhead at a great distance — waterskiing? Also bathing, rafting, and camping... More >>

The SFMOMA Artists Gallery sits right next to the Long Now Foundation, and it would be folly for the former to hold a show called "Wondrous Strange: A Twenty-First-Century Cabinet of Curiosities" without inviting the latter. It did so. Long Now is all over the exhibit, as it should be: The shop... More >>

English lesson: "Irony" is when the literal meaning is the opposite of the actual meaning. It is not, for example, rain on your wedding day. But when a dance company questions consumerism inside an ancient bastion of money, it is a very nice piece of visual and conceptual irony. See that? In... More >>

Curated by designer Yves Béhar, the innovative exhibit "TechnoCRAFT: Hackers, Modders, Fabbers, Tweakers, and Design in the Age of Individuality" promises "the latest in do-it-yourself and collaborative design." The people at Droog accomplish this by picking up sledgehammers, smashing... More >>

Yesterday's honky-tonk hero, Bad Blake, arrives at a Clovis, New Mexico, bowling alley. It's another in a string of low-pay, low-turnout gigs with pickup bands half his age, grinding the Greatest Hits out of an old Fender Tremolux, including his breakout—with the chorus, "Funny how falling... More >>

While critics at Cannes break their heads parsing Jean-Luc Godard's latest enigma, his 1960 first feature Breathless marks its 50th anniversary in a freshly subtitled print from a restored negative supervised by the original cinematographer Raoul Coutard. For those old enough to have cut their... More >>

Opening with a close-up of the crow's feet around its subject's eyes and expanding to reveal her Botox-frozen upper lip, the documentary-portrait Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work celebrates Saint Joan the Resilient, Showbiz Survivor. Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg dogged the indomitable stand-up... More >>