August 16th-Sept 28th
On Particular Colors
Kristen Cliburn, Aaron Holz, Michael Lazarus, Laurel Sparks, & Jade Yumang
Opening Reception:
Saturday, July 12, 3-6PM
Color dazzles and gives pleasure, and yet, as seen in semaphore signals, national flags, team jerseys, bike gang colors or gay male hankie code, particular colors can overflow with meanings and associations for some while appearing to others as simple optical sensation. There are colors employed and presented by these 5 artists that in informed viewers evoke national identity, mystical powers, landscape hues, optical tests and historical flags. Aesthetic concerns and classic color theory are present of course, but only in as much as they informed previous instances of these colors deployed. Color, that basic building block of painterly experiences are researched, reiterated and critically deconstructed by these artists.
Laurel Sparks, Hunter's Moon, 2023, Time Machines, water-based paint, poured gesso, paper pulp, glitter, collage, trinkets, holes, woven canvas strips, 36 x 36 in
Reading
Roddy Bottum reads from his upcoming memoir The Royal We
Sunday, August 24 at 5PM
About The Royal We
THE ROYAL WE is a poetic survey of a time set in a magical city that once was and is no more. It is a memoir written by Roddy Bottum, a musician and artist, that documents through prose his coming of age and out of the closet in 1980s San Francisco, a charged era of bicycle messengers, punk rock, street witches, wheatgrass, and rebellion. The book follows his travels from Los Angeles, growing up gay with no role models, to San Francisco, where he formed Faith No More and went on to tour the world relentlessly, surviving heroin addiction and the plight of AIDS, to become a queer icon.
The book is an elevated wallop of tongue and insight, much more than a tell-all. There are personal tales of historical pinnacles like Kurt and Courtney, Guns N’ Roses, and recaps of gold records and arena rock—but it’s the testimonies of tragedy and addiction and preposterous life-spins that make this work so unique and intriguing. Bottum writes about his dark and harrowing past in a clear-eyed voice that is utterly devoid of self-pity, and his emboldened and confident pronouncements of achievement and unorthodox heroism flow in an unstoppable train that’s both captivating and inspirational.
A remarkable portrayal of a creative individual in emergence, a gay man figuring out how to be a gay man, and a detailed look at the nuance of 1980s pre–tech boom San Francisco, The Royal We will be greatly appreciated by people who loved Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl, Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Hua Hsu’s Stay True, and other memoirs about the artist’s life.
RODDY BOTTUM is a musician, writer, creator, and actor based in New York City. He started the band Faith No More in San Francisco in the early 1980s and toured the world, selling millions of records. In 1992, he came out of the closet and blew open the spectrum of what being gay in the world of rock music meant. That same year he also formed the critically acclaimed band Imperial Teen, cited as the original pioneers of alternative queer rock. Bottum moved to New York City in 2010 and has performed and created records with CRICKETS, Nastie Band, and MAN ON MAN, a band with his partner, Joey Holman. He is developing his Sasquatch opera project into a musical in New York City, where he continues to live.
Roddy Bottum