Live Worms Gallery Show February 2009

I just completed participation in a group show at the Live Worms Gallery in North Beach, in San Francisco, CA.

It was interesting to show in North Beach. Many of the locals know each other - it almost had a small town within a city feel to it. And I really liked that so many people really seem to appreciate art and took lots of time looking at each and every piece in the show, and didn't just breeze through.

The reception was Friday night and it was jammed all night. All kinds of interesting and colorful people. The most common comment heard all night was that many locals thought it was the best show there yet. It was a real great reception.

Saturday also was the Chinese New Years parade day (and the gallery was just a block from where streets of booths were and where the parade route was on Grant Street). It stopped raining so we got a lot of foot traffic throughout the day on Saturday.

I showed 10 encaustic pieces. People are still quite unfamiliar with the media so I was doing a lot of educating, which was great. The more people learn about encaustic painting, the more people will become comfortable collecting it.

The photo below is my section of the show and the other photos are some of the other work included in the exhibit.

Opening Art Reception for "Water is Gold" August 14, 2008

We had a very successful opening reception for our current exhibit entitled, "Water is Gold", which will be on display through September 30, 2008. Thanks to everyone who came and enjoyed the food and wine and got to experience lots of great art. There were lots of wonderful comments about this show and it is always so terrific to see the artists interacting with the visitors who want to know more about their work. I think that is a really special time for art collectors.

Our reception was also part of a larger "Second Thursday" open house in our building and its been great as more and more people find out about our new building and all the great things going on at this unexpected location. This was our first "Second Thursday" Art Night & Open House and we hope to be doing these every second Thursday of the month (although, for our gallery, an opening reception for a new exhibit occurs every other month, we are certainly going to be doing an Open House every month).

Next big event is Sunday August 24th, when Treat Avenue will be closed off for a block party (11 am - 4 pm) that will include more than 12 local independent bands and lots of arts & crafts booths and of course the gallery will be open throughout the event.

If you are local, feel free to stop in and see the new exhibit, and if you are not able to come to 18th & Treat Avenue, you can always see the art work online at the gallery website.

Opening Art Reception for "Patterns" June 7, 2008

Our gallery held an Open House reception for the new exhibit, "Patterns", running June through July. The Open House was from 1-4 pm and it was a lovely warm, sunny classic San Francisco day.

Some comments I've heard on the new exhibit seem to cause people to think about food, though the artwork is not related to food. One person said Sue Averell's piece, "Reality Skewed" - a cityscape, made her want to eat chocolate. Interesting! Several people have commented that Cari Hernandez's floral beeswax sculptural paintings looked 'yummy enough to eat'. They do!

One collector eyed Sherry Miller's "First African Quilt" and could not get over how cool it looked to him. 'Stunning', he said for the fourth time to me. Margaret Tcheng Ware's, "Reflections" piece has been drawing admiration for its amazing colors and calm quiet tones. Elizabeth Stahl's "Palace of Fine Arts #11" brilliant colors and the strong shadow lines of her "Alta Plaza Park #1" piece has drawn several admirers. Nancy Federice's large "The Relationship" and her "Red #2" made its first gallery debut to a great response. Many people commented on the strong lovely colors in Michie Wong's "Dahlia" photographic piece. I overheard people looking at Michie's "Velvet Fire" photograph, a macro image of a plant showing the patterns, quizzing each other as to trying to guess what it was. And Idell Weiss always draws admiring comments on her California landscapes, of which 3 are featured in this exhibit showing the patterns in nature.

Here are photos of a couple of spots on the wall of the exhibit:





If you didn't have a chance to stop by the reception, please do visit the gallery to check out the exhibit now through the end of July!

Spring Open Studios April 25-27, 2008

We will be participating in the Mission district Spring Open Studios event, being held next weekend: Friday April 25 (7-9 pm, the preview reception night), and Saturday and Sunday April 26-27 (11-5 pm).

There are at least 7 artist collective buildings in the Mission that will be open next weekend, full of interesting art. Our building, called ActivSpace, is the newest addition to the neighborhood.

We can be found at 3150 18th Street (which is really odd because the front door and all the mail boxes are actually on Treat Street - I'm not sure what the post office was thinking...) between Folsom and Harrison (Treat Street is located between 17th and 18th and is a one way street to be entered from 17th by car). By bus, both the 24 Mission and the 22 Fillmore bus lines run very nearby.

Our individual art space is number 105 right along the street front. The exhibit we are currently showing is called "A Room With a View" (which runs through the end of May) and we are offering special discounts from our website (kathleenmcmahonfineart.com) just until the end of Open Studios weekend. Plus we'll have things that weekend not shown on the website.

Even though many artist tenants are still moving into their spaces in our brand new building (5 floors of studios!) there are *plenty* of artists all ready to show their wares next weekend. And the other collectives have been doing this event for years.

We are looking forward to a great weekend of meeting lots of great people!

Gallery Introduction

Kathleen McMahon Fine Art Gallery is a gallery located in San Francisco, CA. We represent the work of contemporary artists with work that ranges from California landscapes and cityscapes to abstracts to expressionism to pottery to hand-blown glass. Some artists work primarily in oils, some in encaustic beeswax, some in acrylics, and others in clay and glass.

We offer artwork for sale both in our gallery and online at our website http://www.kathleenmcmahonfineart.com/

Our gallery is located in the Mission district of San Francisco:

Kathleen McMahon Fine Art
3150 18th Street, Suite 105
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-673-0802
http://www.kathleenmcmahonfineart.com/
Open Tues-Sat 11am-5pm

The gallery door is actually on Treat Street, between 17th and 18th Street (even though our mailing box sits on 18th Street), and Treat Street sits between Folsom and Harrison Street.

This blog will be a place to look for gallery news, as well as news about our represented artists, interesting San Francisco art news, feature current or newly added work, thoughts and ramblings. Put our blog on your RSS feed to keep up to date on new postings.

We look forward to seeing you at the gallery or one of our events!