Cliff Notes
Each week, our regional Cliff Notes columnists Fox Whitney, Alitzah Oros, Melika Sebihi, and Kaya Noteboom pick the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast.
Imagined Vessels
Thacher Gallery at University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
December 3rd, 2024 – February 23rd, 2025
Imagined Vessels at the University of San Francisco’s Thacher Gallery investigates clay and ceramics as vehicles through which culture, memory, and tradition are explored. I love how this exhibition enthusiastically invites you to be in the space—there’s a solo drawing activity, seating is abundant, and a rolling bookshelf with titles related to the exhibition lives among the artwork. The gallery is in USF’s main library, after all.
Cathy Lu’s Treasure Case challenges traditional ways of interpreting ceramics; a version of a traditional treasure case that is filled with mass-produced, everyday objects rather than priceless porcelain. Liu questions the way Asian ceramics are portrayed and understood in the West, and in turn, prompts viewers to reexamine our own perception of Asian art as a whole.
Vessel #6 and other works on view by Liz Hernandez dispute our definition of a vessel. A painting of a clay pot on canvas rendered with clay slip, this two-dimensional illustration draws inspiration from the storied pottery tradition of Mexico, taking on similar qualities of a sculptural vessel through shared material.
This exhibition is curated by students in USF’s Museum Studies MA program, and also features artists Paz G, Maria Porges, and Maryam Yousif.
Reflection: If you were a vessel what would you contain?
Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions
KADIST, San Francisco, CA
October 4, 2024 – February 15, 2025
Inspired by Judith Butler’s definition of “intertwinement,” Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions examines the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the radical acts of community building, mutual aid, and information sharing that continue to characterize its impact. It is a group exhibition spanning two venues: KADIST in San Francisco and the Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston. I’ve never visited a gallery show divided into two parts that are on view simultaneously and it makes me wonder how my experience would have differed if I was able to visit both.
I was most impacted by Jeneen Frel Njootl’s installation casino chips fall out of you, broken hearts and baggies too (2021). The sculpture emits a profound severity and is evocative of the policing of Indigenous cultural practices through colonial policies. A blue tarp harnessed with black bondage straps constricts a folding chair; a ceremonial drum sits underneath the tarp and against the chair’s back, a nod to the artist’s Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation ancestry and associated gathering spaces. Themes of power, grief, and control are not only present here, but characterize the COVID-19 pandemic that this exhibition and its artists untangle in varied ways.
Reflection: Do you have a community you find solace in?