Tag Archives: art murmur

The Guitar Show at Studio Quercus

After devouring our falafels and sweet potato fries we headed across the street to Studio Quercus. This was my first visit to this space and I was particularly excited because they were featuring live music in conjunction with their art installation. I was just asking a friend about what upcoming themes I should focus on here at Oaktown Art (if you have any requests, please send them in as comments), and we decided music would be a good one, especially given how little I’ve focused on it to date, and how hugely it influences my life.

So… The Guitar Show. Pretty self-explanatory. Lots of guitars. And people playing guitars. And very cool.

Music ranged from experimental to folksie. John Shiurba and Myles Boisen (I think) performed discordant ambient “noise-noodling” as I like to call it… sort of a post-modern space jam. Not for everyone, but I love this stuff, and these guys were really good. They’re both institutions of the Bay Area avant garde music scene, involved with such artists/projects as Tom Waits, John Zorn, the Rova Saxaphone Quartet, Fred Firth, Splatter Trio, The Club Foot Orchestra, The Molecules, Spezza Rotto, Eskimo… you get the idea.

art murmur, studio quercus, the guitar show

Next up was Joe Rut and friends, performing an incredibly catchy acoustic number with sweet backing vocals from a friend and wonderful percussion too.  It’s hard to see in this photo, but the drum kit was fashioned out of unusual materials like an abalone shell, circular saw blade, and more, all mounted onto a small crate on wheels.  Pretty cool.

studio quercus, joe rut, the guitar show

art murmur, studio quercus, the guitar show, joe rut, john shiurba, viola keeton

The art installation, aside from the music, consisted of likely over a hundred “art” guitars mounted on the walls and displayed from custom shelving on wheels. In all shapes and sizes, the guitars were either painted or modified with sculpture and/or mixed materials. There was even one shaped like a raccoon! I’m not kidding.

guitar art, the guitar show, painted guitars

Studio Quercus is one of the newer additions to the Art Murmur scene, opening late last year. Run by husband and wife artists Susan Casentini and Kyle Milligan, shows focus on the eclectic and unusual.

The Guitar Show will be up until April 25th but viewable by appointment only, except for one more live musical performance by Thunderbleed on Saturday April 17th at 8pm. That evening the studio will open with no cover charge, but attendees are encouraged to be generous with donations to support the artists. Do check it out.

The Best Falafel You’ve Ever Had!

After we left the School for the Arts near the downtown of Uptown, we headed back up Telegraph to make our way to some of the cool mixed-use warehouse spaces on 26th Street.  A bit off the beaten path, both literally and figuratively, spaces like Uptown Body & Fender (not just your typical auto body shop), Studio Quercus, and Warehouse 416 offer up more of the Oakland that I came for years ago… large, affordable spaces for artists to be creative & funky.

We’ll get to a couple of these later in the week, but first we decided to grab a quick dinner at the Liba Falafel truck parked on 26th. We weren’t the only ones…

oakland art murmur, liba falafel truck, 26th street oakland

liba falafel, falafel truck oakland, art murmur falafel truck

After waiting in line and shelling out a full 10 bucks for a falafel sweet potato fry combo (which at the time – meaning, before eating – seemed a bit steep), we received our falafel packets… fantastically crispy falafels tucked into whole wheat pitas perfectly toasted, loaded with either spicy carrot ribbons (my choice… delicious) or red cabbage with black sesame dressing (friends chose this and quite liked it too) and topped with an optional spicy sauce that the truck’s proprietor (Gail Lillian) highly recommended, I can easily say this was the best falafel pita sandwich I have ever had. But wait… it gets better.

After you’ve had a few bites of your falafel, they call your name again, and hand you a warm bag of sweet potato fries… slightly crisp, slightly soft, and perfectly seasoned. The combo was out of this world and well worth the $10 I had previously been reluctant to part with. The ingredients used by Liba are nearly all organic; the falafel, salads, and condiments are made from scratch daily; and all her take-away products are compostable. Even the cooking oil is ultimately turned into bio-fuel.

Do you feel the love? I know I did.
(Liba means love or romance in several languages.)

More reading…
Liba in East Bay Express
Liba on Yelp
Liba on SF Weekly

OSA Visual Arts Spring Exhibition

Last Friday was another First Friday here in Oaktown with Art Murmur in full spring swing. It’s become a real challenge these days to figure out what stops to make because the options are really expanding… lots of new galleries and funky mixed-use warehouse spaces filling in the gaps.

Next few posts will follow our Art Murmur escapades. First stop was the Oakland School for the Arts Spring Exhibition. I was eager to take friends after attending their stellar Holiday Small Works Show in December…

OSA is housed in the ground floor commercial spaces of the Fox Theater, once occupied by malt shops and the like.  Now 40,000 square feet of renovated and expanded commercial space comprise classrooms, administrative offices, and student services, as well as music, dance, drama, and art studios.

What I loved about their holiday show, equally evident at the Spring Exhibition, is the incredible art available for truly affordable prices.  Because these kids are, well… kids, the prices are quite a bit more budget minded than those found at many of the professional gallery spaces on the Art Murmur tour.  Not that you shouldn’t support your local professional artists.  It’s just that these shows offer the opportunity to support budding young artists without putting a serious dent in your wallet.

oakland school for the arts, OSA, spring exhibition

osa, oakland school for the arts

The show included all kinds of drawn, printed, and painted pieces, both framed and sleeved in bins, and other media including sculpture, jewelry, and an amazing film screening of works from OSA’s Digital Media emphasis.  Friends and I stood mesmerized by the arty black and white silent film projected on the wall… a woman’s legs clad in black spiky pumps approach the camera, hands in silhouette flutter like birds into frame, peacock feathers dance and weave in front of a beautiful woman’s eyes… Hard to believe this piece was put together by high school students, but it’s simply a testament to the quality of work this school and its talented students are producing.

Also impressive was the live musical performance by OSA Instrumentalists.  My favorite was their final piece of the night, a composition by Bach, but here is a snippet of a more recognizable song, and a real crowd-pleaser…

Art Murmur continued…

Friday already again!  This week has gotten the better of me…

In effort to finish up my Art Murmur escapades before leaving town, I’m going to just ramble for a bit…  After leaving bayVAN, we stopped in to Johannson Projects.  I’ll have to do another post on the Projects in the future because it’s considered one of the best independent galleries in the East Bay, if not the greater Bay Area.  Voted Best Gallery of 2008 and 2009 by the East Bay Express, “[the] art shown in this stylish space… is postmodern-cool, often involving unusual methods or processes, but well crafted and visually appealing.”

Founded by Kimberly Johannson, who just happened to luck out with the already existing lovely “K” mosaic installed at the entryway, this space is the epi-center of Art Murmur.  As such, it tends to be unbelievably crowded, even on a dark drizzly evening in February…

art murmur gallery, oakland art gallery, kimberly johannson

While a lively environment to pal around with friends and meet like minded artsy types, it wasn’t all that easy to see the art, and none of my photos turned out very well, so you’ll have to go check this one out for yourselves.

The current installation, titled Article X, features amazing photographs by David Trautrimas… otherworldly beautifully de-saturated Cold War landscapes constructed out of common everyday household items like coffee pots and waffle irons, and fascinating sculptural installations by Kristina Lewis. Lewis “frees utilitarian objects from their allegiance to human agendas and gives the materials of our disregarded possessions space to evolve. Emancipated zippers, stilettos, and light switches (complete with their wiring), become indescribable relics that could be machine or animal.”  Both of these installations feature the DIY sensibility that is often associated with this gallery.  Show is up through March 20th, and the gallery hours are 12 – 6pm Thurs/Fri and 11 – 5pm Saturdays (also by appointment).

Also featured this evening was a performance by a men’s a capella group called Conspiracy of Beards. Have you heard of them? Based here in the Bay Area, they’re a 30-member group, performing exclusively the works of Leonard Cohen in complex 4 and 5 part harmony arrangements. Can you say dreamy? This was just about the handsomest room full of men I’ve ever seen, and they were pouring their hearts out in song. And boy could they sing. These gentlemen put on a show worthy of the great Mr. Cohen, whom I had the good fortune to see on his recent stop at the Paramount; it was… truly transcendent.  Here’s a brief clip of Conspiracy…

There were a few other stops Friday night, but I’m running out of time so I think I’ll just stop there.  Kind of a nice note to end on I think.

I hope to get a bunch of posts up next week about my historical tour focusing on African American leaders influential in our Oakland’s development.  But it all depends on internet access… vacation starts tomorrow!!!