It all kicks off at 7pm! — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  
  “SHHH” by Kristin Farr

  N’TENCE Hallucinations, a group exhibition by N’TENCE collective
  Members of N’TENCE will be sharing artwork they created while experiencing past hallucinations. Visitors will experience an overwhelming sense of deja vu as each of the artists have seen into the very near future psychically drawing from personal thoughts and wishes from the people who will be visiting the gallery during the length of the exhibition. N’TENCE includes: Kristin Farr, Able Brown, David Hopp, Isaac McKay-Randozzi, Don Pendleton and Porous Walker. Live music by Comfort Slacks.

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  Jan Schachter

  Group showing of Bay Area clay superstars: Jan Schachter, Joe Battiato, Dan Dermer, Doris Fischer-Colbrie, Mark Goudy, Donna Hills, Joy Imai, Phyllis Lee, Hsin-Chuen Lin, Linda Mau, Heather Pedersen, Lauren Walters, Jito Yumibe

  Visit on February 3rd for the South First Friday Art Walk… Take in our eclectic display of ceramic artwork, play at the clay table, and watch the potters juggling clay, water, and fire!

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  KALEID Gallery presents two new feature exhibitions by artists Centa Schumacher and Al Preciado with a special performance by Cellist Freya Seeburger.

  
  

  Lunar Phases a new photography series by Centa Schumacher
  Every one of these digitally composited images are made from personal photographs –some “serious”, some snapshots–that Schumacher has taken over the years. By layering and overlapping these images in the shape of familiar lunar phases, she evokes the cyclical nature of life, as nothing can truly be counted on but change. However, underneath it all, the true self remains, sometimes illuminated and uplifted by the change, other times left in murky shadow.

  
  

  Brutal / Tender recent works by Al Preciado
  An exhibition of sculptures, paintings, photo collages and installation work encompassing the last 6 months in and out of the studio. “The roughshod and gentle nature of the art reflects a growing appreciation for all sides of my personal growth.”

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  Jaime Guerrero, Charros y sus Caballos / A Budget of Paradoxes, glass, steel, paper mache, 2012

  Join MACLA for an extraordinary evening of art. Opening in MACLA’s Gallery: 4th Chicana/o Biennial: This is the NOW! an exhibition and public forum conceived to take inventory of and invite reflection every two years on the continuously emergent energy, critical edge, and aesthetic interventions within contemporary Chicano art.

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

  95 South Market St: Shannon Amidon Kanji Garden

  

  Kanji Garden was created using hundreds of cut, hand dyed, and folded books that were destined for a landfill. The reused books that received a new life were titled “Understanding Kanji Characters” by Ping-gam Go.

• San Jose Jazz at Eulipia Restaurant – 374 South First St. map

  
  

  Rick Vandivier is a guitarist who has found inspiration in influences that stretch from Andres Segovia and Pat Metheny to Jimi Hendrix. His enthusiastic performances are daring, soulful, evocative and contagious. For this special First Friday performance, Rick’s tight ensemble “Vandivier,” will present new originals and arrangements that traverse a wide musical and emotional spectrum including modern Jazz and infectious rock, latin and funk grooves.

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  River Ever Flowing by Mary Buskirk

  Invisible Lineage showcases the work of four influential mid 20th century fiber artists—Mary Buskirk, Lydia Van Gelder, Mary Walker Phillips, Katherine Westphal—alongside works of four late century artists, Patricia Abrahamian, Pam Moore, Karen Hampton, and Janice Sullivan. Collecting California is our first exhibition featuring quilts and textiles drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection by contemporary California artists. It features recent acquisitions – gifts from both artists and collectors – and showcases the rich variety, legacy, and continued evolution of the California fiber art movement.

  Join us for our South First Friday Salon art activity: Make your own fabric Valentine’s Day card.

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  
  

  Hearts and Arrows
  The month of February brings us to thoughts of romance. Love (maybe a little hate) is in the air and so it always is at the SLG Art Boutiki as we present our annual Valentine’s Day themed show Hearts and Arrows. Combining work from some great local artists as well as some of SLG’s stable of comic artsts, the Art Boutiki brings you the month of romance as you have never seen it. Featured are Des Taylor, Genevieve Santos, David Mejia and many more.

  Plus live music, free comics and all the things that make Art Boutiki the thing that legends are made of.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  Stephanie Metz

  Femme Fatale is a seductive and haunting exhibition exploring the complexities of femininity. Featuring the work of Bay Area artists Jody Alexander, Connie Begg, Victoria May, Stephanie Metz, and Sylvia Min, Femme Fatale is both a subtle homage and commentary of domesticity, social constructs, and the feminine experience.

  Jody Alexander references domesticity and “values” through an installation of found objects carefully wrapped in fabric. Fascinated by history and feminine iconography, Connie Begg illuminates the tension of capturing a frightening yet beautiful object through historical photographic processes. Victoria May’s organza and steel based forms reflect her interest in domesticity, tension, and dichotomy, and allude to the fundamental struggles inherent in the human condition. Utilizing wool fibers and textiles, Stephanie Metz attempts to “distill the essence of a creature” and acknowledges our mammalian roots in her mysterious sculptures. Emphasizing light and shadow, Sylvia Min examines the iconic image of the bride through her paintings.

  Curated by Sylvia Min, Femme Fatale resonates with overlapping proclivities towards detail, concept, and tone. Monochromatic sculptures, installations, paintings, and photographs seduce and disturb through layers of inherent tensions, enigmatic contrasts, and meticulous handwork.

• Caffé Frascati – 315 South First St. map

  

  New exhibition featuring Henna design inspired paintings by Lisa Mejia and a collection of black and white abstract works as well as the classic portraitures as done by David Mejia. $5 portraits all night.

  First Fridays is Caffe Frascati Opera Night presented by First Street Singers, with the Bay Area’s finest opera singers performing your very favorite classical arias and duets live in the cafe!

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us after Candlelight Yoga (featuring Power Flow with Amber Henzi 5:30-6:45pm) as we open our doors to welcome art patrons and the downtown community from 7:00-10pm. Our featured artist, Marco Zecchin continues his exhibit, Simply Seen.

  Simply Seen, a Photographic Journey by Marco Zecchin

  Unwrapping the gift on my 11th birthday revealed a dream come true… A Kodak Brownie camera!

  As a dream, this simple little plastic camera, was the embodiment of all the imagined realities that this regularly visited dream allowed me to explore. So on this day, I held in my hands, my “Magic Lantern.” But unlike the original, mine granted me the same wish as many times as I wanted — the wish to render what I saw as proof, to myself and others, that what I saw was real!

  Now, 45 years later, living a life defined by photography, I keep searching for the simplicity of those days.

  Newer cameras, complicated technology, client’s needs and my own artistic aesthetic have changed how I photograph and see but I can still feel, to this day, the simple excitement from that birthday. It is the litmus test I choose to help identify when I’m following “my bliss.” It was this feeling that I experienced, when I first used the Hipstamatic Camera application on my phone, that made me choose to dedicate myself to it for a year.

  With the simplicity implied in it’s name — Kodak’s classic Instamatic camera — the Hipstamatic asked me to look at the world with the same sense of innocence and wonder. Not that this is easy to do but I have delighted in the daily use of this “divining rod” to seek out my bliss and collect my “Simply Seen” photographs in search of simpler days and simpler ways!

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  Phantom Galleries presents artist Katrina Marie Loera’s debut solo exhibition Blessed Are the Beasts, For They Shall Inherit the Earth at Good Karma Vegan Cafe.

  Blessed Are the Beasts, For They Shall Inherit the Earth is a collection of images honoring the animals and people of this planet for their sacrifice, patience, long-suffering, beauty, and grace.

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us for the Metro Photo Exhibit Live. Local. Loud. Photography by Jessica Shirley-Doonelly and Claire Young.

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  Phantom Galleries presents Catchwork in Rhythm paintings by Ricky Gumbrecht at Pho69

  Ricky Gumbrecht’s paintings want your entire attention. They catch your eye in many different ways and dimensions: through forms that seem on the verge of becoming movement; through texture that you quite irresistibly want to touch; and above all through their colors: bright colors and gloomy colors, colors joyful, harmonious and sometimes melancholic. Once these pictures have caught your eye, you want to take a time-out and remain in the space that they are unfolding: you want to stay there with your mind and with your body and you want to enjoy the intensity of your senses’ reaction. Each painting takes you to a small new world of its own, and the more the rhythm between them accelerates, the more excited, quiet and concentrated you feel.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Carlos Villez, Eric Joyner, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters and John Hageman.

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  
  

  Information not available at time of posting.

  5-9pm ALL AGES. 9pm-close 21+

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  
  

  Please join us at TechShop San Jose and experience the Space Palette made by TechShop member Tim Thompson. The Space Palette is a Kinetc-based instrument that was made at TechShop.

• Art Ark – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  Image provided by artist Keith Southern

  6–9pm DYAD: an exhibition that explores the relationship between two pieces of art.
  This is a group show of thirty local artists who have chosen two pieces of their art to exhibit together as a unit. The theme of the show is intended to create an exhibition of paired works that suggest a dialogue or create a dynamic interaction; be it complimentary or opposite, attraction or repulsion or somewhere in between the works are attempting to engage each other as well as the viewer. Curated by Valerie Raps.
  Live Classical Guitar by Gene Torchia

• 
  

  Stop by the TOTEM booth during the SOUTH FIRST Friday Art Walk for your chance to win a free pair of tickets, pick-up a special limited time discount card and check out the local Cirque-inspired performer! TOTEM by Cirque du Soleil opens March 2nd at the Taylor Street Bridge.
  For more information on TOTEM, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/TOTEM1stfriday

It all kicks off at 7pm! — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public

It all kicks off at 7pm! — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  
  Blind Machi by Gustavo Ortiz (UK)

  The 11th Annual FRESH PRODUCE exhibition features 45 artists from 14 countries! Artists from around the world have created hundreds of original works of art for this highly anticipated annual invitational exhibition and affordable art sale. The artists were invited based on their unique artistic vision and contribution to urban contemporary arts and culture. Preview at 7pm, sale begins at 8pm.

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  

  Killer Crystals — Jon Price’s latest creations far outshine the holiday lights in the Hi-Fi Gallery this December. Price’s carefully crafted vessels wear crystalline glazes like you’ve never seen. Think exploding fireworks on silky porcelain! Price spent years mastering finicky chemistry and quirky firing schedules to arrive at the forefront of crystalline ceramic artistry.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  
  

  Opening Reception: HARK! The Holiday Art Show and Sale

  KALEID Gallery invites you to join us for our annual holiday art show & sale featuring 45 artists from KALEID as well as additional artists from the greater San Jose area. Original works of art at affordable prices perfect for gift giving!

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  Nereida Gacia Ferraz, Untitled, opaque pigment
  drawing on cardboard, 2011

  Join MACLA for an extraordinary evening of art. In MACLA’s Gallery: Cuban Connections: Near & Far. Highlighting several Bay Area collections, this group exhibition features Cuban artists whose work explores cultural icons, architectural form, and the human condition.

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

  95 South Market St: Shannon Amidon Kanji Garden

  

  Kanji Garden was created using hundreds of cut, hand dyed, and folded books that were destined for a landfill. The reused books that received a new life were titled “Understanding Kanji Characters” by Ping-gam Go.

• San Jose Jazz at Eulipia Restaurant – 374 South First St. map

  
  

  SEVA featuring Hristo Vitchev and Weber Iago for SJ Jazz

  SEVA was formed in late 2010 by Bulgarian modern jazz guitarist Hristo Vitchev and Brazilian piano sensation Weber Iago. Vitchev and Iago have had a long musical relationship as bandmates in the Hristo Vitchev Quartet and Quintet, the Vitchev/Iago Project, Joe DeRose and Amici as well as in special guest appearances by Hristo with the Weber Iago Quartet. All of their musical endeavors have received critical acclaim on the national and international Jazz scenes.

  With their new group SEVA the duo seeks to explore even more distant harmonic landscapes. The band combines Jazz, Classical, Latin, Pop, and Rock into an impressionistic sound as diverse as its members. For this endeavor Vitchev and Iago are joined by virtuoso bass player Dan Robbins and master drummer/percussionist Mike Shannon.

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  River Ever Flowing by Mary Buskirk

  Two new exhibits! Invisible Lineage showcases the work of four influential mid 20th century fiber artists—Mary Buskirk, Lydia Van Gelder, Mary Walker Phillips, Katherine Westphal—alongside works of four late century artists, Patricia Abrahamian, Pam Moore, Karen Hampton, and Janice Sullivan.

  Collecting California is our first exhibition featuring quilts and textiles drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection by contemporary California artists. It features recent acquisitions – gifts from both artists and collectors – and showcases the rich variety, legacy, and continued evolution of the California fiber art movement.

  Join us for our South First Friday Salon art activity: Make your own decorative textile ornaments with recycled material.

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  
  

  San Jose comics institution SLG Publishing has its own grand tradition of putting off for tomorrow the things we should have done yesterday, so it stands to reason that we would officially be celebrating our 25th year of making comic books in the last month of the year. Come in and see some art from our quarter century of publishing.

  But of course that’s not all as the Art Boutiki goes to a tradition of it’s own, that being the celebration of FESTIVUS. Get your picture taken by our aluminum pole! Feats of strength and a return of the all so popular AIRING OF GRIEVANCES. Come let the people you love know how much they have disappointed you in the past year.

  Live music, free comic books and now stand-up comedy.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  Linda Hesh, Kiss Me/Kill Me t-shirts

  iraqimemorial.org is a participation-based conceptual project launched in 2007 as an internet platform for artists, designers, and architects to propose concepts for memorials to the unrecognized civilian casualties incurred during the ongoing conflict in Iraq. Works presents an exhibition of plans and responses selected out of the pool that now exist on the iraqimemorial.org site. The proposal guidelines encourage participants to use a wide range of locations and mediums to create collective memory and unity, drawing upon traditional and expanded ideas of memorial. iraqimemorial.org is an effort initiated by media artist Joseph DeLappe to call upon the collective creative community to consider the cost of war from all sides. The exhibition at Works presents a selection of 54 of the most striking submissions as selected by two juror’s reviews. Featured projects span a range of creative practices including: architecture, social media, geomapping, performance, video and the visual arts.

• Caffé Frascati – 315 South First St. map

  First Fridays is Caffe Frascati’s Opera Night! presented by First Street Singers, with the Bay Area’s finest opera singers performing your very favorite classical arias and duets live in the cafe!

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us after Candlelight Yoga (featuring Core Flow with Noell 6–7:30pm) as we open our doors to welcome art patrons and the downtown community from 7:30-10pm. Our featured artist, Marco Zecchin, returns with his exhibit, Simply Seen.

  Simply Seen, a Photographic Journey by Marco Zecchin

  Unwrapping the gift on my 11th birthday revealed a dream come true… A Kodak Brownie camera!

  As a dream, this simple little plastic camera, was the embodiment of all the imagined realities that this regularly visited dream allowed me to explore. So on this day, I held in my hands, my “Magic Lantern.” But unlike the original, mine granted me the same wish as many times as I wanted — the wish to render what I saw as proof, to myself and others, that what I saw was real!

  Now, 45 years later, living a life defined by photography, I keep searching for the simplicity of those days.

  Newer cameras, complicated technology, client’s needs and my own artistic aesthetic have changed how I photograph and see but I can still feel, to this day, the simple excitement from that birthday. It is the litmus test I choose to help identify when I’m following “my bliss.” It was this feeling that I experienced, when I first used the Hipstamatic Camera application on my phone, that made me choose to dedicate myself to it for a year.

  With the simplicity implied in it’s name — Kodak’s classic Instamatic camera — the Hipstamatic asked me to look at the world with the same sense of innocence and wonder. Not that this is easy to do but I have delighted in the daily use of this “divining rod” to seek out my bliss and collect my “Simply Seen” photographs in search of simpler days and simpler ways!

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  On View: Milk and Bones new paintings by Izer the Mizer

  An amalgamation of images from children’s book illustrations and horror films, the teachings of Rush Limbaugh and Friedrich Nietzsche, a humanity that Gandhi would have eaten for, the end of the world, the birth of a child, the death of your mother, true love, true fate, true hate, true blood, a three headed hound with no legs, a drunk on a roll.

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  
  

  Closed in December.

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  Opening Reception: Outside the Lines Inside of the Box by Jane W. Ferguson
  New abstract and floral works exploring the artist’s use of line and colour.

  Pho69 also features live contemporary music on First Fridays. Come check out local bands performing favorite covers and original music.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Carlos Villez, Eric Joyner, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters and John Hageman.

  Stop by and purchase some original art for your holiday gifts! Support the arts and small business!

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  
  

  Mesh Collective Presents: Labour of Love featuring The Rumblefish and Scarlet Stoic

  5-9pm ALL AGES. 9pm-close 21+

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  
  

  Made At TechShop

  TechShop San Jose is showcasing member made projects. Featuring Joyce Steinfeld’s sculptures.

• Art Ark – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  

  Closing Reception: The More the Merrier II: Salon-Style Holiday Art Exhibition and Sale This is the second year of our ‘salon-style’ holiday art exhibition and sale. This year features the work of 45 bay area artists working in a variety of mediums. In the tradition of the french salon-style art exhibition, each artist is given an allotted space and encouraged to display as much work as desired. The exhibition style is intended to give the public a sampling of each artist’s current body of work. Many pieces are priced under $200 to offer affordable gifts for the holidays. Join us for this festive exhibition and celebration!

It all kicks off at 7pm! — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  
  

  BLOODWORK: BODIES Exhibit by Analog Tattoo Arts Kolective (CA)

  Anno Domini is proud to present the third and final installment of the unprecedented tattoo arts documentation project by the global tattoo community of the Anaglog Tattoo Arts Kolectiv.

  4 Years
  5 Continents
  53 Tattooers
  119 Backpieces & Bodysuits
  2 Volume Book
  1 Box Set
  360º Interactive Views

  A multi-year, multi-continental undertaking, directed/produced by adrian Lee, photographed by Max Dolberg (both of the Analog Tattoo Arts Kolectiv), and contributed to by tattooers and collectors around the globe.

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  

  Higher Fire presents a HOT evening of demonstrations and raku firings by master potter and instructor Joe Battiato. Joe will demonstrate three types of Raku firings – American, Horse-hair, and Naked Raku – using our wonderful new Raku kiln in the warehouse at Higher Fire. The spontaneous and often chaotic patterns created by these firing methods counterbalance the control and grace found in Battiato’s forms. Between firings, Joe takes to the wheel to demonstrate how to make large, highly-textured vessels.

  Joe Battiato’s latest creations grace the Hi-Fi Gallery this November! Join us for a reception for our featured artist held in conjunction with South First Fridays Art Walk… November 4th from 7-11pm.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  Opening Reception for featured artists Gianfranco Paolozzi and John Eric Paulson

  
  

  A Box Is A Box Is A Box by Gianfranco Paolozzi

  In search of new surfaces to apply my marks, to write my journals, the everyday boxes used as packaging for products that we consume, are becoming my canvasses. the box is a canvas when it is disassembled or not.

  
  

  Photographs from Italy and Greece by John Eric Paulson

  Each day I wonder what photographic surprises await me. When I focus on an area, I look for what I would like to see if it were a perfect world, creating the ideal, capturing the basic beauty and enhancing its drama.

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  Nereida Gacia Ferraz, Untitled, opaque pigment
  drawing on cardboard, 2011

  Join MACLA for an extraordinary evening of art. Opening in MACLA’s Gallery: Cuban Connections: Near & Far. Highlighting several Bay Area collections, this group exhibition features Cuban artists whose work explores cultural icons, architectural form, and the human condition. MACLA’s Castellano Playhouse features, acoustic Latin band Santos Perdidos playing an eclectic mix of Son Cubano, Rumba Española, Bolero, and Afro-Peruvian Lando.

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

  95 South Market St: Shannon Amidon Kanji Garden

  

  Kanji Garden was created using hundreds of cut, hand dyed, and folded books that were destined for a landfill. The reused books that received a new life were titled “Understanding Kanji Characters” by Ping-gam Go.

• San Jose Jazz at Eulipia Restaurant – 374 South First St. map

  
  

  Wally Schnalle Trio for San Jose Jazz

  Wally Schnalle finds himself working in many musical environments as a sideman and bandleader. His current projects include a fusion sextet; an electronica jazz trio entitled Idiot Fish and the cutting edge and highly improvisational trio featured here at First Fridays. Joining Wally will be Sahy Salhov on alto sax and John Shifflet on acoustic bass. First call players all and in this trio setting the lines of communications a wide open for these three to create. This is a trio travels into new musical territories at every performance.

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  Marian Clayden, Untitled #5, 30.5″ x 45″ – Photographer: Ann Rossouw

  Join us for the Museum’s Annual High Fiber: The Art of Collecting 
Benefit Art Exhibition & Sale! High Fiber is a unique art sale devoted to world class fiber art – and at this benefit exhibition & sale, all pieces are $500 or less. Artwork was juried by Louise Barco Allrich and includes art quilts, weavings, wearable art, jewelry and more. High Fiber is designed to generate support for both fiber artists and the Museum’s fiber art advocacy efforts by connecting artists around the globe with collectors and by sharing this expressive medium with our community as a whole.

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  
  

  MAKE A JAZZ NOISE HERE

  Comic books and Jazz are tow of the four unique American artforms (the other two being the feature film and the short story) and at the Art Boutiki we are mashing the two things together as our stable of comic artists present their own artistic impression of music and jazz. As usual though that is not all. We will also be continuing our show from last month Cuastic Curio featuring the art of Crab Scrambly. That plus live music by jazz quartet Grooveyard Shift and a new South First Friday at the Art Boutiki, stand-up comedy by Pete Munoz.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  artwork by Hakki Erol

  iraqimemorial.org is a participation-based conceptual project launched in 2007 as an internet platform for artists, designers, and architects to propose concepts for memorials to the unrecognized civilian casualties incurred during the ongoing conflict in Iraq. Works presents an exhibition of plans and responses selected out of the pool that now exist on the iraqimemorial.org site. The proposal guidelines encourage participants to use a wide range of locations and mediums to create collective memory and unity, drawing upon traditional and expanded ideas of memorial. iraqimemorial.org is an effort initiated by media artist Joseph DeLappe to call upon the collective creative community to consider the cost of war from all sides. The exhibition at Works presents a selection of 54 of the most striking submissions as selected by two juror’s reviews. Featured projects span a range of creative practices including: architecture, social media, geomapping, performance, video and the visual arts.

• Caffé Frascati – 315 South First St. map

  First Fridays is Caffe Frascati’s Opera Night! presented by First Street Singers, with the Bay Area’s finest opera singers performing your very favorite classical arias and duets live in the cafe!

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us after Candlelight Yoga (featuring Yin Yoga with Joanne, 6–7:30pm) as we open our doors to welcome art patrons and the downtown community from 7:30-10pm. Our featured artist, Marco Zecchin’s exhibit, Simply Seen. There will also be a performance at 8pm of the Jewel of Opar bellydance troupe at 8pm.

  Simply Seen, a Photographic Journey by Marco Zecchin

  Unwrapping the gift on my 11th birthday revealed a dream come true… A Kodak Brownie camera!

  As a dream, this simple little plastic camera, was the embodiment of all the imagined realities that this regularly visited dream allowed me to explore. So on this day, I held in my hands, my “Magic Lantern.” But unlike the original, mine granted me the same wish as many times as I wanted – the wish to render what I saw as proof, to myself and others, that what I saw was real!

  Now, 45 years later, living a life defined by photography, I keep searching for the simplicity of those days.

  Newer cameras, complicated technology, client’s needs and my own artistic aesthetic have changed how I photograph and see but I can still feel, to this day, the simple excitement from that birthday. It is the litmus test I choose to help identify when I’m following “my bliss.” It was this feeling that I experienced, when I first used the Hipstamatic Camera application on my phone, that made me choose to dedicate myself to it for a year.

  With the simplicity implied in it’s name — Kodak’s classic Instamatic camera — the Hipstamatic asked me to look at the world with the same sense of innocence and wonder. Not that this is easy to do but I have delighted in the daily use of this “divining rod” to seek out my bliss and collect my “Simply Seen” photographs in search of simpler days and simpler ways!

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  Milk and Bones new paintings by Izer the Mizer

  An amalgamation of images from children’s book illustrations and horror films, the teachings of Rush Limbaugh and Friedrich Nietzsche, a humanity that Gandhi would have eaten for, the end of the world, the birth of a child, the death of your mother, true love, true fate, true hate, true blood, a three headed hound with no legs, a drunk on a roll.

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us for the Metro Photo Exhibit Invitation
  A collection of Portraits, Spring/Summer 2011 by Richard James Arredondo and Friends

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  …..of light & shadows (de la luz y de las sombras) A new collection of new works by Robertino Ragazza mainly focusing the usage of high and low key lighting on his subjects or within the framing of his poetic photographs. All photographs are hand-printed Selenium-toned Silver Gelatin.

  Pho69 also features live contemporary music on First Fridays. Come check out local bands performing favorite covers and original music.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Carlos Villez, Eric Joyner, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters and John Hageman.

  Stop by and see some new Halloween art created by our local “Psycho” artists!

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  
  

  PROGRESS an exploration of the growth of MESHcollective as told by the art and music of its talented members.

  5-9pm ALL AGES. 9pm-close 21+

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  
  Made by: Tamara Hoyt, TechShop Instructor
  Dress is made using a laser cutter!

  Made At TechShop

  TechShop is showcasing projects made by members. Come and see what you can make at TechShop!

• Art Ark – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  

  The More the Merrier II: Salon-Style Holiday Art Exhibition and Sale

  This is the second year of our ‘salon-style’ holiday art exhibition and sale. This year features the work of 45 bay area artists working in a variety of mediums. In the tradition of the french salon-style art exhibition, each artist is given an allotted space and encouraged to display as much work as desired. The exhibition style is intended to give the public a sampling of each artist’s current body of work. Many pieces are priced under $200 to offer affordable gifts for the holidays. Join us for this festive exhibition and celebration!

• Kick off the evening at the Children’s Discover Museum 180 Woz Way

  

  SF-based artist JD Beltran presents Portal, and a related short film, Journey, inspired by the discovery of a juvenile Columbian mammoth now the subject of a major exhibition at Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. Both new works reflect on the deep past, the collapse of time, and how we visualize time through art. 
Join us for a reception and conversation (5:30-7:30pm) with JD Beltran at Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, followed by a short walk or pedicab ride to view Portal.

 RSVP: artloft@cdm.org

It all kicks off at 7pm! — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  
  

  Preview of BLOODWORK: BODIES Exhibit by Analog Tattoo Arts Kolective (CA)

  Anno Domini is proud to present the third and final installment of the unprecedented tattoo arts documentation project by the global tattoo community of the Anaglog Tattoo Arts Kolectiv.

  4 Years
  5 Continents
  53 Tattooers
  119 Backpieces & Bodysuits
  2 Volume Book
  1 Box Set
  360º Interactive Views

  A multi-year, multi-continental undertaking, directed/produced by adrian Lee, photographed by Max Dolberg (both of the Analog Tattoo Arts Kolectiv), and contributed to by tattooers and collectors around the globe.

  On view in galleryTWO: Brett Amory White Light solo exhibition

  White Light is the next installment within Brett Amory’s Waiting series. Amory began the Waiting series in 2001 with paintings depicting commuter subjects seemingly detached from their fellow passengers and surrounding environments, inspired by the introverted culture of public transit and inhabitants of the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco.

• Art Glass Center of San Jose – 489 South Market St. map

  

  Space Palette is a musical and graphical instrument created by Tim Thompson that makes use of the Microsoft Kinect, a 3D camera. Standing in front of a wood frame, you wave your hands and “paint” both music and projected visuals. Any number of hands can be used simultaneously, so you and your friends can use it together and become an instant band and light show!

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  Dancing Lady by Jill Getzan; raku-fired stoneware

  Naked! — Higher Fire celebrates its 1st Anniversary with a group showing of work by its members. The theme “Naked” is individually interpreted by all the artists resulting in an eclectic display of naughty and nice clay works in diverse styles from raku to pit-fire and wood-fire — all gracing our gallery this October!

  Visit on October 7th for the South FIRST FRIDAY Art Walk and enjoy a reception for all the artists, activities at the clay table, and potters juggling clay, water and fire!

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  Opening Reception for featured artists John Renzel & Troy Sims

  
  

  Fictitious Portraits by John Renzel

  A series of traditional style character portraits but with a colorful and slightly demented edge.

  
  

  Rights–Rituals–Regards new work by Troy Sims

  Why do I form judgments of others to validate myself? In this series of mixed media paintings, and sculptures constructed of handmade paper and wire, artist Troy Sims touches on personal issues such as: civil rights, honoring our ancestors, and how we perceive beauty.

  This body of work explores the subjective world we live in, and the sea of opinions we deal with on a daily basis.

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  

  Join MACLA and Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy for a special open house. Visitors will a get a tour the academy and get view films by Mount Pleasant Highschool Students as part of Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy Program.

  In MACLA’s Gallery: Utopia/Nightmare: The American Dream Utopia/Pesadilla: El Sueño Americano Exhibition by Victor Cartagena with sound elements by David Molina.

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

  
  Correspondences and Elevation, Michele Guieu

  NextSpace Coworking + Innovation San Jose 97 S. 2nd St, Suite 100

  NextSpace San Jose is pleased to feature the work of Phantom Galleries artists Michele Guieu with her installation Correspondences and Elevation; The Strip; Encaustic images by Katie Guiterrez; and Jeanne Yee’s intricate collage works.

  Join us for the First Friday art walk and meet the artists, see what’s happening at NextSpace San Jose and enjoy Hors d’oeuvres, refreshments and the sweet sounds of El Jefe.

  95 South Market St: Folie à Deux Family Tree Monotypes and Glass Statues by Curt Schauer

  

  In this exhibit, Curt traces the origins and family history of the Folie a Deux series. From the image on the original sign in Tokyo that inspired the figurative images and the early acrylic ink monotype studies, digital drawings and oil based monotypes to the final five piece monotype series and blown glass statues that defined Curt’s work from 2008 to today. Folie a Deux explores the duality of extremes and conflict in human nature and between the art and the viewer in figurative and expressionist styles. Not satisfied with a single medium to express his vision,

  Curt furthered the duality theme by recreating the series in colorful 3D blown glass with hand etched graal images. This is the first exhibit to display the family tree in life (glass) and in portrait (monotypes) and displays the use of color, light, movement and dimenssion in Curt’s art.

• San Jose Jazz at Eulipia Restaurant – 374 South First St. map

  
  

  Adam Everett Quartet for San Jose Jazz

  Originally from Massachusetts, drummer/bandleader Adam Everett has made a home in the Bay Area performing, recording and teaching private students. A recent graduate from San Jose State University, he has studied with local legends Galen Lemmon, Joe Hodge and Jason Lewis.

  For this gig, his quartet includes talented Bay Area players Benny Torres, saxophones; Ignatius Yuwono, keyboards; and Danny Ernst, bass. Their “Modern Jazz” sound is lightly arranged and often improvised, with a style that including elements of Hip-Hop, Reggae, Funk and Afro-Cuban rhythmic elements. The repertoire includes Jazz standards, originals and arrangements of popular songs made to fit the jazz idiom. The Adam Everett Quartet recently produced their first album, Round One.

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  Crosses (Stone Mason’s Puzzle), From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe, Photo by Sharon Risedorph

  The Scrap ART exhibit showcases historical quilts drawn from the Museum’s and private collections and ‘scrappy’ contemporary works. Scrap ART examines the historical precedent and aesthetic of the scrap quilt and its modern-day descendants.
Just as quilters have long been inspired to make beautiful pieces from available scraps, the throwaways of daily life have inspired a new generation of ecologically-minded artists to combine creative reuse with old-fashioned thrift in works using material as varied as books, jeans, zippers, plastic, buttons and teabags. Scrap ART celebrates the reinterpretation of materials by artists both historical and contemporary in works that reflect the cultures and values of their makers.


  Join us for a Recycled Fashion Show from 8-10pm!

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  
  

  Caustic Curio — The Art of Crab Scrambly

  Noted artist of such SLG Publishing comics as Everything can be Beaten, Nightmares & Fairy Tales and The 13th of Never shows a combination of new work, unpublished work and images from his upcoming art book Caustic Curio. Known as painter of many book covers and illustrator of a variety of both children’s and horror books, Scrambly combines a cartoony flair with a dark sensibility that makes his work both accessible and a little creepy.

  Live music and all of the stuff that makes an Art Boutiki First Friday the thing that things are made of.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  art by Steve Cooley

  Movin’ on Up! the 2011 members’ exhibition

  Works is indeed “Movin on Up!” with the most diverse annual exhibition in the South Bay on view in Works’ new home on South Market. More than 100 regional artists show their support for community art and performance at the same time as displaying an eclectic variety of talents.

  Join us for First Friday featuring the Mission Chamber Orchestra of San Jose, a no-host bar, and a host of Works members!

• Caffé Frascati – 315 South First St. map

  First Fridays is Caffe Frascati’s Opera Night! with all your favorite arias and duets performed live by some of the bay Areas finest opera singers. 8-10pm.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us after Candlelight Yoga (6-7:30pm) as we open our doors to downtown residents and the Art Walk patrons. Our featured artists are the husband and wife team of Jonathan and Joella Kermit, yoga practioners and members of our studio. Their exhibition, Wire and Thread is Jonathan and Joella’s second showing at Downtown Yoga Shala.

  Jonathan’s current work combines recycled wire and bits of urban flotsam with glazed paper to create abstract, occasionally whimsical, sculptures. Joella’s most recent textile pieces are hand dyed, silk screened, machine stitched, and trimmed with llama and sheep fibers. Seeing the sacred petroglyphs etched in rocks by the ancient people of the French Alps inspired the images.

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  The Peculiar Pageant new paintings and installation by Lacey Bryant

  Theatrically posed and surrounded by lush, illusory environments, the subjects of Lacey’s newest works are like pictures in a storybook written in an unknown language. The images are somewhat familiar but certain elements remains foreign. Like a hazy dream of an imagined childhood long forgotten, the images strive to make you feel as if you just might have been there once, maybe. As is common in Bryant’s work, there is a subtle tension between beautiful and unsettling elements. This contrast creates a sense of mystery and invites the viewer to construct their own interpretation of the scenes. In the safety of a world poised between reality and imagination where common symbols mingle with strange ones, her characters expose their fears, doubts, despairs and longings.

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us for the Metro Photo Exhibit Pictures from Paris Photography by Sonja Caldwell

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  Menelaus Helen, oil on canvas, 36″x48″

  ILION MODERN A new series by Randall L. Elkins

  In the faces of those around me I see Homer’s Bronze Age Achaeans and Trojan’s still struggling with the significance of existence and mortality in our modern world.

  Pho69 also features live contemporary music on First Fridays. Come check out local bands performing favorite covers and original music.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Carlos Villez, Eric Joyner, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters and John Hageman.

  Stop by and see some new Halloween art created by our local “Psycho” artists!

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  
  art by John Cloud

  Just in time for Halloween and Dio De Los Muertos, Art of the Dead is whimsically dark, yet a colorful interpretive look at the land of the dead. Artists John Cloud, Greg Carillo,Steven Suiter, Fernando Perez, and Francisco Franco, show you their perspective of this great theme! Plus live art by the artists and musical performances by INFM, The Nielson Raiding, and O’Craven with a special performance by San Jose Symphonic Choir at 8pm and 9pm.

  5-9pm ALL AGES. 9pm-close 21+

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  
  

  Made At TechShop

  A collection of various projects made at TechShop from TechShop members.

• Art Ark – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  Artwork by Gary Quinonez

  Art Ark Gallery is proud to present…

  Sonic a group exhibition of artists who have either incorporated sound into their work or have created objects that imply sound. Curated by Nancy Sevier.

  Opening Reception: Friday, October 7th, 5-8pm

It all kicks off at 7pm! — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public

• 

  South FIRST FRIDAYS presents STREET MRKT. Come to the SoFA District from 7–11pm for an inspired evening of arts & culture. Free and open to all ages.
  www.southfirstfridays.com/street-mrkt

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  
  

  Opening Reception: Brett Amory White Light solo exhibition

  White Light is the next installment within Brett Amory’s Waiting series. Amory began the Waiting series in 2001 with paintings depicting commuter subjects seemingly detached from their fellow passengers and surrounding environments, inspired by the introverted culture of public transit and inhabitants of the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco.

  This new group of paintings continues to capture an individual’s struggle to exist in the present moment and the continued state of detachment from one’s surrounding environment. However, this new body of work depicts an element of freedom, as the subjects strive to transcend consciousness and human existence: freedom of thought, freedom of perception, freedom to create one’s own narrative. If reality is relative and bound to the subject’s own existence and subject to the judgment of others, this work reminds us that there is a choice. While White Light exposes the limitations one faces when they are defined by their limited perceptions and the gaze of others, the viewer is reminded that there is hope for absolute freedom over our existence and essence.

  On view in galleryTWO: Dimitri Drjuchin The Melting Kingdom solo exhibition

• Art Glass Center of San Jose – 465 South First St. map

  Listing unavailable at time of posting.

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  

  Higher Learning — Higher Fire presents work by emerging clay artists from SJSU’s MFA in Ceramics Program. Participating artists include Jonathan Huang, Malia Landis, Kat MacKinnon, Demetra Messoloras, Avery Palmer, David White, and Wesley Wright.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  Opening Reception for featured artists Leslie Ann Rice & Sara Tomasello

  
  Image by Leslie Ann Rice

  Circus Act by Leslie Ann Rice

  A mutt-ley crew of characters explore the circus of popular culture, touching upon the freakish tendencies of human nature.

  
  Image by Sara Tomasello

  Looking through the Glass by Sara Tomasello

  Through her paintings, Sara Tomasello builds on themes of intimacy and the unity of opposites. Her characters are symbols for the light and dark aspects of human nature. Using a vibrant color palette and inspired by universal mythological themes, Sara portrays the emotional impact of the world she sees and experiences it in her acrylic paintings. There is a story behind each piece and it begins; Once upon time. Viewers are invited to look through the glass that Sara views the world and reflect on your own experiences of the world.

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  Photograph by Victor Cartagena

  Join MACLA for an extraordinary evening of art and performance:

  In MACLA’s Gallery: A Body Parted: Shrapnel of Present Time Un Cuerpo Partido: Esquirlas de Tiempo Presente Utopia/Nightmare: The American Dream Utopia/Pesadilla: El Sueño Americano Exhibition by Victor Cartagena with sound elements by David Molina.

  Join us for the opening reception, artist talk and micro-performance by Secos y Mojados

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

  66 South First St: Defragmentation 66 
An installation by Michele Guieu

  

  Defragmentation 66 is an adaptation of the last installation I’ve made in San Diego: Defragmentation: Rearranging Bits and Pieces of Memory. It is an ongoing project and the occasion to reflect on bits and pieces of my memories, as I am recalling/documenting them. The project originated when I was about to leave San Diego after living there for 6 years. I thought about the different times I’ve left a place in my life. Defragmentation 66 is the first installation I am showing in San Jose since I’ve moved and it represents a link between the two towns – and beyond. The installation is on a smaller scale but uses some essential elements featured in the first version of the show: an ensemble of paintings, a painted background and videos. The videos in Defragmentation 66 are new memories and were taken here, in the bay area. The address number where the show is held, 66, is an interesting symbol in my life: the first time I came to the US, that’s the road I traveled on.

  386 South First St: Street Swag Photo Booth photos by Abe Menor at SubZERO Festival 2010

  

  95 South Market St: Folie à Deux Family Tree Monotypes and Glass Statues by Curt Schauer

  

  In this exhibit, Curt traces the origins and family history of the Folie a Deux series. From the image on the original sign in Tokyo that inspired the figurative images and the early acrylic ink monotype studies, digital drawings and oil based monotypes to the final five piece monotype series and blown glass statues that defined Curt’s work from 2008 to today. Folie a Deux explores the duality of extremes and conflict in human nature and between the art and the viewer in figurative and expressionist styles. Not satisfied with a single medium to express his vision,

  Curt furthered the duality theme by recreating the series in colorful 3D blown glass with hand etched graal images. This is the first exhibit to display the family tree in life (glass) and in portrait (monotypes) and displays the use of color, light, movement and dimenssion in Curt’s art.

• San Jose Jazz at Eulipia Restaurant – 374 South First St. map

  
  

  The Jazz Mafia for San Jose Jazz

  A creative force on the Bay Area music scene for more than a decade, the loose-knit band of Jazz cats, MCs, arrangers and composers known collectively as The Jazz Mafia is one of the most powerful assemblies of virtuosic performers on the West Coast. Launching some of the Bay Area’s most innovative and stylistically expansive ensembles, these musicians contribute their varied talents to a cross-cultural mix of new beats and melodies, Hip-Hop, Funk and R&B. The Jazz Mafia Horns have recorded in the studio with Carlos Santana and backed artists such as Zion-I, KRS One, and Thomas Dolby. Other bands in the JM pantheon include the incredible Realistic Orchestra, Supertaster w/ Joe Bagale, Brass Mafia, Jazz Mafia Trio, Spaceheater, and the Shotgun Wedding Quintet, one of the hits on the Jazz Beyond Stage at this year’s San Jose Jazz Summer Fest.

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  Crosses (Stone Mason’s Puzzle), From the collection of Roderick Kiracofe, Photo by Sharon Risedorph

  The Scrap ART exhibit showcases historical quilts drawn from the Museum’s and private collections and ‘scrappy’ contemporary works. Scrap ART examines the historical precedent and aesthetic of the scrap quilt and its modern-day descendants.
Just as quilters have long been inspired to make beautiful pieces from available scraps, the throwaways of daily life have inspired a new generation of ecologically-minded artists to combine creative reuse with old-fashioned thrift in works using material as varied as books, jeans, zippers, plastic, buttons and teabags. Scrap ART celebrates the reinterpretation of materials by artists both historical and contemporary in works that reflect the cultures and values of their makers.
 For more details: http://sjquiltmuseum.org/exhibitions.html



  Join us for a Recycled Fashion Trunk Show featuring the work of Darcy Fowkes, and a scrap art demonstration by Jane Emery, who will make unique fanciful “Aunt Jane’s Creations” – such as spirit dolls and animal figures!

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  
  Art by Bea Adams

  The Art of the Zombie Apocalypse.

  Survivors of the zombie invasion from earlier in the week can come out and see the art they left behind. A group of artists will leave their own impressions of the walking dead. Also featuring live music!

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  painting on canvas by Eder Luna

  Primer paso (First Step): emancipation of a life (emancipación de una vida)

  Interpreting the perspective of diverse social contexts the reality of a peaceful emancipation, The First Step shows an aesthetic exegesis of the current circumstances of how oppressed the world is—a discourse that despite reflecting the shadow of death and devastation, intends to light the way toward hope and awareness. These five artists from Oaxaca, Mexico, with one relocated to San José, confront aspects of revolutionary artistic, personal, and cultural emancipation in multiple media and site-specific installation: Julio Cesar, César Chávez, Mario Guzman, Eder Luna, and Ylan Luna.

• Caffé Frascati – 315 South First St. map

  First Fridays is Caffe Frascati’s Opera Night! with all your favorite arias and duets performed live by some of the bay Areas finest opera singers. 8-10pm.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us after Candlelight Yoga (6-7:30pm) as we open our doors to welcome art patrons and the downtown community to the South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk. Our featured artist is Robertino R. Ragazza, featuring his new exhibition, Memorias de mis viajes (memories of my travels).

  …..Memories of my travels (Memorias de mis viajes) is a collection of images which gives me fond memories and recollections of all the places I’ve traveled. When photographing, I like to capture just bit and pieces, not the full scale view, mainly focusing on the usage of high and low key lightings within the frame. In photographing these pieces, they create an assemblage, painting a complete picture of who I am. All photographs are hand-printed Selenium-toned Silver Gelatin.

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  The Peculiar Pageant new paintings and installation by Lacey Bryant

  Theatrically posed and surrounded by lush, illusory environments, the subjects of Lacey’s newest works are like pictures in a storybook written in an unknown language. The images are somewhat familiar but certain elements remains foreign. Like a hazy dream of an imagined childhood long forgotten, the images strive to make you feel as if you just might have been there once, maybe. As is common in Lacey’s work, there is a subtle tension between beautiful and unsettling elements. This contrast creates a sense of mystery and invites the viewer to construct their own interpretation of the scenes. In the safety of a world poised between reality and imagination where common symbols mingle with strange ones, Lacey’s characters expose their fears, doubts, despairs and longings.

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  
  

  seek party destroy
  Photography by Albert Bracamonte III

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  Collection of Light A new series by LAuruS Myth

  LAuruS Myth work is based on patterns found in nature that have lead to patterns used in modern technology. Not only do these symbols relate to each other visually, but they also function as patterns that guide flows of energy throughout machines and plant life. Connecting and converting this energy into the power that lies within human life and purpose, fuels her motives and creative inspiration. Her hope is to capture the essence of vibration through the repetition of organic and geometric shapes.

  “A plethora of environmental vibrations transform through colors to expose the core joy of my work as I attempt to bridge my own concepts of power. One source of power is sold as a commodity, and the other is simply generated within living organisms. Sources to support our human needs, such as solar, wind, biomass, and nuclear, are found externally in our environment, and I believe are also indistinguishable from our oneness and inner light. The balance between these two realms brings us closer to our collective achievements for energy. I believe that finding ways to converge the ideas of art and science, nature and technology, and “us” as the environment is the purpose of my current work. The interweaving of nature-spaces and microprocessor components in my paintings create a colorful kaleidoscope of this fusion of a world we live in.”

  Pho69 also features live contemporary music on First Fridays. Come check out local bands performing favorite covers and original music.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Carlos Villez, Eric Joyner, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters and John Hageman.

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  
  Efren Alvarez’ Separación/Deportados (Separation/Deported).

  In the exhibition Reflejos de Nuestras Raíces, a group of San Francisco Bay Area artists of Mexican roots who vary in socio-economic background, age, language, nationality, and race, exhibit their artwork in representation of one of the many cultures that together define America’s diverse population. Artists: Efrén Alvarez, Dario Cruz, Tulio Flores, Itzul Gutierrez, Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo, Ylan Luna, Kimy Martinez, and Mireya Villanueva

  Come to South First Billiards on Friday, September 2, 2011 for a night of open-mike and affordable art! You can sign up for open-mike to read poetry, share your own, sing, play an instrument, or just express yourself! Local artists will be selling artwork at affordable prices: 2-D artwork for $100 and under, 3-D artwork for $300 and under, jewelry and crafts for $50 and under. The Art Slam is an event to accompany the current exhibition Reflejos de Nuestras Raíces.

  5-9pm ALL AGES. 9pm-close 21+

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  
  

  Made At TechShop

  A collection of various projects made at TechShop from TechShop members.

  Exhibition date: one night only Sept. 2nd

• Art Ark – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  

  forest time is an exhibition of new paintings and mixed-media drawings by Christine Canepa. The work employs imagery from the animal world as a means of exploring ideas proposed in contemporary physics regarding the existence of multiple dimensions, or a “multiverse”. Canepa uses imagery of dens, nests, and burrows, and various endangered species to explore ideas around endings, loss, and the speculative potential of parallel worlds. The work plays with traditional distinctions between abstract and representational imagery, and historic conventions of landscape painting.

• South FIRST FRIDAYS presents STREET MRKT plus ArtCar Fest 15th Anniversary Showcase featuring 30 mobile, street legal sculptures from around the bay areaCome to the SoFA District from 7–11pm for an inspired evening of arts & culture.
  Free and open to all ages.
  www.southfirstfridays.com/street-mrkt

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  
  

  Opening Reception: The Melting Kingdom by Dimitri Drjuchin

  Dimitri Drjuchin (NY) returns to Anno Domini for his second solo exhibition entitled The Melting Kingdom. The new works slip us into parallel space of bright pinks, blues, reds and yellows through Drjuchin’s pouring rain paint portals that harbor a metaphor for our country’s current socio-economic troubles. The problems, embodied in his monsters that ooze across cityscapes, are surrounded by super-humans who still manage to have the last laugh. In these epic, dripping landscapes stories of individual triumph melt down the canvas seducing us into a world where anything is possible, even happiness during crisis.

  Dimitri will also perform a live acoustic set out on the STREET MRKT stage as Corrupt Autopilot.

  On view in galleryONE: ART OF ZINES 2011

  Featuring hundreds of zines from basements, bedrooms and midnight copy shops throughout the US and abroad. On view through August 13th.

• Art Glass Center of San Jose – 465 South First St. map

   

  Listing unavailable at time of posting.

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  

  Firing a wood kiln is exciting and labor intensive requiring constant stoking and tending for as long as 12 days. Local ceramic artist Shawn Felts brings his wood-fired works to Higher Fire this August — blistered bourbon bottles and flasks as well as more traditional “wabi sabi” teabowls and serving items.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  
  Image by Jojo Perea

  Convergence by Jojo Perea

  Subatomic abstract realism: A worldwide acceleration where science and spirituality dances to the tune of the cosmos. The illusion of duality unveiled a new beginning.

  
  Image by Michelle Waters

  Musings from the Wasteland by Michelle Waters

  The paintings in this series are influenced by the nightmarish imagery of Hieronymus Bosch, Edward Abbey’s writings and my work as a wildlife rehabilitator and environmental activist. My art deconstructs the assumption of human superiority by showing what might transpire if animals took control over the fate of the planet. Animals demolishing the Glen Canyon Dam and wildlife laying waste to a bulldozer are some of the characters who populate my paintings.

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  

  MACLA and Secos y Mojados Artist Collective is pleased to present A Body Parted: Shrapnel of Present Time Mural unveiling on MACLA’s William St Facade. In MACLA’s Gallery do not miss Navigations of the Fantastic featuring: Elizabeth Gómez, Betty Davis, José Arenas and Verónica Félix and stay for our music lounge featuring Cuban artist Marcos Pereda.

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

  66 South First St: Defragmentation 66 
An installation by Michele Guieu

  

  Defragmentation 66 is an adaptation of the last installation I’ve made in San Diego: Defragmentation: Rearranging Bits and Pieces of Memory. It is an ongoing project and the occasion to reflect on bits and pieces of my memories, as I am recalling/documenting them. The project originated when I was about to leave San Diego after living there for 6 years. I thought about the different times I’ve left a place in my life. Defragmentation 66 is the first installation I am showing in San Jose since I’ve moved and it represents a link between the two towns – and beyond. The installation is on a smaller scale but uses some essential elements featured in the first version of the show: an ensemble of paintings, a painted background and videos. The videos in Defragmentation 66 are new memories and were taken here, in the bay area. The address number where the show is held, 66, is an interesting symbol in my life: the first time I came to the US, that’s the road I traveled on.

  386 South First St: Street Swag Photo Booth photos by Abe Menor at SubZERO Festival 2010

  

  95 South Market St: Roundels sculptures by Gianfranco Paolozzi

  

  I was looking in the recycle container full of paper from flexo printing presses.

  That’s when I felt the passion again: round surfaces screaming to be used. I looked at them changing on the floor of my studio. I had to use my marks, my moments on the surfaces as a sign of me being there.

  That’s when the roundels were born.

• San Jose Jazz at Eulipia Restaurant – 374 South First St. map

  
  

  Composer/cellist/trombonist Dana Leong blends jazz, classical and pop to create a signature sound. Dana’s pioneering collage of musical styles has garnered critical acclaim and wowed audiences around the world. He has collaborated with top jazz artists including Paquito D’Rivera, Christian McBride, Dafnis Prieto, and Henry Threadgill; and has worked with such diverse artists as Ray Charles, Barry White, Kanye West, Wynton Marsalis, Bjork, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoko Ono and Lila Downs.

  In 2008 Dana’s quartet MILK & JADE toured all over Southeast Asia as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. State Department-sponsored tour, The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad. Since then the group has been a smashing hit at numerous festivals in Europe, Asia and the US. In addition to touring, Dana is a prolific composer and arranger, having recently written and premiered IdEgo, a new work for an aerial dance company Project Bandaloop at the Orange County Performing Arts Center as well as an evening length work, Life After Dark, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. He was a featured guest music director and performer in Fela! on Broadway in 2010 and is the first ever Composer-In-Residence for The Museum of Chinese in America in New York City.

  Dana grew up in San Francisco and studied classical cello and jazz trombone on double scholarships at Manhattan School of Music. Dana gives clinics and workshops around the globe as an official performing artist and clinician for YAMAHA and D’Addario Bowed Strings.

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  English Garden by Arline Fisch, 2010. Photo by William Gullette

  View two exhibits: Primary Structures explores how innovative artists using simple linear elements in combination with unconventional materials can broaden our understanding of the familiar by transforming the stitch structures of knit and crochet into large scale and compelling art. Southwestern Banded Blankets: Three Cultures, One Horizon (Collection of Jean and Roger Moss) is a unique exhibit and the first of its type to focus exclusively on banded blankets. These utilitarian and simply striped blankets showcase the rich cultural tradition of the Pueblo, the Navajo, and the Spanish Colonial Rio Grande blankets of the “Four Corners” area of the American Southwest.

  Join us for the South First Friday Salon: Make a beautiful sculptural origami lotus out of yarn and paper, and check out our gigantic knitted yarn flowers that are currently being exhibited! And listen to solo classical guitarist, Michael Bautista, member of the South Bay Guitar Society.

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  
  

  The SLG Art Boutiki features the return of its popular show The Modern Primitives Cultural Research and Cocktail Society. Tikis and other Polynesian pop and cocktail themed art adorn the gallery walls. Live music and the stuff that dreams are made of.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  Image credit: Theresa Because, mixed media sculpture

  Primer paso (First Step): emancipation of a life (emancipación de una vida)

  Five artists from Oaxaca confront aspects of artistic, personal, and cultural emancipation:
  Julio Cesar, César Chávez, Mario Guzman, Eder Luna, Ylan Luna

• Caffé Frascati – 315 South First St. map

  

  Cheating Time: Constructing a Praxis of Juncture by Trina Merry

  Bodypaint is a temporary medium which changes into a different painting almost as soon as the artist has set it onto the skin and as the human canvas performs & models in it. Bodypainting in many ways is like another indigenous & tribal art form, the sand painting.

  “Quite a bit of effort and time is made to create the work and it is easily destroyed or becomes a new work, changed by factors I the artist have no control over. When I bodypaint I am not ruled by time, but external elements remind me that we are in a state of change & life is a process, not a product. So much of our culture is designed to produce & consume a product- we live by the clock, the stoplight & the retirement plan.

  Nature has much to teach us about seasons & living in process. Each day the sunsets a little sooner or a little later; the ocean & rivers teach us something about time that a clock cannot. We are in a constant state of change, no matter how much we resist it. “

  Through bodypaint, Merry has taken classical high art themes, such as the Four Seasons, and high art forms, such as ballet, to examine this concept of process, connection and living in season. Performance artists, such as dancers with fabric, are caught in the moment of leaps & turns frozen by photography. One of the featured bodypaintings of the exhibit based on Picasso’s “Guernica”, is set on a purposefully posed human canvas, yet full of imagery of an existential moment—the horror & anguish experienced by the victims of war.

  “I feel like Caffé Frascati (formerly Caffé Trieste) is the correct venue to explore these high art subjects as it has been a proud supporter of San Jose artists as a venue for music, poetry, and art exhibits.

  This exhibit explores two important photographer relationships I have with Martin Delfino & Rafael Hernandez. Both are immigrants with a wonderful love of avante garde art who have been instrumental in my growth as an artist.”

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  

  Imagination Landscapes by Allegra Bick-Maurischat

  In her first solo show, Allegra Bick-Maurischat explores the fluidity of line and the intensity of color to break from literal, everyday forms. Her multimedia drawings and paintings are physically detailed, visual mappings of form and color that create “landscapes” meant to engage and challenge the imagination.

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  Dreams by Valerie Runningwolf

  What are dreams? Where do they come from? Some believe they may come from a collective consciousness, others believe they are messages from the spirit world, or maybe self generated from our minds.

  A collection of dreams brought to life by mixed-media artist Valerie Runningwolf can be seen at Good Karma in August. Please join us during the First Friday art walk to share your dreams in a collaborative art piece.

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  
  

  Know Trespassing by Jason Duffany

  “Last year I rode my bicycle across Canada, then down the East Coast to Florida, then west again to New Mexico, invading any empty buildings I came across, for photo sessions. This image (above) was taken at an abandoned gypsum factory in Philadelphia.”

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  Collection of Light A new series by LAuruS Myth

  LAuruS Myth work is based on patterns found in nature that have lead to patterns used in modern technology. Not only do these symbols relate to each other visually, but they also function as patterns that guide flows of energy throughout machines and plant life. Connecting and converting this energy into the power that lies within human life and purpose, fuels her motives and creative inspiration. Her hope is to capture the essence of vibration through the repetition of organic and geometric shapes.

  “A plethora of environmental vibrations transform through colors to expose the core joy of my work as I attempt to bridge my own concepts of power. One source of power is sold as a commodity, and the other is simply generated within living organisms. Sources to support our human needs, such as solar, wind, biomass, and nuclear, are found externally in our environment, and I believe are also indistinguishable from our oneness and inner light. The balance between these two realms brings us closer to our collective achievements for energy. I believe that finding ways to converge the ideas of art and science, nature and technology, and “us” as the environment is the purpose of my current work. The interweaving of nature-spaces and microprocessor components in my paintings create a colorful kaleidoscope of this fusion of a world we live in.”

  Pho69 also features live contemporary music on First Fridays. Come check out local bands performing favorite covers and original music.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters, John Hageman and Valery Milovic.

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  

  Reflejos de Nuestras Raíces (Reflections of Our Roots)

  As people continue to immigrate to the United States, those who come from the South are often automatically assumed to be Mexican. While people of Mexican heritage do have much in common with people from Central and South America, it is important to recognize the uniqueness of every culture and the differences between them, especially in a country as culturally diverse as the United States. In fact, there is a broad range of diversity even within each cultural group because, as with the general populations, every individual brings a very unique set of life experiences and perspectives.

  In Reflejos de Nuestras Raíces (Reflections of Our Roots), a group of San Francisco Bay Area artists of Mexican roots exhibit their artwork in representation of one of the many cultures that together define America’s diverse population. These artists, though sharing Mexican roots, are in fact a cross-section of their cultural group as they vary in socio-economic background, gender, age, life experience, language, nationality, and race.

  Artists’ reception includes Aztec dance, live music by The Blank Manuscript, and more!

  5-9pm ALL AGES. 9pm-close 21+ venue.

• TechShop San Jose – 300 South Second St. map

  
  

  Made At TechShop

  Join us for a night of art at San Jose’s South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk! We have turned the lobby of TechShop San Jose into a gallery space for the night to showcase artwork and projects that TechShop members have made! Come see what you can make here!

• Art Ark – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  Photo Credit: Michelle Budziak

  Welcome to Coyote Creek’

  City waterways provide residents, housed and un-housed, an escape to nature. Access of this resource is important, though local use can cause damage to the area. This exhibit explores Coyote Creek in San Jose, focusing on both positive and negative aspects of resident use of its trails and parks.

JOIN US for the next South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk + STREET MRKT on August 5th!
6pm ’til midnight — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public

• 

  In addition to the South FIRST FRIDAYS monthly art walk you’ll find 100 artists, performers & musicians celebrating the indie creative spirit on June 3rd!

  

  South FIRST FRIDAYS presents the 4th Annual SubZERO Festival

  Focused on emerging and present subcultures thriving in our region, SubZERO is a diy, artistically bent, hi/lotechno mashup where street meets geek. Come to the SoFA District from 6pm-midnight for an inspired evening of arts & culture. Free and open to all ages. www.subzerofestival.com

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  
  

  Opening Reception: ART OF ZINES 2011
  Featuring hundreds of zines from basements, bedrooms and midnight copy shops throughout the US and abroad. Purchase zines directly from zinemakers out at Zine Party! hosted by Yumi at the SubZERO Festival.

  On view in galleryTWO:What He Meant by The Self Was Simply Our Truest Nature, Our Natural State New work by Jeremiah Maddock

• Art Glass Center of San Jose – 465 South First St. map

  
  

  Listing not available at time of posting.

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  

  Hsin-Chuen Lin conjures up clay vessels inspired by early Chinese bronzes from Shang and Zhou periods. After pieces are formed, they are pinched, punched, torn, and squeezed. Dry glaze and atmospheric kiln firing enhance the strong forms and texture naturally. Hsin-Chuen makes a rare appearance demonstrating his mastery of wheel and form on First Friday, June 3rd from 7-11pm.

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  
  Image by Sean Sczepanik

  
  Image by Steven Sczepanik

  Artist’s Reception: Layers of Age in Monster Land
  New installation and paintings by Sean Sczepanik & Steven Sczepanik. An exploration of monsters and cartoons from the imagination, referencing mainly Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, Fright Night, and Hellraiser. Also on view is a display of hands representing fellow artists. Each hand containing a characteristic of each artists’ style.

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  Image Credit: Elizabeth Gomez, Canary, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2010

  MACLA is pleased to present Navigations of the Fantastic featuring: Elizabeth Gómez, Betty Davis, José Arenas and Verónica Félix. Join the artists for a gallery walk through and an engaging conversation about their work. Outside in front of MACLA don’t miss John Steadlar perform spoken word and stay for a thrilling drum circle session hosted by Jimmy Biala.

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

  66 South First St: Defragmentation 66 
An installation by Michele Guieu

  

  Defragmentation 66 is an adaptation of the last installation I’ve made in San Diego: Defragmentation: Rearranging Bits and Pieces of Memory. It is an ongoing project and the occasion to reflect on bits and pieces of my memories, as I am recalling/documenting them. The project originated when I was about to leave San Diego after living there for 6 years. I thought about the different times I’ve left a place in my life. Defragmentation 66 is the first installation I am showing in San Jose since I’ve moved and it represents a link between the two towns – and beyond. The installation is on a smaller scale but uses some essential elements featured in the first version of the show: an ensemble of paintings, a painted background and videos. The videos in Defragmentation 66 are new memories and were taken here, in the bay area. The address number where the show is held, 66, is an interesting symbol in my life: the first time I came to the US, that’s the road I travelled on.

  386 South First St: Street Swag Photo Booth photos by Abe Menor at SubZERO Festival 2010

  

  95 South Market St: Roundels sculptures by Gianfranco Paolozzi

  

  I was looking in the recycle container full of paper from flexo printing presses.

  That’s when I felt the passion again: round surfaces screaming to be used. I looked at them changing on the floor of my studio. I had to use my marks, my moments on the surfaces as a sign of me being there.

  That’s when the roundels were born.

• San Jose Jazz at Eulipia Restaurant – 374 South First St. map

  
  

  The Jazz Mechanics for San Jose Jazz
  Based in downtown San Jose, The Jazz Mechanics have emerged from their machine shop, crafting a new modern voice in Jazz. This hopped up trio expands the genre of improvisational music, performing largely original compositions that draw on a variety of influences including bebop jazz, R&B grooves and Balkan melodies. Laying down the foundation for the band’s hard hitting force and reinventing the role of acoustic bass, is bass player and composer Endika. On piano is Daniel Fillip, a motor city native with a background in modern and latin jazz and a long time member of the Afro-Cuban group Charangon Nueve. Back on the traps, and down in the grease pit, drummer Michael Brilliot brings a rhythmic toolbox to the band that is grounded in diversity of styles, from jazz and New Orleans based funk and rhythm and blues to roots rock and country. Together these three Jazz Mechanics are a finely tuned jazz machine that infuse rock and roll energy into their performances and draw the audience in for a rich and dynamic experience.

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  Image credit: Trilogy by Xenobia Bailey

  View two new exhibits: Primary Structures explores how innovative artists using simple linear elements in combination with unconventional materials can broaden our understanding of the familiar by transforming the stitch structures of knit and crochet into large scale and compelling art. Southwestern Banded Blankets: Three Cultures, One Horizon (Collection of Jean and Roger Moss) is a unique exhibit and the first of its type to focus exclusively on banded blankets. These utilitarian and simply striped blankets showcase the rich cultural tradition of the Pueblo, the Navajo, and the Spanish Colonial Rio Grande blankets of the “Four Corners” area of the American Southwest.

  Join us for an outdoor Street Knit Fest and create art at our South FIRST FRIDAY Salon (knit and wear bracelets)!

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  
  

  The Punks of Steam part One. A dizzying array of work presented by local steampunk artists will line the walls and fill the halls of the Art Boutiki. The Neo-Victorian art genre blurs the lines between sci-fi and fantasy. Imagine the mad scientist as Indiana Jones styled adventurer.

  Also, in front of the building, Jon Bruneau presents a themed, interactive video presentation sure to please many and keep people occupied for minutes, if not hours. All this plus live music by everyone’s favorite South First Friday Jazz band Quasimodal.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  Image credit: Theresa Because, mixed media sculpture

  Artists’ Reception: Out of State 2011
  Works opens its first exhibition in the new 365 South Market space with a look at the area’s newest artists in Out of State, eight San José State University 2011 BFA graduates in pictorial art: Theresa Because, Kelsey Booth, Maryanne de Carolis, Riwan Khalil, Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo, Erin Salazar, Emily Seeman, and Rong Sun.

• Caffé Trieste – 315 South First St. map

  
  

  On View: Barbarians and Beauties by Sandi Billingsley
  A series of work inspired by the conflict Billingsley has felt and witnessed in some women: the desire to be a hard competitor in the workplace and the desire to be a gentle object of desire.

  First Fridays are Opera Night! at Caffé Trieste with some of the Bay Area’s best opera singers performing your favorite arias and duets.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  
  Image: Hanuman, Leaping with Devotion, Angeles Moreno, 2011, Acrylic on Wood, 12 x 24 inche

  Opening Reception: YOGA INSPIRED ART SERIES II : Yoga Symbols & Archetypes by Angeles Moreno

  An image is symbolic when it implies something beyond its obvious meaning, often a wider ‘unconscious’ aspect that is not precisely defined or fully explained. Because there are many things beyond human understanding, people have used symbols for centuries to represent concepts they cannot define or fully comprehend.

  An archetype is a universally understood symbol or behavior that serves as a model for humans to emulate. Archetypes appear in myths and storytelling across all cultures and as Yoga teacher Mark Stephens puts it, they serve “an essential function of the mind (conscious or unconscious) to express repressed needs and desires or to make sense out of life and resolve all conflicts therein.” In Yoga, postures often invoke archetypes of animals, nature, and tools, while Indian mythology in general is rich in tales and symbols developed to explain human nature and our existence.

  The importance of symbols and archetypes is not whether they are “real” or not but what they represent, their meaning, and how we apply their interpretation to our lives.

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  On View: Alviso Slough photography Josh Marcotte
  A forgotten portal to the bay perched on the edge of the city, once crowded with steamboats and stagecoaches, Alviso sits eclipsed in the sun. Forgotten waterways and abandoned buildings litter a town swallowed up by San Jose annexation. “Alone, I wander the streets with a camera in my hand, in a place that is truly lost in San Jose.”

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  
  

  Signs of Exhaustion by Lost San Jose
  Come join us in the Metro building for Signs of Exhaustion photography by Lost San Jose

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  Movement paintings by Michael Buscemi
  Buscemi’s exhibition focuses on capturing the energy of the movement of light. The artist emphasizes expense through gesture, color and layering. His art creates the atmosphere where one can be uplifted and inspired. Buscemi’s art has simplicity and elegance expressed through color and gesture which is able to nurture the meditative state in the observer.

  Pho69 also features live contemporary music on First Fridays. Come check out local bands performing favorite covers and original music.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  Image credit: John Hageman

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters, John Hageman and Valery Milovic.

  Ongoing.

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  

  The Creative Flow: an art and music explosion

  MESHCollective: a collaborative artistic endeavor where art meets love. MESHcollective is a group of Bay Area artists and designers. SEE the awesome artwork and HEAR the best of local sound all under one roof. DON’T MISS THIS!

  5-9pm ALL AGES. 9pm-close 21+ venue.

• Art Ark – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  

  If Only Sculptural works and poetry that explore loss, grief and trauma.
  Artist and poet, Diana Mihalakis, has drawn from the poetry she wrote while grieving the loss of her son in Iraq to convey the difficult landscape of loss, grief and trauma. Using images found in nature, Mihalakis’ sculptures speak in a universal way. The artist will perform her poetry in the gallery.

• Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 South First St. map

  
  

  Opening Reception: What He Meant by The Self Was Simply Our Truest Nature, Our Natural State
  New work by Jeremiah Maddock
  Music: DJ Coco & DJ Boboso spinning records fresh from Paris flea markets and seedy London record shops!

  Jeremiah Maddock is a self-taught artist currently living in Brooklyn, NY. He finds it difficult to recall a time in his life when he wasn’t creating. Inspired mostly by people and nature, especially repetition—whether it be musical or visual—Maddock’s art is borne of the desire to make sense out of chaos and turn structure into static process. Each line in the work is a response to the one that preceded it.

  Although concepts occasionally reveal themselves to Jeremiah as he works, they’re often very vague. What the viewer may perceive as a recognizable symbol reveals itself to Maddock more like musical punctuation—subtle and lingering nearby with some abstract intention. And while the work as a whole may seem to tell us an elaborate story, none of it is preconceived. Mostly spontaneous and a bit obsessive, the work manifests from the artist’s almost trance-like drawing sessions onto found aged papers and recycled book covers that act as a receiver of the inks he mixes from dead pens and markers.

  Exhibition dates: May 6-June 18th

  On view in galleryONE: GLIMMER featuring Christian Breitkreutz (US), Megan Diddie (US), Luciano Scherer (BR) and Collin van der Sluijs (NL). Artists don’t typically run from the darkness, they walk right in and shine their light brightly so that we all may share in what they see. This illumination can have profound effects upon the viewer. Glimmer is a faint glimpse into the minds of four emerging artists. On view through May 21st

• Art Glass Center of San Jose – 465 South First St. map

  
  

  Listing not available at time of posting.

• Higher Fire Clayspace & Gallery – 499 South Market St. map

  
  

  TANTALIZING TABLEWARE

  Scott Jennings uses paper-thin porcelain to create gorgeous vessels for the table. Each piece gets pinched, stretched, patterned and assembled completely by hand. Check out Jennings’ colorful creations while sampling olive oil from Cloud 9 Orchard—a local organic farm making TRUE extra virgin olive oil from Italian, French, and Spanish varietals.

  Works by Jennings are featured in a broader show of tableware made by exhibiting artists at Higher Fire this May: Joe Battiato, Barbara Brown, Tim Carlson, Cristina Chang, Anita Clemetson, Dan Dermer, Doris Fischer-Colbrie, Jill Getzan, Donna Hills, Joy Imai, Hsin-Chuen Lin and many more.

  Join us May 6th, 7-11pm, for a reception for all the artists plus an evening of pottery wheel demonstrations and the kids’ clay table.

  Exhibit dates: May 6 – June 2

• KALEID gallery – 88 South Fourth St. map

  
  

  Artist’s Reception: RENASCI by Emonic
  RENASCI is the Latin word meaning rebirth or to be renewed. The body of work presented will deal with concepts and subject material based on human energy for an upcoming illustrated book called CRETUM due later next year.
  On view through May 27th

  
  

  Artist’s Reception: The Strip by Katie C. Gutierrez
  Intrigued with the notion of distilling a place as visually overwhelming as Las Vegas down into simplified points of bleeding light, Gutierrez encaustically collages her own photos with iconic vintage Vegas imagery to create her own brilliant yet hazy version of this place she loves to hate.
  On view through May 27th

• MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 South First St. map

  
  Image Credit: Marcos Giatan, Love Machine, acrylic on masonite, 2011

  View MACLA’s 13th Annual Exhibition and Auction Latino Art Now. Join artist and art professor Eugene Rodriguez for Collecting 101. Geared to first time buyers or collectors who want to make informed decisions about buying art. In the Castellano Playhouse MACLA is featuring poets that have changed the meaning of “WORD”: Adriana Gracia and Yosimar Reyes.

• Phantom Galleries – art exhibits in vacant storefronts and alternative spaces

  

  66 South First St: Connections by Lacey Bryant
  Bryant is interested in the disconnect between humans and nature and sets out to examine and reconcile that divide. The subjects of these paintings interact with creatures, sharing messages, fruit, freedom. The relationships they share are on equal footing. However, as with much of her work there are things left a mystery. We don’t know what message was shared or what the recipient’s reaction will be. Some of the questions left are more tenebrous-is the fruit being offered or stolen? This lingering tension encourages a dialogue, and a way to look at ourselves through a different lens.

  

  386 South First St: The Pallet Knife Dance… paintings by Ruthy Gold
  A series of paintings (acrylic on canvas using a pallet knife only) capturing the movement and flow of real life moments.

• San Jose Jazz at Eulipia Restaurant – 374 South First St. map

  
  

  Lee Pardini Trio for San Jose Jazz, 8:30–10:30pm
  The Lee Pardini Trio is a high energy ensemble in the “Bad Plus” vein. Comprised of Lee on Piano, Kevin Higuchi on Drums and Gus Kambeitz on Bass, this native SJ trio makes for an exciting experience as they channel the Bill Evans Trio, with hints of Bud Powell, all the while making use of original compositions and jazz standards done in new and exciting ways. There are also hints of 70′s pop—if you listen closely …

• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map

  
  

  Join us for the third annual May Day Market! Friday, May 6, from 7-11pm This Market is a sale of all kinds of donated goods to benefit the Museum. Last year, we had fabric, ethnic textiles, notions, stylish vintage clothing, and amazing quilts—both new creations and historical.

• SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery – 577 South Market St. map

  
  

  In advance of Free Comic Book Day, the SLG Art Boutiki displays work from some of the notable contributors from the last 25 years of SLG Publishing’s notorious reign as one of the comic book world’s coolest comics company. On display will be art by Jon “Bean” Hastings, Crab Scrambly, and many others. Live music by the super-group that combines the best of The Art Boutiki Jazz Quartet and Quasimodal.

• Works San Jose – 365 South Market St. map

  
  

  Under Construction Art Party!
  Visit the new Works on South Market at San Salvador for an art party while construction continues. Featuring live painters: Cory Goodmorning, Ivan Gonzalez, Jonathan Perea, Mathew Scicluna, and Wadl. Musical accompaniment by Haptic Synapses, one of Silicon Valley’s best improvisational techno bands. Band members Steve Cooley, Derek Scott (The Rhythmist), and Charles Johnson (Qorser) use traditional tools, including home made and experimental sound sources and controllers. The result always has a solid backbone, a soulful feel, and an dash of chaos.

• Caffé Trieste – 315 South First St. map

  
  

  Opening Reception: Barbarians and Beauties by Sandi Billingsley
  A series of work inspired by the conflict Billingsley has felt and witnessed in some women: the desire to be a hard competitor in the workplace and the desire to be a gentle object of desire.

  First Fridays are Opera Night! at Caffé Trieste with some of the Bay Area’s best opera singers performing your favorite arias and duets.

• Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

  

  Opening Reception: The Spirit of Northern Italy photographic work by Marco Zecchin
  Join us after Candlelight Yoga (6-7:30pm) as we open our doors to welcome the Art Walk patrons and the downtown community. Downtown Yoga Shala is proud to welcome featured artist, Marco Zecchin.

  For twenty-six years, Marco Zecchin had not returned to his Father’s home in Italy. Growing up in America, he was able to keep his family heritage at arm’s length. When he did return, it was to a world that had changed little. Marco’s childhood memories and his Father’s stories were locked in the land and buildings of Northern Italy. What they stirred in him was the start of a ten-year Odyssey to mesh his past with his present. These photographs and the book they spawned are Marco’s journal of this voyage.

• Good Karma Vegan Café – 37 South First St. map

  

  Opening Reception: Alviso Slough photography Josh Marcotte
  A forgotten portal to the bay perched on the edge of the city, once crowded with steamboats and stagecoaches, Alviso sits eclipsed in the sun. Forgotten waterways and abandoned buildings litter a town swallowed up by San Jose annexation. “Alone, I wander the streets with a camera in my hand, in a place that is truly lost in San Jose.”

• METRO Photo Exhibit – 550 South First St. map

  
  

  Come join us in the Metro building for Contour de Flesh photography by Aimee BuPane

• Pho69 – 321 South First St. map

  
  

  On View: Janice Kirkpatrick (nee MEYER) Visionary Reflections
  Kirkpatrick’s work combines strong colors with unique inner visions of universal symbolism. Her paintings and drawings often reflect dream imagery, with a lyrical musical influence. The imagery and forms she creates depict a strong sense of intuitive knowing and a deeper understanding of the magic in the natural world. She is able to transmit this to us in color, energy and form to change us on a deep inner level. Even though she had her start in Africa, she is heavily influenced by many world cultures and spirituality. She has a special affinity for the Native American culture, India, Hawaii and long gone cultures such as Atlantis and Lemuria.

  Pho69 also features live contemporary music on First Fridays. Come check out local bands performing favorite covers and original music.

• Psycho Donuts – 288 South Second St. map

  
  Image credit: Valery Milovic

  Psycho Donuts in downtown San Jose is a quirky donut shop and art gallery. The gallery displays top local artists and has an ongoing exhibit featuring the work of John Renzel, Lacey Bryant, Nicolas Caesar, Murphy Adams, Christine Benjamin, Michael Foley, Michael Borja, Laura Callin Bennett, Michelle Waters, John Hageman and Valery Milovic.

• South First Billiards & Lounge – 420 South First St. map

  

  On View: A Night of Foolishness and Whimsy Art by Lara Sophia. Music by Rebelskamp and more!

  5-9pm ALL AGES. 9pm-close 21+ venue.

• Art Ark – 1035 South Sixth St. map

  
  Image credit: Charles Hunter, tide prediction diagram

  Opening Reception: Next Question:
  San José State University BFA Graphic Design Exhibition 2011
  Forward-moving and equipped to embrace the unknown. An exhibition of the work of 25 graduating students from SJSU’s rigorous BFA Graphic Design Program. Posters, information design, typography, branding, book design, and time based media will be on view.