Preview: Gauntlet Gallery’s 3rd Annual 12×12 Group Exhibit [SF]

Themed group exhibits have been pretty big for quite a while now, and while I have absolutely nothing against them — we sure have posted about enough of them ourselves — it’s really nice to see someone take the chains off, occasionally.  The benefit of most of these themed exhibits is seeing various artists, sometimes working in a wide range of different mediums, filter the provided topic of inspiration through their own unique aesthetics.  Those shows are great, and often feature large and small pieces alike.  Similarly, I genuinely love seeing musicians like Built To Spill doing amazing covers where they re-imagine the works of others, put their own spin of old favorites, but the tracks from their own catalogs are still always going to be my favorite.  By focusing too much on themes when group exhibits are assembled, it makes for great marketing hype, but it doesn’t always provide enough of an opportunity for many of these up-and-coming artists to present their own voices unfiltered and it can pigeonhole them into the operating within unnecessary parameters.  Likewise, the benefit of having a group show with a good mixture of artists is that it can bring attention to lesser known talents, but it can also invariably bury a number of others in the process, especially when the scales of the pieces vary so drastically.  For these very reasons I really like the simple concept behind Gauntlet Gallery‘s annual 12×12 exhibit.  As with the 2 previous years, the third installment of the exhibit, opening this upcoming Saturday, will involve all of the contributing artists working within the restrictions of using the exact same dimensions.  Other than that, they’re pretty much given the freedom to create whatever they feel compelled to.

The press release elaborates:

“Each artist was given carte blanche to produce a work of their chosen medium and subject matter as long as it stayed within the 12×12 dimensions. The works include everything from oil painting to sculpture and wood cuts. With over 50 artists from around the world participating it is sure to be one of our most eclectic shows yet.“

Here’s who’s involved this time around…

List of Contributing Artists:

13fngrs, Adam Caldwell, Adam Ziskie, Akira Beard, Alec Huxley, Ali Ozer, Allan Innman, Arabella Proffer, Brian Donnelly, Brin Levinson, Bryan Schnelle, Charlie Immer, Christopher Blackstock, Conrad Roset, Dan-ah Kim, Daryll Pierce, David Blake, David Cooley, David Natale, David Slone, Delfin Finley, Duffyleg, Emilio Villalba, Famous When Dead, Hilary White, Ian Reynold, Jackie Andrea, Jason Thielke, Johannah O’Donnell, Justin Hopkins, Ken Flewellyn, Kieran Collins, Kieth Carter, KiSung Koh, Kohshin Finely, Kyle Stewart, Lie, Marat Danilyan, Marcos LaFarga, Martine Johanna, Melanie Alves, Michael McConnell, Mike Bell, Monty Guy, Phil Noto, Rebecca Adams, Robert Bowen, Ryan Allen, Sean Newport, Sean Norvet, Skibs, TLTV, Tony Philippou, Tracy Piper, Wednesday Kirwan, Wiley Wallace, Zofia Bogusz

Check out preview images for the exhibit below the following event details…

WHAT:

Gauntlet Gallery’s
Third Annual 12 x 12 Exhibit

WHEN:

Opening:
Saturday, March 14th
7pm-10pm

WHERE:

Gauntlet Gallery
1040 Larkin St,
San Francisco, California 94109

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Opening is ALL AGES w/NO COVER
Show on view until Saturday, April 18th
Gallery hours: Tues – Sat. noon – 6pm
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/644493655656212/