news & press
Underground art galleries serve a special niche
September 4, 2008
by: Reyhan Harmanci, Chronicle Staff Writer
link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/DDOE12G4C6.DTL
Across the Bay Area, hidden in nooks and crannies, is a whole constellation of guerrilla galleries. Some exist only for a night; others stick around for years...Read More >
100 Performances for the Hole - Review on Stretcher.org
January 26, 2008
by Terri Cohn
link: http://www.stretcher.org/reviews/rev1.php
The evening of January 26 capped a day of viewing engaging exhibitions in San Francisco. Among them was Paul Kos's dynamic mini-retrospective, West of the Great Divide: 1968-2008 at Gallery Paule Anglim, and a survey of Katherine Westerhout's rich pigment prints from her series Detroit at Electric Works. While these two gallery shows deserve and have received positive attention in the art press, I was engaged in a more unusual way during the one and one-half hours I spent experiencing 100 Performances for the Hole, Justin Hoover's latest ambitious project for his curatorial venture, The Garage Biennial...Read More >
"The Exhibitionist: Justin Hoover is
(truly) at home with art." 7x7 SF
July 26, 2007
by Leilani Labong
link: http://www.7x7sf.com/arts_entertainment/art/8602987.html
Evidently, tagging the word biennale onto the title of a major art exhibition underlines its significance, given that an event of such magnitude, by definition, takes place only once every two years. What then to make of the yearly Garage Biennale—comprising six one-night-only art shows spread over six months—founded by local artist Justin Hoover in the garage of his Pacific Heights residence? “I decided [it’s] more about the exhibition of art than it is about being every two years,” says Hoover. “There aren’t a lot of experimental spaces in SF,” adds the 25-year-old, who then sheepishly clarifies (after recognizing a slew of institutions such as Southern Exposure, the Lab and Intersection for the Arts), “Well, there aren’t enough.”
Originally from Berkeley, Hoover launched the art happening in 2004—not to compete with La Biennale di Venezia or the Whitney Biennial, but to “make art happen, no matter what.” (Last year, this admirable decree allowed local moped gang Creatures of the Loin to tear up Hoover’s driveway as a piece of performance art.) Hoover has wooed such up-and-coming artists as James Stranahan, whose 15-minute, Matmos-scored stop-motion film, Vitiligo, debuted at the Garage in 2004. Last month’s “Seven Sad Forests,” a show featuring artists’ interpretations of “the state of the world,” is scheduled to appear at the Ping Pong Gallery in Potrero Hill (just one of the venues selected to host post-Garage exhibits) from August 24 to 27. The mount-’em-and-move-’em tactic is one Hoover says he hopes will give the pieces some much-deserved extended limelight. On August 25, “Food For Thought” (which is cocurated by Artweek contributor Terri Cohn) opens at the Garage before moving to Oakland’s Chandra Cerrito Contemporary Gallery..
Zephry for NPR Radio
aired: August 11th, 2006, 07:16am
GARAGE BIENNALE - MICHAEL ZHENG, JOYCE GRIMM, STEPHANIE SYJUCO, AND JUSTIN HOOVER, AUGUST 9TH, 2006
file under: uncategorized
Review from art business online magazine
aired: March 24, 2006
link:http://www.artbusiness.com/1open/032506.html
Garage Biennale: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sex.
Artists: Peter Foucault, Brayan Hewitt, Vita Mei Hewitt, Justin Hoover, Lauren Scime, Samantha Sherry.
Comment: High atop the golden bluffs of Pacific Heights sets one of the more improbable gallery venues I've had the pleasure of perusing-- a vintage brick three-car garage trimmed in painted white wood, accessed by walking a long concrete drive, through an archway, and back behind a monster mo-fo megamanse. There's a hole in of the concrete floor of one of the garage's three berths, apparently where automobiles were once serviced from beneath-- but tonight it's the bar, covered in plexiglass with a serving hole for the bartendress to take your bucks and give up the beverages.
The art's based on an old 1920's book called The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sex, here updated in a variety of ways including silly, steamy, serious, droll, prurient, gruesome, quirky, and generally pretty decent. Artist curator Bryan Hewitt says most of the participating artists attended or met through SFAI, and that the Garage Biennale has five more scheduled events between now and summer's end.
4on1 Chronicle Article
August 10th, 2006
GARAGE BIENNALE - 4 on 1: Curator Creates, Artists Curate
4on1 Weekly Article
August 1st, 2006
GARAGE BIENNALE - 4 on 1: Curator Creates, Artists Curate
