Join us for a feast of culinary and visual delights! Live oysters from Tomales Bay Oyster Company will be served at this special opening night reception. Social distance and safety protocols will be enforced.
Saturday, February 27th beginning at dusk ~5pm PST Outside of 2501 Bryant Street, San Francisco, rain or shine
Join us as we consider pinhole cameras inside oyster shells, native oyster restoration at the Presidio and oyster farming and feasting in Tomales Bay.
Healthy oyster reefs are a proven way to effectively reduce water pollution and improve the marine environment. While other bivalves also possess the ingenious ability to clean water while flushing out pollutants as they feed, none are simultaneous symbols of feasting, as is the oyster.
Gwendolyn Meyer
Participating artists and scientists:
Oyster reef panels designed by architecture faculty MARGARET IKEDA & EVAN JONES at California College of the Arts (CCA) provided by JONATHON YOUNG, wildlife ecologist at the Presidio
Oyster shell pinhole cameras by DAVID JANESKO
Two-channel video installation “Consider the Oyster” about Drake’s Bay Oyster company by CHRIS KALLMYER
Video “Heard Above” filmed at Quartermaster Reach by TAYLOR GRIFFITH
Photos from “Oyster Culture” a beautiful book about the rich intersection between oyster farming and culinary culture in the unique region of West Marin by GWENDOLYN MEYER
Natural Discourse, curated by Shirley Alexandra Watts, is again collaborating with Levy Art + Architecture to consider this wondrous bi-valve in a street-front exhibit that will be visible from the street where anyone can view it, 24 hours a day for 8 weeks (best viewed at dusk) at 2501 BRYANT STREET, SAN FRANCISCO.
A Storefront Art Exhibit Opens February 27, 2021, 6 pm to 9 pm outside 2501 Bryant St, Rain or Shine
Join us as we consider pinhole cameras inside oyster shells, native oyster restoration at the Presidio and oyster farming and feasting in Tomales Bay. Participating artists and scientists: Taylor Griffith, David Janesko, Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones, Chris Kallmyer, Gwendolyn Meyer and Jonathan Young.
David Janesko’s poetic series Forest/Oyster was the initial inspiration for the exhibit. Delicate images of the forest surrounding the Willapa Bay in Oregon are imprinted on the inside of the shells. Jonathon Young, wildlife ecologist at the Presidio, provided us with concrete oyster reef balls and computer-designed oyster panels by architecture faculty Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones of Architectural Ecologies Lab. These objects are part of a native oyster restoration project at the new Quartermaster Reach tidal wetland at the Presidio. Taylor Griffith’s Heard Above, a 19 minute video was filmed at Quartermaster Reach and will be projected every weekend from dusk to 9 pm. From ecology to oyster farming and culinary delights, Chris Kallmyer will be showing Consider the Oyster a 2 channel video about the last year of the Drake’s Bay Oyster company and a series of Gwendolyn Meyer’s photos from her beautiful book Oyster Culture.
Healthy oyster reefs are a proven way to effectively reduce water pollution and improve the marine environment. While other bivalves also possess the ingenious ability to clean water while flushing out pollutants as they feed, none are simultaneous symbols of feasting, as is the oyster.
Gwendolyn Meyer
Natural Discourse is collaborating with Levy Art + Architecture to consider this wondrous bi-valve.
Natural Discourse is an ongoing series of symposia, publications and site-specific art installations that explores the connections between art, culture, science and site. Founded in 2012 by Shirley Alexandra Watts, a landscape artist, architect and contractor with extensive experience curating, managing and installing public art exhibitions. Projects include the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, and Sagehen Creek Field Station. Natural Discourse has been awarded grants from Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Pasadena Art Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts. naturaldiscourse.org
Levy Art & Architecture is an interdisciplinary studio that functions at the intersection of architecture, environmentalism and art. A full-service design firm founded by Ross Levy with specialties in sustainability and construction, it is also an experimental art space. Exhibits typically concern larger issues from social to environmental. The architecture and art mutually inform one another.
Together, these two teams have been working on a series of environmentally-focused art productions in galleries in and around California.
Following the recent reestablishment of seven acres of tidal marshland connected to San Francisco Bay, natural habitat is recreated, and native species — particularly oysters — are able to return to their homes.
Forest/Oyster #22 David Janesko 2015
Working in conjunction with the Presidio Trust and Natural Discourse, Levy Art + Architecture is proud to announce our upcoming art exhibit, “Consider the Oyster: Art, Science & Culture.”
Join us as we consider forests as viewed through oyster shell pinhole cameras, native oyster restoration at the Presidio and oyster farming and feasting in Tomales Bay. Participating artists and scientists: Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones, Taylor Griffith, David Janesko, Gwendolyn Meyer and Jonathan Young, and Chris Kallmyer.
The art and gallery will be visible from the street where anyone can view it, 24 hours a day, beginning Saturday, February 27that Levy Art + Architecture 2401 Bryant St, San Francisco.
In December 2020, the Presidio Trust unveiled to visitors seven acres of re-established tidal marshland and a new pedestrian trail near San Francisco Bay.
The site is known as Quartermaster Reach, named for the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Corps, which operated in the area when the Presidio was a military post. The project transforms a formerly paved construction site under the “Presidio Parkway” approach to the Golden Gate Bridge into a beautiful new wetland ecosystem. Creeks now flow above ground along the Presidio’s largest watershed known as Tennessee Hollow to San Francisco Bay through Crissy Marsh, improving the biodiversity of the Presidio. The shallow tidal estuary is the natural habitat for oysters that were once prolific in the San Francisco Bay.
Quartermaster Reach is a huge milestone in the 20-year effort of the Presidio Trust, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and the National Park Service to restore the park’s largest watershed. The site will allow visitors to enjoy an intimate experience of nature just minutes from downtown.
A high-tech home for the oysters: resin-cast substrates
Featured Art: Oyster Habitats Designed by Architecture Faculty Margaret Ikeda & Evan Jones at California College of the Arts (CCA)
Another area where art + architecture meet with environmentalism are the parametric 3-dimensional oyster substrates designed and fabricated in the Architectural Ecologies Lab at CCA. These are designed to provide a habitat for oyster growth at the newly-opened Quartermaster Reach.
Featured Art: Oyster Shell Pinhole Cameras by David Janesko
David’s pinhole cameras are constructed from nature, in order to photograph nature. He turned Pacific Oyster shells into pinhole cameras that captured images of their forest surroundings. Read more about the project as featured on Smithsonian Magazine. See more photos of these incredible oysters-turned-photograph on David’s website.
Featured Art: Consider the Oyster by Chris Kallmyer
A two-channel video documenting place, culture, and a window into oyster farming in West Marin. It is based off of three basic facts:
Oysters reflect the place in which they are made. This recording documents the process of farming oysters with field recordings and two-channel video.
Oysters are equally, a grounded and celestial food: flavored by the tides, created by the rotation of the sun and moon. They put us in touch with our own position in relation to movement of our planet. Two drones are sounded to represent the sun and the moon, proportional to their gravitational pull on the tidal waters.
Oysters are bivalves, and so is a pump organ. Chris performs on a pump organ throughout the piece as a musical analogue for our beloved oyster.
About the Partnership for the Presidio
The Partnership for the Presidio works to sustain the Presidio’s natural beauty, preserve its history, maintain its funding, and create inspiring national park experiences for visitors. Two federal agencies manage the Presidio jointly: the Presidio Trust and the National Park Service, with support from their non-profit partner, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Together, the partnership has transformed one of America’s most storied military posts into the centerpiece of one of the most visited places in the national park system.
Art + Discourse
We have a long and extremely productive working relationship with Natural Discourse, teaming up to work on a series of environmentally-focused art productions in our galleries and around California.
Natural Discourse is an ongoing series of symposia, publications and site-specific art installations that explore the connections between art, culture, science and site. It is curated by Shirley Alexandra Watts.
Levy Art + Architectureis an interdisciplinary studio that functions at the intersection of architecture, environmentalism and art. A full-service design firm, with specialties in sustainability and construction, it is also an experimental art space. Exhibits typically concern larger social and environmental issues. The architecture and art mutually inform one another.
Please join us on Thursday September 5th from 6-9 for the opening of:
Composition – Decomposition
by Sharon Risedorph
at Levy Art and Architecture,
1286 Sanchez St., SF, CA
visit us at levyaa.com for directions.
Sharon Risedorph’s recent work at Pier 70 looks directly at the early twentieth century waterfront landscape and finds in it a wealth of inspiration. These works do not illustrate the size, scale, type or texture of the historical places; rather they find a wealth of raw material that is employed to create works of special presence. These are pure renditions of light and form, “made” in a creative process that is the result of exploration, observation and opportunism. Sharon uses the lens to produce works that are at once crisply photographic and richly abstract. They embody space and form in the same way that James Turrell’s works render light as physical matter. These images take the everyday, the discarded, the common and reposition it, elevating it to the level of abstraction that inspires curiosity and introspection.
When, or how, does photography become fine art? In some ways it is the most difficult medium in which to work. Because of the precision of a camera as a recording device, the photographer must endeavor to see the shot, to frame it, to capture the light, to focus on the subject in a way that transcends the mere registration of the moment.
In one instance, it can be defining, journalistic, but deeper, capturing a moment that lives in our collective consciousness. Think of the work of Margaret Bourke White, its rendition of the human condition is directly observed, re-presented so honestly that it is at once objective and impassioned. “Saturate yourself with your subject and the camera will all but take you by the hand.” MBW It is this tension and the emotion that it stirs in us, that elevates these images beyond historical document.
The second avenue is more technical, about the film, its contrast and the process as well as the composition and the subject. Here I site Mapplethorpe and Adams. “Mapplethorpe produced a bevy of images that simultaneously challenge and adhere to classical aesthetic standards: stylized compositions of male and female nudes, delicate flower still lifes, and studio portraits of artists and celebrities, to name a few of his preferred genres. He introduced and refined different techniques and formats, including color 20″ x 24″ Polaroids, photogravures, platinum prints on paper and linen, Cibachrome and dye transfer color prints.” Mapplethorpe Foundation. These two luminaries compose with nature and natural forms, rendering them in perfect gradations, high contrasts and unusual circumstances so that they become iconic, larger than life. “Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.” AA
The third, perhaps the most contemporary and challenging approach, is to conceive of and execute the project in such a way that the image has its own character independent of the initial subject matter. This locates the photographic project within the realm of abstraction. “Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.” Rudolph Arnheim Visual Thinking. The presence of the artwork transcends the subject matter to become its own object. This is particularly difficutl to achieve with a photograph because of the accuracy of the recording that defines the medium. We assume that a purely photographic exercise excludes post production techniques and is limited to the image capture itself thus making the leap to abstraction more difficult. It achieved by the composition and frame, the recording of natural light and physical phenomenon; patina, re-use, adaptation, and the marks of time. These works stand as artistic compositions of their own genesis and occupy a place in the history of art alongside expressionist painting, cubism, and Dadaism. They draw the viewer in and require an investment of imagination, an experiential dialogue in which the subject, the image and the viewer are all implicated.
Sharon Risedorph’s recent work at Pier 70 falls into this last category. It looks directly at the early twentieth century waterfront landscape and finds in it a wealth of inspiration. These works do not illustrate the size, scale, type or texture of the historical places, rather they find a wealth of raw material that is employed to create works of special presence. These are pure renditions of light and form, “made” in a creative process that is the result of exploration, observation and opportunism. Sharon uses the lens to produce works that are at once crisply photographic and richly abstract. They embody space and form in the same way that James Turrell’s works render light as physical matter. These images take the everyday, the discarded, the common and reposition it, elevating it to the level of abstraction that inspires curiosity and introspection.
We are excited to share these new works with you and look forward to seeing you all at Sharon’s show at Levy Art & Architecture in early September.
In a part 2 of our saga, join us for a celebration of the art of Daniel Krasnor and the photography of Michael Bennett.
Michael photographed the latte stylings of Daniel Krasnor, a uniquely talented barrista with a repertoire of over 60 cappucino-top designs at our Easter event. We will be exhibiting those works and the spirit of the project presented by Levy Art & Architecture and Spin City Coffee.
Please join us for a celebration of spring, coffee, art and summer camp. This Easter morning event will feature the latte stylings of Daniel Krasnor, a uniquely talented barrista with a repertoire of over 60 cappucino-top designs. We will also be opening our gallery which is currently showing a selection of works by local artists. They have donated their talents in support of Emet Levy and his mitzvah project that benefits Camp Winnarainbow’s Grace and Joy Scholarship; all proceeds benefit the camp which is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit.
Finally we will host an Easter egg hunt for the little ones.
David Gottfried’s abstract acrylic paintings represent the unquenchable exploration that characterizes David’s life. Throughout his career, as the founder of the World Green Building Council, David has continuously worked to bring new consciousness to the impact humans have on our planet. His paintings are no different: they are infused with the same optimism and boldness that brought forth a green construction revolution and transformed over 100 countries.
Through his paintings, David explores the universal themes of intensity and passion that bind us to each other and our species to the planet. He utilizes recurring marks and that evoke a timeless languages from prehistory while rediscovering symbols that speak of humanity’s continuous journey of self awareness. David’s paintings speak to the inner yearning of body, spirit and mind to unleash creativity and passion upon the world. It is this core humanity and its relationship to the environment that is central to David’s work in both the business and art worlds.
Come explore David’s first solo show and experience paintings that speak viscerally through symbols that communicate in a language that is at once universal and undiscovered
