reviews

  • Alan Saret and “Fabricated to be Photographed”

    Daniel Weinberg Gallery/San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

    If nothing else, ALAN SARET continues to reinvigorate the sculptural notion of drawing in space. Here, for example, all but one of the seven wire clusters being shown suspended from the ceiling seem immutably whole, correct and passionately beautiful. However, Saret aspires to much more than formal accomplishment. He is seeking to infuse his work with spirituality and he nearly succeeds. The one weak piece, A B White Among Black Permutation Clusters, resembles a shrunken head and introduces the problem of anthropomorphism and, by extension, of ego. Otherwise, where he substitutes intuition for

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  • James Finnegan, Christopher Brown, Stephen de Staebler

    Lawson de Celle Gallery/de Saisset Art Museum, Santa Clara/James Willis Gallery

    In his recent sculptural tableaus, JAMES FINNEGAN probes into the ersatz Americana décor of fast food restaurants. Finnegan replicates ubiquitous formica counters, waste receptacles that spell “Thank You” in indented yellow letters, garish linoleum, “authentic” wood shingling, and plastic-brick wall covering that supposedly give these ’70s establishments personality.

    Thrust into the neutral gallery environment, these tableaus, re-created with exact and infinite detailing, become even more grotesque. Pacific coast regionalism is eccentrically acknowledged in a wood piling and rope counter area—a

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