Displacements | San Francisco snapshots | Day 1

I am on the road again, facing the healing Pacific water, accessed through the varied topography of San Francisco and the Bay Area urban sprawl.
San Francisco is a "tale of two cities" and a geography of intersections, where opposite realities meet and diverge.The outstanding landmark architecture and public art and infrastructure contrast with the vast homeless population.
There are unusual urban grid intersections: streets meet and diverge almost at every few blocks.The geological variety intersects with the urban grid creating a topological texture where two-dimensional urban grids are warped by the irregular hilly landscape.
The human landscape is no exception to the overall diversity: social, economical and racial. Human geography and geographic topography are stimulating and inspiring. 

vernissages | NYC, April 5-9

Among unseasonably cold or warm weather spring has arrived in New York and the majority of trees are not in full bloom yet. Nevertheless walking to vernissages is always a pleasant activity bringing peacefulness and enjoyment. Below are my picks of the week, with a preference for geometric explorations:

Pat Steir at Pace Print

Enrico Castellani at Dominique Lévy Gallery

Rethinking Space: Work from Post-War Italy at De Buck Gallery

Dennis Adams at Kent Fine Art

Olivia Fraser mandalas and other sacred geometries at "The Sacred Garden" at Sundaram Tagore

elections | April 4: Bern NY Bern!

The event is introduced by a speaker who quote another speaking who quoted Benjamin Franklin's  “A Republic, if you can keep it”, stated at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Beyond the quoting of quoting, Benjamin Franklin's statement still offers food for thoughts. Republic, or democracy, is definitely at stake in the US. Bernie is the only hope to champion the overall issues which the country is facing, from climate change to economical / social equality.

In Memoriam | Zaha Hadid (1950-2016)

I have just learned of her passing. Zaha was definitely influential not only as designer of build architecture but also as thought-provoking architectural theory.
Her work was the first to get recognition for the integration of geometry and architecture, parametric design. Hadid was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal for architecture in February 2016. In 2014 she was also the first woman recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. She was also awarded the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011
I also admired her way to 'wear' her design concepts, as in the jewelry she designed. Below are snapshots from the 2006 opening at Max Protech gallery in New York.

Vernissages | NYC: Atara Baker at Fox Gallery NYC

An unusual thought provoking pop-up exhibition is on view at Fox Gallery NYC: the mixed media paintings /anthropomorphic masks by Atara Baker, an Israeli born and California based artist who spent over a decade in South Africa. The curator Annette Benda-Fox relates Baker's work to the recent exhibition of Picasso's sculptural work at MoMA "Walking through MoMA’s historic Picasso sculpture exhibit last month, I was once again struck by the impact non-western (African, Oceanic) art exerted upon modern art in the 20th century.  From Picasso’s revolutionary Les Demoiselles d’Avignon through Brancusi, Paul Klee, Giacometti, David Smith, Henry Moore, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Motherwell, Keith Haring, John Michel-Basquiat, Antoni Tapies,  and others, primal energy has imbued the artist’s vision and work. I first observed this while cataloging African and Oceanic art for Sotheby's. I was deeply affected by the works' emotional power, beauty and symbolism.

Symmetry Meditations: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi