On Saturday, September 24th, Varnish Fine Art gallery triumphantly celebrated their reopening in a new location at 16 Jesse Street in downtown San Francisco. The opening was a display of the gallery’s resilience, after being closed down in January of 2010 due to an Eminent Domain demolition involving the Transbay Joint Powers Authority. At least a dozen other businesses were closed down as part of the project.
The show, the first in a series of two, titled simply Relaunch Part I and Relaunch Part II, consisted primarily of paintings ranging from the whimsical to the seductive and dark, with a few charcoal drawings as well. The artists included Nathan Spoor, Annie Owens, Jennybird Alcantara, Laurie Lipton, Chuck Sperry, Dylan Sisson, Aunia Kahn, Robert Bowen and Isabel Samaras, to name a few. The second show, open from November 12th to January 7th, will be a group show of sculptures in a variety of media. – Marisa Ware
