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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Jennifer Nehrbass's artworks look like collages at a first glance, but the seemingly cut and pasted images of geological formations, abstract patterns and human characters are actually painted with oils. The artist fits many disparate images and influences into her work. Her narrative paintings plant the viewer alongside female protagonists (most of whom are Nehrbass herself) who are undergoing journeys — adventures through the rocky, American Southwestern terrain as well as journeys of self-discovery. Nehrbass says that she uses herself as a primary subject because her work is a critique of the established art historical and sartorial cannons. Influenced by Cindy Sherman and author Margaret Atwood, she plays with different identities and creates various personas through the elaborate staging of details. Each woman faces a different adventure and must find her own path.
A city with more headlines about the tech industry than the art scene, San Francisco once had three spring time art fairs: Art Market (formerly, artMRKT), Art Pad and SF Fine Art Fair. Last year it narrowed down two. This year, there was only one art fair left standing: Art Market San Francisco, which ran May 15 through May 18. The closure of the other two fairs did not seem to be a bad omen for Art Market, however, which featured a diverse assortment of national galleries that offered many different flavors of contemporary, from Pop-inspired to dark to abstract. San Francisco art fairs tend to be home-grown productions, with Bay Area galleries dominating the landscape, but this year's Art Market welcomed many exhibitors from other cities.