SUPER MARKET SWEEP
Your shopping habit can actually turn you into an art collector.
Art and commerce have always been bedfellows, but San Francisco’s Silverman Gallery and Look Boutique are making the bond that unites a bit stronger through the pop-up shop Mini Market.
“In an art show, we are very inconspicuous about pricing. My co-curator, Carolina Amaris and I were really interested in seeing how people would react if things were packaged in a different way,” explains Jessica Silverman, director and curator of the gallery hosting the store through August. “Here we have labels that have picked up on the language of a supermarket. There’s no type of guessing game.”
The result is a genre-bending collection of items for sale, including T-shirts by graphic designer Chris Rubino, posters by General Idea, earrings by May In December, and gold-plated pieces from CITIZEN:Citizen’s Coke Spoon collection. Prices—ranging from $1 for a button to $800 for a limited edition work of art—reflect this diversity.
It’s not just wares that Mini Market is peddling; one-off events, like a discussion on punk and fashion and an evening of tarot card reading, are scheduled until the pop-up shop closes at the end of the month. As Silverman explains, “Sometimes talent doesn’t come in a neatly packaged pair of earrings. What better way to do it than give them a space for a few hours in the afternoon and let them sell their product?”
Our favorite from the lineup is nail artist Tanya Wischerath, whose literal take on art results in fingernail-sized paintings of the Venus de Milo. It may not have the scope of the Sistine Chapel, but her nail art proves that masterpieces can come in small, easy-to-travel sizes.
REBECCA WILLA DAVIS
Mini Market, 804 Sutter Street, San Francisco
This story was published on August 14, 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment