Event
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Read Our Review »Walter and McBean Galleries, SFAI
January 14 - March 24, 2016Info
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http://www.waltermcbean.com/
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(415) 749-4563
Reception
January 22, 2016 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
David Ireland Installation view: Smithsonian Falls, Descending a Staircase for P.K., 1987 Gallery as Place, Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute, April 8 - May 9, 1987 Image courtesy of San Francisco Art Institute Archives Photo by Simo Neri
David Ireland’s approach to the world, and art, was wide-eyed and infectious. The joys of his artistic practice were fully synced with his joys of life. In food, material, his house, and in friendship, Ireland was a master. For Ireland, no material was above another, yet all deserved care. Shit could be as precious as polished glass. And a dumb ball of concrete could be the apotheosis of artistic form. Ireland’s maxim, “you can’t make art by making art” is reminder that both we take things too seriously, and that art, as life, are as expansive as we make them. For those who knew the artist, or experienced an epic dinner with him, the experience granted understanding of the many ways art could dissolve into life.
This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the public reopening of 500 Capp Street, Ireland’s San Francisco house, and most famous work. In his time a gift to his friends and neighbors, the work now offers gifts to the public. 500 Capp Street is an immersive architectural work and social environment that presaged so many contemporary artist-created living spaces. The centerpiece of this exhibition is a reenactment of Smithsonian Falls, Descending a Staircase for P.K., a cascade of concrete poured down the gallery’s staircase, which the artist created for his 1987 Adaline Kent Award exhibition in this gallery. Also included are his tour-de-force Angel-Go-Round (1996) and other rarely seen works that offer diverse vantages on his wide-ranging and restless practice. David Ireland is organized by San Francisco Art Institute and curated by Constance M. Lewallen and Hesse McGraw, SFAI vice president for exhibitions and public programs.