owen geronimo art

SOURCE: ART IS MOVING

Last Thursday, Lisa and I went on an adventure. Relying on a Craigslist.org post that Lisa found, the two of us ventured down Maidenlane in San Francisco and found Otis’ Lounge. At first, it’s pretty much like every other bar in SF. Dark and small. When my eyes adjusted I noticed the art hanging on the walls. We grabbed a drink and had a seat. The live painting started about 10 minutes later.

Lisa and I met Owen Geronimo, in between his rushing around to organize the several groups he had arranged to get together that night. He told us that every First Thursday he arranges live painting events and he connects artists with bars that act as galleries.

Geronimo uses bars to introduce artists to the public, promote art, get fashion designers and models to meet, and create a scene around the visual arts.

Lisa and I asked Owen if we would answer a few questions for us about how he got where he is today and what it means to the art world when bars become galleries.

Owen Geronimo is the founder of San Francisco Art Forum, a soon to become a non-profit company to provide various art business services to the local art community. He’s the art director of Werkstatte Art Collective and the producer of the popular monthly art party called Werkstatte: First Thursdays at Otis Lounge in San Francisco. He also founded San Francisco Fashion And Merchants Alliance, Inc. last year.

1. Tell us your story.

My story? (laughs) I have lots. I don’t want to bore you. (laughs)

At this point of my life, I’m all mostly about giving what I can or what I’m able to- to anyone. It took me the past two years to rediscover my identity. It feels like it was just yesterday, when myself and my partner are sitting in a UHaul truck freezing to death in the middle of the night because we did not have a place to go home to. For whatever reason, that night was significantly special. A year prior to that, the real estate crash occurred and my whole livelihood plummeted with the market. That led to living in that Uhaul truck for a few days, a year later. From that experience, I learned that living in a UHaul truck (laughs) is not that bad. Mostly, material things became less and less important to me.

In the past year, to keep my sanity … I rediscovered myself through art. Surprisingly, I did four art shows in the past year, two of them were art auctions. I made sure that the homeless and hiv community benefited from my work. It was very gratifying. I also made sure that I volunteer at the mess hall of both Glide Memorial and Saint Vincent De Paul for the holidays.

My soul searching with a lot of fate and spirituality with my endless studies of quantum physics, finally started paying off.

Now I moved in atop (literally) of Twin Peaks next to the Sutro Tower with the greatest view of the city and sold my 3 series last year. In a matter of less than twelve months, I was able to reinvent myself as a sought after art curator and a successful event producer. I also founded a non-profit called San Francisco Fashion And Merchants Alliance, Inc. A business chamber of commerce for the fashion and art community offering various sustainable professional services to anyone that wants to get into the business of fashion.

This is the first time that I shared this story. I hope it enlightens the reader.

2. Tell us about Werkstatte (http://www.werkstatte.info/).

The idea was given to me by my partner. The original thought of the project was to be called “Haute Haus Werkstatte” but I ended up dropping the words “Haute Haus” because I did not want my fashion events to be confused with my art events.

The word “Werkstatte” however, is an homage to the art workshop: “Wiener Werstatte” in Vienna in the early 1900s that evolved from the Vienna Secession, founded in 1897. I wanted to embody the same principle of the original group that… art should be accessible to anyone.

3. Why do you promote live painting in a bar rather than holding a party in a commercial gallery setting?

Live painting in a bar with music and a bar crowd is a lot sexier. It creates more excitement and audience curiosity. Although, it’s less formal than a gallery setting. I truly believe that the artist is able to create better work in this type of condition. Both the music and the crowd provide the antithesis of the norm gallery. It also challenges the artist to become more innovative with his work. I’ve seen it, it works.

4. How does an artist get involved in your collective?

It’s very simple. I have to like their work. Their works have to be sellable. The key component is that, I have to like their personality. We have to get a long. Without those three simple formula, it will not work. They simply get involved, if I show interest with their work. Then, they get assigned an exhibit or an art event to test how the public reacts to their work.

5. Where do you think the art world is heading?

It always has been that the art heads to the die hard art collectors’ home. No matter how dire the economic climate is. Art is art. Although, the majority of the buying consumer are more frugal as of late, some still do buy art. In fact, Ian Ross just sold ten art pieces recently. So, yes, the art is heading to the die hard art buyers.

As far as the art world is concerned, I was asked to ship art to Shanghai mid of last year. There is also a huge market in the Middle East, mainly in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Hollywood and Las Vegas are also ideal places for art due to their celebrity residents. In fact, Angelina Jolie shelled out about a million for Bansky’s work before.
I see art as a “supply and demand” product.

6. What does art mean to you?

Art is an extension of my own self that defines my inner most thoughts. It embodies all my feelings of : fear, love, anger, forgiveness, happiness, dissatisfaction and challenges. It is an expression that enables me to be unique and different at all times. It separates me from the norm. It is also very therapeutic in a very zen way.

7. Any new projects?

Yes. I’m curating a group exhibit on March through June at The Barber Lounge. I also now provide arts to Ghirardelli Square’s public area, thanks to their management team. I’m also sponsoring six artists to donate their work to the ‘Rainforest Action Network’ (RAN), in the ‘Invisible Hand of the Philanthropist’ Art Auction in Foster City next month.

Site references:
http://www.owengeronimo.com/
http://www.sffama.com/


ShareThis

By Robert Schultze, Saddle Stitch Magazine

On the first Thursday of every month down the tiny secluded little side street known as Maiden Lane, there is an event going on that is anything but tiny. “First Thursday” is a celebration of local artists both established and unknown, and the party is happening at the one and only Otis Lounge. Inside this unassuming, aptly named lounge, you will find a small bar surrounded by couches instead of stools, and a second floor with a more formal setting with tables and chairs. Tonight the place is packed with crowds gathering around a live painting outside by Dan Rausch, conversations with comic illustrator Sean Ward, and a photo-studio with a portrait sign up sheet with fashion photographer Del Geronimo. 

The event is run by Owen Geronimo, who intends that the event will become a go-to media resource and marketing consultancy for the local arts community both online and print. Owen runs several other galleries including Artillery, in the Mission, Gallery Cafe in Nob Hill, two other commercial offices and previously curated at Space Gallery on Polk Street. “We have our own art renaissance per say, from visuals, photography, fine art and fashion.” And all three of these mediums certainly were implemented tonight. Paintings and framed photos littered the walls, and Del Geronimo would pluck random people from the crowd as portrait subjects. The event seems to be doing exactly what Owen hoped it would; People who were invited showed up dressed in business casual attire, and random passer-byes wandered over lured in by the smell of the grill and the friendly chatter and music. 

Art is the primary conversation piece, and the featured artists were the stars of the show. You can feel the energy from Dan Rausch as he creates on the wall in swoops and arcs of his arm, spray paint in hand. Even when he is not painting his contemplation on where to take the piece next oozes with fierce passion and creativity, and the piece evolves throughout the evening as he adds to it bit by bit. Sean Ward charms people by the crowd as they try and pass by but are drawn in by his wit and energy as he explains how his comics are bridging the gap from comic books to fine art galleries. And Del Geronimo props his random models to suit his project as the crowd observes this unusual form of performance art. 

The evening was a success for all I would say, the crowds got the pleasure of being exposed to these local talents and the artists received the exposure they crave. As for me, I walked away with new friends and a signed print from Sean Ward as a birthday gift for a friend. She benefitted from it as well, and she wasn’t even there. You can find all the information about “First Thursdays” as well as “Second Thursdays” in the Mission atwww.OwenGeronimo.com.

ShareThis

I’m a participant in this year’s BIG DEAL.

BIG DEAL is 11 years old!!!… Big Deal is a much-anticipated exhibition/art sale that benefits artists living with life-threatening illnesses. 

Visual Aid’s spectacular BIG DEAL XI art sale and exhibition will take place on Saturday, November 13 at the SOMArts Gallery, at 934 Brannan Street (between 8th and 9th Streets) in San Francisco. 

Tickets are $25, and go on sale at 3:00pm. Doors open at 4:00pm, and the sale runs from 5 – 8:00pm.

At BIG DEAL XI, 600 works of art will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis at a fixed price of $110 plus tax. 

BIG DEAL generates public excitement every year due to the quality of the work it features at such a reasonable cost, tempting both new and seasoned art collectors with exceptional paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, and glass. Late-arrivers find that there are numerous fabulous artworks still available, though dozens of art lovers camp outside SOMArts before the event, just to hold their place in line. Come mingle with hundreds of other art collectors, artists and friends, while checking out the exhibition and enjoying the party.

The BIG DEAL XI features three events rolled into one:

• Affordable art sale – 600 works of art by Bay Area artists to be sold on a first-come, first-served basis at a fixed price of $110 plus tax. 

• Silent auction – Twelve works of art donated by some of the region’s top artists, along with other fabulous items will be sold to the highest bidders via silent auction.

• Free Prizes – Exciting prizes will be given away via a free drawing. 

Admission tickets provide access to all three events and include light hors d’oeuvres, desserts, and beverages.

All proceeds from the event benefit Visual Aid’s programs for artists with life-threatening illnesses. Programs sponsored by Visual Aid include a Voucher Program and ArtBank for free art supplies, an active Exhibition Program, Career Services, Image Archives and a Workshop and Lecture series.

ShareThis

Written by: Joe Nicolaou/ SF Examiner

There are several influences that come to mind when viewing Owen Geronimo’s Art. The foremost, is the influence of Jackson Pollack. The stream of consciousness, painting which Pollack and others developed, was in itself influenced by the French Surrealists, Renee Magritte, Salvador Dali, Ives Tanguy, who came before him.

It was these European Surrealist artists that came to this country after WWII, which so influenced the New York Abstract Expressionists, and Modern Art. The Surrealists influence on American Art is staggering, yet rarely acknowledged. From this reservoir of creativity, Jackson Pollack developed this style, which came to be known as drip dry. 

Jackson Pollack would stand over a composition, and throw paint in feverish, strokes, never thinking or intellectualizing, just animal strokes of paint. This was borrowing from the concept of Surrealism, and its emphasis on the subconscious. The only way to expose the subconscious is by not over analyzing or thinking, just doing, action! Action painting is also what this was referred as. The black, and blue in his Abstract untitled, and his Heart-shaped, and Affection isn’t only reminiscent of Haring, but of the blues of Jasper Johns. At the age of 24, Jasper decided, “to stop becoming, and be an artist”. 

At the time this art was ridiculed. It wasn’t seen as economically viable. This is the wrong argument, and we as artists today have the opportunity to show and educate people, by leading the way, and not compromising. You don’t have to compromise your values/aesthetics, people like Jackson Pollack proved that in the past, and was very successful in standing up to the popular tastes of his time. We have to insist on our artistic integrity, we have to stand up to popular taste, because popular taste is always conservative and safe, and no true innovation ever comes out of it.

The Garden of Eden, a major work of Jackson Pollack, is displayed at SFMOMA. This work is on permanent display, and a must for anyone who ever visits. It is the most substantial work of Art I have seen at SFMOMA. If you have never seen it, go see it. This is a definitive example of abstract Art, and is one of the most singularly influential pieces of modern Art.

Owen Geronimo’s work displays this same postmodern abstract design, which is at the core of all figurative artwork today. I do have a preference for figurative Art. I am a believer in classic, figurative Art. Painting, sculpture. Owen’s ode to Keith is endearing. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Without it, we would never have any great new Art. If you don’t know or can’t reference what came before you, how are you to produce/create anything new? All great Art is a copying of previous styles, and using them to create new styles. This is Art 101. 


ShareThis

Lounge Art: OFF THE WALL
Location: The Barber Lounge
Art Reception: August 8th, Saturday
Time: 7 - 10 pm
Gallery Runs from: July 13 - September 15
Curated By: Georgianna Fastaia

PRESS RELEASE 

The Barber Lounge Shows the Love to Local Artists

August 1, 2009, San Francisco - You are invited to attend an artists reception on Saturday, August 8, 2009 at The Barber Lounge from 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm.

The Barber Lounge is located at 854 Folsom between 4th and 5th. This is the largest show to date at the Barber Lounge. With 5,400 square feet of loft space, the Barber Lounge is picture-perfect to feature every kind of artwork. 

This invitation-only event is a celebration of original artwork by 18 of San Francisco ’s brightest. The art will be on sale through October 2009, with patrons receiving 10% off all purchases during the party. 

The Barber Lounge is pleased to showcase the work of local emerging talent including limited edition prints by Hillary Williams, whimsical sculpture and oil paining by Michael Carlos Finn, figurative, photorealist and abstract art, as well as large scale graphite drawings and wax encaustics. Please visit http://freshartgallery.mosaicglobe.com for more information about the art and the artists. 

“Our devotion to art is genuine and fierce. We reviewed scores of talented artists ultimately choosing those who represent aesthetic diversity and demonstrate the most distinctive voices,” says artist and show curator Georgianne Fastaia.


In a timely hats-off to Michael Jackson, the show is called “Off the Wall,” and features artwork by the following artists: CARLOS MICHAEL FINN, GABRIELLE GAMBOA, GEORGIANNE FASTAIA, TRY SERINO, DAVE OTTO, OWEN GERONIMO, EVE SHEN, JUNE LI, KEVIN PINCUS, LIZ MAHER, JIM WINTERS, MANNY FABREGES, CAMERON CHERNOFF, HILLARY WILLIAMS, KELLY REILING, JEFF PAUL RILEY, CECILIA WELDEN, and LEYE FELECITE TCHACO. 

Since opening its doors nearly three years ago, the Barber Lounge has consistently provided support and space on its loft walls to the local artist community. “The economy has no stronghold on creativity,” says Barber Lounge owner Greg Griffin. “To the contrary, these tough times have often led to great artistic expression and we are proud to highlight that talent at the Barber Lounge.” 

The Barber Lounge was recently voted San Francisco ’s #1 Salon in San Francisco Weekly’s “Best of San Francisco ” Readers Poll. 
For more information about the Barber Lounge, visit www.barberlounge.com or call 415-934-0411. 


The Barber Lounge is on 854 Folsom Street between 4th and 5th Streets in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco.

Go to this LINK for pricings. 

This collection of Owen Geronimo’s abstract acrylic paintings is mostly new to the public. Owen Geronimo has also worked in the fields of photography and fashion design. Among his influences are Haring, Warhol, Sprouse, LaChapelle, Miyake and Gaultier. His style aims toward ‘pop-art’, but with a twist for the new millennium.

Owen launched his own business venture, called Redtorpedo Design & Media, with services ranging from digital photography, web solutions & design, and graphics, to events/promotions and videography. Redtorpedo is a spin-off of Poptart.com (now defunct), a local art and entertainment ezine that featured the work of talented local Bay Area artists.

Owen Geronimo is an active member of the following art organizations: Arthouse, Artists In Print, California Lawyer for the Arts and Vision+Visuals. He also works as a volunteer for Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, Asian Aids Project and Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center, all of which are non-profit organization that advocate awareness and prevention of the spread of HIV.

Prior work has been shown or featured on CBS’s Evening Magazine, Sputnik TV, KQED, 619 Post Art Gallery, Poptart.com, The Annual Orbit Shows, OxenRose and The Art Tech Museum. He is currently working on a film entry to one of San Francisco’s film festivals, entitled “Fashion Tour”, that will document the behind-the-scenes action of his fashion shows.

Contact Owen Geronimo at owengeronimo@yahoo.com

Written By: Colin Hussey, Fall 1999

A couple of clicks removed from the toney art galleries on Theatre Row, seven hungry up-and-comers have their work on display at Studio Z in an exhibit that will run until April 30th, with a reception on Friday, April 27th. Located on Mason Street near Market, Studio Z is ensconced in a well-worn building in a perpetually neglected section of the Tenderloin. You walk up three flights of stairs, past punched out walls and liberal crumbs of plaster. It looks like the hallway of a skid row hotel, ripe for torching. But when you enter the gallery, you are transported to a different world.

Mind you, Studio Z has little in common with the slick, big name galleries uptown, but it is spacious with bare hardwood floors and features four rooms and a hallway for viewing work, amply furnished with beanbag chairs and small divans where the viewer can chill out and take in the art. And there’s quite an impressive array of pieces to take in.

Painters, Courtney Booker, Laila Carlsen, Camilla Grythe, Mike Meneses and David Regan, photographer, Jorge Gonzalez and mixed media artist, Nathan Aaron Place are featured in this exhibit through the efforts of promoter, Owen Geronimo, a capable artist in his own right. He and Zeremy, the proprietor of Studio Z, have made excellent use of the wall space. The art fits well in their assigned places, but you might miss the two Gonzalez photographs if you step into the room too quickly.

The first one faces you as you enter (the work was unlabeled at the time of this printing.) And what faces you are two faces. Swathed in a rich blue, the head of a stone Buddha halfway conceals the countenance of a young man, equally serene. To the immediate left of the door, is a four-panel black and amber print of two darkly clad people lurking around an ancient capstone shaped like a crucifix.

The first small room to the immediate left of the faces houses Nathan Place’s artwork. Nicknamed, “the Metal Man” by Zeremy, Place earns his sobriquet with a quirky installment of metal panels lining the walls and foot-high statuettes arranged on the floor, flush with the sides. The panels are all of equal size, four by six inches, with a thickness of one-sixteenth of an inch. These are covered with several layers of paint, the outermost being an off-white. The layers are subsequently burned through, scraped or otherwise peeled to reveal the bright colors underneath. There’s at least one or two scraped down to the naked metal, laying bare its own unique pattern beneath the veneer. The statuettes are cut from the same material. They are surreal, vaguely humanoid figures, painted blue on one side and red or left bare on the other, their jagged limbs twisted and curved, as if dancing underwater.

The second room down has deep green walls, which lend themselves nicely to the three paintings exhibited by Mike Meneses. Two contrasting works face each other in a stare-down of order versus chaos. To the immediate left, a pink square with a bright peach halo floats in a milky haze. Its opposite number is a frenzy of Kandinskyesque lines and mad bursts of color.

Hanging above the room’s entrance, a portrait mediates between the two. A human face is rendered in the furious lines of the one painting, but colored in with similar pastel hues, mostly pinks and greens, evoking the other, thus rendering balance in the green room.

Lining the walls of the hallway, are Laila Carlsen’s stark portraits with smooth brushwork reminiscent of Paul Delvaux. Serenely detached human faces and figures appear before desolate backgrounds in muted, dark shades. One portrait in profile is of a wizened man, wearing animal’s skull for a hat. Another is of a bald fellow in what looks like Native American garb, sitting in the middle of a barren landscape. Her work gets more surreal as you go down the hall past the main room toward the third small room. Two pale female nudes are joined side-by-side at the forearm with a dark background. The left figure is an assertive, fully developed woman; the right is a painfully demure, less developed girl of the same height and hair color.

David Regan’s canvases are featured in the third small room. Four of his paintings are extreme closeups of leaves in green, orange and brown. These are assembled of blocks and swatches of color and shade—Rothko meets O’Keefe. The three others are abstract studies of closely matching or strangely compatible shades, rendered in blocks of color: aquamarine for one; yellows, browns and greys for the second; olive, grey and blue for the third.

Camille Grythe hails from the same city as Laila Carlsen (Oslo, Norway), but oddly enough, they had never even heard of one another until they were introduced in San Francisco by Owen. Upon viewing the large paintings she has on display in the main room, you begin to understand why the unfamiliarity. Her color scheme is similar to her fellow countrywoman’s, but her dynamic human figures are caught in mid motion, rushing to keep up with her large and lively brush. The one exception is the haunting picture of crowd of people abstracted into petals of color. The piece is still quite active, though, with the figures tightly crunched together, pushing for whatever space there is available to them.

Courtney Booker’s paintings share one wall with a couple of Grythe’s work, and then flat-out command the enormous brick center wall, continuing to the back behind the DJ equipment. These assertive canvases were previously featured at 66BALMY. She also has a lively brush to compliment Grythe, but the similarity ends there. The paintings on display consist mostly of portraits she completed in the latter half of 2000, rendered in bold colors, mostly reds and yellows, decisive, linear brushstrokes and liberal application of glazes.

No motion is wasted. A dark red raven in deathwatch repose is rapidly set forth as if there wasn’t a moment to lose. Three faces in rapid succession depict the artist awakening with a roar. Again, there is balance in the room with Booker’s fire facing Grythe’s water. Earlier work that is more placid (relatively speaking) shares the wall with Grythe’s crowds. In one, a woman’s head, bloodied around the nose and mouth, floats, face up, in a bright blue pool with blue lilies.

All of the artists are represented by Vision + Visuals ArtGroup. Overall, the exhibit is well conceived and executed. The artists are fresh and fearless, fitting extremely well in the space. A viewing is well worth the time. Give yourself at least an hour to take it all in.

ShareThis