Sunset Strrip
The Battery
717 Battery St., San Francisco, CA 94111
Opening reception: July 28, 6-9pm
July 28th – October 11th, 2015
Contrary to its name, the Night Gallery will be presenting Sunset Strrip in The Battery’s San Francisco art space. The exhibit, which will kickstart on July 28th and continue until October 11th, will feature nine artists: Derek Boshier, Mira Dancy, Karl Haendel, Jake Kean Mayman, Josh Mannis, Rose Marcus, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Augustus Thompson, and Christine Wang. While the space will join together a mezcla of each artist’s aesthetic, the work shown will be inspired and drawn from the landscape of the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, California.
The Sunset Strip is the mile-and-a-half stretch that passes through the eastern border of West Hollywood and the western border of Beverley Hills at Sierra Drive. In the 1960s, Sunset Strip didn’t carry much appeal. It was dirty with trash that covered the walkways, car exhaust polluted the air, and hustlers roamed the streets. Today, while there may be trash still piling up in some places and a hint of that seduction and danger, the strip is a major attraction site consumed by commercial billboards and houses many night clubs, restaurants, and boutique along its borders.
Sunset Stripp conveys every aspect of the infamous LA attraction. Mira Dancy captures the seductive neon lights of the strip, while Christine Wang’s paintings and sculptures capture danger, cheap trends, and high stakes. Jake Kean Mayman’s ghosts haunted the scene in pastel hues and Karl Haendel livens the space with yoga figures. Rose Marcus and Augustus Thompson play on a romanticism of urban space and abstract geometry, while Derek Boshier and Sojourner Truth Parsons add a composition of lines to heat up the space. Josh Mannis’ video drives various points home with a mesmerizing aspect of repetition.
