Family Pictures @ Root Division

ROOT DIVISION PRESENTS: Second Saturday July 2009: Family Pictures
Curated by Michelle Townsend, new mother of Nolan William Balocki, born May 25, 2009

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 11th, 7–10 pm

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – When curator Michelle Townsend first proposed the exhibition Family Pictures, she was not yet expecting what would became a baby boy, born at the precise time she was to review submissions. Just as baby Nolan chose to be born outside the confines of a typical 9-month gestation, so to the 33 artists in Family Pictures have chosen to defy orthodox definitions of family. Bay Area artists (and curators) are shaking off the trappings of gender, age, and bloodline.

In order to best visualize the collective insight born of this exhibition, we need but to borrow one thing from the past – Technicolor. We, a most strange and adaptive species, are looking for, and finding, fresh ways to experience belonging. The age of the nuclear family was, in retrospect, sterile and pale.

Art has always been a form of protest and Family Pictures does not digress. There is an underlying fever in the work, a pie-in-the-face aimed at any formula for genealogical harmony. Perhaps one should not be surprised, bearing in mind the recent politicization and subsequent disallowance of something as integral to family life as marriage.

Featured Artists:
Laura Ball
Elizabeth Bernstein
Jan Blythe
Colby Claycomb
Adele Crawford
Melissa Day
Chris Fraser
Michael Hession
Rachael Jablo*
Audrey Jones
Heike Liss
Jessamyn Lovell
Cathy Lu
Dan Lydersen
Carolyn Mason & Susannah Slocum
Masako Miki
Shelley Monahan
Camilla Newhagen
Mary Parisi
S. Patricia Patterson
Jana Rumberger
Julie Shustack
Jim Sienkiewicz
Andrea Slattery*
Marta Spurgeon
Kirk Stoller
Lien Troung
Marie Van Elder
Naomi Vanderkindren
Serena Wellen
Carmen Winant
David Yun
* Root Division Resident Artist


Opening Reception: Saturday, July 11th, 7–10 pm
Sliding Scale Suggested Donation: $2-$20

Exhibition Dates: June 8th–28th, 2009
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays- Saturdays, 2–6 pm (or by appointment)