Navigating the vast seas of the Oakland Art Murmur, which sets sail every first Friday of the month, is enough to wear anyone out. With 24 galleries and exhibition spaces joining together for one monthly night of art, music and meeting up, you'll need to know where all the coolest stuff to see is.
1. Kuhl Frames & Art, 412 22nd Street, (510) 625-0123
Rock n roll art legend Lil Tuffy brings his collection of wacky, psychedelic handmade local, national and international concert poster back to the East Bay for the third time. Over 225 posters will line the walls of this spacious frame shop, including new works. Grab a beer while you're at it. Opening reception from 6-9 pm.
2. Royal Nonesuch Gallery, 4231 Telegraph Avenue, (415) 652-1623
Local artist Doug Garth Williams explores his fascination with waiting rooms by turning Royal Nonesuch into just that: a waiting room. He'll remove all traces of the gallery's identity and transform the space into a storefront sporting all the ambiguous trappings of a legit business. What will unsuspecting passersby who wander into this waiting room do? How will they react? Williams seeks to toy with their perception of the space between things by offering them no escape nor distraction from waiting. Opening reception from 7-10 pm.
3. Compound Gallery, 1167 65th Street, (510) 817-4042
We love what they do over at the gigantic artist-run gallery and studios known as the Compound Gallery. During this month's Art Murmur, they're unveiling the works of Jaime Lakatos, entitled "BEASTMASTER". The pieces toy with our ideas of evolution, what happens when evolution goes horribly wrong and color with large sculptures, paintings and taxidermy of fantastical animals that maybe one day could exist on our planet. Spooky! Opening reception from 7-10 pm.
4. Rock Paper Scissors Collective, 2278 Telegraph Avenue, (510) 238-9171
This volunteer run art space is exhibiting works from Patchwerk Press Printing Collective, a silk-screening and textile and paper printing shop in West Oakland. This intimate show will feature an array of mixed media pieces done by the creative forces who run Patchwerk Press, and will transform Rock Paper Scissors into a layered world of printed images like pages out of a book, juxtaposed with chaotic and cozy textures. Opening reception from 6-9 pm.
5. MacArthur B. Arthur, 4030 MLK Jr. Way, (510) 219-0774
Get ready to mellow out with this group show all about silence. Silence can signify things to come, gaps of knowledge, or intense focus. The works shown here examine what is hidden in visual and auditory silence and how it can make us both comfortable or uneasy. Opening reception from 7-10 pm.
6. Warehouse 416, 416 26th Street, (510) 352-5703
Two Oakland artists, Jody Medich and Megan Murray, make up the show here called Transplant. Medich is the star here, presenting works from two of her projects, Grandma and Detroit. Her Detroit works hyper-realistic paintings with an abstract twist, inspired by the wilds of the Michigan city. Pieces depicting rundown houses and decaying possessions abandoned by their owners are particularly moving. Opening reception from 6-10 pm.
7. Smokey's Tangle, 4709 Telegraph Avenue, (510) 450-0150
Every November night, this spot will be beaming an ever-evolving slide show by Pete Glover (a master hunter for other people's discarded stuff) made up of found slides and unintentional sequences. Called Junk Pirate, Glover will keep up his search for new, old, weird and cool slides to keep adding to the slide presentation that he will project from the art space to the street so that everyone can catch a glimpse whether they want to or not. Opening reception and nightly from 7-9 pm.
Phot via jessehudson on Flickr.com
