Highlights: FOG Design+Art Week 2019

January 14, 2019

Now in its sixth year, FOG Design+Art fair has become a focal point for design and arts communities on the West Coast and further afield, inspiring a robust calendar of programs, events, installations and exhibitions  both onsite and throughout the Bay Area. From the fairs to local galleries, we’ve outlined our recommendations to guide you through FOG Art Week 2019:

ART FAIRS

Lorna Simpson, Nightfall, 2018, is among the works presented by Hauser & Wirth at FOG Design+Art 2019 (Image Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth).

FOG Design+Art Fair:
The sixth annual FOG Design+Art fair opens this Thursday, January 17th, at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion and will run through Sunday, January 20th. Celebrating today’s most significant creatives and leading contributors to design and visual arts, the 2019 fair brings together 53  blue chip international galleries, prominent design dealers, and a weekend of exciting programs and events.

This year’s programming features panel discussions and conversations with dealers, artists, curators, and designers that explore today’s contemporary art and design, including artist Pae White in conversation with Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA, Nancy Lim, and artist Lorna Simpson in conversation with philanthropist, collector and this year’s Innovators Luncheon honoree, Pamela Joyner.

Justin Margitich, Derivation 4, 2016, presented by Moskowitz Bayse at Untitled, Art 2019  (Image Courtesy of Moskowitz Bayse).

UNTITLED, Art:
The 2019 edition of UNTITLED, Art San Francisco, also opening this week, will take place at a new venue, Pier 35, to accommodate the fair’s growing number of exhibitors. This fair will focus on younger emerging galleries and offers an interesting series of events, programming and performances that engage visitors at various locations throughout the fair and around the Bay Area.  A highlight of this year’s programming includes “Authority and Agency in the Art World,” a panel discussion moderated by critic and curator Patricia Maloney that will investigate and compare different forms of authority, agency, and audience in the art world today.

GALLERIES & ART SPACES

With art and design enthusiasts descending upon the city for the fairs, local San Francisco galleries will host an impressive roster of exhibitions. We’ve outlined the must-see shows of the week below:

Installation view of Claudia Wieser’s exhibition, Forum, on view at Jessica Silverman Gallery (Image Courtesy of Jessica Silverman Gallery).

Claudia Wieser at Jessica Silverman Gallery:
Forum, a solo-show of new sculptures, multifaceted mirrors, drawings and wallpaper by Claudia Wieser, is on view at Jessica Silverman Gallery through March 2, 2019. Wieser, who apprenticed as a blacksmith before pursuing a career as an artist, creates work for imagined other worlds, which she then manifests as atmospheric installations. The works in this show are inspired by the ancient Roman forum as a meeting place, site of public debate and nascent location of democracy. The exhibition as a whole is Wieser’s way of processing recent political dramas and searching for forms that relate to the longer history of humanity.

Additional Must-See Gallery Shows:

Also Worth Visiting:

MUSEUMS

In keeping with the excitement of the week, museums throughout the Bay Area are also offering noteworthy shows to visit between art fairs:

Vija Celmins, Untitled (Ocean), 1977, San Francisco Museum of Art, bequest of Alfred M. Esberg; © Vija Celmins; Photo: Don Ross.

Vija Celmins at SFMOMA:
Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory, the first North American retrospective of the artist’s work in 25 years, is on view at SFMOMA through March 31, 2019. The exhibition features nearly 150 works spanning the breadth of Celmins’ career from the 1960s to the present. Organized in loose chronological order by subject, the show presents a wide variety of media, including paintings, drawings in graphite and charcoal and sculptures.

Other Noteworthy Museum Shows: