InBerkeley

Anyone who hasn’t yet been able to visit the Georgia O’Keeffe & Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities show at SFMOMA (you still have until September 7th), or who has, and whose appetite has been whetted for more natural beauty, there is a nice little exhibit for you slightly closer to home. Until August 9th a selection of Don Hazen’s photography is showing at the Vintage Berkeley wine store at 2949 College Avenue (between Ashby and Russell).

In beautifully textural local landscapes that range from the Marin Headlands to Mono Lake, and semi-abstract renditions of sea grasses in Pescadero and Sunol oak leaves, Don has managed to capture some of that elusive sense of light that distinguishes western landscapes from so many others.

After enjoying the photographs take advantage of the show’s location. Sample some wine and pick the brains of the knowledgeable staff.

Wine and photography. It’s not ‘Bread and Roses’ – but it’s close.

General Arts

Berkeley artist Eric Drooker (above), who is probably best known for his many wonderful New Yorker covers, has created an animated sequence for Howl, a movie about the Beat movement being released early next year.

Shot in and around San Francisco earlier this year, “Howl stars James Franco as Allen Ginsberg, author of the 1955 poem “Howl” which triggered an obscenity trial upon which the drama is centered.

[Photo credit: www.pmpress.org.]

Art, Arts, Movies Art, Arts, Movies

Oooh. Quintessential British culture direct to my doorstep…

The gorgeous Helen Mirren is coming to my Berkeley neighborhood, along with a fabulous program of live theater beamed straight from the National Theater on London’s South Bank.

First up at the Elmwood Rialto Cinema is the Greek tragedy “Phedre”. Future screenings include “All’s Well that Ends Well”, “Nation”, based on a novel by Terry Pratchett and  “The Habit of Art”, a new play by the incomparable Alan Bennett.

Arts, The Elmwood, Theater Arts, The Elmwood, Theater

As reported in the Nichi Bei Times (left) via the Berkeley Daily Planet, the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission has voted to designate Japanese-American artist Chiura Obata’s former studio on Telegraph Avenue a landmark.

Though the Commission didn’t feel that the structure itself was worthy of notice, the building’s cultural significance rendered it worthy of landmark status.

Obata, who died in 1975,  had a successful career as a painter and was a faculty member in the Art Department at UC Berkeley from 1932 to 1953.

Read the full landmarking story here.

Architecture, Arts Architecture, Arts

How refreshing to be reporting on a retailer that is expanding rather than closing up shop.

According to Diablo Magazine, Elmwood Stationers will be opening a second store in Lafayette.  The store, which has being going strong since 1966 on College Avenue, will share space with custom jewelry shop Ware Designs, in a space near Trader Joe’s.

I patronize this store for its personal service rather than schlep down to Office Depot in Emeryville. And, I don’t know if it’s new, but their website’s pretty nice too.

Meanwhile, in case you missed the news, two art galleries recently opened in Berkeley: Hazel Wolf Gallery is in the new downtown David Brower Center; and Alphonse Berber Gallery is in a Julia-Morgan-designed building on Bancroft Way opposite the UC campus.

Arts, Business, Downtown, Retail Arts, Business, Downtown, Retail