Ampersand International Arts

Be warned in advance that Ampersand is only open on Fridays from 11 to 5 or by appointments (and do you really want to make an appointment unless you are buying?).
This was the first of the gallery «death march,» as I affectionately termed the 3 galleries in 3 hours night. Ampersand is a beautiful gallery in Dogpatch (my first time in this neighborhood and it charms me to my toes that there’s a neighborhood called the Dogpatch) in a renovated warehouse. They have enough space to exhibit two artists simultaneously and allow a decent amount of people to mingle without the place feeling crowded. What can I say? It’s the best dressed crowd I’ve seen in San Francisco anywhere. Chic is the word… I even felt underdressed.
Opening April exhibitions for Ampersand were Steven Elliott and Angela Hennessy.
It’s nice to see return of craft to the American art scene, and Steven Elliott is part of that movement with illustrations carved on wood. After the illustration is carved (or burnt in as the fancier description went), the artist seems to put a layer of paint around the illustration (in the pieces I saw, a beautiful sort of Tiffany blue). Then selected portions were ornamented with fake pearls and beads. I was less enthralled with the kitsch element of the glued on fake pearls and beads as I felt this sort of statement has been made since Jeff Koons. There was a terrific sculpture containing blue glitter in a beautifully made wood and glass case. The woodwork of that case was absolutely beautiful.
Angela Hennesy’s work: elegant. It’s the single description that popped up into my mind. Pieces of hairnet (of all things) with crocheted edges floating on the wall. The stark black and white of these pieces (black hairnets, white walls) make the pieces float ethereally. What is noticeable is the shadow created on the walls, and the different groupings the artist has been put together. There were also framed pieces of hairnet with pieces of velvet that had been frayed. And in the entranceway was a larger piece of velvet in different stages of fraying. Hennesy had worked in textiles, and that influence is clear in her works.
What struck me after the three galleries was how polished Hennesy and Elliot’s works were in comparison with other exhibitions that evening. The gallery goers at Ampersand were polished as well in their beautiful clothes and sheer sense of confident glamour. A somewhat older and more established audience here. And in some ways, that might describe the art as well… that it feels on its way to being established.
You have to decide what you want out of a gallery. I tend to veer a little more towards the unpolished in my preference for art in galleries. I think of galleries as a chance to see the early work of an artist and to see more of the raw processes before the artist has worked out the kinks in his or her vision.