Our first show of the new year and our first photography based exhibit. Shantre Pinkney explores the community of the Bayview through the lens of re-establishing their beings at the forefront of our minds. Mitch Nelles recodes a place we know so well, the Buidling Reources yard, through his unique eye for composition and truly creates an incredible sense of nostalgia. These photos are framed by delicate temari works by Mariana Nelson who also showed work during the SRAP show last June/July. Keith Wilson also joins the group with mesmerizing abstract sculptures erected from abandoned bathroom sink vanities.
Opening Reception: January 17th, 4:30-6:30pm
FOOD, DRINKS, FREE
701 Amador Street, 94124, SF
SHANTRE PINKNEY
Inspired by hip-hop, jazz and French New Wave cinema, Shantré Pinkney began her creative venture in New York and studied filmmaking in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Fran- cisco.
As a student at the Academy of Art
her first film, The French Artist won best super 8 at the Epidemic Film fes- tival presented at the San Francisco Castro Theater. Her short film The Raw was an official selection at the Pan African Film Festival, Western New York Black Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival and also won awards at the Urban Media Makers festival.
Working within the mediums of photography, film, theater, and new media she is a lover of non-traditional and inquisitive stories. She creates stories to raise dialogue between art and her audience. She is currently developing an experimental film, Argos Amores and a feature script based on The Raw.
shantre.com @shantreverite
Artist Statement
Lest We Forget: A Portrait of Bayview Hunters Point Photography series by Shantré Pinkney
A black & white mobile photogra- phy exhibition bringing awareness to
individual stories, joys and struggles of San Francisco Bayview Hunters Point residents.
For years, Bayview Hunters Point
(BVHP) has been idealized as a high crime and high-polluted area of San Francisco. While working as a youth facilitator and developing my short thesis film, the apathy and violence residents faced in an increasingly gentrified community disheartened me. I’m not from this area, however, after living and working here for 5 years, and working with those living in lack, losing loved ones to violence, and dealing with unemployment left an impact on me. Lest We Forget came about through conversations I’ve had with residents and their love for the people in the neighborhood. Many have concerns with being gentrified and pushed out; including those who want to make sure that neighborhoods are safe, their jobs are steady and hous- ing affordable.
These photos are of friends, neighbors, friends of friends and beautiful strangers I met along the way in Bayview. I’m hoping to leave a last- ing and beautiful impression of those that represent the community – Their smiles, their laughter, their resilience and their humanness, which I think, sadly, many people forget.
Lest We Forget: Portrait of Bayview Hunters Point
Shantré Pinkney 2014
MITCH NELLES
Mitch Nelles was born in New York City in 1953 and grew up in New Jersey. It was during his senior year at Rutgers College that he was first introduced to the “magic” of photography. Mitch had completed all of his required course work for his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences and signed up for a photography course, which had a print portfolio for a final exam. This class gave him his first (and only) experience in the conventional darkroom.
Upon graduating from college, Mitch moved to Texas to pursue his Ph.D. in BioMedical Sciences and then to Massachusetts for his postdoctoral training. He moved back to New Jersey in 1986 and focused his attention to his growing family and job as a research scientist in the medical diagnostics field. Family and work during those years left little time for photography beyond documenting vacations and family events. Yet, as he entered middle age, he became acutely aware of his need for a creative outlet.
Mitch was in his mid-forties when he made the decision to get back into photography. Content at first to have his film sent out for printing at a local photo lab, he missed the artistic control he remembered from his darkroom experience in college. Fortunately, during this period, digital image technology had become readily available and affordable for non-professionals. It became clear to Mitch that the digital darkroom was the way to go. Film scanners, inkjet printers, Photoshop, and digital SLRs provided him with all the tools and control needed to produce high quality prints that met his creative and artistic expectations.
Following his move to Raleigh, North Carolina in 2001, Mitch joined the Capital City Camera Club where he met a group of like minded, supportive photographers who got together monthly to critique each other’s work and provide encouragement. He credits this small circle of friends with giving him the confidence in his photographic pursuits and helping him to see how different artists view the world photographically and express their individual creativity.
Mitch is self-trained and credits a wide variety of contemporary photographers for helping to shape his photographic vision and literacy. Chip Forelli, Roman Loranc, Chris Honeysett, Clyde Butcher, William Neill, and David Fokos have had a significant impact on his approach to photography.
Mitch works in the San Francisco bay area in the biotechnology field and lives in Half Moon Bay with his wife Janet. He has three daughters, Sara, Miriam, and Erica, who are the joys of his life. Now that he lives in California, he and Janet get a lot more visits from out of town family and friends.
Mitch’s work is available for purchase by contacting him at mitchnelles@gmail.com
KEITH WILSON
Keith Wilson is a filmmaker and visual artist based in San Francisco. His film work has been exhibited at Sundance, the Berlinale, South by Southwest and the U.S. National Gallery of Art.
In addition to recent solo photography shows at the Martina Johnston Gallery in Berkeley and the SOFA Gallery in Austin, his artist book ALL THE BUILDINGS ON BURNET ROAD (2010) was exhibited at the Gagosian Gallery and the Brandhorst Museum as part of the exhibit Ed Ruscha & Co. His photography books HYDE PARK APARTMENTS (2011) and SEE I SAW (2015) were recently published by Publication Studio and he is the co-creator (with Shannon O’Malley) of the book GAY MEN DRAW VAGINAS (2014). In 2009, he began the ongoing interactive performance THE CAVE & MOUNTAIN TOUR, which was featured at the 2013 Fusebox Festival in Austin, Texas. In the Spring of 2015, his books, films and performances will be presented at the University of Georgia where he will be a Visiting Artist.
MARIANA NELSON
Mariana Nelson was born and raised in Southern California. She grew up in Newport Beach and moved to San Francisco in her early 20′s. In San Francisco she became involved in a thriving and inspired art community where she found her focus on reusing existing materials.
She began wrapping discarded materials she found at reuse centers or even from the street. She used a thousand year old Japanese technique to wrap called Temari. After years of wrapping and practice she soon developed a pattern and way to wrap that was unique to her. Anything from lint and dog hair to found plastic and paper was wrapped with bright and colorful fiber, transforming literal trash into something completely unrecognizable.
As her collection of small colored Temari grew – she began to find ways of assembling them together to create large pieces. Mariana’s current body of work involves using hundreds of wrapped forms to create one unified piece. Some of her work explores the idea of dark matter – while other compositions focus mostly on color and shape. She is just starting to work with plastic garbage. Coffee lids and lids from fast food chains found on her walks with her dog.
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