The San Jose Phantom Galleries program was launched in 2000 as a partnership between Two Fish Design, San Jose Downtown Association and the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. It was (and still is!) our intention to utilize empty downtown storefronts as local artists exhibit spaces in an effort to minimize the bleak scenery of vacant ground floor windows with the maximum impact of celebrating the creative talent that resides here.

It is true that there is much progress being made downtown with new residential developments that will include "mixed use" ground floor retail and there are fewer empty windows that are in the state of blight as was the case five years ago. But it also means more and more construction walls that can be activated as temporary murals, private buildings that could house exhibits in between tenants and Phantom Galleries can provide a referral service to business owners that would like art exhibits in their spaces as a way to support local artists, but also provide their customers with interesting atmosphere that changes throughout the year.

This evolution of the Phantom Galleries' website will focus more on the activities from this day on (as opposed to archiving the last six years) there will be updates each week in the form of current exhibits, artist's news, exhibit opportunities and calls for entries submitted by third parties. We'll also point to examples of other cities utilizing the Phantom concept.

Feel free to contact us any time with news, feedback and/or comments to our posts, we'd love to hear from you.

peace and care,
Cherri Lakey & Brian Eder

A man walks by the Kaleid Gallery in San Jose, Calif., March 22, 2007.

"In a city that nurtures its art institutions, an underground art scene has also taken shape. Vacant buildings, which still blemish many downtown blocks, have been transformed into temporary exhibit space for local painters and sculptors, attractive place-holders until permanent tenants arrive." (Peter DaSilva/The New York Times)

UPDATE: The exhibit is entitled Intersections and it will feature artwork and a feature performance by Art Ark residents as well as artwork from neighborhood artists. They do request that you RSVP to Jgeracie[at]thecorecompanies.com or call 408-292-7841, ext 11 as they'll have lunch and beverages.

Save the date: Art Ark's grand opening is going to be Thursday, August 9th from 11:30am - 1:00pm. There will be a new exhibit that I believe will involve artists from the Martha Gardens area. The Art Ark Apartments is an affordable housing complex designed with the artist in mind. It's recently been announced that it's 100% leased and has a common house gallery on site. It's located at 1035 South 6th St. (btwn Bestor Park and Keyes Blvd.), downtown San Jose. We'll keep you posted!

Steven Tran came by our offices to let us know that the California Lawyers for the Arts have set up an office here in San Jose. They felt that artists here in the South Bay weren't using the resources available to them in San Francisco. Their site is definitely worth visiting to keep up on all the work they are doing on the arts' behalf as well as services they can provide. Steven said they will be hosting a workshop in July, with more details to be announced. Visit their site here, and if you need their assistance, please email them at sanjose(at)calawyersforthearts.org or call them at 408-998-2787 ext. 216.

Carlos DaSilva is a local photographer that did a series of screenprints onto plexiglass and exhibited them in his garage that he converted into a one night gallery. It was a great casual atmosphere with really interesting work. To see images from the exhibit, click here.

UPDATE: Photos of the exhibition posted here.

Long time Phantom artists Jason Arnold and Tim Leirman will have a duo exhibit at Black & Brown on Saturday June 23rd, from 8-11pm. We're looking forward to seeing what these two have been up to!

Black & Brown Clothing
1225 W. San Carlos, San Jose

Angela Buenning Filo (Phantom Galleries artist 2003) has a photographic exhibit up at San Jose City Hall thru September 21, 2007 entitled The Story of a Silicon Valley Orchard. Inspired by a news article in 2002 about a prune orchard that was "the last in Silicon Valley", Angela made the trip south on Hwy 85 and found the orchard, and committed herself to take a portrait of each of the 1,705 trees in the orchard. Three winters later, with the orchard land now slated for development, she photographed the final tree. These 1700+ images are on view in the lobby of the tower building and continues on Floor 18 where the city council offices are.
San Jose City Hall
200 East Santa Clara Street (btwn 4th & 5th Streets)
open 9-5pm, Monday - Friday.

Inna Razmakhova, Los Gatos Art Association Open Juried Show 2007 winner, has a solo exhibit at Barefoot Coffee Roasters called Travel Treasures showcasing "stunning photographs from our favorite National Parks of South West California and Hawaii." Enjoy the exhibit (on view thru June 30th) at the best coffeeshop in South Bay!

Barefoot Coffee
5237 Stevens Creek (@ Lawrence Expwy)
Santa Clara

Ellie Brown (Phantom Galleries artist 2002), exhibits her photographs that are excerpts from the body of work, About My Sisters 1996-2006 (which will also be a self published book). Ellie has been photographing her half-sisters' passage through childhood, into and out of adolescence for ten years. The work chronicles the quest for identity, changes in voice and confidence through adolescence, the strong influence of media, peer groups and an eating disorder. (from YO Gallery's press release.)

(Ellie has always done beautiful relevant artwork and installations pertaining to girls and women and how they are perceived. Ellie's Phantom exhibit (on South First next to Bella Mia at the time) was an installation of numerous pink dresses that ranged from the cute frilly little girl dress to an underslip of lingerie.)

YO Gallery
113 N 23rd St., Philadelphia, PA 19104

Charlotte Kruk n' Kempken

Ema Sintamarian

KALEID Gallery's April 2007 Featured Artists (and long time Phantom artists) Charlotte Kruk n' Kempken and Ema Sintamarian will be featured on KQED's art and culture television program SPARK on June 27th, 29th and July 2nd. To sign up for an email reminder, please visit their site here.

Sheau Lee and Ethan Miller, Surface, video projection still, 2007

We received two very nice notes today from Michelle Waters and Sheau Lee that each will be in the forth coming MACLA's Gente, Casas y Barrios exhibit as a result of a call for entries by MACLA that we relayed to our artist list.

The exhibit, whose theme is People, Houses & Neighborhoods, will include a collaborative project by Sheau Lee & Ethan Miller called Surface (above image) which is an interactive audio/video installation using a table with a contact microphone, a series of macro photos of urban surfaces in downtown San Jose. The location of each surface is cataloged with latitude and longitude data. Organic materials are also collected from the urban environment (rocks, seed pods, branches, etc.) and form an interface into the exploration of place and surface.

Michelle Waters' painting is entitled the Undevelopment Agency and is a satirical piece addressing the environmental consequences of rampant development.

Gente, Casas y Barrios opens this Friday, June 29th with an artists' reception at 6pm with the exhibit on view through July 14th.
MACLA is located at 510 South First Street, downtown San Jose

Donna Orme - Featuring 5" x 5" Monoprints with Chine Colle
Experimental artist, Donna Orme presents 5" x 5" monoprints produced from aluminum plates that have been submerged in a copper sulfate solution. The copper sulfate bites into unprotected parts of the plates and produces the tonal values and thick/thin lines.

Ms. Orme adds color, rhythm, texture and mood to these monoprints by the use of chine colle. Some etchings are run on Asian papers. The Asian papers are incorporated with the inked aluminum plates in a technique known as chine colle (Chinese collage) to produce soft, collage effects.

Possibilities Art Studio & Gallery
311-A Forest Avenue
Pacific Grove, CA 93950
831.643.9392
August 10-September 29, 2007
For more information visit _www.donnaorme.com

Due to the July Fourth holiday, there will be no First Friday gallery walk downtown for July. The galleries will resume First Friday August 3rd at 8pm til late.

The two featured artists for First Friday August at KALEID gallery is Joe Claus and Mary Medrano. For more information, click here.

Have a wonderful, safe holiday!

San Jose urban artist and muralist (and long time Phantom participant) Dee Jae Paeste is leaving the San Jose area to live in Japan for the next year or so. Dee Jae says: It's time i get out there and explore more of the world and experience all i can while i have the energy and time.

We will miss him, his amazing talent, and his abundant energy. We wish you the best Dee Jae, and appreciate all the vibrancy you've added to our lives in the years we've known you!

Although there is not a downtown San Jose First Friday tomorrow night, July 6th, head on over to downtown Campbell and check out Christine Benjamins exhibit in the courtyard next to Sonya Paz' gallery located at 325 East Campbell Ave from 5-9pm.

South FIRST FRIDAYS will be back on August 3rd.

Photographer Rob Lehman has a published photo that accompanies an article about Mt. Madonna County Park in the current issue of Bay Nature Magazine. Congrats Rob!

Deborah Mills Thackrey will be exhibiting her photography at the Saratoga Library's lobby with pointillist painter Michael Olivieri thru Sept. 1st.
Saratoga Public Library
3650 Saratoga Ave (at Fruitvale)
Saratoga, CA
408.867.6126

Also: opening this Sunday the 8th, Deborah and her husband Tom will be showing together again for the month of July at the Borders store in Sunnyvale. Deb will be showing some new graffiti work and Tom some new figurative light paintings.
316 W. El Camino Real (at the corner of Mathilda)
Sunnyvale, CA
408.730.5050

Please join us this FIRST FRIDAY August 3rd for our Featured Artists Exhibits and Reception: My Neighbors a photographic tribute to the smaller side of Silicon Valley business by Joe Claus, and About Face paintings of solitary figures by Mary Medrano that represent interaction, communication and love after the loss of her mother last year.

Also on view, artworks by 70+ artists from the San Jose area.

KALEID gallery
88 South Fourth Street (at San Fernando)
7pm - 9pm, free and open to the public
Hard-bop and soul-jazz delicacies from the '60s provided by DJ Oh and Lynn Ness

The San Jose Public Art Program invites you to participate in this discussion to plan for a permanently situated aviation-themed artwork that will be part of the Mineta San José International Airport Public Art Program.

Community input is vital to the planning process, and will help shape the vision for this project. Please join us for a fun evening to learn more about the project, discuss site opportunities for public artwork, and share your ideas, visions and stories.

Monday, August 20, 2007, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

San Jose City Hall - Council Wing
200 E. Santa Clara Street, Room CW 120
(Parking validation will be provided for the City Hall garage, entrance on 6th Street)

For more information contact: Public Art Project Manager, Mary Rubin
408 277-5144 ext 16 or mary.rubin@sanjoseca.gov

above sculpture by Harry Nakamoto

The ceramics exhibit, WOOD FIRE CONNECTIONS, opens September 7, 2007 at the Artobject Gallery, 592 N 5th Street, San Jose, California.

The exhibit features the wood-fired work of six potters from Oregon and California: Hiroshi Ogawa, Harry Nakamoto, Samuel Hoffman, Diane Levinson, Jennifer Long Klein, and Tim Steele.

There will be an opening night reception as a part of San Jose’s First Friday Gallery Walk on September 7th from 7 PM to 9 PM. All the artists will be present to discuss and answer questions about their work.

Image: Mitra Fabian, Ventilation series, 2006-7, Paper and glue, Dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the Artist and Bandini Art, Los Angeles.

Mitra Fabian (Phantom Galleries 2006) will be having her first bay area solo exhibit with an opening reception this Friday, 8/10, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art.

(from the ICA website:) Using everyday household materials, Mitra Fabian transforms scotch tape, glue and paper into sprawling floor works and topographies that confound scale. From a distance, the artwork resembles urban developments flowing into the contours of the land. At a microscopic level, the work might be seen as proliferating spores or an aberrant growth, indefinitely spreading.

Fabian's installation and sculptural works straddle the line between exquisite and grotesque. The objects can be beautiful and benign; made from innocuous materials into sculpture more sublime than threatening. Yet simultaneously, the enigmatic forms seem to be in the process of unchecked growth and glue and tape become disturbingly epidermal.

The Bay Area Book Artists and Foothill College present:

The 6th Annual Book Arts Jam at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California
Saturday, October 20, 2007, 10am to 4pm.

The Annual Book Arts Jam at Foothill College provides an inside look at the world of artists' books and the book arts. The Book Arts Jam is a one-day celebration at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California at which you can view one-of-a-kind handmade artist books, zines, letterpress books and broadsides, mailart, calligraphy, fine art prints, handmade paper and multiples by over 50 exhibitors who are book artists, craftspeople, and workers in the allied fields of letterpress printing, papermaking, printmaking, photography, collage, and paper decoration.

The intent of the Book Arts Jam is to bring together book artists and audiences interested in the book arts to create a forum for artists to show and sell their work, and for visitors of all kinds-including book arts fans and artists as well as audiences new to book arts-to see the work of others and learn about the book arts.

The event is free. ($2.00 charge for parking at Foothill College-bring quarters!)

Nancy Ann Rice, From the Deep, acrylic on canvas 30" x 36"

Chris Hogan has opened the Gregory Kate Gallery (named after his two children) on The Alameda in San Jose. (from their website:) "Our intent is to display an ever-changing variety of art and photographs for your viewing pleasure. We hope to surprise you with different artistic styles and expose you to different mediums of expression."

GK's next exhibit is Nancy Ann Rice, an acrylic surrealistic painter and local teacher of painting.
The artist's reception is Weds., Aug. 22nd from 5-7pm.
Location: 925 The Alameda # 101, San Jose (near HP Pavillion)

Devon Holzwarth, A Gondola Ride Through Venice mural

A long time friend to Phantom Galleries (both as exhibiting artist and muralist) Devon Holzwarth has quite an empire brewing. Her multi talents required multi business personas and she has two new blogs so you can keep an eye on her accomplishments: murals are at www.muralstudio.blogspot.com and her art and artsy products at www.devonindustry.blogspot.com.

Congratulations to Mary Medrano (Phantom & KALEID artist since the beginning!) for her new endeavor!

Mary invites you to the opening celebration:
Join the party from 7-9pm at my new studio and gallery space in historic downtown Campbell. I will be exhibiting my figurative paintings, some new florals inspired by being in Campbell, and three sculptures of Helen Bellaver. Her work is made from a combination of found objects and the painting process. She combines the two with a creative voice; one that speaks of renewal and reinvention. She is guided by intuition and the joy of making art.

Mary Medrano Gallery
305 E. Campbell Avenue
Campbell, CA 95008
408.250.2732

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday - Friday: 12 - 7 pm
Most weekends: 11 - 3 pm

Celebration: Friday, September 7, 2007, 7-9 pm

photo by Michael Denning

Heart of Chaos presents the 2nd of 3 installments of San Jose’s First Annual Chalk Art Festival.

The festival brings an explosion of color, vitality and a sense of community to the park as Heart of Chaos artists demonstrate the many varieties of chalk art and invite the children and adults in the neighborhood to create their own art using chalk provided by Heart of Chaos.

This is a FREE event so bring the family and invite the whole neighborhood out for some fun in the sun and take advantage of this opportunity to let loose and create some fun art!

Camden Community Center
3369 Union Avenue, San Jose, 95124
10am-2pm / FREE

Please join us First Friday September 7th at KALEID gallery for two new featured artists exhibitions by Shannon Amidon and Lucy Liew.

Introspections is a series of acrylic on canvas artworks by Lucy Liew that were inspired by a series of personal events that led to her introspection into both the past and present when faced with life’s challenges and emerging as a stronger and more complete person.

Into Pieces is a mixed media series of insect portrait puzzles by Shannon Amidon, an exploration into the world of insects and what it means to relate aesthetically with these terrestrial creatures that both inspire and repel us.

Also on view are 70 San Jose artists showcasing their fine art and sculpture, limited editions and unique gift items.

Friday, Sept 7th, 7pm - 9pm, free and open to the public
Live music by Astronout performing live downtempo and minimal techno.

KALEID gallery
88 South Fourth Street (at San Fernando)
Downtown San Jose

From Erin Cizan (Works' ED):

Over 200 of our community members welcomed Works/San Jose to its new site by participating in our opening event "Body of Works: a community collaborative mosaic". The Board of Directors and myself were overwhelmed by the amazing response, the diversity of submissions, and the generosity of the participants to donate their artwork to be auctioned for the benefit of Works/San Jose.

Now that the Auction is up on eBay, I realize that this is more than an auction for the support of Works/San Jose it is an opportunity for the community to acknowledge, support, and validate individual creative expression. Will you please make a bid today not just for the benefit of Works/San Jose, but in support all of the Artists who experimented, exhibited, and engaged. Thank you!

Bidding begins here!

On the spot caricature artist Big Al will have artwork in the Pin-ups and Pinstripes show along with pinstriping by Terry "TBonez" Bell, Kellie "KandyStripes" Mitrovich and Joanna Crawshaw among others.

Artists' Reception: Friday, Aug. 24th, 6-8pm
On view through Sept. 22, 2007
Worthington Gallery West
739 Main Street, Pleasanton, CA

Donna Orme has two new Cast Acrylic Monotypes on view at Gallery 2611 Sept. 1 thru Sept. 30th.
Reception: Friday, September 7, 6-9 p.m., coinciding with Friday Art Walk.
Gallery 2611, 2611 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94063

Image: Max Ernst With Pet Snail, David Larimore

Elizabeth Parashis invites you all to this BYOB potluck, art viewing and poetry night featuring artist David Larimore. (Elizabeth will also be exhibiting her 2D work as well as 3D by Bea Garth.) The featured reader is award winning Evelyn A. So, who is interested in negotiating between the elegiac and the comic, the seemingly familiar and the not yet known, the spaces where literary and oral traditions meet and mingle. Open Mic follows.

The whole evening takes place on Thursday, September 13th from 5-10pm in the Florentine Village Estate at 42 Central Avenue, Los Gatos. Contact Elizabeth at artpages[at]earthlink.net for more information.

Brian has placed a convenient "Add to Google" button to the side bar on the right for those of you that may use iGoogle as your homepage when you open your browser. Clicking on this button will automatically add the Phantom Galleries' feed gadget so you can see the three latest posts whenever you're on your Google homepage!

Tucker Nichols (Phantom Galleries 2005) is having his second solo exhibit at ZieherSmith gallery in New York City which opens Sept. 6 and on view thru Oct. 6th.

The installation above, that Tucker did with Steve Lambert for Phantom years ago in the old Woolworth building (now Black Sea Gallery), is a pretty good example of the simple brilliance of Tucker's art. I remember we were all cleaning the dirt and grime from the front windows. Tucker and Steve weren't settled on what they wanted to do yet. Just then a car drove up in front of the space, in line for the light to change green, and they heard someone in the car tell their passenger, "I just woke up from the most beautiful dream...." and then drove off. Tucker looked at Steve and said "that's it!" and they painted these words on the window. It was so perfect for that bleak area that needed transformation.

In the ZS press release, Tucker is quoted as saying: “I’m trying to capture the early part of a thought—before it’s fully formed, before it makes perfect sense. The early part of a thought is bold and simple and not yet worn down by practical concerns. I want to celebrate our willingness to complete the story, to make sense of things even when there’s so little to work with. I’d rather build an open circuit and ask you to close the gap yourself.”

On Saturday Sept. 8 from 11am - 5pm, Kathy Aoki will be printing a 3ft x 3ft linoleum cut with a steam roller on the street at the Center for the Book in San Francisco. This free event includes ten artists with big lino-cuts, vendor tables, and kids activities.

This unique fundraiser doubles as a rollicking street fair with an expanded book arts and printers sale. The large lino cut prints will be auctioned off at the annual Gala Dinner/Fundraiser. This year watch artists pull prints from large-scale linoleum blocks carved especially for the occasion by: Kathy Aoki, East Side Editions, Michael Carabetta, Leif Fairfield, Mary Laird, Paul Madonna, Brandon Mise, Rik Olson, Maia de Raat, Patricia Miye Wakida, and William T. Wiley.

Saturday September 8th, 11am to 5pm
San Francisco Center for the Book
300 De Haro Street, San Francisco, CA
415-565-0545

The ICA Print Center has announced its fall schedule of Monotype and Beginning Etching which will take place on numerous dates throughout October and December. For full schedule and pricing, click here.

Join artist Isis Rodriguez for a conversation on contemporary art and the New Inspirational Movement. The New Inspirational Movement is a philosophical and spiritual movement to build a new culture of artists who want to be visionaries, rebels, and critics. The New Inspirational Movement is a place where artists can talk freely about their art, resisting the expectations of the art world.

Thursday, Sept. 20th, 7pm - Free Admission
MACLA, 510 South First Street
Downtown San Jose

Congratulations to Werner Glinka (long time Phantom & former KALEID artist) on his upcoming exhibit GA8 in Sausalito.

The Consul General of Germany and Fingerhut Gallery of Sausalito invite you to the premier exhibit of 8 world renowned German-American artists.

Artists' Reception: Saturday, October 20th, 7- 9 PM
Please RSVP to 415-331-7225

Artists include: Bertolt A. Schmidt-Print Maker/Painter, Silke Henkell-Wallace-Painter, Werner Glinka-Mixed Media, Ines Tancre-Mixed Media, Inge Infante-Painter, Natasha Julicher-Sculptor, Susanne Kaspar-Photographer and Heike Seefeldt-Mixed Media/Painter

Fingerhut Gallery, 690 Bridgeway Sausalito, CA

Works Access (Works/San Jose's monthly conversation with local artists) features artists Jesse Houlding, Marina Shretenberg, Charlene Tan, and Annie Vought, all of whom will discuss their unique process as exhibited in the concurrent exhibition eXact-O!.

Thursday September 20th, 6:30pm
Works/San Jose, 451 South First Street, San Jose
free and open to the public

Rob Lehman (a current KALEID artist) is exhibiting a lot of new work at Laurel's Cafe with a lunchtime reception on Friday, September 28, at 12 noon to 1pm. Stop by and have some lunch and peruse the new exhibit!

Laurel's is open Monday through Friday, 8-5
138 E. Santa Clara St. (between South 3rd and 4th streets)
downtown San Jose

Dance With Death, Christine Benjamin, 36" x 36", acrylic on canvas

Christine Benjamin (Phantom & KALEID artist) is one of many artists in the Dia De Muertos Show at Alma Gifts and Culture in Santa Cruz.
Opening reception: Sat., Oct. 13th, 5-7 PM , show runs until Nov. 11th

Alma Gifts & Culture
1705 Mission St. Santa Cruz, CA 95060
831.425.2562
Hours: Tue-Sun 11-6

Earlier this year we told you about a call for entries by San Francisco's CITY|SPACE that was seeking proposals for creative and surprising new SOUVENIRS of the San Francisco Bay Area. A memory for the tourist that arrives and departs, a collection of images and mementos to take home and revisit, the souvenir encompasses expectation and recollection of places, people, and adventures.

Although often ignored, souvenirs are ubiquitous representations of the places we inhabit, written in the kitschy dialect of sno-globes and postcards. But souvenirs also navigate more intimate geographies, of personal feeling and memory. Wish You Were Here will reimagine the souvenir's unique position between landscape, memento, and memory. ~CitySpace

John Kurtyka (Phantom & KALEID artist) answered the challenge, and was accepted, with the Welcome to Silicon Valley CURSOR (the searcher) John says of his proposal: "Its face includes a variety of skin colors–like those whose work brought it to life and began its search (some got rich, many made a living, bought homes and raised families–some families broke up because of the stress and long work hours.) Its not polite to point–so it acquiesces silently to our every whim–cursoring across the colors and flashing lights of your screen–pointing to knowledge as well as opinions informed by ignorance and poor reasoning–searching for doorways and plateaus of understanding as well as reinforcement of suspicions and prejudices. IF KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, THEN ACCESS TO POWER MIGHT BE THE NEXT BEST THING."

There is an exhibit of accepted submissions in the works as well as a possible publication. Congratulations John and keep us posted!

There will be a photographic retrospective of Fred Roessler’s photography from 1995-2007 of historic Willowside Ranch in Pescadero. A beautiful selection of the buildings and farm equipment, animals, as well as the old cheese house and it’s presses.

We will have memorabilia from the old ranch, and give visitors the opportunity to try their hand at painting a silver gelatin print with oils.

Willowside Ranch By Fred Roessler
Norton Gallery @ Pacific Art League
668 Ramona Street, Palo Alto
Reception Friday Oct 5, 2007 from 6-9 pm