SOUTHERN EXPOSURE EXHIBITIONS & PROGRAMS OVERVIEW

EXHIBITIONS
Bay Area visual arts organization Southern Exposure (SoEx), offers artists the chance to experiment, exposes them to new audiences, and engages them in meaningful conversation with other artists and the public, with a primary goal to cultivate emerging artists whose work questions and challenges existing assumptions, shows great promise, and contributes to a cultural dialogue. To ensure that SoEx stays appraised with what’s happening at the forefront of artistic expression, exhibitions are developed by an artist-run Curatorial Committee made up of a rotating group of 10 artists and two staff members.

Solo Exhibitions
SoEx is committed to offering major solo exhibitions to emerging artists, as they don’t often find this opportunity elsewhere, knowing the resulting project can make a substantial difference in the development of the artist’s practice. Solo artists are commissioned to do new work and given an honorarium, a materials budget and a two-week installation period that often serves as a mini-residency; artists are selected through an open submissions process by the Curatorial Committee based on artistic merit, regardless of commercial viability.

Group Exhibitions
Thematic group exhibitions respond to new trends in artistic practice, reach out to diverse audiences, and encourage debate on contemporary art and culture. These exhibitions are an opportunity for artists and curators to bring timely issues to a broader audience and to explore experimental and emerging curatorial practices.

Public Art
SoEx’s public art program commissions new temporary and permanent work throughout the Bay Area that intervenes and interacts in the social and political spheres beyond the gallery. Public art is the newest addition to SoEx’s programmatic agenda, and the organization is one of only a few Bay Area venues committed to supporting emerging artists working in the public realm.

Juried Exhibition
SoEx’s annual entry fee free juried exhibition has become one of the premier showcases of contemporary artwork by promising local talent in Northern California. A prestigious national guest curator selects the art, offering more than 700 artists each year the opportunity to have their work viewed by a respected curator from outside the local region. For many of the artists selected, this is their first major exhibition and an important step in advancing their career. The project includes an exhibition, a public-art day, and film/video screenings.

Events and Public Programs
SoEx’s workshops, lectures, performances, artists' talks, screenings, education programs, panels and symposia create a forum on contemporary aesthetic, sociopolitical and cultural issues. Events and public programs are designed to expand on ideas and issues presented in concurrent exhibition and education projects, as well as to provide much needed technical and professional skills to artists.


PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS

Solo Exhibitions
In the last 10 years alone, SoEx has presented solo shows for more than 70 artists, including Adrianne Colburn, Suzanne Husky, Packard Jennings, Kathryn Kenworth, Shaun O’Dell, Kate Pocrass, Tucker Schwarz, Chris Sollars, Anna Von Mertens, Megan Wilson, and Jenifer Wofford.

FREE RANGE (Spring 2008–ongoing)
In 2008 SoEx launched a new series of events, walks, meetings and public projects developed by a group of artists whose work deals with issues of the environment, whether through farming, gardening or working with city policy makers to improve our urban experience.

Hopeless and Otherwise (May 23–July 3, 2008)
Curated by SoEx Curatorial Committee member Valerie Imus, this exhibition explored what it means to be American within the context of our historic narratives and myths. Artists included Siemon Allen, April Banks, Mary Walling Blackburn, BLW, Melissa Day, Michael Light, Nathan Lynch, Alison Pebworth, The Renaming Bush Street Project, Jonathan Santos, Mark Tribe, and Visible Collective.

Vapor (March 14–May 3, 2008)
Curated by SoEx Curatorial Committee members Jordan Geiger and Alison Sant, Vapor presented new art, architecture and design that considers our declining air quality. Artists included Amy Balkin, Futurefarmers, Natalie Jeremijenko, The Living, Eric Paulos, and Preemptive Media.

Grounded? (November 9–December 15, 2007)
Presented in collaboration with Intersection for the Arts, SoEx’s 16th annual juried show included a joint gallery exhibition, a day of public art and urban interventions, and film/video screenings, and featured the work of more than 75 artists. Jurors included Kristan Kennedy of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Erik Knutzen of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, and Kirthi Nath of the Bay Area Video Coalition.

Free Enterprise (July 10–August 18, 2007)
SoEx hosted three artist residencies with the goal of providing the artists with an opportunity to create a framework for and launch a business utilizing their creative skills. Artists included Nathan Lynch, Michael Swaine, and Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan.

SoEx Off-Site (September 8, 2006– June 30, 2007)
SoEx Off-Site was a yearlong series of eight major commissioned public art projects investigating diverse strategies for exploring and mapping public space. Projects were created and presented throughout the Bay Area by Ledia Carroll, Glowlab, Packard Jennings, Neighborhood Public Radio, Christian Nold, Jeannene Przyblyski (San Francisco Bureau of Urban Secrets), Rebar, and Lee Walton.

Between the Walls (May 19–June 3, 2006)
Curated by SoEx Curatorial Committee member Emily Sevier, this exhibition examined the notion of home and the relationship between space and identity. Artists included Sarah Filley, Steve Green and Kathryn Kenworth, Sasha Petrenko, Rebar, David Stein, Sundown Salon, Wowhaus, and a collaborative project by SoEx’s Youth Advisory Board with artists Theo Rigby and Moriah Ulinskas.

Smart Ass (March 10–April 15, 2006)
Curated by SoEx Curatorial Committee member Kelsey Nicholson, Smart Ass looked at humor in conceptual art–making. Quick-thinking wit was a running theme, uniting work that ranged from sculpture to installation, drawing, photography and video. Artists included Dustin Fosnot, Kora Jünger, Virginia Kleker, Susan O’Malley, Shannon Plumb, Ben Riesman, Ryan Thayer, and Dan Witz.

Practice Makes Perfect (September 9–October 15, 2005)
Curated by SoEx’s Curatorial Committee, this exhibition explored the work of emerging and established Bay Area artists who utilize highly skilled craft processes for the production of conceptually based work. Artists included Ann Chamberlain, Amy Franceschini/Michael Swaine, David Ireland, Bernie Lubell, Christian Maychack, Jim Melchert, Scott Oliver, Stephanie Syjuco, Mark Thompson, Tony Tredway, and Anna Von Mertens.

The Way We Work (September 10–October 23, 2004)
Curated by SoEx Executive Director Courtney Fink, The Way We Work was an international exhibition developed in recognition of SoEx’s 30th anniversary. This exhibition and series of projects took Southern Exposure's innovative community-based working model as its starting point. Artists included Instant Coffee, Mende Design and Volume Design, Neighborhood Public Radio, Red76 Arts Group, Jon Rubin and Stephen Wight, Stretcher.org, and United Net-Works.

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For more information or images contact:
–Wendy Norris, Norris Communications,
(415) 307-3853, wendy@norriscommunications.biz

–Courtney Fink, Southern Exposure,
(415) 863-2141, director@soex.org