Gallery 1988 opened it’s San Francisco branch Saturday night with a rockin’ show titled The Indie: An Art Show Celebrating the Alternative Press which coincided with the APE Alternative Press Expo at the Concourse Exposition Center. SF 1988 is the sister y of LA’s Gallery 1988 which was opened in 2004 @ Melrose & La Brea in Hollywood by Katie Cromwell and Jensen Karp. 1988 is best known for the bust out monster shows [featuring dozens of artists] Remixing the Magic [partnered with Disney] and I Am 8-Bit.  The shows [according to the 1988 website] have generated up to 90,000 hits a day in web visits and untold sales.  1988 has been featured in such press outlets as: US Weekly, Juxtapoz, Jane, Playboy, The Washington Post, The LA Weekly, CNN and MSNBC to mention just a few.

The large room was packed shoulder to shoulder by the time ArtBeat got there and the buzz was huge. The crowd was due in large part to the nearby APE Expo, which would wrap up the next day. Everybody was set to kick back and party down in the city celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the $ummer of Love. AND buy art.  The red dots were dizzying-they even had a sales area set up on the floor with a manned cash register and piles of prints and unframed art. I felt like I was witness to a new art merchandising prototype [Strap on the Nitro!]. The party was hosted by Dave Crosland, Food One, Scott Morse, Strangeco, Hi-Fructose and Johnny Love Vodka.

LA Curator/Organizer Jon Gibson [he put together I Am 8-Bit too] told me that most of the artists were Pixar guys “… doing shit on the side…and a lot of surfers”.  Which goes quite a way in explaining the generally high quality of the work shown and is indicative of the intensity of the rich creative milieu in the Bay Area. For a complete list of participating artists see the 1988 website.

The Indie: An Art Show Celebrating the Alternative Press
April 21-May 12, 2007

SF Gallery 1988
1173 Sutter @ Polk
San Francisco, CA 94109 USA
Tue-Sat 12-7
Sun-Mon CLOSED
415.409.1376

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