As part of their 75th Anniversary celebration, SFMOMA commissioned British artist Ewan Gibbs to make a series of “urban portraits” of San Francisco based on snapshots the artist took last year.  Addressing the delicate, pixellated, hand-rendered portraits, SFMOMA curator Henry Urbach said, “…they hover between photography and drawing, between the documented and the half remembered.”  The 18 drawings that comprise Gibbs’ first solo museum exhibition are on view until June 27, 2010.  Daily Serving’s Bean Gilsdorf talked with Gibbs before he flew back to England.

Bean Gilsdorf: How long have you been drawing?

Ewan Gibbs: I started making the work that was the origin of this in 1993, when I was twenty. I came across this language based on knitting patterns and I knew then that this was the thing I was going to do.

BG: When you say “language based on knitting patterns”, what do you mean?

EG: Basically, I had been making paintings that were quite derivative of Lichtenstein: acrylic, flat color, black outline. I was very interested in interiors, but I just felt like it was all too derivative. I was almost paralyzed by the possibilities that were out there. And I just stopped doing anything—it’s a weird place to be, but typical of being a student—and then I found a book on knitting patterns where there’s a grid, and different marks determine what color [yarn] you use.

BG: And what was it that drew you to that?

EG: Well, it’s a functional language, but it can also be quite naturalistic. [In the patterns] they use a darker mark to describe darker areas. There was a practicality, it had another purpose other than as just a drawing. I had people make me needlepoints based on my drawings and I made a couple, as well.

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Andy DuCett is a Minneapolis- based artist working with a multitude of media, utilizing sculpture, collage, drawing and installation.  His installations predominantly feature site-specific pilings of mostly found objects.  The sculptures are temporary, and are most typically indicative of the cultural location in which they are built. His first solo show, entitled AOT Has Been Here Forever, Except When It Wasn’t,  recently on view at Art of This gallery in Minneapolis chronicles the history of the buildings, residents and streets around the gallery. The installation uses items from thrift stores and cast objects in order to draw attention to our interactions with the world. This assemblage of objects typical in his sculptural work is mimicked in his drawings, which pull together various occurrences and locations, illustrating for instance, events taking place over the course of a month.  His interest in found objects is apparent in his collage work, as well.  Using only found photographs and illustrations, DuCett constructs impossible scenes that subvert comfort, utilizing imagery of youthfulness to depict hazards and barriers.

DuCett received his Masters in Fine Arts from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006.  He is also currently presenting work in a group exhibition of artists using collage entitled CUTTERS: An Exhibition of International Collage at Cinder’s Gallery in New York.

Austin-based artist Jonathan Marshall creates large paintings and drawings that rely heavily on wit, working through color and design. These graphic images explore nature and the landscape through illustrative imagery, showing destruction through absurdity and humor. His success began shortly after his graduation from University of Texas at Austin (2003), and, in 2005 alone, Marshall received the best-in-show award for the Texas Biennial and a feature in New American Paintings. In 2006, he showed with Lawndale Art Center in Houston, plus Art Palace and Okay Mountain in Austin.

Using the framework of children’s drawings, Korean artist Yeondoo Jung has created a series of photos titled “Wonderland.” In this series, the artist takes a literal approach in translating information between actual children’s drawings and staged photographs. Space and distance are distorted as the artist’s photographs offer a mix of reality and fantasy in the interpretation of a child’s view of the world. Yeondoo Jung received his BFA from the Fine Arts College at Seoul National University and his MA from Goldsmiths College at the University of London. The artist has exhibited with Tina Kim Fine Art, NYC (2005), and Insa Art Center, Seoul (2004). Jung also participated in the artist residency programs Villa Arson, Nice, France (2004); and Art Omi, NYC (2003). In 2002, the artist received the 2nd Shanghai Biennale Asia-Europe Foundation Cultural Grant.

New York based Ethan Murrow creates work in a variety of self informing media such as drawing, video, sculpture and performance. The artist recreates scenes where subjects engage in a variety of experimental scientific endeavors as they attempt to discover something about nature. These scenes are actually performed by the artist, videotaped and used as source material for future works, or sometimes as work themselves. This month Ethan Murrow is exhibiting with Bucheon Gallery in San Francisco, and is featured on the SF based website fecalface.com. In April of 2007, the artist will exhibit with Winston Wachter Fine Art in Seattle.