ArtPadSF: Where You Smile at Art and Art Smiles Back

Matt's 16-foot aluminum sculpture, "Telophase" has a perfect poolside presence.

Weekend before last, The Phoenix Hotel, with its cool LA-in-the-50's vibe, hosted ArtPadSF for the third year. And each year hubby Matt has shown sculptures with the gallery marx & zavaterro. This year was just as fabulous as last year, but with even more art and visitors. Nearly 10,000 attended over the four days, looking hip as they cruised the thirty-five galleries, each in it's own motor lodge room. We went the opening VIP night (it's not often that artists are treated like VIPs; our cocktails were free and in glass, everyone else had to pay and got plastic!) Then we returned on Saturday for more schmoozing and viewing. What follows are some photos from both days featuring some flashes of style.

Looking super duper dapper and sharp as a tack! 

The darling photographer from 7x7 magazine. 

Proud gallerists with great color. 

Me wanty! Elegant lace-ups. The wearer generously shared the fact 

that she found these Ferragamos at Goodwill!

Uber fabulousness. Luke of the gallery Unspeakable Projects.

On Saturday, Luke made me think of Diana Vreeland's "Why Not." Why not tie a white chiffon scarf to create a statement-making bow? And gallery director Mauri Skinfill rocks rompers like nobody else. 

Handsome happy couple. They proudly told me that their son was one of the exhibiting artists. 

It's not often that one gets to lounge poolside in SF.
And one would almost think they were in Palm Springs, except for all the black!

The Big Pour

What does the well-dressed artist and assistant wear to pour 1300 degree molten aluminum? As much as they can! Matt is always drawing, carving, shaping or welding something. Lately, he's carving shapes out of white foam to use as molds for cast aluminum sculptures. When he had about five done, he asked if I would assist in the big pour. Of course! I wanted to document my first experience as a foundry girl, but it's impossible to handle a crucible of hot liquid aluminum and take pix. Luckily, our good friend and photographer, Jay Blackburn, was visiting and he documented the process.

The welding supply store is not usually a fashion destination, but some of these items have a certain industrial chic quality. Especially Matt's Tillman leather welding cape sleeve, which is a very short leather jacket and as my friend Andrea mentioned once, it could be very sexy on a woman. (I just found it available on a site called "Weldfabulous", three snaps for that!) And Matt's welding cap, made of a Chanel-like quilted black cotton. Style potential!

Back to work: face shield down as Matt and I pour the aluminum into molds which have Matt's foam sculptures buried in a special foundry sand.  The molten aluminum vaporizes the foam on contact.

We poured about thirty-five pounds of aluminum, creating five sculptures, all from remnants of Matt's larger aluminum sculptures. This is all done right below our living room window.

Matt's happy with the pour, which only took about fifteen exciting minutes. Next step is to dig them out of the sand and do hours of finish work.

Old Friends, 8" high x 10" long

And here are the results. Matt worked his magic and took the very rough aluminum forms and smoothed the surfaces until it had the finish he wanted. Here are more of Matt's sculptures.

M-80, 16"high x 23"wide x 6"deep

ArtPad Party

Matt's kinetic sculpture, George's Bone, installed poolside at the Phoenix Hotel, San Francisco. His gallerists Heather and Steve of marx & zavattero enjoyed the sun before the chilly breeze hit.
Photo from J.D. Beltran's post on City Brights.

Last weekend was one big art party and exhibition in San Francisco with the Art Mrkt at the design center, the Fine Arts Fair at Fort Mason and ArtPad at the Phoenix Hotel. The Phoenix has a mid-century Palm Springs vibe right in the heart of the Tenderloin, the edgy, urban neighborhood with a mix of immigrants, sex and drug sellers, down-and-outers sleeping it off on the sidewalk and trendy folk headed to a cool bar or restaurant. For ArtPad, they took all the furniture out of the hotel rooms, giving each gallery the space to show their art.

How much is that sculpture in the window? Matt's sculptures on display. 

These sculptures of Matt's are metal with a mix of surfaces: polished, painted and even flocked. The second one from the left and the one on the far right are cast aluminum which I helped pour. More on that and what the well-dressed foundry girl wears in another post.

The view from the balcony.

Here I am with friends Elizabeth and Ann. We all had the same idea.
If you have to bundle up at a party, do it with color!

Ann's gorgeous bracelet.

Super cool artist and gallerist of Unspeakable Projects.

And super cool kicks.

Friend David Lyle and his paintings with the Lyons Weir Gallery in New York. 

The high-heel sculptures of Willie Cole with beta pictoris gallery

Happy and stylish, a great combo!