Project One » press

Amazing writeup in SFBG on 4squared

Steve — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:06:58 +0000

Project One’s mural community

From

http://www.sfbg.com/pixel_vision/2010/03/19/project-ones-mural-community

03.19.10 – 12:04 pm | Caitlin Donohue

There’s a mural by my work I pass everyday that is visually astounding. It’s a super burner- a big, looping maze of letters, or maybe just design, that must represent in its whorls every color of the rainbow. It takes up the street side of a long building on a background of black-on-black fluer de lis design at Turk and Mason. Not to trivialize the sweet and sour roughness of ‘Loin life, but it gives the dope heads, the police cruisers and the general down-and-outery…

You don’t see color like that just anywhere.

Which was why it was so nice to put a face to the piece during my trip down toProject One gallery to check out their current show “Four Squared,” a collaborative project between Chor Boogie, Apex One, Jet Martinez, and David Chong Lee. Apex One (who spray painted the mural in the Tenderloin) was there putting up a fresh new entryway sign for the gallery, and we got the chance to chat on how the group partnership came to be.

“We all knew each other,” Apex, an SF native, tells me. In what sounds like a phone tree among soccer moms, the four creative graf art legends decided to create what now hangs in Project One- two huge murals, each made of 90 square foot pieces that gallery owner Brooke Waterhouse hopes will enable the younger art fans to buy a piece of the action.

Check out “Foursquared” at Project One to see Apex One’s entry way design, pictured here mid spray

“I’ve been waiting to do that for awhile; have it set up so you can take a piece of the mural home with you,” says Apex. Painting largely simultaneously (check the vidhere for installation shots), the artists created wall sized wonderlands that loosely relate their motifs to each other. A Boogie bird nestles on a Chong Lee design. It makes you wonder what would happen if street artists could drop the tag-on-tag wars forever and instead use their designs to augment the craft already on the wall in front of them. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Project One is also featuring individual works by each of the men on opposing walls from their group effort. They act as a stylistic key to the murals. Here, you can pick out Jet Martinez’s delicate cherry blossom sprigs- there, a lavender tag by Apex, its chunky and curved three dimensional form reminiscent of the architectural detailing on the Victorians he grew up amidst. Chor Boogie’s polychromed tiling work, Chong Lee’s eyeball studded Death Star.

It’s an engaging show to check out in the comfortable space at Project One, happy hour beer in hand. Nicer still? Well, for one, the fact that spring is here. More to the point, the fact that, somewhere, chances are that one of these guys is painting on a wall to beautify your walk to work. And for that, let’s give thanks.

http://www.sfbg.com/pixel_vision/2010/03/19/project-ones-mural-community

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PRESS: Sing Out, The latest from DJ and new dad Gavin Hardkiss

Steve — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:56:29 +0000

From San Francisco Bay Guardian: Sing out

The latest from DJ and new dad Gavin Hardkiss, plus In Flagranti and Litquake By Marke B.

superego@sfbg.com

SUPER EGO The only place social constructivism — and its attendant corollary, relativism — can fully fluoresce as a philosophical trope is in poetry. There, I said it. Never mind simply reverse-engineering facts to reach a mere equivocation. The “deep metaphysical vision” that John R. Searle attributes to constructivists in a recent New York Review of Books article is actually a deep metaphorical vision, one in which objects gingerly materialize through the screen door of mental language, sometimes banging open, sometimes clicking locked. Situations arise from their own plots.

See-line woman

Dressed in green

Wears silk stockings

With golden seams

See-line woman

+++

Was this at last our Balearic summer? Did dance music decisively turn from tracky loops to center instead on a sunny little something called “songs”?

“That Balearic era of music was so formative for me. The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, and the Verve are some of my faves,” Gavin Hardkiss (www.gavinhardkiss.com), one of San Francisco’s classic Hardkiss Brothers, told me over e-mail, limning the baggier side of early rave. “Recently, I downloaded about 100 Balearic anthems from that era. I didn’t like most of them, though, so it’s not like the entire era was golden.” As Hawke, a nom du disque he’s recorded under since 1993, Hardkiss has just released a nifty album, +++ (Eighth Dimension), full of sing-along electronic tunes that not only call up past Madchester glories, but also the intricate audio daydreams of Ultramarine and Orbital.

Hardkiss will forever epitomize the ’90s Lower Haight techno scene — graffiti on concrete, stars in eyes. But he’s all grown up now, and his musical complexity is complemented by the simple, practical lyrics of a new dad. “I love to make beats for DJs, but the new challenge became making songs. For this album, I had no audience in mind other than the fans who live in my house, something the family would enjoy listening to over and over. My two-year-old keeps singing my lyrics, ‘You took my money … you took my money’ and that makes me happier than anything.”

He also asked several edgy artist friends to create works based on +++ tracks, which will be displayed Oct. 7-16 at Project One Gallery (251 Rhode Island, SF. www.p1sf.com), accompanied by various party events, including an opening shindig (Wed/7, 7 p.m., free), a sharp Honey Soundsystem kiss (Fri/9, 9 p.m., free) and an appearance by brother Robbie Hardkiss (Oct. 16, 9 p.m., free). Gavin promises that the art “isn’t 15 Swiss Army knife emblems.”

http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=9234&catid=107&volume_id=452&issue_id=453&volume_num=44&issue_num=01

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7×7 Magazine, 07/10/09 ONE Renegade Dinner: Come As You Are

Steve — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:48:50 +0000

Photo by Hilary Charlotte

Brooke Waterhouse, owner and curator of Project One, is determined to make the recession sexy, one potluck at a time.

Instead of holding a bougie caviar-and-champagne soiree to bring together an intimate group of artistic San Franciscans, Waterhouse and guest host/co-curator of “Come As You Are”/wardrobe stylist Rachel Lena Esterline decided to throw a good old-fashioned potluck to encourage their 40 guests to share dishes and stories in the unique DJ lounge and gallery space in Portero Hill’s design district.

The inaugural monthly dinner took place in Project One’s gallery surrounded by the “Come As You Are” exhibit, which also served as inspiration for the evening. The guest list read as an eclectic mix of SF visionaries in design, fashion, music, and technology, including Nice Collective designers Joe Haller and Ian Hannula, Chris and Amber Marie Bently, photographer Merkeley???, DJ Jeffrey Paradise and his wife/promoter/photographer Ava Berlin, Riley Johndonnell of Surface Magazine, casting director Carmen Cuba, Emily Morse of “Sex With Emily”, and Sheri Sheridan of Swallowtail (who also helped with decor). But to be clear, the seemingly exclusive party is actually meant to be inclusive, as the hosts’ goal is to create an atmosphere conducive to weaving the mixed-media fabric of San Francisco through good conversation, food, and of course dancing.

More….

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New York Times Article

Steve — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:47:45 +0000

New York Times 9/13/09. Sunday Styles
A Feast for the Eyes and Ears

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Project One, an art gallery and D.J. lounge in San Francisco.

September 12, 2009, San Francisco

T a recent dinner party at Project One, an art gallery and D.J. lounge in the Potrero Hill design district here, guests were instructed to bring an organic dish to share, along with their own plates.

“We’re making the recession sexy,” said Brooke Waterhouse, a bubbly blonde wearing a thick coat of silver eye shadow and an antique gold lion pendant around her neck.

Last fall, she opened the club with her husband, the British technology entrepreneur Steve Waterhouse. Since then, the monthly art openings and frequent benefits have attracted a devoted and eclectic clientele, including local celebrities like the iPod designer Jonathan Ive and Stephan Jenkins, the lead singer of Third Eye Blind.

When there are no private parties, the doors are open to the public — mostly an iPhonewielding, 30-something set in vintage sneakers sipping wine, beer or herb-infused soju cocktails. D.J.’s spin electronic music under the disco ball, fog and green laser lights. On this evening, members of the city’s designerati dined in the gallery, which featured a monthlong show of work by eight local artists, ranging from $100 to $5,000. A $1,500 Peter Samuels photograph of a mop head sold on opening night. “It’s a great entry point, especially in this economy, for first-time collectors,” said Sabrina Buell, the West Coast director of the Matthew Marks Gallery, who attended the party.

Other guests included Riley Johndonnell, a founder of Surface magazine; Joe Haller and Ian Hannula from the fashion label Nice Collective; and industrial designers from Apple, who also gather at the club once a month for an electric disco night hosted by Markus Diebel, the vice president for design at InCase, which makes protective cases for handheld devices.

“My intent was to establish a forum for creative people who care about minimal house, techno and nu-disco,” Mr. Diebel wrote by e-mail. He named his monthly party Turbo, after the turbocharged cars popular in the late 1970s.

After traveling around the world with her husband for inspiration, Mrs. Waterhouse oversaw the design of the 3,200-square-foot lounge, with metal birds affixed to the wall in a flight pattern (crafted by the artist Laura Kimpton, of the hotel family). An eight-foot-tall steel candelabra sits on the rustic wood bar, which was imported from Bolinas, the surf enclave.

“Cape Town and Tokyo were big influences,” Mrs. Waterhouse said of her aesthetic choices.

Mr. Waterhouse, a recreational D.J., installed a sophisticated sound system that has drawn celebrity D.J.’s like Hercules and Love Affair, Rich Medina and Harvey Bassett (a k a D.J. Harvey). Although there’s an emphasis on dancing with abandon and unconventional fashion flairs, the Waterhouses try to keep the crowd discerning and art-focused.

“We’re not really a Burning Man bar,” Mrs. Waterhouse said. “We’re a little more sophisticated than that, but we all go there.”

The club often gets a permit to stay open as late as 4 a.m. There’s no sign on the door andFacebook updates are the only promotions. The Waterhouses hold court practically every night and Mrs. Waterhouse’s brother tends bar.

“We’re passionate about music and art,” Mr. Waterhouse said. “And we wanted a place to hang out with our friends.”

PROJECT ONE

251 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco, (415) 935-0994; p1sf.com.

GETTING IN Sometimes there is no cover, sometimes it can be up to $20, depending on the D.J.

DRESS CODE If you’re wearing sparkly accessories, a fedora, vintage sneakers and a hooded sweatshirt or leather jacket, you’ll fit in just fine.

SIGNATURE DRINK Pomegranate ginger fizz (prosecco, pomegranate and ginger syrup, $9).

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Chor Boogie opening party photos by Albus Cavus

Steve — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:44:27 +0000

Great photos and article from Albus – thank you

Photos here

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Reviews and Photos from Chor Boogie’s opening

Steve — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:40:45 +0000

Chor Boogie’s opening reception was a spectaclar occasion. If you missed it, here are some photos, and some articles.

“Chor Boogie Gets His Show on in San Francisco SF artist opens new show”

An accomplished San Francisco based graffitist by the name of Chor Boogie hosted his art opening at the Project One Gallery this past Friday. Recently having painted a mural at the Olympics in China and using his talent as a ticket to travel the world, Boogie has developed knack for creating spray painted images that leave admirers speechless. His solo show is entitled “Romanticism” and runs through January 3, 2009. Seher Sikandar caught up with the electric artist before the show.

NBC Bay Area Scen

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