415-931-1500
Oakland artist John Felix Arnold III calls his years-long series of mixed-media works "The World of Unstoppable Tomorrow," and it features a species of creatures called "Astroknots" that, originated by the military, sweep across a world where humans are no longer in complete control. Who survives? Who doesn't? If it's not post-apocalyptic, it's post-21st century, and it's a mix of dystopian and hallucinatory, yet easy on the eyes. Yes, beautiful. The abstract shapes. The occasional figuration partly inspired by Japanese manga and other Japanese aesthetics. The brush strokes with leopard colors, forest greens, and vivid reds. And all of this on panels of found objects and other assorted materials. It's a world that Arnold has called "a mythology of a future past." Arnold's latest iterations get a solo exhibition in Pilgrimage, in which Arnold depicts survivors' quest for physical and spiritual salvation, and documents their travels and travails with audio recordings and sculpture that have bona fide bones and skulls. Nighttime may be the best time to see Arnold's latest imaginings of a wildly imperfect future.
415-931-1500
