Join us in kicking off our 17th year of South First Fridays ArtWalk SJ on February 3rd in SoFA District & beyond! Come be a part of our unique community as we celebrate another year of artistic expression and immerse yourself in the vibrant atmosphere of San Jose’s arts & culture scene.The South FIRST FRIDAYS ArtWalk is a self-guided, nighttime tour through galleries, museums, and independent creative businesses from 5–9pm.All ArtWalk venues are free admission and family friendly.

• SoFA District

ANNO DOMINI // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 S. First St. map

Artist’s reception: MASCOT  Navin Norling (GA) solo exhibition

“I create work that is made from remnants of lives once lived and the people who have gone me.”

In his ongoing practice, Navin June Norling (b. 1970) examines classic Americana imagery and assembles miscellanea out of popular culture signifiers, sayings, folklore, and materialism.

During his upbringing, Norling would spend summers on his grandfather’s farm in California’s Central Valley, where all resources were reused without any waste. The impact of that rural setting led him to embrace salvaged components and eventually integrate assemblage and bricolage techniques into his formal training as a painter. But apart from those summers, Norling grew up in suburban California and spent his youth in wild exploration across the Bay Area; part of a generation committed to establishing a personal aesthetic framework, whether in the use of graffiti monikers or wheat paste messaging. He has been vicariously loyal to that urban grit and has maintained a street palette in his work.

The use of found objects and urban detritus plays a large part in his continued investigation of a dynamic American cultural landscape and its sociopolitical nuances. Cast-off wood frequently makes an appearance in the artist’s work, like the window panes in Good to the Last Drop (2005) presented at Sculpture Center in New York and in Black Cats (2003), held in the contemporary art collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

In 1995, he received a BFA in illustration from the California College of the Arts. It was here that he first encountered Raymond Saunders, who studied the collage process further reaffirmed his commitment to the found object. He later moved to New York in the early 1990s and received an MFA in fine arts from Hunter College in 2002. This shifting inhabitance across rural, suburban, and urban landscapes continues to shape his long-running survey of the country. More than that, the changes in scenery helped him develop a cheeky lexicon in addressing national issues of power, class, geography, capitalism, and inequality – a sense of humor accessible to varying demographic groups, each with their unique set of sensibilities.

His body of work encompasses paintings, sculptural objects, and installations. melanges of cacophonous iconographies developed from urban graffiti and pop imagery. In his recent work and as an extension of his exploration of bricolage, the artist has been employing a stacking technique to unite disparate, totemic fragments – modular and self-contained – that, when put together, plot out an ambitious, cohesive genealogy of collective Americana chronicles.

Norling lives and works in Atlanta, GA. He is currently a professor of foundation studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

MASCOT is Norling’s second solo exhibit at Anno Domini.

KALEID Gallery – 320 S. First St. map

Artist’s reception: Being. Jennifer DeChenne solo exhibition 

I often find myself struggling with anxiety, which manifests itself in excessive thought and worry. I have found respite from these thoughts through day-dreaming, imaging beautiful, calm places where I would rather be. In order to create these paintings, I have tried to focus on the feeling that is evoked when I enter my dream space, and to allow that to guide me to the images in these pieces. 

People often ask me if my paintings represent anything, whether the themes, symbols and shapes are representative of some sort of hidden message that I am trying to communicate. The answer to that question is that these paintings do not represent anything other than themselves and the feeling that they draw from the viewer. The feeling of the breeze on your face or the sound of a waterfall does not need any form of external meaning to evoke feelings of joy, the beauty lies in the experience itself. In the same way I hope that the simple beauty that I strive to depict can create a similar experience in you as a viewer as it does in me as a painter.

About the Artist: 
Jennifer DeChenne is a visual Artist from San Jose, with a fascination for the surreal. For Jennifer, the process of creating is an opportunity to delve into a wild world of ideas, while mentally working through things both good and bad. While Jennifer doesn’t meditate in the traditional sense, she finds that painting allows her to calm the mind and tune in to the present experience. Jennifer has been teaching Art for eleven years now, and loves helping students gain confidence through finding their Artistic voices. 

MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 S. First St. map

Pertenecer: To Belong group exhibition
Participating Artists: Pilar Agüero-Esparza, Rayos Magos, Kristina Micotti, Hector Muñoz-Guzmán, Vanessa Wallace-Gonzales, Jennifer White-Johnson

This exhibition investigates the intercultural identities of Latino artists across the Bay Area and beyond. Through varying mediums, each artist shares glimpses into their experiences of feeling othered across different spaces and social conditions within today’s culture. The spectrum of encounters have empowered each artist to lean further and deeper into their Latinidad, their work highlighting traditional techniques and iconography, indigenous homage, and references to every day life. By embracing their otherness, the artist can take control of their narrative and create their own space of pertenencia. This exhibition will feature the works of Pilar Agüero-Esparza, Rayos Magos, Kristina Micotti, Hector Muñoz-Guzmán, Vanessa Wallace-Gonzales, and Jennifer White-Johnson.

Natural Do Salon – 613 S. First St. map

Hollywood by Fuquan DivineMy interpretation of actors and singers in private thought

Opera San Jose at California Theater – 345 S. First St. map

Join Opera San José as we celebrate our production of Verdi’s Falstaff, a comedic opera about the illusions we all have about ourselves and the fools they can make of us.

We are opening the doors of the California Theatre for an evening filled with music, a sneak peek of rehearsal, and other special activities!  Featuring artists from the production and the lobby Wurlitzer organ, performances will occur at 5:45, 6:45, and 7:45 pm during ArtWalk SJ.

PhantomGalleries at The Pierce – 2 Pierce Ave. map

Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose – 560 S. First St. map

Quilt National ’21SJMQT will have 11 new works on display from Quilt National ’21 during First Friday ArtWalk SJ. Stop by the museum and be one of the first to see these new quilts!Quilt National ‘21 is a juried biennial exhibition featuring the Best of Contemporary Quilts. Organized by The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, Quilt National showcases new works, all made within the previous two years from the show’s opening, selected by the jury of Nancy Bavor, Brigette Kopp, and Karen Schulz. Quilt National offers the works of artists who take technology and techniques for fiber art above and beyond the ordinary.

SoFA Market – 387 S. First St. map

• FOUNTAIN ALLEY AREA

1Culture – 136 E. Santa Clara St. (New Venue)

Artwork by Shen Shen 210

Chopsticks Alley Gallery – 38 S. 2nd St. map

Works San Jose – 38 S. 2nd St. map

• MARTHA GARDENS District

Art Ark Gallery – 1035 S. Sixth St. map

Miguel Espinosa has been hard at work leading free Community Workshops and providing free portraits for businesses and families in the gallery for the past month. His exhibition will include portraits he has painted as well as photographic portraits. His mission is to create quality portraits for anyone and everyone.

FUSE presents at the Citadel Art Gallery- 199 Martha St.

MACHU PICCHU Gallery of the Americas, at the Citadel– 199 Martha St. map

Mexican Rebozos / Rebozos Mexicanos

Rebozos are handwoven shawls made by indigenous women in various regions of Mexico. They are weaved in backstrap looms using natural fabrics such as silk, cotton, and sheep’s wool. Rebozos have many purposes as seen in evidence of Mesoamerican ancestral cultures. However, the shawls are mostly associated with giving women support during the birth process and help women carry their babies around. Most rebozos are made by Mayan women and Zapoteca women, and they handknot very fine, intricate fringes as the finishing touches. San Luis Potosi is another state in Mexico known for creating the famous and beautiful rebozos.