THE PROFESSIONALS

"The Professionals" 6/22 – 7/26, 2007
Queen's Nails Annex is pleased to present a month of performative art and intrigue by artists Mike Lai, Pam Martin, Linda M. Ford, emael, Lucas Murgida, Jennifer Locke and guests.

"The Professionals" was inspired by the classic 1966 Western Film by Richard Brooks. Here, QNA investigates the unique nuances of five separate performative projects. Each week, a different artist(s) will reveal their distinctive interpretation within the gallery context, everyday of the week.

There will be public receptions for all 5 projects beginning Friday, June 22nd, 8-11pm, and every Friday thereafter through July 20th.

The Professionals are as follows:

6/22 Mike Lai (exhibition kick off party), Bruce Lee Manicurist/ Golden Dragon Massacre: View project at reception and the project will be on view, Saturday 23rd, 12 to 6 pm.

6/29 Pam Martin and Linda M. Ford, Porta-Peep-Hole: View project at reception and the project will be on view from Saturday 30th through July 4th, 12 to 6pm.

7/06 emael, The Last American Icon: View project at reception and the project will be on view from Saturday July 7th through Wednesday 11th, 12 to 6pm.There will be nightly performance from 7-11pm.

7/13 Lucas Murgida, The Locksmithing Institute of QNA: View project at reception and the project will be on view from Saturday July 14th through Wednesday 18th, 12 to 6pm.

7/20 Jennifer Locke and guest artists (exhibition closing party), Blah, Blah, Blah: View project at reception and the project will be on view at regular gallery hours until July 28th.

Exhibition details:

6/22 Mike Lai, Bruce Lee Manicurist/ Golden Dragon Massacre

During the opening night, Mike Lai will set up manicure tables. Behind each table will be a manicurist dressed in the classic yellow and black Bruce Lee jumpsuit. Free yellow and black strip manicures designs will be given to the gallery goers throughout the opening. In the second room Lai will re-create a typical Chinatown backroom including after-hours Mahjong gambling and mayhem. This project references the infamous 1970’s failed assassination attempt by Chinese teenagers in a San Francisco Chinatown back room known as the Golden Dragon Massacre. Mike Lai was born in Hong Kong in 1980, and came to the United States as a student in 1993. He received his BA from Davidson College, North Carolina and MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. He now lives and works in San Francisco. His work has been shown at Davidson College Union Gallery, Davidson, North Carolina, Cangues, Puerto Rico, Southern Exposure, San Francisco and Kaiku Gallery, Helsinki, Finland.

6/29 Pam Martin and Linda M. Ford, Porta-Peep-Hole

Children spying through a fence, corporations spying through the web, the property owner spying through a CCTV system, and the neighbor as "peeping Tom", all exemplify the complex spectrum of impulses to look. What is predatory about an eye? What is vulnerable about a voyeur’s backside? And what happens when these dynamics intermingle with the desire to view art? Officially collaborating with the bar next door to QNA, The Argus Lounge, artist-duo Linda M. Ford and Pam Martin will conduct "live" surveillance through an installed peephole, drilled through the gallery wall directly into the Argus. Simultaneously, they will be surveilled by the installed CCTV system, which will be transmitting their live-feed "performance" to the flat screen monitor above the bar. The "viewed" public will have the option to use this peephole while they perform "porta-peephole activities" through a mobile wall. Pam Martin received MFA from San Francisco Art Institute, and Linda M. Ford received BA from Boston College, MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. Linda attended Skowhegan School of Art & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME in 2002. Martin and Ford’s work have been shown at DISJECTA, Portland OR, Saarlandisches Kunstlerhaus, Germany, Art in General, NY, Costa Rican Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Costa Rica.

7/06 emael, The Last American Icon

The artist will live in the gallery and host nightly performances by Bay Area Artists for the length of the show. Participating artists: Tan Khanh Cao, Maria Conlon, Jaime X. Cortez, Heather Cox, Caleb Duarte, dr. erlS, dj kinetic, walter kitundu, MamaCoAtl, David Molina, Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa, Diego J. Pacheco, Julia Reodica, d.scot, DJ Trilce, Moriah Ulinskas, Susana Valdez, Marja West, and Marilyn Yu. The exhibition highlights Performance Art Direct and the hemp canvas uniforms used exclusively in the project's four year period by the artist. Photographs, video, objects and legal documents that attempt to contextualize their place in the art world will accompany these uniforms. emael was born to Mexican immigrants in LA. Since 1995, his work has primarily focused on the body as site for ritual exploration. His work has been shown at Exit Art, New York, New York, Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, Oakland Museum of California, National Queer Arts Festival, SF LGBT Community Center, San Francisco and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco.

7/13 Lucas Murgida, The Locksmithing Institute of QNA

In Lesson #9 the faculty and staff of the Locksmithing Institute of QNA would like to expose students to an experience that does not yield any direct visual, sensual, auditory, or olfactory stimulation. If students choose to participate they will enter the Institutes mobile isolation chamber (a space in which all light, sound, and vibration have been removed, allowing an individual to have a direct experience without the influence of external stimuli). The Class begins on July 13, 2007 and will run each day until Thursday July 19th. Lunch will be mud pies followed by dirt naps. His work has been shown at Uruguay’s National School of Fine Arts, Uruguay, The Havana Biennial, Cuba, Cal Arts, Valencia, CA, DISJECTA, Portland, Oregon and Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.

7/20 Jennifer Locke, Blah, Blah, Blah

Jennifer Locke will present an evening of performance with: Cliff Hengst, Gonzalo Hidalgo, Chris Isner, Anne McGuire, and Ella Tideman. The guest artists are all veterans of the late eighties/early nineties San Francisco performance art scene. During the opening, there will also be a looping video of the artists' pieces playing in the back room along with performance. Video pieces and performative residue will be exhibited through July 28th. Jennifer Locke is a San Francisco-based artist, obsessed with power structures in relation to voyeurism, technology, and the body. Working in performance-based video and photography, her work turns the camera on herself in the act of filming and photographing subjects such as hot boys from her wrestling team. Locke has exhibited in venues such as Air de Paris, Paris; the Havana Biennial, Havana; the Basel Art Fair, Kunsthalle, Basel; La Panaderia, Mexico City; Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels; New Langton Arts, San Francisco; Kiki, San Francisco; and Hallwalls, New York. She received both of her degrees, a BFA in 1991 and an MFA in 2006, from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Photo credit: Marc Angelo Ramos and Englebert Holder