Over a century ago, the night before an art opening, the artist would invite friends and family over for a varnish party where everyone would imbibe while the pieces were prepared for the next day. That was what Jen Rogers & Kerri Stephens had in mind when they opened the first Varnish location on Natoma shortly after 9/11. They’ve since moved to a newly opened space at 16 Jessie St., with the same focus, but in a space that’s accessible to all art lovers. The gallery is open now for a soft peek, but Jen & Kerri have more than one surprise up their sleeves, including a Monster Photo Booth during the upcoming Yerba Buena Night on October 15th & 16th:
SCOUT: Varnish is a contemporary fine art gallery with an “emphasis on pop surrealism.” Give us the low-down on what pop surrealism is.
VARNISH: It is pop art and surrealism combined. Robert Williams is in our upcoming Relaunch Show, and he is really the big daddy of pop surrealism and that’s because in the early part of 2004 or 2005, he was part of a show that blew everyone’s socks off in the art world, and he really brought this particular style of work that has pop culture roots, but also a surreal elements in to the mainstream. A good example is Isabel Samaras’ Nutz as a pop surreal piece. It’s that kind of fanciful, playful mood with the pop culture elements being the big, gold chain and it’s titled Nutz with a “z” n the end. Artwork like that is an emphasis of ours, but we have interest in other types of art work, too.
SCOUT: What is this Relaunch Exhibitions on September 24th?
VARNISH: The gallery will look completely different than it does now. The Relaunch show is 21 artists working in 2 dimensions, so all paintings and drawings and a little bit of collage. Among those artists are Robert Williams, Chris Mars, JennyBird Alcantara, Isabel Samaras and Chuck Sperry. We exclusively represent a few artists, and we’re going to be revealing a lot more. That’s part one of the Relaunch Show, and part two will all be sculpture. That’s a separate show of 17 sculptors and that goes up on November 12th.
SCOUT: The Monster Photo Booth looks like it’s going to be a good time!
VARNISH: We figured it would be fun to have something interactive where people could take their own picture. Even thought they get to walk away with prints, it’s saving everything digitally so we have a document of all the people that have come through. Dylan Sisson is the creator of the Photo Booth. He added a few features for the Relaunch, like it heckles you on the screen as you’re taking the photos with phrases like, Cheese! or Why so serious?
SCOUT: Varnish recently re-opened on Jessie St. What can lovers of the old Varnish expect from the new space?
VARNISH: The old space had a wine bar, no more wine bar. The wine bar was great because it was like an opening all the time since you could drink and look at art whenever you wanted, but the downside was that we couldn’t have any kids, so some art students couldn’t even come in. We decided we really had to do something about that, so we let that go. We’re also adding some new elements in here. We’re putting in bookshelves where we’ll be selling art publications and prints.
SCOUT: What do you have planned for the upcoming Yerba Buena Night?
VARNISH: We have a sound system in here, so we’ll put together a playlist. We’ll have drinks, so everyone can relax and chill while they check out the Relaunch Part 1. The Monster Photo Booth will be here to for people to come by and snap some photos of themselves. We’ve participated in the Yerba Buena Gallery Walk since the beginning when it was just six galleries so people remember us from when we were on Natoma, and this is a big chance for us to introduce people to the new space. Next year, we’d love to take over the alley here and get some of our fire sculptor friends involved and have flames shooting out of it.
