Thanks to everyone who came to the opening at Lanesplitter.


After Magritte. 11" x 14," gouache and pen on paper.

17 PAINTINGS, some old some new, up now at

LANESPLITTER
4799 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA

RECEPTION MARCH 23RD, 7-10 PM





Statement for the show:

Brian Strang lives in East Oakland and teaches English composition at San Francisco State University and Merritt College. He is the author of INCRETION (Sputyen Duyvil) and MACHINATIONS (a free Duration ebook) and several chapbooks. His poems, reviews, essays and translations have appeared in many journals including New American Writing, Five Fingers Review, The Denver Quarterly and Ur-Vox. Recently, his poetry appeared in translation in the Portuguese journal DiVersos.

His paintings represent “an attempt to be guided visually and artistically by the imagination’s interaction with natural forms and nature itself: the perilous context, the most permeating materiality, the system of interrelated forces so complex, so enormous and so minute, so internal and external, that it extends far beyond the limitations of imagination and is, therefore, marvelous. Poetry is encoded within the forms of the world, within Whitman’s “spear of summer grass”—one only has to look closely to see it.”

This is his third solo show.

“Strang’s work... suggests a more romantic pleasure in and response to visual phenomena. [It] betrays a rhythmic sensibility not unlike that found in a sketch by Matisse.”
Garrett Caples
SF Bay Guardian 6/13/07

NEW SHOW UP AT LANESPLITTER BEGINNING NEXT WEEK!

Lanesplitter is a wonderful and hip pizza place (with good beer) at 4799 Telegraph in Oakland. This is actually the March show, but will be up beginning Feb 21st, and there will be a reception on March 23rd.

(detail)


(detail)

Sierra Triptych, Gouache and pen on paper, 11" x 14".

Less than a week left to see the show at Canessa. It ends on the 29th. Check it out if you haven't already:

Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery (@Columbus)
SF, CA

M-F, 10-4


B.

A warm thank you to all who attended the opening! And to the musicians for filling the space with mysterious sounds!

The exhibit runs through 1/29. Stop by and check it out if you haven't yet.

Canessa Gallery
M-F, 10-4
708 Montgomery (at Columbus)

Gouache and pen on canvas (detail).

Sorry Nature
Current Poem/Paintings by Brian Strang

Jan. 4th through 29th

OPENING RECEPTION
Sunday January 4th
3pm-6pm

Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery (@ Columbus)
San Francisco, CA 94111

Sorry Nature
Current Poem/Paintings by Brian Strang

Jan. 4th through 29th

OPENING RECEPTION
Sunday January 4th
3pm-6pm

Canessa Park Gallery
708 Montgomery (@ Columbus)
San Francisco, CA 94111

Tune in to the CANESSA READING 11/16/08:

CLICK HERE TO VISIT ARCHIVE AND LISTEN

Also, check out new poems from WORK magazine. Click

HERE

11" x 14" gouache and ink on paper.

READING ANNOUNCEMENT:

Dear Fellow Poets & Followers of Poetry:


On Sunday, November 16th at 3PM we will have a
gathering poets--two of whom are also wonderful painters.

Come join us at Canessa Gallery at 708 Montgomery Street
X street Columbus to hear:

Brian Strang
Valerie Witte
&
Brian Lucas

Seasonal fruit and snacky type things will be provided. Beverages too.
A modest $2-3 donation generously accepted.
Questions: write Tiff at: tiff_dressen@yahoo


BRIAN STRANG lives in Oakland and teaches English composition at San Francisco State University and Merritt College. He is the author of Incretion (Spuyten Duyvil) and machinations (a free Duration ebook) and several chapbooks, including recently Human-Sized and Inhabitants, a chapbook of poem/drawings. Both are from Peter Ganick's small-chapbook-project. Recent poem/paintings can be seen at his website, Sorry Nature and at Deep Oakland. His poems, reviews, essays and translations have appeared in many journals including New American Writing, The Denver Quarterly and Ur-Vox. Recently, his work appeared in translation in the Portuguese journal DiVersos.
In January, Canessa will feature the second solo show of his poem paintings.

VALERIE WITTE received her MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Faultline, Switchback, the Southwestern Review, and elsewhere. She spends her daytime hours editing computer books in Berkeley.


BRIAN LUCAS, back from six years in Bangkok, Thailand now lives on the island of Alameda. He is the author of Light House (2006 from Meeting Eyes Bindery/Spuyten Duyvil, 2006), and has recently completed a manuscript called Circles Matter. He has been collaborating with Andrew Joron, and together they have created a chapbook entitled Force Fields (forthcoming from Hooke Press) which features a poem from Joron and drawings from Lucas. His work has been published in such magazines as Sulfur, Conjunctions, Hambone, Talisman, Beard of Bees, Gut Cult, and Galatea Resurrects. He paints more often than he writes, and co-edits 2ND MYND with Brian Strang!

Pen and gouache on paper, 14" x 11."

Another show coming in January at Canessa Park. Stay tuned for details.

Click HERE to read DISRUPTION by Jorge Melícias (traslated from Portuguese by Brian Strang and Elisa Brasil).

A beautiful and disturbingly vivid work up now at Duration Press.

Jorge Melícias was born in 1970. He is the author of the following books: THOSE WHO LIGHT THE ROOFS (1996-1998), forthcoming; INITIATION TO REMORSE (2004, Cosmorama); THE LIGHT IN THE LUNGS (2000, Quasi); THE CIRCUMSCRIBED KING (2003, Quasi); INCUBUS (2004, Quasi); THE LONG BLASPHEMY (2006, Objecto Cardiaco). He has translated, among others, Baudelaire, Lautrémont, Saint-John Perse, António Gamoneda and Leopoldo Maria Panero. His poems have been translated into various languages, Spanish, English and Serbo-Croatian, and have been published in various reviews. He is a co-editor of Cosmorama.


I used Wordle to create the collage above from my preface.

Gouache and pen on canvas, 16" x 20."

20" x 20," Gouache and pen on canvas.



20" x 20," Gouache and pen on canvas.

I'm now on Deep Oakland:

Deep Oakland

Gouache and ink on paper, 11 x 14.

INCRETION, 71 pp. of poetry and prose, is now available at Small Press Distribution!

Click HERE to purchase from SPD.

"Brian Strang's INCRETION is a probe into the genuine state of things, seeking definition and measure amidst the blood-and-circus reversals of regime, market, vestigial culture. Where the first world hits the last wish--this is the challenged territory he would have us know, and face."

--George Albon

14" x 11," gouache and ink on paper.

Three new ones for summer. All are 8" x 11," gouache and pen on paper.

Summer offering to Ra. Gouache and pen on canvas, 12" x 36."