AS IF

Provisional Gallery

July 6—September 23, 2018

Opening Reception: Friday, July 13, 2018, 6—9 PM

792 Bay Street

San Francisco CA 94109

Open Tuesdays through Saturdays 7AM — 5PM

After relocating to San Francisco about a year ago, Aron Louis Cohen, Parsons MFA Fine Arts Alum ’12, decided to form a gallery to bring together artists and thinkers concerned with technology. Cohen is very proud to announce the first show in this space, AS IF, will be opening July 13. The opening is free and open to the public; refreshments will be served.

“As if,” short for “as would be the case if,” is also a display of disbelief and suspicion, sometimes even disgust, similar to “Yeah, right!”

The general skepticism towards technology never seems to slow down its rapid advancements. Clearer, swifter, and more powerful; the virtual is encroaching closer onto reality. Oftentimes, visual culture is redirected by the latest technological innovations. This exhibition throws itself into this redirected culture which permeates our lives, and suggests a gesture of camouflage—disguising itself as an array of works which seem incidental or commonplace. The artists register their perceptions in the technological landscape, and each inquires into or casts suspicion on our attachments to and engagements with technology—its materials, artistries, procedures, languages, and forms. The shared strategy here is one of the “as if”—the artists presume, posture, twiddle, and redact.

Cohabiting with a cafe, a non-specific and non-immersive site, the show also asserts a viewing experience from the mundane. What’s presented and how it is presented in the space appears to be unseasonable, or at least not satisfying enough.

Curated by: Ziying Duan

With: Nancy Buchanan, Angel Chen, Simona Fitcal, Jen Liu, Christopher Squier, Emilio Vavarella, Damon Zucconi, Pedro Zylbersztajn

Provisional Gallery is a make-believe coffee shop role-playing a gallery.

Provisional means looking ahead in preparation for potential and inevitable change. We look ahead in hopes to materialize a desirable future for all. Provisional evokes a temporary stand-in, a status that registers in the startup culture in perpetuity. It either becomes the next best thing, is discarded and abandoned, or is voluntarily engulfed by an establishment. We are a gallery, intended as an alternative to the way art is commonly viewed and circulated today. Our vision is to create a space in alliance with artists, technologists, writers, tourists, and the neighborhood. Housed within a cafe, our first exhibition will open the beginning of July 2018.

Learn more via Provisional Gallery and find them on Facebook and Instagram to see updates on future summer programming.