Varnish gallery's glowing neon sign acts as a kind of beacon; at the end of an alleyway street it is easily secreted if not for its reputation and popularity within the contemporary art scene in the Bay Area (not just for the fact it's a gallery and a bar). At their anniversary show over five years of Varnish's career is displayed: over 40 artists, each with disparate professional paths, interests, influences, media, and backgrounds. Yet, as this exhibit shows, all these disparate paths converge harmoniously onto the showroom floor at 77 Natoma Street.

This illustration is achieved well with notes to the subtle nuances, complements, and placement. For example, Disney and Americana-inspired pieces, bright enough to sustain their dark corner, like Skot Olson's painting Houndstooth and Ron English's Marilyn and Mickeys hang together in accord. These fantastical, symbolic pieces confidently flow to the next wall, with help from Olson's Dali influence, to fantastical landscapes and genre works by artists like Chris Mars' Salvation for the Collateral 11 and Kevin Peterson's Auguries of the Ripening. Peterson's work which is occupied with heads covered in Maori-inspired tattooing, complement the melancholic, uncanny, emotive faces of Mars' work on the same wall.

Upstairs, larger works from landing to ceiling are awesome even viewed from the ground floor. One exemplary grouping of works is Kevin Evans' Portenum, Elizabeth Dante's sculpture Struts, and Robert Work's untitled piece. These works are illustrative of the creative entrepreneurial approach to Varnish's selection of artists. The disparate mediums are still visually cohesive, like Evans' sculpture of a human figure with crutches for legs, a disability turned into empowerment and majesty, alongside Works and Dante's long slim paintings of quick, long strokes of color. This assemblage of works also shows how the task to curate such a variety of artists, history, and approaches was achieved so well in this show.

Each one of these pieces is a further testament of the gallery's successful history, willingness for novel approaches to its trade, and creative partnerships. To curate a show of over 40 artists and attempt to illustrate five years of history in a gallery with such a productive outcome is testament of this gallery's firm establishment and its survival within a thriving art community in San Francisco.

-- Monique Willms

(*Images, from top to bottom:  Ron English, 5-Year Anniversary Show, April 14 - May 31, 2008; Varnish Fine Art, Marilyn with Mickeys, 2005, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 22", courtesy of Varnish Fine Art, San Francisco.  Chris Mars, 5-Year Anniversary Show, April 14 - May 31, 2008; Varnish Fine Art, Salvation for the Collateral 11, 2007, oil on panel, 24 x 19", courtesy of Varnish Fine Art, San Francisco.  Skot Olson, 5-Year Anniversary Show, April 14 - May 31, 2008; Varnish Fine Art, Houndstooth, 2008, oil on canvas, 12 x 12", courtesy of Varnish Fine Art, San Francisco.  Elizabeth Dante, 5-Year Anniversary Show, April 14 - May 31, 2008; Varnish Fine Art, Struts, 2008, mixed media, 63 x 16 x 16", courtesy of Varnish Fine Art, San Francisco.)