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The relationship between architect-artist Maya Lin and the Bay Area has deep roots. She has been represented here by such works as her 11-ton, granite sculpture “Timetable” (2000, Stanford University) and the wiry stainless steel tubing of “Where the Land Meets the Sea” and the multimedia work that includes a giant listening cone “What Is…

Art/Act: Maya Lin – an exhibition of environmentally themed sculpture and interactive work by the internationally known Chinese-American artist, architectural designer and creator of the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial in Washington, D.C. (1982) — opens at the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Friday, Sept. 19. Lin’s show is something of a coup for the…

If there’s any doubt that fall is underway, look no further than the offerings at local galleries. Here’s a brief survey of what’s out there. SF Camerawork Dear Erin Hart In 2011, Jessamyn Lovell’s identity was stolen by a woman who then used it to run a drug syndicate, rack up astronomical fines for unpaid…

Oakland has been attracting a lot of national buzz these days for being an emerging hub of cultural and creative production. That comes as no surprise to artists and patrons who have been in the thick of the tight-knit arts community for years. But it’s true that there is a sense of excitement electrifying the…

When a contemporary art website recently asked artist Michael Kerbow what one piece of art from the world’s collections he would like to own, he was quick with his answer: The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel, with Bruegel’s The Triumph of Death a close second. Take a look at Kerbow’s work – especially his…

This year the David Brower Center, a Berkeley-based nonprofit community center devoted to environmental and social justice art and education, presents its third juried exhibition with the works of 18 Bay Area artists selected from more than 440 local submissions. Reimagining Progress: Production, Consumption, and Alternative Economies is an exhibition that focuses on the notion…

Art has long inspired environmental activism. The photographer Ansel Adams, whose iconic black-and-white images of the American west helped to build support for the US National Park Service, served on the board of the Sierra Club for 37 years, working closely with David Brower, the club’s first executive director. So it’s fitting that The Lexicon…

Douglas Gayeton and his wife, Laura Howard Gayeton, have spent the last five years focused on sustainability, largely because they believe the concept has become empty. “It’s a word that actually is meaningless. It’s a term that’s been completely appropriated and hijacked,” Gayeton said at the opening for The Lexicon of Sustainability: Information Artworks by Douglas…

You may be familiar with Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton’s multimedia project, “The Lexicon of Sustainability,” which has been showcased at PBS.org/food. (And I’ve interviewed Douglas for a previous Bay Area Bites post.) They’ll be premiering a whole new series of videos in early February, and a photography exhibit will be opening at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. The…

Peter and Mimi Buckley had no previous farming experience when they started a 110-acre organic farm outside Healdsburg four years ago. With careers in fashion, followed by founding nonprofits like the Center for Ecoliteracy and the David Brower Center in Berkeley, they wanted to apply their environmental ideals to agriculture. “I was one of those Michael Pollan farmers,” says Peter Buckley. “I had a lot…