Madrone Art Bar in collaboration with More Art Everywhere! announces the May 1st opening of (per)sonification, an art exhibition showcasing rare historic photos of iconic musicians by photographer Larry Schorr paired with visual song representations by digital artist Greta Boesel.
Schorr’s photographs of legendary musicians performing in Bay Area venues from 1973 to 1979 include The Who at Cow Palace, Frank Zappa at the Berkeley Community Theatre, and Talking Heads at Zellerbach Hall, among many others. Schorr, who studied photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology, moved west for the music during that era and captured his favorite performers in some 500 shows over the course of a decade before promoters began disallowing personal concert photography. Larry’s entire collection can be seen on mypixrock.com.
Artist Greta Boesel creates what she calls “cantographs”—a unique form of digital art in which she assigns colors, shapes and other graphic elements to notes on the musical scale to create visual representations of songs. Greta’s work can be viewed at gretaboesel.com and on Instagram @gretaboesel.
Each of Schorr’s photographs in the exhibition is accompanied by one of Boesel’s cantographs of a song by that musician. View the full show here.
Local musician Lester Raww has created a one-time musical performance specifically for the opening event. Raww and his ensemble Hollins & Hollins Mortuary Entertainment host “Apocalypse Sunday,” a musical variety show at Madrone on the first Sunday of each month. For this special event, several local musicians are being assembled to perform every song visually represented in Boesel’s cantograph series.
Also debuting at this opening is a new window installation, Afloat, by San Francisco artist Anita Beshirs. This is the second Madrone installation for Beshirs, who shows locally and nationally. More work by Beshirs can be viewed at anitabeshirs.com and on Instagram @anitasparklebeshirs.
Beshirs and Boesel are the co-founders of More Art Everywhere!, a passion project focused on creating more opportunities for local artists to show work in local venues. For more information, visit morearteverywhere.com and @more_art_everywhere on Instagram.
The opening will take place on May 1, 2022 from 4:00–6:00pm at Madrone Art Bar, 500 Divisadero Street (@ Fell) in San Francisco.
(per)sonification and Afloat will be on display through July 31, 2022.