Jeff Canham’s “Garden Variety.”
Currently on view at Hashimoto Contemporary in San Francisco, California is artist Jeff Canham’s solo exhibition, “Garden Variety.”
The Bay Area based wood worker and designer explores traditional sign painting techniques combined with wooden sculptures. “Garden Variety” is a lush space of handcrafted cactuses, house plants and collaged signs inspired by Jeff's fascination with gardens and notable San Francisco signage.
Canham's plant pieces are created by hand in his wood shop located in the Outer Sunset. These plants started as adornments to his more traditional paintings and have evolved to be their own standalone objects. Most of the plants are created by utilizing found scraps around the artists studio. Each unique remnant offers a curve that suggests a plant to the artists eye and gradually becomes a design puzzle that needs solving. The finished sculptures maintain the flat graphic forms found in the artists paintings and design work while honoring the playful shapes and compositions of the original source material. Individually, these finished plants have a warm, humorous and charming feel to them.
The artist's original practice began by creating collaged paintings. Drawn from Canham's background in design and sign painting, these works are created in the same manor as vintage signs, utilizing the rules of typography. Canham's paintings are inspired by the city around him. Presented alongside his plant sculptures is a series of paintings consisting of elements of signs from San Francisco’s main thoroughfares and shops. These assemblages highlight a few of the commonplace and wonderful old signs that Canham has encountered around San Francisco. Some may be easily recognizable to the viewer, while others may be hidden, waiting to be discovered.
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