Canessa Park

2012-01-31T23:33:00.000-08:00

The Public Works of Sargent Johnson
Photographed by Duane M Conliffe
February, 2012

Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery
San Francisco, CA 94111

(415-296-9028

2011-12-25T13:33:00.000-08:00

December, 2011
Painting and sculpture
Joseph Slusky, Katie Hawkinson, John Rollins & Susan Leslie

2011-11-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

Findings
Michael O'Shea - Monotypes
November, 2011

Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery, San Francisco CA 94111
(Columbus and Washington)

www.canessa.org
(415) 296-9029

2011-09-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

Nature in the City
"Kite" Mel Solomon
F. Joseph Butler
Timothy Armstrong
Miriam Owen
Barb Oplinger
Richard Zimmerman
Julie Jaycox
Photography, Painting and Sculpture
September 2011
Canessa

2011-08-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

Barbara Traub
Essence of Luminescence

August 2011
Canessa Gallery

2011-07-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Wilma van Mierlo

July 2011

2011-07-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

Ken Downing
Watercolors and Woodcuts
June, 2011

2011-05-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Tim Armstrong
Drawings For The Dear Public
www.CurbWorker.com

Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery St
San Francisco 94111

415-296-9029
www.canessa.org
Installation views of current exhibition May 1-27

2011-03-03T16:39:00.000-08:00

Art and Activism
The New Deal’s Legacy Around the Bay
March, 2011
Canessa Gallery
San Francisco

2011-02-09T16:58:00.000-08:00

Julie Jaycox
February, 2011
Canessa

2011-02-09T16:09:00.000-08:00

Jennifer Lo
January 2011
Canessa

2010-12-15T14:01:00.000-08:00

Beverly Miills
From Mayhem to Paris
December, 2010

2010-11-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

Sense Memory, Paris
20” x 16”

From Mayhem to Paris
Beverly Mills

Opening reception: Thursday, December 2, 5-7pm
Exhibition dates: December 2 – 30, 2010

Canessa Gallery presents From Mayhem to Paris, mixed media works by Beverly Mills.

Mills explores two human extremes: violence and creation. She works in acrylic, adding photographs, metal and wood to explore the destruction of war, its scars and its attractions. She contrasts this with cities like Paris and Rome, where savagery becomes civilized.

Beverly Mills is a long time civic activist who has traveled in over twenty countries gathering images, philosophies and histories to nurture her visual vocabulary.

www.studiobeverly.com

EXHIBITION: From Mayhem to Paris, Solo Show

LOCATION: Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery St, San Francisco

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, December 2, 5-7pm

EXHIBITION DATES: December 2-30, 2010

GALLERY HOURS: Monday - Friday, 10am-3pm and by appointment

For information and/or images: Beverly Mills, bev@studiobeverly.com or 415/235-8099

2010-11-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Peeling the Strata

Jamie Banes at Canessa
November 8-26, 2010

Reception Friday, November 19, 7 - 10pm
Gallery hours MWF 11am - 3pm
and by appointment

My attraction to the energy of urban areas inspires a playful, excited examination of the frenzied systems around me. Highly active environments such as ports, stations, airfields, or sub-street infrastructures feel like childhood experiments with Tinkertoys and Lego bricks, or voyages into Richard Scarry's seemingly chaotic worlds. I’ve been exploring my awareness of these arrangements and my position within them, making associations with anatomy and physicality, and allowing myself the opportunity to revisit a youthful mindset that seems more and more fleeting. --Jamie Banes

Market Street Corridor

Jamie at jamiebanes dot com

Canessa Gallery Artist's Resource
708 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, California 94111
415-296-9029

2010-11-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

A biological connection to Canessa space, "This Too Shall Pass." Jamie Banes

2010-11-12T01:40:00.000-08:00

2010-09-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

Private office and shared work spaces are available at Canessa. 415-392-1768

2010-09-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Jamie Banes
September 2010

2010-08-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

Joshua Band
How I Used to See
Ruins of Detroit
Canessa Gallery
August, 2010

2010-08-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

Mokhtar Paki
Passion Play July 3-30, 2010

2010-06-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

Cat U-Thasoonthorn
Post Meridiem (P.M.)

June, 2010
Reception Friday, June 11, 5-9pm

Featuring a recent body of mixed media works focusing on the Bay Area at night

2010-05-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

Front Office at Canessa Park in Jackson Square is for rent. There are views of Chinatown, North Beach and the Financial District.

2010-05-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

2010-03-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

David Molesky
Spume
Through March 25, 2010
Canessa

2010-02-28T08:01:00.000-08:00

An exhibition honoring the Iranian Green Revolution at Canessa

2010-02-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

Nick Coley appears in the February print edition of San Francisco magazine. His painting of a bus is unmistakable in a beautiful interior setting.

2010-01-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

Endless improvement and progress is a Ponzi scheme. -- GF, 2009

Do you suppose a leading policy maker had this in mind when he discovered his economic model was flawed?

2009-12-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

Nick Coley painting returns to Canessa through December.

M-F 10-3
708 Montgomery
San Francisco CA 94111

2009-11-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Art Heaven Painters
Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery

Oct. 30 - Nov. 26

2009-09-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

Anonymous North Beach Artist - 2009
Termeh Yeghiazarian

Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery Street
@ Washington & Columbus

October 4-25, 2009
11am - 3pm M-F

Reception
October 23, 5-8pm

October 24, 25
North Beach Art Walk

Or by appointment
www.termehart.com

A collection of mixed media portrait paintings by Termeh Yeghiazarian, recording admired peers who live and work in North Beach.

Artists have lived in North Beach since its early days. They are an integral part of the cultural fabric of the neighborhood.

Who are these artists? What do they do? How do they survive?

List of artwork:

1 - nick
2 - judy
3 - howard
4 - carol
5 - julie
6 - jane
7 - alex
8 - kim
9 - dominic
10 - susan
11 - candace
12 - danny
13 - barron

Artist statement

I use portrait painting as a genre to explore politics of representation. Who and what does a portrait really depict? How much of this depiction is about the observed, how much about the observer, and how much is influenced by the prevailing social/political and economical circumstances?

At the same time, I also appreciate the process as a purely painterly exploit.

Representation is an entirely subjective venture. As an Iranian/Armenian/American, a woman and an artist, I find myself subject to representation on a regular basis. After years of attempting to hack my way through seemingly never ending crop of stereotype and misrepresentation, I am beginning to resign to this fact.

And so, a portrait can be conceived as a mirror: the observer, whether it’s the artist or the viewer, will project in it his or her self. Yet, what remains after the fact is the true intrigue of a portrait, its mystery.

Termeh Yeghiazarian

Comment

Termeh, a San Francisco bay area artist works mainly in mixed media and conceptual art. Her body of work is a visual journey which explores the dichotomy of her cultural background as an Iranian/Armenian/American.

Through portraiture Termeh eliminates the conventional engagement with the subject and viewer. She depicts her portraits from behind or in profile. Her portrait creates a dialogue between identity and representation of her interlocking worlds. It creates a dialogue about diversity, beauty, individuality and anonymity.

In her recent series, Anonymous North Beach, she does a case study of the local artistic community in North Beach. Through each portrayal, Termeh tries to define the social context of the individual, the community and her connection to it all. It’s in searching and investigating of others that we find a connection and contrast in ourselves. -- Nerissa Hallim

2009-07-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

A favorite Canessa Park post revisited...
Sometimes impressions from the past stay in the mind permanently, as do these in this article by Stephanie Young that mentions the unique room at Canessa Park, now five years later on its 43rd year as a gathering space for poets, artists, organizers and entrepreneurs.

Canessa Park was perfect because of the light. And the turquoise doors. And the brick. And the people in the wooden chairs ... and how washing my hands there feels communal and safe.

Do follow either link, as there is also a poem conveying the sense of place by Del Ray Cross, "I love you against the red bricks."

2009-06-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

Phylum, below kingdom, above class, Canessa Gallery through July 2, 2009

Jason Trinidad, Semar Prom, Brendan Pattengale, Dori Latman, Ethan Jamison, Julia Haft-Candell, Michael Fairchild, Colby Claycomb and Jamie Barnes

See jaiv1 and phylumcollective.

2009-03-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

Exhibition at Canessa through March 29, 2009

Toby Lurie
Synesthesia
Performance Painting

My original concept, Synesthesia, is a fusion of painting, poetry and music...
when language becomes music becomes art... all become one... seeing, feeling, singing... in joy

Synesthesia
Interlacing the various art disciplines, music, language, performance with painting, the mortar that binds all forms together

Dale E Moyer
Life Drawings with Attitude

Celebrating the human form created by the Creator... by allowing the viewer to celebrate the model's world, captured in a moment in time

Drawing with an attitude
Drawing from life is essential to helping the artist understand, convey shape and form, and spatial relationships. Drawing the human figure provides additional elements such as spirit, emotion, attitude, mood and character.

2009-02-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

“RE: CANESSA GALLERY--ARTISTS! ESCAPE THIS TRAP!!! (financial district),” a recent craigslist post, discusses a problem the artist has with vanity galleries. Canessa Gallery Artist's Resource is a nonprofit public benefit corporation and is not organized for the private benefit of any person. It operates under several generous private donations that cover 75% of $4,000 monthly expenses. In the absence of more donations from our annual fundraising campaign or obtaining a grant of some kind for the exhibition program, artists contribute the remaining 25% either through maximum $1,000 commission on brisk sales or direct donation. The gallery has been running since 1966, a nonprofit since 1993, and remains one of San Francisco's best places to show, entirely free from commercial picking and choosing. Please call the gallery at 415-296-9029 if you have any concerns.

2008-10-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Grant Johnson
Welcome to the Future

An exhibition of environmental art featuring forests, landscapes and fauna of the future

October 30 - November 28, 2008
Opening October 30, 5-8pm

415-558-8339
www.grantjohnson.net/

2007-11-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Launch party for Mrs. Maybe
Sunday Nov. 11, 3pm
Canessa
708 Montgomery
Ssn Francisco CA 94111

Mrs. Maybe is committed to a suspicion and concomitant love of the “irrational”; that is, the parts of the human imagination that don't result in wasted time, nuclear war, or the abuse of the affective in service of ambition, evil, or tedium in dress. Mrs. Maybe is published in Northern California; its title comes from Robert Duncan’s play “Adam’s Way.”

2007-11-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

James Sherry reviews
The Grand Piano Project
Part 3
San Francisco, 1975–80

Jacket 34 — October 2007
Language Poetry by the Bay
[wood s lot]

Steve himself deplores his self-consciousness, even though his work is himself. The essay is quite difficult, and it must have been hard to write such an open book. “Did I not know how to play?.... What was I seeking in its place? Responsibility? The ability to respond, to integrate reaction and reflection in resolve, in action — I figured maybe it was that.” Remember this was written in the 70s when action was widely considered an ethical question. He haunts bars seeking lovers, but what is his goal? “Is there anyone here who would like to be me? As if my goal were to discover someone to embody this role, about whom I could fantasize afterward.” His progression into relationships with men embodies the traditional poet’s tendency to see the world like or even as the self.

2007-09-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Words for Peace
August, 2007

2007-08-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

Bioacoustician Bernie Krause is interviewed on BBC World today for his sound map of the world. Listen to the map at Wild Sanctuary.

BLDGBLOG: The Sun, the Grid, and the City

2007-07-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

BLDGBLOG: The Sun, the Grid, and the City
In Canessa's quest for NESW, consider Manhattan, 29 degrees.

2007-06-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday June 24th @ 3pm

A reading 26 Magazine - Issue f

Steffi Drewes
Lisa Ludden
Tina Rotenberg w/Nathaniel Dorsky

Great chance to hear some poems and pick up the latest
issue of 26 focusing on the serial poem.

Reading Admission is a $3-$5 donation or
buy the magazine for $10 a hear the reading gratis.

Co-Editor Brian Strang's painting/poems are currently up in the Gallery Space some of which can be previewed at his blog Sorry Nature. Well worth a visit on its own.

Avery Burns
co-editor 26 Magazine

Canessa Park Gallery
708 Montgomery Street @ Columbus
San Francisco CA

2007-04-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

It is time for another post on the history of the Canessa Park Reading Series, since there are rumors of a new director.

Ron Silliman on Rachel DuPlessis

The Grand Piano

Experiences at Canessa...

Spencer Selby is the author of eight poetry books, three compilations of visual work and a study of film noir. He coordinated The Canessa Park Reading Series for six years and created The List of Experimental Poetry/Art Magazines in 1993. He lives in Oakland, California.

25 FEBRUARY---sunday:
CENTRAL:
• Canessa Park Poetry presents John Sakkis and Megan Pruiett, To Music, guest curated by Tiff Dressen, Canessa Park, 708 Montgomery, at Columbus, SF, 3:00

Gratuitous reference to absinthe

Grand Piano -> Canessa Park

Colleen Lookingbill

Definitive history by the Black Cat (not to be confused with The Black Cat)

2007-02-24T18:03:00.000-08:00

Silliman's Blog has an article on recent doings of the antecedent of the Canessa Poetry Series, Grand Piano.

2007-01-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

A year of sunsets shows the aggregate time of sunset as it changes with the seasons.

2007-01-03T18:56:00.000-08:00

Shaping San Francisco is a site that Chris Carlsson started to increase community involvement in the history of the city.

2006-12-20T15:46:00.000-08:00

Transamerica Pyramid at winter solstice. Shadow at winter solstice in ArchiCAD sun study--used December 22, 2006. The large gray rectangular plaza is 5456' x 4038'.

2006-12-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

Mark Roller and Colette Crutcher, exhibiting Canessa artists from the past, successfully transform a park.

Technorati Tags: artists, canessa

2006-12-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

Transamerica sun study, approximately the summer solstice, 2006.

2006-12-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

Hourly sun study of Transamerica pyramid, June 21, 2006, sunrise to sunset.

2006-10-30T18:29:00.000-08:00

Luigi Mastropasqua, architect of Canessa after the 1906 earthquake and fire designed this little building on Kearny at Clay, once former Mayor Willie Brown's campaign headquarters.

Mastropasqua also designed at least two San Francisco landmarks, Julius's Castle, most easily reached by walking a few blocks up the hill from Canessa. If you can see the city below the rail of the Bay Bridge as you come into San Francisco, you can't miss Julius's Castle. "Built in 1922, this fanciful castle-as-restaurant was designed, not surprisingly, by an architect who moonlighted as a cartoonist, Louis Mastropasqua of la vita italiana. This crenellated edifice seems to hang like magic from its vantage point just below Telegraph Hill's other famous landmark, Coit Tower."

The other landmark is one of the twelve buildings on 15-84 Macondray Lane Roughly 900-982 Green at 1918-1960 Jones (National Register Landmark 87002286, Charles Bovone House, 68 Macondray.

2006-10-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

Avery Burns, who runs the Canessa Park Reading Series, contributes an eponymous poem to the new online-only format of Dirt :: A Journal of Minimalism, edited by Philip Primeau.

2006-10-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

Powerful work in Canessa's version of Oktoberfest...

2006-10-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

Fog sculpture--not an especially original idea, but if a park on outer Columbus has one, then there'd be someplace reliably foggy accessible by cable car.

2006-08-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

Recent Devil's Slide repair measures include new netting, ties into the mountain and new electronics.

2006-07-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

More Monaco installation closeups

2006-07-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

Monaco installation closeups

2006-07-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

Architectural light

2006-07-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Paul's model

2006-07-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

This is the last of the set of pictures of Washington and Hotaling...

2006-07-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

More bricks and views of the gutted Belli buildings...

2006-07-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

Behind Canessa, three wythes of bricks appear...

2006-07-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

the front page: just to keep on toe, it's 111 Minna...

2006-06-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

Telegraph Hill Dwellers - Events:
In the Rubble of the Past...
The Future Begins...

June 5-30, 2006

You are invited to view an extraordinary collection of photographs taken by North Beach photographer J.B. Monaco (1856-1938), documenting the 1906 earthquake and its immediate aftermath. These images capture the courage and determination of North Beach, Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill survivors who would go on to rebuild our wounded City.

Presented by
The Telegraph Hill Dwellers

Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery Street at Washington
San Francisco, CA 94111
Hours: Mon-Fri, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
415/296.9029 www.thd.org

2006-06-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

J.B. Monaco, the man in lower picture, is on view at Canessa through June. A North Beach photographer at the time of the 1906 earthquake and fire, his studio is still a part of the city.

2006-06-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

TransAmerica Pyramid as it looks from Google Earth

2006-06-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

Solstice June 21, 2003

2006-05-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

Recently in Jackson Square...

2006-05-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

Honoring a gay pioneer's contribution to San Francisco: "He would nightly close the bar via a signature sing-along; a rowdy rendition of 'God Save Us Nelly Queens.' Sometimes Sarria would lead out the bar's patrons and drag entertainers to serenade gay people being held in jail."

The Black Cat lives...

2006-05-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO / Castro block renamed to honor gay pioneer: and this...

2006-05-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

Muisti|kirja: My Back Pages: San Francisco, 1988, the poetic haunts of the Black Cat in the mist

2006-05-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

Influences/Resonances: this is under the category of never name a restaurant a French swear word, but then you need a list if French does not come easily to you. Bug...

2006-05-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

Amorphic Robot Works: Machines: Urge

Chico MacMurtrie's contribution to Yerba Buena Gardens is worth a visit with friends.

2006-05-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Inflate - Purchase Our Inflatable Structures [boing boing]: e.g. Office in a Bucket. The Black Cat once had an inflatable office created by the Ant Farm. In the morning, he'd turn on the fan and the office would appear. Inside, it was its own little world with an obscure view out the window of the back porch of the building where it was situated on Union Street.

2006-05-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

Restaurant turnaround, big deal.

The best approach is under the radar. Unfortunately The Black Cat is not a foodie or even business savvy.

He wants to go in. He wants to be welcomed or at least not scowled at (in North America, anyway). He wants to see a clean, bright, airy, honest space and furnishings, and if any style, he'd pick modern. The Black Cat likes special seats, such as a window seat with a view. He likes pricing moderate to low, food great and staff prompt, especially when it comes time to present the check.

Distant memory of a start-up: Intersection coffee house run by AH of Coffee Cantata

A favorite: Rocky Point Lodge, Klamath Falls

2006-04-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Coley returns to Canessa with a new show...

2006-04-29T22:41:00.000-07:00

Installation views of Donn Curry at Canessa, which closed this weekend.

2006-04-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

More pictures of the earthquake shack...

2006-04-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

This is the very last day the Black Cat could possibly visit the earthquake shack, and guess what, he was there and the so were the shack volunteers, mostly busy with packing. But they were very nice and told the small assembled crowd all about the "wood tents," who stayed there (the working class) and how they were built. Start with the floor (Douglas Fire 1x4); build the top plate around the four edges of the floor; raise the plate up and start nailing the redwood boards, usually 1x6, but in the case of the particular type "A" shack on view, 1x4. No studs are used (even at corners) except at openings.

If you have sharp eyes, you can figure out as well as anyone else how to build an earthquake shack.

2006-04-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

Mississippi Renewal Katrina cottage, similar to earthquake shack...

2006-04-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

Earthquake cottage is in there.

2006-04-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

Depleted Uranium For Dummies By Irving Wesley Hall

2006-04-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

15 Best Skylines in the World

2006-04-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

America's overvalued real estate

2006-04-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

Prospect Park cc courtesy Joe's NYC

2006-04-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

A Trans-California Ramble: Re-walking John Muir's 1868 trip from San Francisco to Yosemite--a young couple from Santa Cruz walks and describes the experience on the web and later, in a book.

Update 4/8/2006: See the article in the paper.

2006-03-19T12:49:00.000-08:00

canessagallery.reddogpieface.com › Exhibition Installations, San Francisco › Coley
Nicholas Coley shows Bay Area Landscapes through March.

2006-03-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

::Fat::Architecture::: "‘In a Lonely Place’ takes the form of a huge 7 meter inflated black sphere punctured by a half-timbered structure. Inside, a stair leads up to a viewing platform, from where the surrounding void is broken by small pinpricks of light, made by transparent panels cut into the sphere."

2006-02-22T16:37:00.000-08:00

Architect at home with Santa Barbara tradition / Whimsical complex still plays by rules

2006-02-21T19:17:00.000-08:00

Water Street is in danger of going the way of Vandewater.

2005-12-31T19:26:00.000-08:00

[daily dose of imagery] trailer in snow

2005-12-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

KevinFreitas.net ~ Tacoma's Deriugin house to be demolished ~ kevin freitas journal photos pics cheats projects seattle web developer: photo essay of handmade four-story house including exterior closeups and neighborhood views

2005-12-14T17:17:00.000-08:00

PARK(ing) is a parking space south of Market turned into a park for a couple of sunny hours last month.

2005-11-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

Shameless promotion...

2005-09-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

functionalfate.org - Researching the White Plastic Chair

2005-08-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

3eyes - Streetclock gnomon [milov]

2005-06-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

Jeff Berner Photography: Paris, France & Marin County, California. Visit ABTEERLNIEERR, 01 42 52 25 95, 102-bis rue Lepic 75018 Paris, metro Abbesses

2005-06-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

From Gertrude Stein on Picasso, 1970, Liveright, 1946, Random House:

Then again in 1904 he was once again in Paris.

He lived in Montmartre, in the rue Ravignan, its name has been changed now, but the last time I was there it still had its old charm, the little square was just as it was the first time I saw it, a carpenter was working in a corner, the children were there, the houses were all about the same as they had been, the old atelier where all of them had lived was still standing, perhaps since then, for it is two or three years that I was there last, perhaps now they have commenced to tear it down and build another building. It is normal to build new buildings but all the same one does not like anything to change, and the rue Ravignan of that time was really something, it was the rue Ravignan and it was there that many things that were important in the history of twentieth century art happened.

2005-06-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Found in the history room at Canessa...

CANESSA

The Canessa Building, built in the late 1800s and located at 708 Montgomery, is an official San Francisco landmark. Canessa once housed printing presses and gas lights, and nearby, on Sansome Street, a bustling produce market district shook the neighborhood into pre-dawn life.

For 30 years, from 1933 to 1963, the Black Cat Cafe, located at 710 Montgomery, was the Canessa Building's next-door neighbor. The Cat attracted a bohemian clientele of both straight and gay writers, artists and musicians from the neighborhood. Many lived and worked across the street in the historic Montgomery Block building (where the TransAmerica Pyramid now stands). Just north of the Cat, at 716-718-720 Montgomery, were the studios of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Emmy Lou Packard and Ralph and Peter Stackpole.

Regular visitors to the Cat included artists Hassel Smith, Maynard Dixon and Ed Corbett. John Steinbeck and William Saroyan dropped in from time to time -- as did two veteran police reporters, Neil Hitt of the Chronicle and Harry Debolt of the Examiner. According to Jerry Flamm, author of Hometown San Francisco, Hitt and Debolt, “an inseparable pair in the Hall of Justice press room after 5 p.m., would occasionally stroll down one block to the Black Cat for a thirst quencher after advising the police radio dispatcher where they would be in case all hell broke loose somewhere in the city.”

Though many of the buildings in this area did not survive the era of high-and-higher architecture, the diminutive gem known as Canessa has. Today, the old brick building still glows with light and life and is home to an art gallery and several creative professionals with small businesses.

2005-05-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

Fran Herndon shows at Canessa through May 28, beloved by poets.

2005-04-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

Artweek classifieds, space for rent