On January 14th, the Shooting Gallery opened the first solo show in San Francisco by local artist Charmaine Olivia. Entitled Ritual, this show features new paintings inspired by the themes of mythology. Each one of the large oil paintings feature a female deity created by Charmaine, and the entire gallery has been transformed into a temple. The installations features magical items, and smaller works of art in dedication to the central figures. The show closed on February 4th, and I finally made my way to the gallery and caught it on the last day. I was told that the reception was pretty amazing, and free prints were even given out to the first group of fans. I wish I could have seen the show the reception night, but I am happy I at least was able to see this show before it was taken down. Along with this review/photos, I also made another video walkthrough, the longest one yet at almost 10 minutes. Click the read more for the full review and video.

Prior to this show I had only seen a painting by Charmaine in person one time, at Spoke Art Gallery, however I missed the show she participated in there alongside Tatiana Suarez, Handiedan, and Craww. I was interested in how Charmaine would use the entire space over at Shooting Gallery for this new show, and was blown away at how she not only used the space in order to create a new world for this show, but completely owned the space. There was so much to be seen, so many details and tiny elements that all culminated together to allow the viewer to understand and feel the mythological beings the artist created. Since there was so much to see, I not only took more photos than I usually do, but also made a longer video than normal. I hope the video gives an idea of what seeing this show in person was like.

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