| The Jazz Heritage Center’s Koret Heritage Lobby---the main public lobby of the Fillmore Heritage Center outside the entrance to Yoshi’s jazz club and restaurant--- showcases special local and traveling exhibits focused on jazz history and culture, with a particular emphasis on the contribution of San Francisco to the history of jazz. In addition, the lobby will host interactive and traditional exhibits focused on the unique history of the Fillmore neighborhood, a district rich in diversity and cultures that has served as the heart of San Francisco’s African-American population for over fifty years.
Current
Exhibitions
THE ART OF MICHAEL RIOS:
A CAREER RETROSPECTIVE AND TRIBUTE TO
MILES DAVIS & CARLOS SANTANA
May 27 - August 22, 2010
The Jazz Heritage Center is pleased to host the first retrospective exhibit of the fine art work of Michael V. Rios. The exhibit, in both the Lush Life Gallery and Koret Heritage Lobby, is comprised of large banners displaying a cross section of mural work, musical personality portraits and original paintings and prints showing the various elements found in the evolving style of 30+ years of Rios' work.
For several decades, Michael Rios has been transforming his passion for music into his own artistic creations. Using the language of color, portraiture, and imagination he has compiled a body of work that complements and pays tribute to that special handful of music makers who move him most-i.e. Jimi Hendrix, Armando Peraza, Jerry Garcia, and, of course, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Carlos Santana Michael V.
Rios is a native of Oakland, California and graduate of the San Francisco Academy of Art College. Rios began as an illustrator for the San Francisco men's clothier, Roos Atkins and then became a partner in the commercial art and graphics studio, Winston, Rios & Brown. In the seventies, Rios turned his attention towards San Francisco’s Mission District and created some of the first large murals that made the Mission District famous and brought him national acclaim. One of these m urals located at South Van Ness and 22nd featured musical heroes and caught the attention of Carlos Santana.
Rios began working for Santana designing concert backdrops, custom clothing, guitars, and several album covers, including the Grammy Award winning "Supernatural." Michael's commissioned artwork has appeared on several other recordings, including Grammy Award Winner Poncho Sanchez' "Latin Spirits," and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Steve Winwood's "About Time." Rios has also created original artwork for the Latin Recording Academy, the Mars Family, the Andre Agassi Foundation, Sony Signatures, LP Percussion and AG Interactive.
Many of the images in the exhibit will be for sale.
| The Art of Michael Rios takes us into a world where there are no clouds, there is no overcast, and the term gloomy day has not even been invented. In the Rios universe, every day represents opportunity, the chance to celebrate the magnificence of the music he loves and to acknowledge and pay homage to the towering stature of the artists who make it. Is it any wonder that through his artistic renderings we see, feel, and experience some of that joy, transcendence, and other-world savvy that permeates and embodies the music of Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, and all those other exemplars of musical majesty? In the world that Michael Rios inhabits there is room for nothing but joy, reverence, understanding, and delight. And all this is reflected in his art.
- Hal Miller - musician, jazz video archivist and historian. |
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