Tracey Snelling Art Opening

There was an unusually interesting art opening Thursday evening at the Jules Maeght Gallery in Hayes Valley.

It was a solo show of Tracey Snelling, who is currently dividing her time between Oakland and Berlin, and it doesn't get much hipper than that.

The exhibit was filled with tiny 3D dioramas...

....that looked a bit like Barbie's doll house...

...meets Blade Runner.

The use of tiny video screens embedded in these 3D dioramas is one of the most innovative uses of multimedia I have ever seen.

She also plays with the miniature video techniques embedded into two-dimensional photograpy with mesmerizing results.

Also wonderful were what looked a cross between a whimsical bird house mixed with a Brazilian hillside favela.

The major work in the show is One Thousand Shacks, a lovely, surreal slum...

...with a multimedia mixture of lighting, videos, and political slogans.

The coolest person at the opening, who I hung out with for a while, was Joan von Beisen.

Both of us finally ambushed the artistic star, Tracey Snelling above, and told her how much we loved her work. She was polite but there was definitely an element of, "Who are you lunatics?" Check out the show which will be at the gallery for the whole summer. It's amazing.