This is the blog of Kal Spelletich. CONTACT: Spellkal (at) gmail.com + Art, technology, humans and robots, and, well, the journey http://www.kaltek.org/
NOV.22, 2025 Live at Artist Television Access in San Francisco, California, ATA Gallery, 992 Valencia (@ 21st)
SPELLETICH/THOMPSON: ON ICE + LORD + WOBBLY + Prelinger
The Cali Apocalypse plays out ever more cinematically in this scream of rage against the evil machine that is ICE! Mission gem/Ant Farm vet Chip Lord kicks it off with the new super-cut of his classic Not Top Gun, puncturing the retrograde militarism oozing out of San Diego.
Also a neighbor, Wobbly steps up with live remixes of the most Contra Costa-critical audio collages cooked up by Negativland, https://negativland.com/videos
and Mr. Rick Prelinger expertly unspools what’s too often hidden in the archive–how a geographic paradise has been despoiled by prisons and factory-farming.
We climax with Kal Spelletich/Mike (Steel Pole Bath Tub) Morasky’s live remediation of ICE depredations, garnered from ProPublica reporter AC Thompson. AC shares updates, fields questions, and joins us in smashing an ICE piñata! Gilbert’s beer’s here too. $13
At Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Thursday October 2, 2025. 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 We are opening for the astonishing Tommy Guerrero! Our set starts promptly at 7 P.M.
We have produced a sound score to a series of videos of the San Francisco landscape using custom sound machines and sound processing.
This is part of the exhibit, BAY AREA THEN Curated by Chris Johanson and Ethan Swan, the free series celebrates the artistic spirit of the Bay Area’s countercultures and artist communities. https://ybca.org/event/bay-area-then/
We are reflecting on the noise machines conceived and constructed in 1913 by the Italian futurist artist Luigi Russolo (1913), John Cage, Einstürzende Neubauten, Eno, Stravinsky, Penderecki, Stars of the Lid, John Adams, Terry Riley.
-Stop the Wars-
I submitted some ephemera and posters that are in the show celebrating the 1990’s. Below is a thing I wrote for the exhibit (which didn’t make the cut for the show). +++++++++++++++++++++++ These posters and zines were our internet. Xeroxed gospel, handed out, wheat-pasted, stapled and taped to telephone poles. They were a summoning and a battle cry. Some were so beautiful we stole them back to hang on our walls. A calling, it was a communion.
We stood on the shoulders of those who came before. The Black Panthers in leather and rage. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, cloaked in satire and sacrament. Radical punks and extreme artists, raw and righteous. Even the hippies. Each one a spark. This was a mass gathering, strange and unstoppable. A critical mass of freaks.
We showed anywhere but mainstream places. Nonprofits, fundraisers in old drafty warehouses 8 people lived in, basements that smelled like ghosts, abandoned buildings full of echoes, bars and most sacred of all: the streets. The streets didn’t care about credentials. The streets respected nerve.
Cops came sometimes, but we had charm. Or lies. Or dumb luck.Most shows were illegal. That was the truth of it. That was the point. This was art with steel toe boots.
American Aria is a durational video installation created by multimedia artist Kal Spelletich and James Davis which invites audiences to reflect on the transgressive nature of the insurrection that took place at our nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021.
Anti Authoritarian
At Telematic gallery April 2025
In San Francisco!
ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN
Demagoguery, White Supremacy, and Resistance
Featuring works by Nic[o] Brierre Aziz, Christy Chan, Nicólas González-Medina, Doug Hall and Kal Spelletich April 19th – June 7th, 2025
Opening Reception, Saturday, April 19th 6:00 – 9:00pm
323 10th St. @ Folsom (SoMa), San Francisco, CA 94103
3 sensors read the colors of a bouquet grown in my garden activating motors striking cymbals. Reading the Light of a Bouquet Flower color is the result of pigment molecules accumulating in cells, but it’s not as simple as just making pigment. The location, type of pigment, and amount produced, are all very important. These aspects are genetically controlled. Two main groups of genes control flower color. Roses were present in Europe by the early Oligocene. Today’s garden roses come from 18th-century China. There are other factors that can affect how colors present themselves. The amount of light flowers receive while they grow, the temperature of the environment around them, even the pH level of the soil in which they grow can affect their coloration. Another factor is stress from the environment. This stress can include a drought or a flood or even a lack of nutrition in the soil, all of which can dampen the coloration of flowers. And then, of course, there is the visual that the eye and brain form together: humans can, for the most part, view all colors in the visible spectrum, BUT every creature perceives color differently, so a red rose may appear more vibrant to one animal while it appears more muted to another insect. Flower colors, produced by pigments like anthocyanins, flavonoids, and carotenoids, are primarily meant to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds. Flower colors, produced by pigments like anthocyanins, flavonoids, and carotenoids, are primarily meant to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds. Different colors can also symbolize various emotions and ideas, such as red for romance and passion, pink for femininity, and yellow for happiness.
The conversation will begin with an arts festival I attended 6 times in the 1990’s in a desert.
I will discuss How to show technology can be used in anti-capitalist subversive funny and innovative ways.
To misuse tech.
Creations for transformative impact.
To be honest I was wary to do this, I try to not look back. Only forward, I randomly scanned the list of artists and the first one I saw my former friend Ana Mendieta (who was murdered). The 2nd was my dear mentor Martha Wilson. So that sealed the deal!
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Artists Talk on Art has provided a forum for visual artists in New York City for nearly a half-century and is the longest-running panel series in art history.
Among the many artists and others who have appeared at ATOA have been: Benny Andrews, David Amram, Dore Ashton, Will Barnet, Romare Bearden, Robert Blackburn, Linda Benglis, Ashley Bickerton, Louise Bourgeois, Nancy Burson, Doris Chase, Herman Cherry, Judy Chicago, A. D. Coleman, Paula Cooper, Ed Clark, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, Minna Citron, Arthur Danto, Douglas Davis, Robert De Niro, Agnes Denes, Inka Essenhigh, Audrey Flack, Ronald Feldman, Dorothy Gillespie, Michael Goldberg, Leon Golub, Ron Gorchov, The Guerrilla Girls, Anthony Haden-Guest, Grace Hartigan, Al Held, Jenny Holzer, Budd Hopkins, Wolf Kahn, Ivan Karp, Alex Katz, Ellen Koment, Ruth Kligman, Hilton Kramer, Joseph Kosuth, Donald Kuspit, Al Leslie, Lucy Lippard, Robert Longo, Alice Neel, Vernita Nemec, Robert Mapplethorpe, Mercedes Matter, Knox Martin, Marisol, Musa Mayer, George McNeil, Clement Meadmore, Jonas Mekas, Ana Mendieta, Jay Milder, Elizabeth Murray, Jules Olitski, Dennis Oppenheim, Betty Parsons, Pat Passlof, Philip Pavia, Philip Pearlstein, Judy Pfaff, Howardina Pindell, Larry Poons, Deborah Remington, Milton Resnick, Faith Ringgold, Larry Rivers, Geno Rodriguez, Barbara Rose, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Jerry Saltz, David Salle, Irving Sandler, Joan Semmel, Andres Serrano, Peter Schjeldahl, Miriam Shapiro, Nancy Spero, Pat Steir, Carolee Schneemann, Marcia C. Sheer, Kenneth Snelson, Lucas Samaras, Calvin Tomkins, Judd Tully, Ultra Violet, Lilly Wei, Hannah Wilke, Martha Wilson, James Wines, Kehinde Wiley and Fred Wilson.
Artists and all interested in presenting a panel are welcome to submit proposals for the coming season to: dougsheer@gmail.com
�ATOA archives are held at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
I will have an art piece for sale (cheap! )at this fundraiser for Aaron Peskin for San Francisco Mayor this Friday at Incline Gallery. There will be a bunch of great stuff there for great deals for a great progressive for mayor.
This is San Francisco’s first opportunity in over 30 years to elect a truly Progressive Mayor who reflects the values of the working and creative people who make our City so special. Aaron is the only candidate who is not backed by right-wing billionaires, who have been dumping money into heinous policies nationwide. With over 25 years of legislative experience inside and out of City Hall, he is the most qualified candidate, with a long history of supporting LGBTQIA rights, protecting our neighborhoods from speculators and displacement, and supporting our City’s arts, entertainment and cultural scenes within his district and across the city.
Aaron Peskin is endorsed by the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, the SF Tenants Union, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, Service Employees International Union, UNITE HERE! Local 2 hotel workers, Supervisors Dean Preston and Connie Chan, and former Board of Supervisors President, artist, and co-host of this art auction, Matt Gonzalez – among many others!
This project encompasses national screenings of the video, American Aria, on or before our forthcoming Election Day, November 5, 2024. Its full duration is 6 hours and 11 minutes, the exact length of the January 6th insurrection. It can be viewed on either one or multiple screens. As a malleable work in progress, it can be modified according to venue; for example, the text messages can be on flanking monitors in positive and negative. A smaller 4th screen will air live coverage of the night’s election results. Here is a “short” 5 minute clip: https://youtu.be/NM3cubugsHU?si=HQQ0qJevwoYsiBnu
A 23 min clip will be screened at Artists Television Access in S.F this Saturday, November 23, 2024. The program starts at 8:00 P.M.
On election night it will be screened in the full 6hour 11 min. Version at ATA as well as several venues around the U.S. as we watch the results come in. Drop by for a drink and BBQ.
As a durational video project, this work arose from decades-long activist work, conversations and support from my colleague, Emmy-nominated journalist AC Thompson and his investigations for PBS, Pro Publica and The Nation exposing American Fascists: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/person/a-c-thompson/
Currently, we have secured 6 venues for screenings. This project has initial funding and support from Oakwood Arts OA JET Coordinator
– we are seeking additional screening venues. An important component of this project is the inclusion of local artists from each venue’s region as performers during the screening. For instance, sound artists, choirs, opera singers, gospel singers and Gregorian chanters, etc.
Irish activist and filmmaker Seamus Davis is the project’s lead editor, using footage from activist reporters who were on the ground on January 6 at the capitol: https://www.seamusdavis.com/
Screened or performed live as a tragic-comedy-horror of January 6th footage with a live soundtrack by San Francisco artists Kal Spelletich, Mansur Nurullah and special guests, this installation is a durational video similar to works such as Andy Warhol’s Sleep, Bill Viola’s Reflecting Pool and Christian Marclay’s The Clock.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of contemporary artists working with this content. On a personal front, it is both exceedingly serious to me and at the same time absolutely absurd. And, not to mention, extremely ugly to most. It is important for me to foreground this material without platforming or indirectly heroicizing these insurgents.
By Election Day, Tuesday November 5, 2024, this screening will serve as an alternative space to gather, even if it is to duck in, if only for a few minutes. And, to watch in collective joy, and/or horror, as the election plays out (that evening). Additionally, we could have a monitor nearby to follow the results of the elections.
This is an exhibit I curated that opens on September 14, 2024.
Anglim/Trimble is pleased to present our latest group exhibition In the Manner of Paul Kos.
In this exhibition curated by Kal Spelletich, 19 friends, colleagues and fans honor and reflect on the manner of Paul Kos. Please join us for a reception on Saturday, September 14 from 4-6 pm in our first-floor gallery at Minnesota Street Project.
In 1942, Marcel Duchamp created the collage In the Manner of Delvaux which announced his return, after a long absence, to New York City. It was a humorous double forgery that seemed to copy a detail of Paul Delvaux’s Aurore (1937) while being different in every way. It was also the first crucial work in forging a bridge, via the “infra-thin” and the related concept of the “renvoi miroirique” (“mirrorical return”), between The Large Glass and Étant Donnés, the two major works of his career. Paul Kos’s piece Symmetry functions as a similar gesture, invoking Duchamp’s double entendre and providing the context for this group exhibition.
Paul Kos, born in 1942 in Rock Springs, Wyoming, has inspired and taught countless artists in their work and life. Together with some of his contemporaries like Bonnie Ora Sherk, Denis Oppenheim, Bruce Nauman and Rebecca Horn, he was of the first artists to incorporate video, sound and interactivity into his sculptural installations. Paul has been drawn to the integrity of materials and in finding a place where material, play, chance and meaning can magically come together.
In the Manner of Paul Kos bridges the gap between generations, thought processes, and media, including video, performance, drawing, installation and writing. It offers both an homage to Paul and, referentially, Duchamp’s conceptual legacy. Featured artists: Rhonda Holberton, Maggie Preston, Jennifer Locke, Chris Sollars, Terry Allen, Cliff Hengst, Chris Cobb, Gay Outlaw, Will Rogan, Justin Hoover, Léonie Guyer, Julien Berthier, Stefan Maier, Ian Treasure, Clive McCarthy, Michael Zheng, William T. Vollman, Kal Spelletich, and essay by Steven Wolf. Please join us for a reception on Saturday, September 14 from 4-6 pm in our first-floor gallery at Minnesota Street Project. In the Manner of Paul Kos is on view through Saturday, October 26. Anglim/Trimble Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11-5pm Closed Sunday & Monday
Kal Spelletich's Art 