I-Chin Liao

I walked around Art Explosion’s open studios this afternoon and loved either the abstract or  realist work.  I suppose the reason why is simple: one reflects the fractured, speeded up world we live in; the other offers something to hold onto.

At any rate, it is worth making a visit. If you have a favorite, let me know. Mine was probably the work by I-Chin Liao, a young immigrant from Taiwan and some work by William Durham Reed, a young  artist from Portland who has been in the city for about eight months. But there were many others I liked and some are in the slideshow.

The studios at 2435 17th Street and 744 Alabama will be open on Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m.

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Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019 when I retired. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still there.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how you make that long-held interest in local news sustainable. The answer continues to elude me.

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