Another Lamp Show Opening Reception

Opening October 30th, 500 Capp Street Foundation presents Another Lamp Show, a fundraiser in support of the historic David Ireland House in San Francisco's Mission District. Co-organized with artist and union electrician Rico Duenas, the fundraiser invites more than 100 artists, including Chelsea Ryoko Wong, StudioAhead, Sahar Khoury, Mike Arcega, Roman de Salvo, Dana Hemenway, and David Horvitz, to reinterpret the lamp as Ireland himself once did: as a vehicle for sculptural invention. Through salvaged materials, experimentation, and playful humor, these artists have made one-of-a-kind functioning lamps that will be for sale in person at 500 Capp Street and online during the fundraiser. Throughout his home at 500 Capp Street, Ireland's idiosyncratic lamps set the tone for the space. In the parlor rooms, Ireland replaced an upstairs chandelier with a suspended light fixture composed of wire and blowtorches, which when lit creates a precarious and entrancing "Fire Drawing" that reflects off the home's high-gloss surfaces. Other oddly utilitarian lamps made by Ireland, often of concrete and copper piping, are functional pieces of art that continue to illuminate the exhibitions on display today. "Another Lamp Show brings together so much of what we value at 500 Capp Street: art in everyday life, experimentation, and artists sharing knowledge with one another. We're especially thankful to Rico Duenas, who is co-organizing the exhibition and brings his experience as both an artist and union electrician. To have more than 100 artists, art practitioners across generations and practices, gathering around light, lamps, and electricity, while helping support the future of 500 Capp Street, feels incredibly generous and very much at home here." — Lian Ladia, Curatorial and Organizational Director, 500 Capp Street