The poet and curator Frank O’Hara once wrote that poetry, “…makes life’s nebulous events tangible to me and restores their detail…poetry brings forth the intangible quality of incidents which are all too concrete and circumstantial.” Exchange the word “art” for “poetry” and this quote keenly strikes at what drives Derek Weisberg’s art. 

Weisberg, an Oakland based sculptor and curator, has made an indelible mark on our community in the last several years by co – running one of the most notable local galleries in recent memory, playing an instrumental role in starting the Oakland Art Murmur artwalk and regularly showing his works to critical acclaim in the US and abroad.

In his own words: “My goal is to create images, which are accessible and allow the viewer to have an experience which can not be easily articulated, but felt. Simultaneously igniting contemplation, reflection and a lasting relationship with the work. I attempt to express basic human qualities, which are universal and timeless. At its core the works reflect humanist ideology; searching for truth and universal morality based on the commonality of the human condition.”

You’d be hard pressed to find a more ebullient, open and engaged artist in the Bay Area art scene. At the opening for his current show “Mine Us One”with James Kirkpatrick at Hatch Gallery, Weisberg held court vigorously for hours talking art history and catching up with fellow artists and friends before following it all up with an afterparty rap show in a West Oakland warehouse.

On paper Weisberg and Kirkpatrick’s current show of collaborative and solo works, shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. But collaboration on art is nothing new for Weisberg and the work here is much more cartoonish, rough, abstract and more playful than usual. Boxed, Joseph Cornell style dioramas are filled with Weisberg’s heads and busts, similar to Alberto Giacometti’s psychological revisions of self cast into three dimensional forms. Splashes of wild, whimsical color are seen in the two artists’ works seemingly at once earnest and a comment/reaction to current art trends. His usual heaviness is leavened to great effect by a nuanced approach to the heavy and light sides of life seen through art.

One of the strongest pieces – made a mere week or so before the opening – “Untitled 1” features a somewhat enigmatic and almost wryly comical figure formed from a beekeeper’s suit bought at a local flea market, topped with one of Kirkpatrick’s abstracted facial profiles painted on what appears to be a baking pan of considerable vintage, and at the bottom, in lieu of a pelvis or legs, hung the small, sculpted, bare feet that have become a regularly occurring motif in his work, though here they more quickly remind one of rabbit’s feet. The combination of elements and context fuels a recombinant narrative that allows for a sense of humor to permeate the work, but never overwhelms it.

Visiting the artist’s studio, just prior to his moving to a new space in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, I found Weisberg working on three new shows - one recently closed at The Compound Gallery, another is ongoing at Hatch Gallery and Anno Domini’s 9th annual sale of affordably priced art in San Jose coming up Dec. 4th. In the space of just over a year, his work has been seen in numerous group shows in the United States and Europe and he has had two other major shows – one at famed Do It Yourself artspace Space 1026 in Philadelphia, and another at Oakland’s Rowan Morrison Gallery. One of his curatorial efforts (in which I was a collaborator), "Dead Spaces", resurrected six defunct Oakland art spaces for one last show with anthropological materials accompanying the art for an epic meditation on the transient nature of art spaces - particularly underground spaces – and served as a reunion for artists, friends and the general community as well as a starting point for a healthy conversation on gentrification.

Weisberg juggles multiple gigs assisting more established artists in addition to regularly showing new work and curating and estimates he spends between “100 to 120 hours a week” towards these ends. The results speak for themselves: At 26, he is the youngest artist on permanent display in the Oakland Museum and his shows have received effusive critical kudos over the last few years.

How does a kid from Benicia go from being a backpack style hip hop fan to an artist with a burgeoning career that promises to soon lose its accent on “emerging” status? He’s already joined follow Benicia bred sculptor Robert Arneson in getting his work placed in a local museum. “I was making art as soon as I could pick something up to make art with. At six years old I started working with clay. Around that time my parents bought me a hot glue gun and I when got bored of the toys I had I made new ones cutting apart my ninja turtles and He-Men and putting them back together as new toys.” Weisberg jokes, “Custom toys, before they were popular!”

This rough, mutant aesthetic would carry through to his current work which at times incorporates artfully stitched fabric which form clothes or backdrops for his sculptural avatars to live within. “A lot of it is my mom’s old clothing and some of it is my sister’s old stuff.” His mother, Victoria, recently passed away and was, in part, the subject of a recent show “Victoria Everlasting” at Anno Domini. Going back to his roots, Weisberg sayst it “…was probably the summer between my junior and senior year that I decided I wanted to be an artist – ” and that his “…found object work really came from I was a kid. From age six through 18, I received art instruction from Katrina Von Maile who was influenced by Arthur Gonzales who I would one day learn under at the [then] California College of Arts and Crafts.”

It was at CCAC he found his place. “Building a community is big idea for me…I am talking interactions with other artists and thinkers – being with your contemporaries – I found a lot of those people at CCAC when I went there.” During his time there he befriended Oakland artist Mike Simpson and soon they would embark on what they called “Forty – Niner Hunts” – part anthropological evacation and part art material search – these journeys to places as far as Boontville and as close as Richmond’s notorious Iron Triangle – helped inspire various collaborative and individual works for the two artists. Perhaps the culmination of these efforts was the gallery they opened, Boontling Gallery, named after a now obscure pidgin dialect native to Boontville, California. The gallery was a showcase for some of the most exciting local artists working in the Bay Area in recent years, including in demand talents like Josh Keyes and Monica Canilao.

Boontling Gallery was well known as a hangout for local artists and in time became an idea laboratory which led to established events like the Art Murmur and art shows like “Dead Spaces”. One of their shows featured hundreds of drawings included several from the highly in demand Keyes, all work for 99 cents and all proceeds went to a local charity.

Speaking again about his approach to art towards the end of my studio visit, Weisberg’s expands, “ Don’t give me an idea because I’ll put it into motion! For me it’s all about action. Why sit around and talk about it all day. Why not do it?”