East Bay Express: Attaboy’s ‘Portal’ into nothing and everything

Posted on October 22, 2024

Weblink: https://eastbayexpress.com/attaboys-portal-into-nothing-and-everything/

East Bay Express

Attaboy’s ‘Portal’ into nothing and everything

Richmond artist loves line and ‘messes’

By Janis Hashe | Oct 22, 2024

Richmond-based artist Daniel “Attaboy” Seifert is fascinated by transition and transience. Both of these fascinations are expressed in his solo show, “Portal,” on view at San Francisco’s 111 Minna Gallery through December.

“If you look up at the stars, we are nothing. An atom on the back of nothing,” Seifert said in a phone interview. Paintings such as Collision, which depict asteroid-like rock formations floating in groupings, speak to his belief of the “beauty and wonderment” of our short time on Earth. In Organica, vividly colored mushrooms and flowers explode from an unknown source. In Anthro Study 1, a multifaceted being appears to reach for … a finger hold? The sun?

And although he spoke about turning 50, and thinking “Do I have 25 good summers left?” with characteristic whimsy, he also disparaged the concept of living every day as if it is one’s last, noting that someone who actually did that would be unbearable to everyone around them.

**SOLO SHOW** In Attaboy’s acrylic painting titled ‘Organica’ (left) vividly colored mushrooms and flowers explode from an unknown source; ‘Sigh’ consists of 100 silk-screened pieces that Siefert altered. (Photos courtesy of Daniel Attaboy Seifert/111 Minna Gallery)

Another image from the current show, Sigh, consists of 100 silk-screened pieces that Siefert has altered so that each one is different. The spherical character popped into his head one day, he said, and he has enjoyed replicating and re-visioning it.

Siefert’s section of the gallery also features painted cut-outs hanging from the ceiling, “asexually reproducing?” Seifert suggested, and inviting a feeling of “falling up into the sky.”

He spoke about his painting method, saying, “I draw with paint … I make paintings that are complete messes—and then the line comes in and saves the day.” He shares the idea of pop artists, such as Warhol, “looking at things that are really around us. Will we ever see a Campbell’s soup can the same way?”

Influences include Alexander Calder, Maurice Nobel, Eyvind Earle, Dr. Seuss and the futurist Syd Mead, renowned as the creator of “futurescapes” for films such as Blade Runner. A mentor once told Seifert, “If you’re not breathing correctly, you’re not ready.”

**PORTAL AT MINNA** Paintings such as ‘*Collision*,’ which depict asteroid-like rock formations floating in groupings, speak to Seifert’s belief of the ‘beauty and wonderment’ of our short time on Earth. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Attaboy Seifert/111 Minna Gallery)

Seifert is also known for inventing what is now a global event: Game of Shrooms Art N Seek. In June 2019, seeking a way to work through depression, he began hiding mushroom sculptures, inspired by ceramic mushrooms created by his grandmother, in public areas. Using social media, he challenged “hunters” to find and then keep them.

The game took off, especially during the pandemic, and mushrooms have been hidden and found as far afield as the South Pole. Atta’s partner, artist Annie Owens, helped devise some of the game’s “leave no trace” rules, including the admonition, “You don’t need to be destructive to be subversive.”

Seifert said, “It’s always different and fantastic. I’m just guiding it at this point.” He added that school groups and art supply stores now sponsor meet-ups before the event. The next “Game” is scheduled for June 14, 2025. He has also created “Shroombots,” articulated, poseable sculptures, viewable on yumfactory.com.

Even before Game of Shrooms, Seifert and Owens partnered on a project with worldwide impact: Hi-Fructose Magazine. In a previous interview by this writer for East Bay Magazine, Seifert said that the idea for Hi-Fructose “started as a dare while we were dating.” They knew starting a new print publication was risky, but couldn’t find coverage of the art they found provocative and inspiring.

So in 2005 Hi-Fructose launched, and has now become sought-after, with both American and European editions. In 2009, “New Contemporary Art” was added to the masthead as a sort of tongue-in-cheek definition of what the publication covers. “[It was] just redundant and absurd enough to make a perfect blanket term for what we like to cover,” said Seifert during the EBM interview.

The magazine remains print-only, and runs no advertorials. Galleries and museums carry it, and this year it was celebrated with a 10-year retrospective, “Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose,” which premiered at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Publisher Abrams Books described the hardcover book, Hi-Fructose: New Contemporary Fashion, published in 2019, as “a stunning visual exploration of the intersection between the worlds of wearable art and fashion.”

DYNAMIC DUO Atta’s partner, artist Annie Owens, is co-founder of *Hi-Fructose Magazine* and Game of Shrooms; her art, including ‘Nocturne’ (right) will soon be showcased at the Nielson Arts Gallery in Berkeley. (Left photo by Franklin Avery and Katy Castro; right image courtesy of Annie Owens)

Despite all this, Seifert said, up till now he has been puzzled by lack of recognition in his “backyard,” Richmond. But this will be remedied starting in January, when the latest version of his ever-evolving exhibit “Upcycled Garden,” first seen at Oakland’s UMA Gallery, will open at the Richmond Art Center. The RAC describes it as “a sculptural diary of consumption.” As his website says: “While beautiful and organic on the outside, when many of the sculptures are flipped over, you can see a visual diary of consumption (gluten-free pizza, Covid tests, light bulb and Amazon boxes, etc.) that is used to create them.”

A local exhibition, opening Feb. 1 at the Nielson Arts Gallery in Berkeley, will also showcase Owens’ elegant and often mysterious work. In an email, she said, “The new work [will] reflect my inner monologue around womanhood, and all the changes a female body undergoes (because yay menopause!). [The work will also reflect] accepting that I never quite fit with social standards as a ‘quiet’ person.”

She added, “and finally [the work reflects] ‘Where do I fit as a mixed-race person in a culture that is finally beginning to openly discuss race, privilege and prejudice.’”

Daniel ‘Attaboy’ Seifert exhibit, ‘Portal,’ showing through Dec. 31 at 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco. (With the ‘Here Comes the Howellman’ exhibit of Jay Howell’s work.) 415.974.1719. 111minnagallery.com

‘Upcycled Garden,’ showing Jan. 22-March 22, 2025 at Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. Opening reception Jan. 25 1-3pm. 510.620.6772. richmondartcenter.org‘Annie Owens: New Work,’ showing Feb. 1-28, 2025 at Nielsen Arts Gallery, 1545 Solano Ave., Berkeley. 510.525.8968. nielsenarts.com

TOP IMAGE: Daniel ‘Attaboy’ Seifert, co-founder of ‘Hi-Fructose’ magazine and the Game of Shrooms, exhibits his art at San Francisco’s 111 Minna Gallery through December. (Photo by Franklin Avery and Katy Castro.)