Joell Jones’ “Savior #54” is on view in “Sentinels and Saviors: Iconic Avatars” at the Richmond Art Center. (Courtesy Joell Jones) 
Kim Thoman’s “Sentinel No. 6” is on exhibit in “Sentinels & Saviors: Iconic Avatars” in Richmond. (Courtesy Kim Thoman)
Art for a turbulent era: At a time when it’s hard not to focus on the tension, strife, controversy and bad mojo swirling around, here’s an exhibit illustrating how the key to serenity lies within each of us. “Sentinels & Saviors: Iconic Avatars,” on display at the Richmond Art Center, features work by Oakland-based artists Joell Jones and Kim Thoman, who encourage viewers to “pay closer attention to themselves, their thoughts and their feelings.” Jones, who works with a variety of media, shows paintings here. Her colorful, abstract and ethereal works of various sizes represent different facets of herself as she invites viewers to visit the “unknown world” in which her images take life. “I have painted a woman engaged in a struggle for transformation and my paintings portray her as a fluid, shape-shifting creature adrift in liminal environments,” Jones says. Thoman’s large, steel figures, in a sense, stand guard over Jones’ works, each with an oil painting on canvas at its center. He compares his works to Chinese Terracotta Warriors designed to offer protection in the afterlife. “When I was recovering from a serious illness, I decided I’d like an army of bodyguards for protection in this life,” he says. “Sentinels & Saviors” is on display through Nov. 21 at the Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., in Richmond’s Civic Center Plaza. The Center is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. On tap this Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. is “Make Your Own Avitar at Fall Family Day” led by Jones and Thoman. Admission is free. More information is at richmondartcenter.org.
Freebie of the week: An annual great good thing for music lovers has rolled around again, now in its 17th incarnation. It’s SF Music Day, a marathon of performances by local musicians sponsored by the nonprofit arts advocacy organization InterMusic SF that takes place in three venues in the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday. More than 80 artists in genres as varied as classical, blues, folk, experimental, jazz and world music will be featured in continuous concerts in the first floor Herbst Theatre, the second floor Green Room and the fourth floor Taube Atrium Theater, allowing patrons to pop in and out at their own discretion. Performers include the Grammy-nominated classical-jazz crossover group Quartet San Francisco, gong recitalist Karen Stackpole, guitar and voice artists Renegade Duo, the Jazz Messengers nonet from the Oakland School of the Arts, the Baroque ensemble Beneath a Tree and vocalist Bethany Hill. Register for your free ticket at intermusicsf.org, where you may download a schedule to map out your mad plan to dash from venue to venue.
Double bassist Edgar Meyer composed three of the four pieces he will play with violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Joshua Roman in a Cal Performances recital on Oct. 20. (Courtesy Jim McGuire)A terrific trio: Touring together for the first time are three celebrated artists: Grammy-winning double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer, genre-hopping violinist Tessa Lark and cellist and composer Joshua Roman. They stop in at Hertz Hall on the UC Berkeley campus at 3 p.m. Sunday for a recital sponsored by Cal Performances. First up on the program is an arrangement made for their instruments of Bach’s Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G Major. They also will perform three of Meyer’s compositions—Trio 1986, Trio 1988 and the Bay Area premiere of a new trio co-commissioned by Cal Performances which Meyer says was inspired by meeting the other two artists and is meant to “complete the thought” of his first two trios. The musicians will record the new piece following their tour. Tickets, $68, are available at calperformances.org.
Long live the ‘King’: LeBron James exemplifies how sports superstars are as vital a piece of the popular culture landscape as actors, musicians, politicians, reality TV stars and, sad to say, criminals. James, one of the greatest and most successful athletes to walk the Earth in the last century, has quite successfully crossed over into commercials and acting. He’s been in countless ads, starred in the film “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and was the best part of Amy Schumer’s movie “Trainwreck.” He’s also, sort of, part of the stage dramedy “King James,” now in Mountain View in a TheatreWorks Silicon Valley production. He’s referenced in the title of the play about two guys whose enduring friendship is defined, in part, by their love for the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James. Rajiv Joseph’s play is not a basketball-drenched bromance with high-fives and jokes about the dumb things male sports fans do. It’s a thoughtful look at the nature of friendship, and how it evolves over time and occasionally shatters. Playwright Joseph and TheatreWorks’ artistic director Giovanna Sardelli have a long fruitful history of collaborating; “James” appears to be another good chapter. The show runs through Nov. 3 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $34-$115 at theatreworks.org.
A fab new ‘Flute’: Mozart’s final opera “The Magic Flute” was first performed in 1791, just two months before the composer died. Influenced in part by his increasing fascination with Freemasonry, “The Magic Flute” was a hit out of the box that quickly inspired two sequels. Now it’s gotten the Mary Zimmerman treatment. Theater fans will know the reference; the imaginative Zimmerman is a director and theater-maker known for eye-popping and thoroughly entertaining adaptations of classics such as “Metamorphoses,” “The Arabian Nights” and “The White Snake.” This time, Zimmerman has honed the opera (with its initial libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder) to a two-hour production performed in English with a handful of contemporary references worked in. The word out of Chicago, where “The Matchbox Magic Flute” played at the Goodman Theatre, suggests Zimmerman is up to her old magic with this show. “Magic Flute” now comes to Berkeley Repertory Theatre for an Oct. 18-Dec. 8 run. Tickets start at $47; go to www.berkeleyrep.org.
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