semina culture

In high school I spent a great deal of time reading in the upstairs attic room of City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco (much like my days at Shakespeare & Co in Paris). I was a book nerd and the beats got me. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and all the crazy adventures of the Merry Pranksters filled my life with surreal ramblings, dreams and of course, visual collages. Although, beyond Tzara, Picabia, Apollinaire and Breton, I had never heard of the oh so secret Wallace Berman and the Semina group until I saw an exposition at New York University's Grey Art Gallery this spring. Very much like the Dadaists in Europe, the Semina folks in California had a great love for collage, wood, scraps, graffiti and witty ridiculous humor.I could say so much more, but I think it would be best to check it out.