Exhibition dates: June 3 – 26 2010
Opening Reception: Friday June 4 from 6-9pm (in conjunction with Oakland Art Murmur)
Maya Kabat | This Living Process
Maya Kabat This Living Process 2010 oil on canvas 48"h x 30"w
Bay Area abstract painter Maya Kabatﾒs work explores the urban landscape as a metaphor for the human condition. Rather than viewing the city as a static entity she approaches it as an organic system that evolves from a matrix of human needs and funtions. Kabatﾒs work exposes a vision of the city as a living organism where growth birth death and decay mingle as forms and structures stack and grow evolve and shift only to decay and dissolve again.
Using a range of scraping tools Kabat creates her surfaces with stripes gouges and broad slabs applying scraping away and re-applying layers of paint. Paintings are built and edited obliterated and reconfigured in an ongoing process of exploration. She ultimately simply abandons the piece as for her the paintings are never really "done". The artistﾒs active painting process mirrors a view of the city as a living record of human activity and history.
Maya Kabat was born in Portland OR. She graduated from Oberlin College with a BA and received an MFA from the University of California Davis. Her work has been exhibited at SFMOMA Artists Gallery Los Medanos Community College Gallery Front Gallery in Oakland and the Seattle Art Museum Rental Gallery. Her work is represented in numerous public and private collections including Cisco Systems in Santa Clara Kaiser Oakland and the Hotel Adagio in San Francisco.
Julianne Sterling | The Mommy Assassins
Julianne Sterling The Mommy Assassins 2010 oil on canvas 48"h x 36"w
In the face of fearsome laundry and formidable toy weaponry painter Julianne Sterling delves into her fantasy life of fabulousness with a series of large scale oil paintings The Mommy Assassins. Sterlingﾒs exceptionally dressed hitmoms are ready to bed James Bond vanquish Darth Vader and leap loads of laundry in a single bound.
Inspired by a misreading of good friend Barbara Butkusﾒs photography series titled The Mommy Asanas the artist began to wonder what a Mommy Assassin might look like. She had been working on a series of figurative paintings also exploring motherhood but wanted to have more fun with the subject. The Mommy Assassins was a natural outgrowth with its added musings about boys her life with boys and her boys making weapons out of everything from sticks TinkerToys and legos to bread and even guitar picks.
Julianne Wallace Sterling was born in Southern California. She graduated from UC Riverside with a BS in Economics and pursued post-baccalaureate studies in art at San Francisco State. Her work has been exhibited at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland and A Different Day Gallery in Albany.
Gallery Group Show | Small Works
In conjunction with Pro Arts Open Studios’ weekends during the month of June Mercury 20 gallery artist present the best of their small (and affordable!) works. Painting drawing sculpture photography and mixed media.