Jill McLennan Intimate Observer: paintings and drawings
Jamie Morgan Speed and Ecstasy: paintings and pastel drawing
Mercury 20 Gallery
25 Grand Ave. (at Broadway)
Oakland CA 94612
Exhibition dates: May 1 — May 30 2009
Opening Reception: Friday May 1 from 6-9pm (in conjunction with Oakland Art Murmur)
Meet the artists at Afternoon After: Saturday May 2 from 12-4pm
Oakland artist Jill McLennan is the Intimate Observer painting cityscapes viewed from the windows and porches of local homes and apartments. The artist displays a peripheral vision built from intimate details personal histories and diverse stories of the Oakland experience. Specifying points in time when the sun casts certain light on objects McLennanﾒs pictures collect points of view showing the city sparkling in the moment still and always moving silent and always humming encompassing the constant rhythm of Highway 880 as it winds through the city like an urban river. As the viewer perceives the paintingﾒs description of the vastness and complexity of the urban expanse from multiple perspectives they feel as if they are looking all around changing the angle of their heads as their eyes frame each detail. The artist and the viewer observe learn and rediscover themselves in the hustle and bustle of the city.
Jill McLennan 4th Street oil painting 2009
Artist and educator Jill McLennan attended Hampshire College and received an MA in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives and works in Oakland CA where she teaches for the Museum of Childrenﾒs Art in Oakland’s elementary schools.
In Speed and Ecstasy artist Jamie Morgan returns to the roots of his work in the genre of the urban landscape. Beginning in the mid 1980ﾒs the artist worked from photographs taken at night rendering the starkness in black and white. For his latest body of work Morgan returns to the same feelings of speed and mystery but with an added steadfastness and complexity. His continued work in pastel drawing is contrasted with smaller oil paintings exploring new dimensions of color. Rediscovering oil painting as a medium is a recent endeavor for Morgan. Working plein air and from the model in order to learn new techniques in atmospheric perspective and find new directions in color mixing tones and values these oils are the artistﾒs first applications of the medium to his preferred subject of the urban landscape. Morgan wishes to impart a quiet ecstasy in newly found expression.
Jamie Morgan Speed and Ecstasy oil painting 2009
Jamie Morgan was born in Princeton New Jersey. He developed his artistic interests in high school and continued to pursue them while majoring in Classics at Stanford. Subsequently he applied his talent to mural making and community art. It was during this period that he developed a penchant for realism. He refined his skills through study at California College of Arts and Crafts where he earned his M.F.A. He has exhibited at Barclay Simpson Fine Arts Gallery (Lafayette CA) Barlett Fine Arts Gallery (Pleasanton CA) the Collectors Gallery (Oakland CA) Hang (San Francisco) and the Greenlining Institute (Berkeley CA) as well as numerous invitational shows including the California Society of Printmakers. In 1996 he was awarded a grant from the Creative Work Fund to create a mural for Laguna Honda Hospital. Kala Art Institute granted him an Artist Fellowship in 1999 where he focused on color etchings and monoprints. In 2003 and 2006 he completed murals for the Alameda County Art Commission. His work is part of the collection of Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover MA as well as numerous private collections.
In the Backspace: A group exhibition featuring current painting photography sculpture and mixed media from gallery artists.