Mercury 20 Gallery premieres Breathing Space, an exhibition of new large-scale sculptural installations by Jann Nunn. Intense constructions in stainless steel, glass and light reflect meditations on the ethereal nature of time and memory.
The exhibition’s title work Breathing Space is a cascade of thousands of delicate gold-tipped glass pipettes supported by an internally illuminated stainless steel structure that literally appears to breathe. Commanding a central position in the exhibition The Time Fallen Bodies Take to Recover contemplates the process of physical and spiritual transformations in the face of loss and love. Fifty stainless-steel ripples hover overhead while disused crucibles anchoring the gallery floor endeavor to capture rivulets of falling glass.
The driving force behind Nunn’s sculpture is research and gut instinct, a marriage of head and heart, that conjoin conceptual and poetic sensibilities. Often described as a draw-you-in kind of beautiful, it embodies a strong physical presence with carefully considered and often laborious craft yet the ideas remain paramount.
Jann Nunn moved to the Bay Area from London in 1990 to attend San Francisco Art Institute. She also studied art at University of Alaska Anchorage and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Her work has been widely exhibited; she has lectured and held residencies nationally and internationally since 1987. She is Professor of Sculpture at Sonoma State University.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Artist Reception: Saturday, July 12, 4-6pm
Oakland Art Murmur First Fridays: July 4, 6-8pm + August 1, 6-9pm
Third Thursdays on 25th Street: July 17, 6-8pm