Exhibition dates: February 3-26 2011
Opening Reception: Friday February 4 6-9pm (in conjunction with Oakland Art Murmur)
SOLO SHOW
Peter Honig: The Fabric of Night
Image: Resistor giclee print 35 x 35"
In a departure from the brightly lit scenarios of previous work photographer Peter Honig presents dark yet luminous vignettes reflecting dreams fears and subconscious landscapes populated by demons of the night. These eerie and humorous scale-model nightmares created in miniature from the flotsam of machine shops archaic electronic cast-offs and junkyard debris are photographed in the manner of luxury goods and seem to shimmer and shiver in the dark shadow of desire. All work in the series is square format 35 inches by 35 inches and are gicl�e prints face mounted to plexi-glass.
The artist who recently moved from his longtime home in North Berkeley to the foothills of Santa Barbara states that inspiration for the work in The Fabric of Night is "the silent nightly confrontation between the impenetrable darkness of the parched mountains of the Los Padres and the insolent stars that mock them from the heavens."
view more images from The Fabric of Night
SOLO SHOW
Joan Weiss: Deep Roots
Deep Roots oil on canvas 36 x 36"
With a series of new paintings artist Joan Weiss explores the repetition of forms in nature and the emotional and symbolic qualities of color. Weiss finds inspiration in the layering of shapes the creation of pattern and the simultaneous push toward growth and decay in the natural world. Teetering between recognizable image and abstraction Weiss pushes the inherent materiality of paint and the picture plane while creating dreamlike images which suggest plants root systems seedpods leaves and tendrils. The urge toward perfection is balanced by eccentric irregularities as the Natural confronts the Unnatural in a strange counterpoint resulting in paintings of singular mystery and emotion.
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GROUP SHOW
True Paint: Eric Bohr Maya Kabat and Jill McLennan
Images from left: Eric Bohr Maya Kabat Jill McLennan
Mercury 20 Gallery is pleased to announce True Paint a group show with artists Eric Bohr Maya Kabat and Jill McLennan. This painting survey explores realism and abstraction in the landscape and still life genres.
In Maya Kabat‘s color-based abstract urban oil paintings the artist builds shimmering landscapes using a range of scraping tools. Exhibiting a recent series of mixed media still lifes painter Eric Bohr combines the genre with an edge of modernist abstraction. Jill McLennan‘s encaustic paintings depict graffiti details of Oakland and Vancouver emphasizing doors and windows on the overlooked details of daily urban life.