FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THREE SOLO SHOWS!
August 15 – September 21
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Julie Alvarado: URBAN HUNTING – SQUIRREL SEASON
Kerry Vander Meer: IN THE GRID
Joan Weiss: THIS TILTING WORLD
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Julie Alvarado: URBAN HUNTING – SQUIRREL SEASON
Exhibition runs August 15 – September 21 2013
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Reception and Artist Talk: Saturday August 24 4:30-6:30pm
Third Thursday Art Walk: August 15 5-8pm
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday: September 6 6-9pm
Julie Alvarado: "Squirrels Ruined My Vacation" (2013) 11" x 14" acrylic on panel. Photo by Kate Cameron.
Julie Alvarado’s latest group of paintings was developed under the influence; of both a field trip she took to Cabella’s Sporting Goods store in Nevada and stories both adoring and adversarial of human-squirrel interactions. Squirrels are squirrely; they tag along multiply vandalize build nests forge relationships and make things disappear leaving humans to "hunt" for things like glasses keys cell service and forgiveness. The artist weaves narratives of personal interest and humor into her realistic portraits and landscapes which are based on photographic imagery that she gathers from old books postcards and Internet images.
Julie Alvarado has been making her art since 1984. She came from the Los Angeles area to the Bay Area in 1993 and received her MFA from CCA in 1995. She teaches painting at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland CA. Her work has been shown throughout California and can be seen at www.juliealvarado.com.
Kerry Vander Meer: IN THE GRID
Exhibition runs August 15 – September 21 2013
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Reception and Artist Talk: Saturday August 24 4:30-6:30pm
Third Thursday Art Walk: August 15 5-8pm
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday: September 6 6-9pm
Kerry Vander Meer: "Big Pink Structure" (2013) 80" x 60" x 14" mixed media. Photo by artist.
Kerry Vander Meer ‘s whimsy and furious energy balance perfectly in colorful sculptural "network systems" visual interpretions of various ways in which our lives are pushed and pulled by maps grids networks and repetition. Using pipe cleaners velvet papers and found odds and ends Vander Meer renders these system and grid portraits vulnerable delicate flexible and immediate.
Kerry Vander Meer received her MFA in sculpture from Mills College. She has taught art in many venues including Creative Growth Art Center and gives mixed media workshops in various countries. Her work explores the natural world through multiple media – from painting to printmaking performance and sculpture. Her diverse work has been presented at museums galleries and universities and the artist honored with many residencies in Spain Ireland New York California and Mexico. Her works belong to collections in the United StatesGermany Spain Ireland China and Japan.
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Joan Weiss: THIS TILTING WORLD
Exhibition runs August 15 – September 21 2013
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Artist Reception and Artist Talk: Saturday August 24 4:30-6:30pm
Third Thursday Art Walk: August 15 5-8pm
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday: September 6 6-9pm
Joan Weiss: "Tilt" (2013) 36" x 36" oil on canvas. Photo by artist.
Joan Weiss’s new oil paintings continue her rich exploration of tensions between illusionistic deep space and the flat materiality of the picture plane. Areas of varying texture reaffirm the abstract qualities of oil paint while shifting planes of light and color draw our attention to what could be landscape; natural or urban near or far. Recognizable graceful and awkward forms surface and disappear drawing the viewer into the mysterious rhythms of the tilting world.
Joan Weiss lives and works in the East Bay. Her work has been exhibited in the Alameda Art Museum Berkeley Art Center Marin Museum of Contemporary Art ProArts Oakland UCSF Medical Center and in galleries in California New York and Michigan. Her paintings are in private and corporate collections all over the United States.