In unmoor Julianne Wallace Sterling gives us figurative painting driven by the duality of paint made flesh and of flesh unmoored from practical gravity. The show includes large nudes in oils on panel, luxurious in form while stark in composition. The work reflects the rich history of portrait painting with figures that are exquisitely colored and drafted yet with an underlying discomfort and strain. The artist also extends her themes into non-traditional media with nudes composed from Sharpie pen on styrofoam meat trays. Sterling’s paintings explore the realities, complexities and absurdities of life as a woman and this body of work illuminates the contingency and ambiguity of this social and cultural setting.
Julianne Wallace Sterling is a Bay Area painter 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 Dacia Gallery in New York, A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in Novato, and Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland. She was awarded first prize at Marin Museum of Contemporary Art’s 2010 Juried Annual. Her work has been written about in the San Francisco Chronicle, art ltd., and the East Bay Express. Ms. Sterling’s work was selected for A.I.R. Gallery’s 9th Biennial in Brooklyn in March 2011.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Saturday, Oct 17, Artist Talk, 5pm / Reception, 6-9 pm
Third Thursday on 25th Street: Oct 15, 6-8pm
Art Murmur First Friday: Oct 2, 6-9pm