Exhibition dates: March 31 – April 30 2011
ﾷ Collectors’ Preview: Thursday March 31 6-8pm
ﾷ Opening Reception: Friday April 1 from 6-9 pm (in conjunction with Oakland Art Murmur)
ﾷ Artists’ Talk: SaturdayApril 9 2 pm
SOLO SHOW
Margaret Chavigny: Family Ties
Image: Not Knowing 2010 oil beeswax collage on panel 36"x36"
In her latest body of work painter Margaret Chavigny investigates the idea of family ties: the undercurrents of connection that draw us to one another bind and nurture us. The artist is interested in the transformative process of painting; how the various materials of painting interact with layers of imagery allowing a seed idea to become over time something richer and less known. In the work presented in Family Ties Chavigny extends the idea of a family tree a map of identity past and present to form an image which more truly reflects adoptive families. She uses the mandala as a traditional symbol of wholeness its radial symmetry reflecting an integrated unity. Carried in each of us there is a known and an unknown history in our genes and in our body memory which reflects the subtle variation of inner states of mind: vulnerability awe loss wonder passage memory and growth. How important is this story? Do we know it somehow in our bones and are we bound to manifest it in our lives? Chavigny explores these paths through the process of painting and embodies these questions in her work.
Margaret Chavigny holds an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and exhibits her work at SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery and at Mercury 20. She lives in Oakland with her husband and two children. Additional information about her work can be found at www.margaretchavigny.com.
SOLO SHOW
Terryl Dunn: Travels and Dreams
Image: Barcelona 2010 oil on panel 36"x48"
Oakland artist Terryl Dunn presents a series of large vivid paintings inspired by journals sketches and memories of his extensive travels in his first show at Mercury 20 Gallery entitled Travels and Dreams. Indeed the many locations he has visited including Bali India Pakistan Barcelona and Hawaii as well as imagined locales and future destinations even inhabit the artist’s dreams. The climate terrain geology colors culture history and spiritual energy of each place are incorporated into Dunn’s exuberant work.
Dunn works with oil wax dry pigments and drawing media usually starting with a landscape but often texturing and layering images transforming them into a deep patina of expression and abstraction. One of Dunn’s paintings might start out as a geometrically composed work in shades of green if the first memories evoked were of foliage on grand boulevards but after weeks or months of work the paintings would evolve to encompass in rich detail the cacophony of markets and brightly decorated busses the colors of earth and dust the feel of the mist in the surrounding hills and the movement of people clothing and buildings. Dunn states that "I move my memories as well as the paint over the canvas."
Terryl Dunn lives and works in Oakland CA. He holds a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. His work has been shown at Blackfish Gallery Portland Wentz Gallery/Oregon Art Institute and Luca Simeoni Gallery NYC.
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GROUP SHOW
Julie Alvarado Mary V. Marsh Joan Weiss:
Singular Sensations
Mercury 20 Gallery is pleased to announce Singular Sensations a group show with artists Julie Alvarado Mary V. Marsh and Joan Weiss. The show explores the intimacy of perception through painting printmaking and the artist’s book.
Julie Alvarado paints realistic portraits and landscapes that are derived from photographic imagery that she gathers and manipulates to form narratives of personal interest and humor. The artist uses oil and acrylic on panel formatted in a small scale which references a kind of postcard or visual memoir of places real and stories imagined. Taste is a series of small acrylic portraits of food taken from the pages of cookbooks published in the early 1950’s. Taste is an intimate sense and food is a big source of pleasure in most lives. The images portrayed reflect a complex realm of satisfaction both physiological and emotional much of which involves memories of childhood.
Mary V. Marsh collects discarded library books and cards and re-constructs them with prints and drawings into artist’s books and wall works. Sketchbook drawings of commuters reading are carved into block prints and hand-printed on book pages in the Books & Habits series. Journeying is a limited-edition book by Tony Bellaver and Mary V. Marsh. Journal entries haikus and drawings are transcribed on library cards cataloging a love of backpacking collecting and making art together.
Painter Joan Weiss explores the repetition of forms in nature and the emotional resonance of color finding inspiration in the layering of shapes the creation of pattern and the simultaneous processes of growth and decay in the natural world. Focused on the inherent materiality of paint and the symbolic properties of color Weiss creates images suggestive of nature while also dreamlike and mysterious.