Mercury Twenty Gallery in Oakland Presents Mary Curtis Ratcliff & Interlocking Terrain

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Kathleen King 510.701.4620 for more info

Exhibition dates: January 5 - February 11, 2012
Artists' Reception: Saturday, January 21 from 4-6 pm. Artist's Talk & Performance at 5pm.
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday Openings: Friday, January 6 & Friday, February 3 from 6-9pm

Mary Curtis Ratcliff
DIVINE: A Miscellany of Timeless Works

A look at an extended period of artistic activity by Berkeley artist Mary Curtis Ratcliff, the work in this exhibition links the feminist spirituality movement of the 1970s, a pilgrimage by the artist to Malta in 2001 to visit the ruins of 6,000-year-old goddess temples, and the contemporary feminine represented in pop culture where visions of feminine beauty are represented as fashion plates in paper doll form. Along the way, Ratcliff plays with elegance and banality, archaic and modern, sober and comic, sacred and profane.

Mary Curtis Ratcliff dances to the beat of a cuban drummer in her mylar sculpture, "Dream Wings".

(click on image to view video of the performance)

Mary Curtis Ratcliff attended the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. She has exhibited in twenty solo exhibitions and over 80 group shows. Her work is in more than 80 private collections including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts and the Oakland Museum of California.
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Interlocking Terrain 
Curated by Charlie Milgrim

Image: Journeying, artist's book by Tony Bellaver & Mary V. Marsh, 2011, injet on paper, accordion-fold book, truncated octahedron in plyboo cabinet

Mercury 20 is pleased to present "Interlocking Terrain," a group show of work by gallery artists, curated by artist Charlie Milgrim. This show explores connections and juxtapositions between man-made and natural environments and their relationships to inner geographies.

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Founded in 2006, Mercury 20 is a contemporary art gallery established, supported and operated by East Bay artists. Mercury 20 maintains a venue for artists to exhibit, develop, and advance their work and is committed to exhibiting art of diverse media and content. Exhibitions rotate monthly and the gallery presents a well-attended opening event every first Friday in conjunction with the Oakland Art Murmur.

ARTISTS REPRESENTED: JULIE ALVARADO, JO ANN BIAGINI, ERIC BOHR, MARGARET CHAVIGNY, TERRYL DUNN, P.K. FRIZZELL, PETER HONIG, MAYA KABAT, KATHLEEN KING, LEAH MARKOS, MARY V. MARSH, JILL MCLENNAN, JODY MEDICH, DAVE MEEKER, CHARLIE MILGRIM, PAUL MUELLER, MARY CURTIS RATCLIFF, JULIANNE STERLING, KERRY VANDER MEER, JOAN WEISS