FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jill McLennan: Glimmer in the Grit
Exhibition dates: September 13 - October 20, 2012
Artists' Reception: Saturday, September 15th from 4-6pm
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday: October 5th from 6-9pm
Jill McLennan "Real Eyes" (2012), found objects, acrylic, photos and rocks on wood structure, 5"x11"x4.5" Photo: Jill McLennan
Observing daily life in Oakland, Jill McLennan layers her personal experience onto her colorful scenes of urban habitat. She documents the pleasure, pain, beauty, destruction, dilapidation and restoration of the city in her images. As an educator, activist, and artist she imbues these records with her own questions as she strives for answers in this complicated world of colliding and collaborating cultures, natures, and futures.
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Abstraction: Pull and SwayEric Bohr, Eli Geiser, Kathleen King, Leah Markos, and Joan Weiss
Exhibition dates: September 13 - October 20, 2012
Artists' Panel Discussion & Reception: Saturday, September 22nd from 4-6 pm with the panel discussion from 4-5 pm. MODERATOR: PETER SAMIS, ASSOCIATE CURATOR, INTERPRETIVE MEDIA, SFMOMA .
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday: October 5th from 6-9pm
Five artists delve into abstraction from various angles and to varying degrees. In both paintings and sculptures (with some hybrid pieces, as well), analytical, lyrical, and expressive bents reside in form, color, mark, and material.
Images clockwise from top left: Kathleen King "Scarred Space" (2012) spraypaint on found wood, 18"x23"; Eli Geiser "unrolling3" (2010) mixed media on paperbag, 20"x38"; Eric Bohr "Blue Square" (2012) acrylic, paper and charcoal on canvas, 30"x40"; Leah Markos "You Want It" (2012) wool, 10"x11"x6"h; Joan Weiss "Interior #1" (2012) oil on canvas, 36"x36"; Kathleen King "Vacant Lot" (2012) spraypaint on wood, 10"x12". All photos taken by the artists.
Five artists delve into abstraction from various angles and to varying degrees. In both paintings and sculptures (with some hybrid pieces, as well), analytical, lyrical, and expressive bents reside in form, color, mark, and material.
Oakland based multi-disciplinary artist Eric Bohr presents new works for the Pull and Sway show at Mercury 20 Gallery. These mixed media paintings incorporate an interest in texture, line and process to deliver a dialogue of symbol and emotion. Working with paper, acrylic and charcoal, he aims to invoke images beyond the canvas and suggest that what we see is only a part of the larger whole.
Eli Geiser shows work in tune with her attraction to the varying colors and symbolism of rust, seen not just in metals but in leaves, seed pods, fur, stone, and earth. In some iterations, rust is vibrant with life, but in others it may mark time and history. Often rust is the final stage of erosion, a temporal bridge to the ephemeral, with phases of aging and fragility along the way. Geiser strives to preserve a final phase or moment before it is done and gone.
East Bay artist Kathleen King's latest work is constructed from materials found in urban streets, building sites and dumpsters. These paintings and painted objects offer a blunt geometry that connects the unconscious with everyday experience, and vernacular culture with the vocabulary of abstraction.
Sculptor Leah Markos shapes materials from the domestic realm, such as wool, fabric, and thread into dramatic minimalist forms that speak of her fascination with our processes of identity formation. What we take in, whether by choice, force or osmosis, fills and forms us, setting our shape and our direction. We are consumers and conduits in a complex world filled with suggestions, expectations, inspirations and indoctrinations.
In her new work, Joan Weiss moves her focus to interiors. Her use of offbeat color, flattened space and abstracted form gives her paintings a dreamlike resonance. Moving between recognizable objects and ambiguous terrain, a free-floating emotional ambiance engages with the pure properties of paint.
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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, ELI GEISER, 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
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