Mercury 20 Gallery

25 Grand Ave. (at Broadway)  

Oakland, CA 94612

Chela Fielding 

Collections from Within

Ce Ce Iandoli

Evidence of Love

Exhibition dates: February 6 – February 28, 2009 

Opening Reception: Friday, February 6 from 6—9pm (in conjunction with Art Murmur)

Afternoon After: Saturday, February 7 from 12-4pm (in conjunction with Art Murmur)

Chela Fielding Untitled

Chela Fielding has always been a collector. For the past few months, she has been a pregnant collector. In her second show at Mercury 20 Gallery, Collections from Within, Fielding focuses on intuitive thoughts, feelings and inspirations encompassing mind and body as she goes through the nurturing and transformative process of growing a baby. Drawings, paintings and small mixed-media panels incorporate the artist’s spontaneous, inventive, and humorous use of found materials. Ever wonder if pregnant women dumpster dive? Chela can now answer that question for you.

Chela Fielding graduated with a BFA in Painting, and a minor in Film, from Humboldt State University. After her undergraduate work she joined the Peace Corps for two years, working on Hillside Farming in an isolated village in the hills of Ocotopeque,  Honduras. Returning to Oakland, she worked as an after-school art teacher for five years. She went on to receive her MFA in Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Fielding currently works as a house manager for people with mental disabilities in San Rafael, CA.

Ce Ce Iandoli Voluntary Manslaughter

For Evidence of Love, artist Ce Ce Iandoli began with the question—how much love is sufficient to thrive? Even more, what proof—what pieces of evidence—would prove to each of us that we were sufficiently loved? Many of the artist’s ideas have grown out of her current work with juvenile offenders recently released from state facilities. Street-wise, straightforward and consistently charming, these youth reflect daunting social conditions. Most were abused, neglected, and come from disadvantaged neighborhoods where substance abuse is epidemic. Iandoli encounters them on the cusp of the possibility of another chance, another life. Connecting these lives with her own personal history, Iandoli’s complex, layered collages  collect visual evidence that love is possible; an accrual process that builds over time, often over a lifetime.

Dr. Ce Ce Iandoli was a professor of design at San Francisco State for 17 years. She is currently a policy analyst at UC Davis' Center for Public Policy Research.

In the Backspace:  A group exhibition featuring current painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media from gallery artists.