475 25th St. (at Telegraph)

images from left: Dave Meeker, Andrew Werby, Jamie Morgan

Andrew Werby | Juxtamorphs

Mercury Twenty Gallery is proud to announce the first in a number of exhibitions prepared by visiting curators. For November, 2010, DeWitt Cheng, who writes for Art Ltd., Artillery, Sculpture, VisualArtSource.com, ArtBusiness.com, as well as the local weekly newspaper, The East Bay Express, and teaches at UC Berkeley Extension, has selected Oakland sculptor Andrew Werby, some of whose "Juxtamorphic" sculptures will be exhibited in public here for the first time. Admirers of fantasy and high tech alike will find them beautiful, strange and enthralling.

Werby, who studied at California College of Arts (formerly California College of Arts and Crafts), combines traditional techniques of carving and casting in plaster, wood and bronze with three-dimensional digital scanning, modeling and rendering. As the founder of United Artworks (ComputerSculpture.com), a discount retail distributor for digital sculpture programs and equipment (including the futuristic-looking tripled-lensed 3D scanning camera), he is active in spreading information about the new technology, which he employs it in his own works:

“As a sculptor, my work has primarily involved the use of natural forms and textures in assemblage,” says Werby. “You can see some of the pieces I’ve done in this “juxtamorphic” style at UnitedArtworks.com. The work on that site was done using traditional techniques: molding and casting the original forms, assembly and recasting in various materials. Since becoming involved with computers, 3-D scanners, and CNC milling machines, I’ve stuck with this basic idea, but have scanned the source objects instead of casting them, have assembled the objects or pieces of them in a 3-D modeling program, and made physical parts from the digital models using CAM software and CNC hardware. Sometimes these parts are incorporated in a piece directly, or they may be used as stamps or molds.”

The works in this show will present a varied sampling of Werby’s Juxtamorphs, analog and digital “collage” sculptures that organically combine the shapes, textures and colors of natural materials as disparate as trilobite shells and sea-fan leaves; mangos and sunflowers; allosaurus claws and duckbill dinosaur, mastodon, and cave-bear teeth; and cow thighbones.

Dave Meeker | Beacons

Beacons—think signal fires, lights, buoys, signs, lighthouses, radio transmitters—are signals, guides or warnings that help us navigate the physical world. Because we all need help navigating this world, we look to beacons to help keep us on course. For Beacons, artist Dave Meeker has created a series of light sculptures as tributes to the guides who influenced his development as an artist. Meeker’s personal beacons are other artists, musicians, directors and writers. Says Meeker, “Each has made me stop and ponder their contribution to the human dialog. Some have stopped me dead in my tracks and made me say ‘wow’; others have had a more subtle influence. I’m inspired by their creativity, wit and intellect. In some way this series is a thank you to them. I owe them a great deal of gratitude for guiding the way.” In creating these small tributes to the beacons that have inspired him, the artist hopes in turn to inspire others.

Jamie Morgan | Night & Day

In Night and Day, East Bay painter Jamie Morgan presents dynamic images from the urban and industrial landscape. His subjects include freeway ramps, gas stations, and buildings, all chosen to define a sense of place and time. Jamie uses his own photographs as sources for compositions, focusing on the qualities of light and color to complete them. “Sometimes taking photographs is miraculous, when everything is in the right place at the right time, says Morgan. “Other times the process is like mining for ore, following a vein, digging deeper and coming back to the same spot many times to finally hit the mother lode.” Morgan also revisits scenes captured years ago at night, drawn by the simplicity, contrast and minimal light, but employing a newly found use of color developed in recent years working with day-lit scenes.

Jamie Morgan was born in Princeton, New Jersey. He developed his artistic interests in high school, and continued to pursue them while majoring in Classics at Stanford. Subsequently he applied his talent to mural making and community art. It was during this period that he developed a penchant for realism. He refined his skills through study at California College of Arts and Crafts, where he earned his M.F.A. He has exhibited at Barclay Simpson Fine Arts Gallery (Lafayette, CA), Bartlett Fine Arts Gallery (Pleasanton, CA), the Collectors Gallery (Oakland, CA), Hang (San Francisco), and the Greenlining Institute (Berkeley, CA), as well as numerous invitational shows, including the California Society of Printmakers. In 1996, he was awarded a grant from the Creative Work Fund to create a mural for Laguna Honda Hospital. Kala Art Institute granted him an Artist Fellowship in 1999, which afforded him six months of time and equipment to focus on color etchings and monoprints, and resulted in a show at the Institute. In 2003 and 2006, he completed murals for the Alameda County Art Commission. His work is part of the collection of Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA, as well as numerous private collections.

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Exhibition dates: November 5 – 27, 2010

• Collector’s Preview: Thursday, November 4, 6-8pm

• Opening Reception: Friday, November 5, 6-9pm (in conjunction with Oakland Art Murmur)

• Artists’ Talk: Saturday, November 6, 2pm

Founded in 2006, Mercury 20 is a contemporary art gallery established, supported and operated by East Bay artists. Mercury 20 maintains a venue for its member 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, CHELA FIELDING, P.K. FRIZZELL, PETER HONIG, MAYA KABAT, KATHLEEN KING, MARY V. MARSH, JILL MCLENNAN, DAVE MEEKER, CHARLIE MILGRIM, JAMIE MORGAN, MARY CURTIS RATCLIFF, JULIANNE STERLING, LAURA VAN DUREN, JOAN WEISS

For more info: mercurytwenty@gmail.com, 510-701-4620, http://www.mercurytwenty.com

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