Masks of Africa An exhibit of African masks and sculpture from the private collection of Horgan Edet, and Judah Dwyer. With the photography by Craig Riedel.

Exhibit runs through November 15^th, 2007

Collectors and entrepreneurs Horgan Edet and Judah Dwyer have been collecting and showcasing African art and artifacts for over 20 years. Nigerian born Edet has an eye for quality as he hand selects, and negotiates the purchase of African art, both locally and abroad.  On display will be a diverse selection of masks and sculptures representing many regions of Africa.

Dryer is the educational powerhouse of the team, by bringing awareness of African traditions to the local San Francisco community. Since 1997 Dryer has directed and trained the dancers for the African Outlets award winning San Francisco Carnival contingent, for the annual festival and celebration each May.

Capturing the spirit of the Carnival contingent will be the hand processed black and white photography of Craig Riedel, a San Francisco based professional photographer.

Passing along more then just tradition, Edet and Dwyer, are the founding members of Paths of Native Africa, a not-for-profit (501c3) that undertakes self-sustaining projects, education and cultural exchange to help overcome hardships and improve the quality of life for the African people. www.pathsofnativeafrica.net

In 1989 Edet and Dwyer opened the African Outlet, an eclectic African store located in the Hayes Valley district of San Francisco. The African Outlet is considered to have the finest selection of authentic African goods in the San Francisco Bay Area, by the FLOAT curators. Stop by one of their neighborhood BBQ’s for a one of a kind San Francisco experience.  www.theafricanoutlet.net

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EXPLORING THE UNDERGROUND

Appreciating African Spirituality

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6^TH, 2007 – 6:30 TO 8:00 PM

Please join the journey by attending this free educational event:

RSVP to: 510.535.1702 info@TheFloatCenter.com

Inside Out New works by painter Cheryl Finfrock, and plasma sculptor Michael Pargett

Opening Artist Reception, Sept 15th 6-9pm
Show runs through October 16th, 2007

"Inside Out" is the expression of dreams illuminated by an explosion of color. Painter Cheryl Finfrock explores archetypes and dream mythology through psychedelic animal imagery. Her work is a tantalizing escape into the depths of dreams, populated by a highly entertaining and sometimes disturbing array of bizarre creatures. Her powerful use of color makes these images unforgettable.
 
Illuminating the show is the work of plasma sculptor Michael Pargett, who is fascinated by the interactions between high voltage electricity and noble gas mixtures. His glass and plasma sculptures are but one reflection of that fascination. His work "Art Electrique" is a playful combination of geometrically beautiful pieces with a pinch of Meet the Jetsons.
 
Cheryl Finfrock
 
"Dreams inspire my work. Images ranging from public domain icons to archaic glyphs fascinate me.

With high voltage colors I search for a visual language of universal archetypes. The creation and deconstruction of this language occurs through the physical act of painting. In my recent work, color, texture, and layering become the psychology of expression. Fauvism, Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and Carl Jung influence me. Specific influences are Edvard Munch, James Ensor, Georges Rouault, Rainer Fetting, the COBRA painters and Jean-Michel Basquiat."

 - Cheryl Finfrock
 
Cheryl Finfrock's paintings are highly recognized in national and international collections and have been featured in several publications and television programs, including CURVE magazine. Recent exhibits include New York City, San Francisco, Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, Olmouc, and Sophia.
 
Finfrock a trained welder and sculptor, has found her forte in painting. She is a favorite in the collection of the FLOAT owners, and recently left the bay area to live in Austin Texas. Please join us for her return in this, not to be missed event.
www.Cheryl Finfrock.com


Michael Pargett

Pargett enjoys the paradox between the high energy that creates the illumination, and the slow, sensual movement of the gas mixtures that can be achieved to present a visual experience that is as compelling as it is hard to describe.  His expressions are at times humorous and at others inspired by a desire to honor the basic elements of the gasses themselves. During the filling portion of the creative process, he attempts to allow the gases themselves to express how they would like to manifest within the glass. “They feel as though they have something to say, if I only knew how to listen consistently” - Michael Pargett

Pargett’s background is in Electrical Engineering, Construction, and Electronics. He has worked in the Film Industry, in Commercial Lighting Design, and in Medical Imaging Equipment Installations. He also creates illuminated sculptures using standard neon tubing. Starting in 1996, he learned neon tube bending from Ron Carlson, at the University of California San Diego Crafts Center. He has also volunteers at The Crucible in Oakland, using his electrical experience to assist in the continuing installation of equipment.

Homeland Obscurity Group Show of Paintings & Sculpture by Catherine Richardson & Will Tait

Show runs through September 13, 2007

 
Utilizing different media, Catherine Richardson, painter, and Will Tait, sculptor investigate the notion of sense of place and connection to home. Resonances both artists share include a search for the deep seated meaning of “home” and “land” which they share with us through their process and their work. Nature and tangible space plays an important role in both artists’ work as well.  


Catherine Richardson:

Catherine Richardson was born in, and grew up in, Yorkshire, North England, and later, London. She made deep connections to the natural world at an early age, as her play areas were the Dales and Moors. Walking is a major pastime in the UK due to public access to land. She moved all over the UK and in order to understand each place and Catherine would walk everywhere, often getting lost, only to discover... new home.

Catherine has a BFA in Metal sculpture and silversmithing from West Surrey College of Art & Design (UK) and an MFA from JFKU (Berkeley) and currently lives in Petaluma CA. While studying for her MFA at JFKU in Berkeley, she allowed the connection to the natural world of her childhood to become what her artwork was really about.
http://cjrich.com/

Catherine Richardson~In Her Own Words:
The artwork in this show is my investigation into location and its connections to
"home" when the home of origin is in another country. I wonder what makes my current place a home. The idea of home becomes obscure; dimmed by relocation, commuting and
overly busy lives. What experiences and perceptions, of a locale, can be created to help
evolve a sense of belonging when one is missing? In our ever-changing environments, the natural world is a constant and provides a reference of the real. Pieces in this show illustrate my walking the locale while I deepen my levels of perception and awareness, unveiling the obscurities of place until I understand my connection to it.
 
Exploring the idea of “belonging” as one of the senses, I am curious to know how it evolves; whether we live most of our lives in one region or we take a nomadic trail, I am interested in what is it that gives us a sense of belonging. What is a constant in an ever-changing landscape? There are many layers of a locale to explore, just as there are levels of responses when we are intent on realizing them through relationship to place. I investigate these questions in each location that I inhabit. I attempt to cultivate a sensual exchange with the natural world utilizing the approach of phenomenology, a philosophical discipline that describes ways the natural world makes itself evident to our awareness. As I research this fluid region of direct experience and the structures and sub-structures of place, my artwork defines a personal connection separate from the purely objectified, mapped world, and I come to understand more fully, a sense of “belonging”.

Catherine Richardson “Maps”, Drawings and Paintings:
The “maps” and paintings are larger 2D format. They follow the system of a map without being navigational tools, but rather a collection of stories of my experiences in relation to place.


Will Tait:

Tait’s first conscious memory of making artwork goes back to when he was six years old. Fascinated by how the Old Masters created the illusion on a two-dimensional surface of objects in space, as he grew up he drew what was around him. For the most part Will drew flowers, leaves, trees, weeds in fields, and other natural subjects. Later Tait studied for several years at The Art Students League of New York in Manhattan.

In addition to sculpture Will paints, draws, creates one of a kind furniture, and also uses computers as a creative medium. Will Tait’s work is in corporate collections, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, several galleries and he has exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art artist’s gallery. http://willtait.com/

Will Tait~ Sculpture~ In His Own Words:
Inspiration for my wood sculpture has always been gleaned from nature. Currently (2007) I look to the physical manifestation of the interplay between natural forces. These forces can be ephemeral like the shapes formed by foam on the edge of waves interacting as they meet the sandy beach and, at other times, a more solid manifestation, such as bark shaped by the growth of a tree, or roots shaped as they grow by the resistance of nearby soil and rocks. For me these manifestations exist in what I think of as the space between the seen and the unseen. This constantly fluctuating space, filled with dynamic energy in constant flux, influences my process and my art profoundly. “My work is more about beauty as I find it in the natural world than intellectual concepts. I suppose at heart I am a romantic.,”  - Will Tait

Burdened Dreams Paintings and sculpture by Marty McCorkle and Victoria Skirpa

Opening Artist Reception July 21, 6-9pm
Show runs through 8/16/2007

Two self-taught artists, a sculptor Victoria Skirpa and painter Marty McCorkle, display distinctive figurative work that reflects compulsive artistic visions that originate from narrowly self-imposed rules. Often transcending the burden of obsession, the resultant works resonate with misshapened but lyrical depictions of the organic and human form, challenging whether these artists are trapped or liberated by their burdened dreams.

About the Artists

Marty McCorkle:

McCorkle’s work blends oil painting and computer to deliver engaging, sometimes startling figurative images. Using the computer like a blade, McCorkle follows self-imposed rules to digitally cut up bodies into bands and circles of color at the expense of subjects’ outline and volume. McCorkle then paints from these computer screen images onto canvas, amplifying suggestions of movement and of vision’s ephemeral quality. McCorkle’s more dynamic paintings become experiential snapshots while his more contemplative images stand as studies in deconstruction.



















Victoria Skirpa:

Skirpa’s glass-work confronts and explores the tension in attraction and repulsion; the grotesque is a point of inquiry. Her metalwork tends to evoke futuristic universes. She often seeks a playful relationship with work, evocative of feminine iconography and sexual innuendo. However, a continual thread remains: the relationship of forms to living bodies - animal, human, and insect. On display will be glass, metal and mixed media sculpture and jewelery.

Skirpa’s self imposed rules are evident in the dance between opposites, never resting on any side, in constant opposition of each other. Opposites and opposition fuels the energy of her work, dynamic tension, and continual movement, sometimes exhausting and often exhilarating.

“Collapsing a piece into only one possibility , seems never enough, as if cheating the work, of a life it could have had” – Victoria Serpa
http://www.victoriaskirpa.com

A Question of Belief A group show of paintings, photography and sculpture featuring, Cherie Raciti, Nina Glaser and Marianne Hale

 through 7/14/2007

"A Question of Belief" showcases three extraordinarily diverse artists, who express the power of belief through photography and sculpture. Writings in the sand. Uncommon views of beauty. Celebrations of an artist's unique view of the Buddha…

Discover for yourself which beliefs these artists reveal...

About the Artists

Cherie Raciti:

As Professor of Art at San Francisco State University, Cherie Raciti has won multiple awards over the years. Her work is included in many permanent collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Raciti will be presenting acrylic, mixed media paintings of simple shapes and patterns derived from both the sacred and the secular found in many cultures. Part of this work is her Buddha Head series, a 2 1/2 D take on traditional views of the Buddha figure that invite intimacy with the viewer.

Nina Glaser:

After 20 years of an amazing international photography career that included teaching at the Academy of Art University, and the publication of two monograms: "Outside of Time" and "Recomposed". Nina Glaser has completed the body of work she felt she was destined to do. Although she no longer creates art, she has graced us with a return showing of a few of her images for this show.  Glaser's work is both haunting and extraordinarily powerful, a personal favorite in the private collection of the FLOAT curator. Glaser has transferred her story telling and creativity to the Art of Hypnotherapy.

Marianne Hale:

Marianne Hale firmly believes in the power of positive change on a global level, and does everything in her power to send out this message.  Development Associate by day, an amateur photographer all her life, she is entering the gallery scene with an intention to share her message of nature revealed with as many people possible.  Strongly under the influence of fairy dust, she quite literally writes her messages of empowerment and belief in the sand, revealing what nature already knows.

“Homage to the Ordinary” A group show of collage, sculpture and photography by Tauna Coulson and Tempe Sikora

A minimalist view of travel

Artists Tauna Coulson and Tempe Sikora guide you through their personal discovery and celebration of the beauty within the ordinary. Their artwork will be presented through collage, sculpture, photography, and infused with the DJ music of g Dub.

“Homage to the Ordinary” is a collection of work from two artists, and friends, whose approach to art  attempts to capture the overlooked elements around us, transforming fragments into a delicate, bold,  harmonious whole. Coulson and Sikora welcome you to explore their personal, elemental, and sometimes whimsical perceptions of life.

About the artists:

Tauna Coulson

A graphic designer by profession, Tauna Coulson is no stranger to visual intrigue. With her extensive knowledge of grid theory, visual hierarchies and composition, Coulson illuminates a sensitivity and feminine beauty unique to her art. Between a discernible fascination with color and line, and a 3-dimensional aspect of her work, one finds it hard to define as merely collage.
 
This exhibition, Coulson's first public show, has previously been enjoyed only by friends and family in her home. You're invited to view her many years of material and inspiration.
www.coulsondesign.com


Tempe Sikora

“I’ve always been drawn to nature, especially the variety and beauty in its minutiae. The drive behind my work is a desire to capture the fleeting moment or oft-overlooked element, so it can speak out directly and unfiltered to more souls than just my own.

Perhaps my inclination to focus on details and things closer-up comes from my natural near-sightedness? Even once my vision was corrected, I still found myself fascinated with isolating or zooming in sharply on an element, to highlight its peaceful or energetic essence. But in a few recent pieces I’ve intentionally countered that tendency by shooting out of focus, playing against detail.” - Tempe Sikora

Originally from Connecticut, Sikora has lived in San Francisco since 1996. Her passion for the natural world is currently leading her career towards ecological architecture and natural building.
www.rarestbloom.com

About the music:

DJ g Dub (Greg Weber) will be unleashing some of his own new tracks the night of the opening. His work is an eclectic blend of Latin, Afrobeat, Hip-Hop and Electronica dance music.

Dreaming Nature A celebration of the work of QiRe Ching, with live music by Cornelius Boots

Opening Party 4/21/2007 6pm-9pm

Show Runs 4/16/2007 – 5/16/2007

“Dreaming Nature” is a meditation on the spirit that inhabits life, nature, and everything around us. This event will combine music, an industrial setting, and natural images influenced by both East and West to evoke that spiritual presence.

This opening party FLOAT marks the beginning of our 2nd year. To show our appreciation to both the artists and our customers, we will be raffling off complementary floatation sessions during the event. In addition, we will have food, drinks and live woodwind music by Cornelius Boots.

 About the Artist:

QiRe Ching juxtaposes images of animals, landscapes, tornadoes and architectural elements in loosely defined settings. The horizontal and vertical structure of the underlying composition conveys a sense of stillness, solitude and reflection. The paintings are informed by these troubled times, in which we find a great split between East and West. The decorative motifs are influenced by Ching's interest in Persian miniature paintings and medieval manuscript illuminations.

For Ching these elements represent a time when opposing worlds exchanged ideas and mutually influenced each other. He employs decorative patterns not only as surface ornamentation, but also as a meditative vehicle, by virtue of their repetitive elements and references to nature. The paintings are partitioned into sections that function as fragments of thought or experience, or rooms that one might wander through. They refer to interior spaces, the world outside, and the spirit by which both are animated.
 

QiRe Ching has been a painter for thirty years. In 1989 he received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. During the height of the AIDS epidemic, he worked closely with AIDS patients as a psychiatric social worker. The deaths he experienced in his personal and professional life led him to pursue images that could contain his pervading sense of sadness and loss.

He sought to bridge the distance between the waking world and that which lay beyond. The veil that separated the two realities had become permeable, their connection more fluid. Ching’s interest in the divine essence that inhabits materiality led him to undergo Jungian analytic training at the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisco. He is currently a Jungian analyst in private practice. More recently, the arrival of a daughter has highlighted the relationship between spirit, nature and the day to day permutations of ordinary life.


About the Music:
 
Oakland woodwind specialist Cornelius Boots is a progressive rock composer, bass clarinet musician, wu wei woodwind instructor and Zen flute adept.  He leads the world's only composing bass clarinet quartet, Edmund Welles, for which he has composed and arranged over 60 pieces.  His most recent work is "2012: A Requiem for Baktun 12 the 13th and Final Cycle", written for a featured performance at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.  

The evening's performance will be spontaneously created specifically for the Dreaming Nature exhibit. This is the premiere performance of "Shunyata Wu-xi," the performing name of Boots' mendicant bamboo flute set, meaning (wizard of the void). Shunyata Wu-xi utilizes shakuhachi and staff flutes and also employs the occasional tape loop, Tibetan singing bowl, and actual human voice. It prioritizes breath and spontaneous creativity.  Musical elements are drawn from Zen meditation solo pieces, Japanese folk songs and pilgrim hymns, blues, soundtrack music and Tibetan chant. The resulting sound can be described as minimalist avant-new age or Buddhist blues.  

www.corneliusboots.com
www.edmundwelles.com

Bad Intentions

Counterculture expressed though painting, music and film
Collaboration by Scott J. Taylor and Clayton Glinton


Opening Paraturday March 17th 2007, 6pm-9pm
Show runs 03/15/2007 through 04/15/20

Bad Intentions is a collection of the recent work of collaborative artists and student filmmakers Scott J. Taylor and Clayton Glinton. Strongly influenced by graffiti, blues, hip hop culture and media counterculture, the young artists developed their recent work from a need to find a creative outlet in between projects while in film school. Taylor and Glinton invite you to experience their world of bad intentions through sound, video and the daunting images of characters, challenging your view of reality.


Opening night DJ’s include: Scott Taylor (waxonwaxoff productions), KODA (45 amp, urban drums), Doubleday (company truck) they will be spinning funk, hip hop, and a little jungle, included in the show will be two experimental films by Taylor:

THE NEW GODS - (black and white, silent) is about a man with a bug problem. It explores opposites and repetition in composition. With an Akira Ifukube track from King Kong vs. Godzilla. 1minute, 50 seconds.
 
A Wolf and Little Daughter - (Color) Adapted from a children's book my 3rd grade teacher used to read to us, "The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales", By Virginia Hamilton. Think "Little Red Riding Hood," but without the BS. 3 minutes.

About the artists:

Scott J. Taylor

“I do not consider myself a GRAFFITI artist.  I'm so much more than that. I mean, yeah I've done some graffiti, but so what? A lot of people do that. I also do not make BLACK ART.  Yes, it is true I am a big assed 210 pound Negro but I do not make Black Art” - Scott J. Taylor

Music is Taylor’s primary inspiration for most of his work. He has been drawing since he can remember. His father, also a graphic artist, taught him a lot.  Taylor has always had an interest in cartoons, sex, and comic book illustration.  He incorporates these subjects sparingly throughout his pieces. He has always been an avid TV casualty and comic book junkie, and it shows in his work. More recently Taylor has been experimenting with multi-layer stencils over bold mixed media backgrounds and with intense compositional framing.

Taylor has two kids, they're grrrrrrrreat--like frosted flakes. He lives in East Oakland and attends school at The Academy of the Art University.

Clayton Glinton

“I look at art as a way to satisfy the senses.  I create art for the enjoyment I get out of the process and for the sight of a finished piece.  I try to construct images filled with truth and illusions that can resemble different images to different viewers resulting in mixed views and interpretations.  Using complex mazes of color, lines and depth my paintings intend to take the mind on a spiritual, psychedelic, sexual, and sometimes, dangerous journey.  With a long background in graffiti style competition and influence I approach a canvas with an altered direction and self-satisfying goal” - Clayton Glinton
 

Originally from Colorado, Glinton developed his interest in the arts at a young age.  He started with comic books and evolved into painting characters and letters in the streets.  Art has helped him explore things in this world once never thought possible.   Currently living and attending school in San Francisco, the Bay Area has been a blessing and a wonderful source of inspiration for his work.

Press:

Bad Intentions, But Not that Bad, East Bay Express 3/14/07, By Rachel Swan

M A R T I N W E B B, “P A S S E N G E R S”

M A R T I N  W E B B

“P A S S E N G E R S” 

Paintings, drawings and mixed-media with sticks-and-mud, live music by Lucio Menegon and Suki O'Kane

Opening Artist Reception
Saturday February 17th 2007, 6pm-9pm
Show runs 02/15/2007 through 03/15/2007

"I grew up in England. Whilst the other kids were playing cricket I was drawing pictures and making things out of sticks and mud. In many ways little has changed” Martin Webb

Have you ever flown over England? The entire country is a very beautiful patchwork of fields, roads and towns. By contrast, the western US looks very different. Here, there are vast swathes of raw untamed landscape with small pockets of crazy man-made geometry. Visually, it’s a compelling combination especially the hinterlands where man and nature duke it out. 

These paintings are reflections on traveling through such landscapes, and the thoughts and feelings those travels stirred in the artist. As passengers, we presume that we are passing though, and the land is just waiting to take over once we're gone.

The people featured in Martin Webb’s “Passengers” exhibit aren’t posed. Instead, they are depicted in transition as they move from one place to another – much like the landscapes they pass through, they’re in flux. Some are drawn from real life, some from photographs. and some from memory.

 
As an art director Webb designs and produces artwork for concrete floors, which gives him the opportunity to work on a massive scale - "canvases" up to 40,000 square feet. He works throughout the United States collaborating with architects, designers and furniture makers. www.quicksandstudio.com






Lucio Menegons music works exceptionally well with Webb’s artwork, Menegon will be performing live for the opening reception.  He is a guitarist, improviser, composer, collaborator and sonic artist. His work encompasses rock 'n' roll, blues, country, punk and experimental music, and will be accompanied opening night by the amazing Suki O'Kane.
www.kingtone.com

www.quicksandstudio.com

Hands in Motion, The works of Adekunle Kabir Adejare (Jareking)
A benefit for Paths of Native Africa



Opening artist party Saturday January 20th 07, 6pm-9pm
Show runs 01/16/07 through 02/15/07

FLOAT Gallery, in conjunction with The African Outlet, presents a sampling of the life’s work of Nigerian born Bay Area award winning artist Adekunle Kabir Adejare (Jareking).

Proceeds from sales of this event will go to Paths of Native Africa , a not-for-profit organization that undertakes self-sustaining projects, education and cultural exchange to help African people overcome hardships and improve their quality of life.   

Adejare choose to name this show “Hands in Motion” for his extensive combinations of artistic media. Pen and Ink drawing, Batik painting (applied as acrylic on canvas), Rice Paper painting, Quilting, Appliqué, Natural Indigo dyeing, Tie-Dye, and Embroidery all have important roles in his art pieces. He has also developed a technique that he calls “Plywood Etching”. Due to the intricacy and detail of Adejare’s methods, many of his pieces have taken as long as three months to complete.

Adejare, who values knowledge and wisdom, has made it his life work to “Document Past and Present Events for the Next Generations". His artwork illustrates historical events, current affairs, stories and folktales. The inspiration for his work stems from his culture, which is rich with stories about good and evil, kindness and selfishness, fate and determination. 

“I strive to connect those educational and universal lessons to daily life,” Adejare explains. 

Please join us for this very special show.