Transient Spaces

Transient Spaces

Paintings by Rozita Fogelman

& mixed-media conceptual sculpture Leah Markos 

Opening Party September 17^th 6 to 9pm,
Music by Improve violinist  Irene Sazer
&  Free Psychic readings by Virginia

Show runs September 11^th through October 29^th

Transient Spaces explores symbiotic dualities: impermanence by its nature implies a stay of some length, and likewise, where there is weightlessness there must be solidity, and where there is change, there must be stability. Nature is our ultimate model of “ever” “changing”-yet-always-there. So our own human natures are elemental yet kinetic. Transient Spaces includes textural abstract paintings by Rozita Fogelman and mixed-media conceptual sculpture by Leah Markos.

Rozita Fogelman - Mixed media painter

Rozita Fogelman is a multi-disciplinary media artist originally from Tbilisi, Georgia. In the past twenty years, my artwork grew out of a need to tell stories of vulnerability and compassion. My recent work: Body, Land and Water is my attempt to create a metaphor addressing the need to reconnect these core elements of water and earth. In Hebrew, Body, Land and Water: אדם, דם, אדמה—all elements are coexists in balance as one collective living consciousness.  rozita.posterous.com 

Leah Markos - Sculptor/Installation Artist 

“Our egos, relationships, and consumerist lifestyles combine in ever shifting combinations that pervade and shape thought and feeling. In my sculptural works, simple evocative forms adorned with multiple stylized teats toy with the wavering line between comfort and coldness. A related sense of thwarted promise is made solid in some works, as seen in blunt, heavy shapes to be carried as burdens, but embedded with cores of more complex or beautiful materials. These pieces both lament and celebrate. Other works simply illustrate obstacle or difficulty, with an occasional underlying call to notice what we use, discard, create and ruin.”  --Leah Markos

Beautiful Bronze sculpture by John Neary & acrylic & oil paintings by Sally Ann Rodriguez

Opening party July 30^th 6-9pm
With live improvised music by Cornelius Boots

Show runs July 24^th through September 9th

Neary and Rodriguez’s combination of raw talent and passion is nothing short of magical. Beautiful is likely some of the strongest work to have ever been exhibited in our gallery.

The Sculptor

John Neary originally from Long Island NY has been living and working in the bay area since 1995.  Focusing on figurative and portrait sculpture he uses clay to sculpt than utilizes rubber molds, wax and plaster casting, the lost wax process and patinas to transform the work into bronze.  Neary received his BFA from Pratt Institute.  He has been studying sculpture for 20 years and has attended schools such as College of Marin, the City College at Fort Mason, and UC Berkeley, as well as the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.   Neary has worked in film production and also as a computer animator for video games. Currently, he is a sculpture instructor at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California. 

Sculpting, for Neary, "can be like a meditative departure, a gateway... I attempt to express and celebrate the sensation of the inner struggle. I search for poses that can awaken an emotion, non verbally reminding me to stay connected.”  - John Neary

The Painter

“I live in the humble little fishing town of Martinez, California, just blocks away from where I was born.  I have spent most of my life in the Bay Area, and grew up in what were then grassy fields and walnut orchards in Concord, fishing off the shores of the Delta and jumping boxcars in Pittsburg.  I am a self taught artist and began painting in 2003 while living in Missoula, Montana. Presently I work full time as an artist and a teacher. These paintings came to be…with listening to see and looking to hear, the images emerge and I dust them off as best I can. I believe that the artist never gets away from being a servant, an excavator, a janitor, a builder, a seeker.”

- Sally Ann Rodriguez                                                   whimsicalapplestudios.com   

Opening night music:

East Bay reed renegade Cornelius Boots is a progressive rock composer, bass clarinet performance specialist, wu wei woodwind instructor and Zen flute adept.  Since 1996, he has led and released two albums with Edmund Welles, the world’s only composing bass clarinet quartet, for which he has composed and arranged over 60 pieces of virtuosic “heavy chamber music.”  Recent projects include Sabbaticus Rex (elemental sound-structuring ensemble) and mukyoku etudes: 27 Training and Performance Pieces for Taimu shakuhachi (large Zen bamboo flute). He has three music degrees (clarinet, audio, jazz) and is currently working towards his shihan (master teaching license) in shakuhachi.  sabbaticusrex.com 

Personas

“personas”

Photography by Lily Earl
Art that challenges us from within
Show runs June 5^th, through July 23^rd
Opening Party June 11^th, 6 to 9pm
With live music by Tom Lattanand & Danny Heines

Lily Earl was born in Danville, Illinois and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lily studied film and television production at Solano College. After several years working in radio broadcasting, Lily

returned to photography by completing an internship at Moya Photography gaining hands-on experience in all phases of studio and lab production. Lily Earl has also worked as a custom b/w fiber printer and picture framer. As an emerging artist, Lily has exhibited work in several group shows including: Project Artaud, Gamma B/W and the Academy of Art University Gallery, San Francisco.  

The series on exhibit is the Chrysalis for Gia 2010 Series: Integration*Transformation*Assimilation

“Nature, Love of Life and the interconnectedness of all things is what inspired me to create the Chrysalis for Gia Series. Insects camouflage themselves in nature integrating themselves into their environment. Life is transformed and assimilated just as I have been. I always liked butterflies when I was a little girl. Now with this series of images I feel the integration, transformation and assimilation of the beauty of nature within myself and hope that other little girls will mature and discover the beauty of nature.” - Lily Earl

Opening night music:

Tom Lattanand   
Known for his captivating guitar style and compositions, Tom Lattanand brings forth a sound that is bold and expressive. His solo guitar performances display a unique mastery of the instrument while moving audiences through beautifully subtle and high energy music.  tomlattanand.com 

Danny Heines

Long known for his virtuosity as a fingerstyle guitarist, Danny Heines has been a major force in pioneering the rhythmically propelled technique of "tapping" on acoustic guitar. His multi-layered compositions and uniquely percussive solo pieces are rooted in a strong melodic sense and performed with awe-inspiring articulation. dannyheines.com 

Worlds Apart

Sculpture and paintings by Chris Palmatier
and ceramic sculpture by Addiam Tsehaye

Opening Artist Reception April 30th, 6-9pm
with solo acoustic guitarist Tom  Lattanand preforming live
Show runs 4/18/2011 through 6/04/2011  

From vastly different experience there can be the surprise of commonality. Both artists come from disparate origins--geographically, culturally and artistically --but there is a profound similarity in their artistic expression, even though their mediums and styles seem at first to be very far apart.

Chris Palmatier creates images that can both puzzle and punctuate our minds with new patterns leading us on an unknown path. Likewise, Addiam Tsehave turns our eyes and thoughts along new visual twists that we cannot resist, enjoy the journey.

Chris Palmatier

Originally from Durham, North Carolina, Chris Palmatier has called the Bay Area home since receiving his BFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996. Working with both minimal, geometric abstraction and expressive gesture, Chris' work in sculpture and painting centers around the ways information systems and technology affect our concepts of memory, emotion, and language. Visual cues from graphic and industrial design, typography, and
architecture combine to present the viewer with a stream of references and signs, a dare-to-decode as the primary motive.
Chris lives and works in Oakland, CA, making art, doing design, and writing code. chispalmatier.com 

Addiam Tsehaye

Born in Asmara, Eritrea, Addiam Tsehaye currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. Addiam received her BFA in Spacial Arts from San Jose State University in 2008. Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Addiam's recent work reflects her childhood experience of the Eritrean civil war and her interest in the cultural arts of her homeland. She creates large scale ceramic sculptures referencing traditional crafts and objects used by indigenous people around the world. Addiam's recent work tells the stories of the displaced; exile, refugee camps, world hunger and the hardship these people must often face throughout their journeys.  Clay is one of the oldest naturally occurring materials used throughout the centuries.  She uses clay because it allows her to leave her mark on the objects she creates while expressing her thoughts and feelings about the subject.  addiamino.com

About the opening night music:

Tom Lattanand
Known for his captivating guitar style and compositions, Tom Lattanand brings forth a sound that is bold and expressive. His solo guitar performances display a unique mastery of the instrument while moving audiences through beautifully subtle and high energy music.  tomlattanand.com

Sacred Terrain

Black & white photography by Cathy Shine,
Illuminated by the plasma sculpture of Ed Kirshner.
Guest curator Craig Riedel , free psychic readings by Virginia.
Show runs February 1^st through April 17th
Opening party February 12^th, 2011 6 to 9pm
Live improvised music by Cornelius Boots and Freddi Price

About the artists:

Cathy Shine

Photographing since 1974, Cathy has performed her own darkroom responsibilities, including printing, developing, artistic editing and composition. Working exclusively in the medium of black and white, her efforts have achieved technical elegance demonstrating a true quality un-touched by the onset of the digital age. From 2001 on, Cathy has illustrated her mastery in Sepia thereby enhancing the historical quality of the finished product. Each ultimate piece is a true work of art, sometimes taking 30 hours to complete.

These prints are unique, hand-prepared and timeless. Her photographs of forgotten scenes and now historical memories depict life on the Earth's most spectacular, aesthetic and sacred terrain. All photographs produced in her inventory are hand-processed in a darkroom, hand-spotted and sepia-toned by individual effort. Her images are produced in the traditional concept and not digitally captured or enhanced. Completed photos are burned, dodged and printed on fiber based paper, (now approaching extinction), that demonstrates, (since 1977), years of devotion to her craft. Any Cathy Shine photograph will be an appreciated piece of art and an addition to one's legacy collection. cathyshine.com 

Ed Kirshner 

Artist statement:

Like Dr. Frankenstein in his lab, I hover over my glass and gas plasma work, spending many hours mixing, balancing and fine-tuning. Still, the plasma light behaves in a way that I can never completely control. I can change or direct its behavior by varying the pressure and mix of gases, or the frequency and the voltage of the power, but I can never fully predict the detailed effects any of my actions will have. Though frustrating at times, this unpredictability is at the very heart of my work. This is the personality, the mystery, the life that I try to create in my sculpture.

Ed Kirshner of Oakland, California was born in New York City in 1940.  He studied architecture and sculpture at Cornell University, the University of California at Berkeley and the Oskar Kokoschka School of Vision in Austria.  After thirty years of developing and financing affordable housing, he returned to study art at the California College of the Arts in Oakland as well as at Pilchuck and Corning glass schools and Northlands Creative Glass in Scotland.  His glass and gas plasma sculptures have been exhibited throughout the U.S. as well as in Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Austria, France and Turkey. His work, “Cone of Chaos”, was a Corning Glass selection in 2000 and is included in Corning's recent book "25 Years of New Glass Review."  His piece, "Java High," was a recent acquisition of the di Rosa Fine Arts Preserve in Napa, California.  Ed has taught glass and gas plasma workshops in the U.S. as well as in Asia and Europe and is on the faculty of The Crucible Fire Arts School in Oakland and the Glass Furnace in Turkey.  He is also on the Technical Advisory Board of the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Los Angeles and served several years as its Treasurer and a Trustee.  aurorasculpture.com 

About the Guest Curator, Craig Riedel:

Professional photographer and owner of Gamma black + white photo lab in San Francisco, Riedel has been printing and processing “Old School” negatives for over 30 years.  gammasf.com.

Opening night music:

Cornelius Boots and Freddi Price will be creating structured, improvised textures in response to the artwork utilizing shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), Taimu (bass shakuhachi), clarinet, bass clarinet, electric guitar and drone loops.

East Bay reed renegade Cornelius Boots is a progressive rock composer, bass clarinet performance specialist, wu wei woodwind instructor and Zen flute adept.  Since 1996, he has led and released two albums with Edmund Welles, the world’s only composing bass clarinet quartet, for which he has composed and arranged over 60 pieces of virtuosic “heavy chamber music.”  Recent projects include Sabbaticus Rex (elemental sound-structuring ensemble) and mukyoku etudes: 27 Training and Performance Pieces for Taimu shakuhachi (large Zen bamboo flute). He has three music degrees (clarinet, audio, jazz) and is currently working towards his shihan (master teaching license) in shakuhachi. sabbaticusrex.com 

The Mechanics of Texture

Encaustic collages by Shelly Gerrish and kinetic sculpture by Benjamin Cowden

Opening party Friday December 17^th 6 to 9pm,
With music by the Michael LaMaccia group

Show runs Dec 13^th through Jan 29th

About the Artists:
Shelly Gerrish:
Shelly's love of photography took off when she began to travel 17 years ago, realizing that it's the little details of a place that make it so special.  In her latest work, she brings together these soulful details in encaustic collages that translate into intriguing, textured compositions.  Adding the elements of wax and quirky adornments to her images, they ultimately melt together to create one single, multi-dimensional story that viewers are invited to interact with and interpret through their own perspective.  Each piece is left with a one-of-a-kind stamp of personality that pulls it together, and binds it as one.  Intertwined with her encaustic creations are photographs from her many travels, displayed using alternative framing experimentations that she unearthed from local, Bay Area resources such as Urban Ore and S.C.R.A.P.
You can find more of her photography work at capturaphoto.com , where her passion is to bring adventure to portraiture, merging personality with landscape.
Benjamin Cowden:

Benjamin Cowden began working with metal during an undergraduate anthropology project in Cameroon in 1997, where he studied how Baka Pygmies turned worn machetes into utility knives. He later worked with street-jewelers in Costa Rica, learning small metals techniques, before taking a more formal route to education by attending

blacksmithing workshops at the John C. Campbell Folkschool in North Carolina. Benjamin was an Artist-in-Residence at the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Tennessee from 2001 to 2003, during which time he focused on utilitarian forged ironwork, including furniture and kitchenware.

Cowden began earnestly making sculptures in 2004 when he entered the Master of Fine Arts in Metals program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Focused on creating touchable, interactive objects, Benjamin began working with mechanical devices and small, playful machines which address human experience. He now lives in Oakland California, where he continues exploring diverse themes through mechanical metaphor.  To see more of Cowden’s art visit: twentysevengears.com

About the opening night music:

Special musical guest Michael LaMaccia on guitar, featuring Niels Myrner on drums and Doug Miller on Bass.

A gifted guitarist and prolific composer there is always a buzz in Michael's music with a feeling of freshness and passion.  Bridging musical worlds together Michael creates a sound that is personal and unique drawing from experiences of Jazz, Brazilian, African, Latin, Classical, and Pop.  Follow his music at michaellamacchia.com