“psychological landscapes”

 

Photography by Philip Ringler & Paintings by Cheryll May Macintyre
Opening Party Saturday October 12th 6 – 9pm
Show runs September 30th through November 16th

Bay area artists Philip Ringler and Cheryll May Macintyre explore challenge and embrace our psychological landscapes.

Philip Ringler photography:
Artist’s Statement
I photograph ideas.

Philosophical/psychological landscapes of the human predicament.

Found. Constructed. Conceptual.

Suffering and redemption, confusion and clarity, existence and death, turmoil and healing, sorrow and joy.

Depth contrasts the superficial. Subterranean visions subvert consensus reality. Nothing is what it seems.

Paradox. Absurdity. Simulation. Authenticity. Life. Death.

Titles inform images, metaphor overrides logic, and ambiguity emerges.
Layers of symbols created though action/observation transcend ordinary assumptions.

Moments are not captured and memories are not preserved.

Ideas are presented. .
 Philiprilgler.com

Cheryll May Macintyre, Paintings:

”Storytelling without words; explore, express and liberate, my heart. Art has deepened the appreciation I have for myself. Creating space in my life to do what I love, this act makes me feel worthy. For me, this act is love.

The artwork you see is a snippet of my life’s journey—the journey from my head to my heart. As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I have been blessed to have individuals share their failures, dreams, successes and tragedies. However harsh or joyful, the vulnerabilities of others are the vulnerabilities of my own. These experiences have shown me that no matter how different we are or scared we may be, in our hearts we are connected. I want to be open with you so you will be open with me, I want to share those intimate details. I dream of creating art that vibrates my inner being to yours; art that inspires, uplifts, soothes, and art that create space for all that fills my soul and yours. This act of art, this art of love reminds me of how beautiful life is, mine and yours. Each piece is infused with energetic intention that sustains me on this journey. Share this journey with me.” - Cheryll May Macintyre
 coloursoutsidelines.com

Silence!

Can you hear my heart?

 

Photography by Thomas Lindahl Robinson & Jewelry and Sculpture by Victoria Skirpa

Opening party July 13th 6 – 9pm
With live music by woodwind renegade Cornelius Boots
Show runs through September 28th 2013

In a world that revolves around money, money that is entirely imaginary, existing only in our minds, as humans we manage to enslave all forms of matter on this earth, living or not. Oakland artists Thomas Lindahl Robinson and Victoria Skirpa are uncovering this silence.

Thomas Lindahl Robinson documentary photography  
Often confined to a box of silent voices, whispers abound, as sentiment for the revolution dissipates like the summer rains falling on the Caribbean Sea, “What can we do, but open our eyes and look beyond our window shades, beyond the iconic images of what has been left behind of our revolution, past the horizon where we dream.”

And when we dream, we dream all things Cuban, as we accept the reality with which we are presented – government handouts of sugar, beans, and rice. Despite our decaying roof-tops, our, crumbled side walks, long hot days without water and electricity, and many moments of frustration and despair, yet even in chains, we Cubans still learn how to dance.

Somewhere between melancholy, tranquility, and non-sobriety, in a place so surreal, fiction is truth. I remain silent, without a Spanish voice, invisible, and like a fly-on-the-wall; I leave without a trace, my existence in the here and now fade into the fiction, as I too, begin to dream in Cuban.

Thomas Lindahl Robinson is documentary photography, who lives and works in and around the Bay Area, and continues his photo documentations of families in Cuba and Asia. His works are held in private collections, and have been exhibited domestically and abroad.  Thomaslindahlrobinson.com

Victoria Skirpa, sustainable jewelry & sculptor
Victoria’s interest in the body and visual forms led to a deep exploration of jewelry as an intimate sculptural medium. In 2009 VRS by Victoria jewelry design was founded. Jewelry is so special, says Victoria "because it is intimate and can foster human connection."

The love of beautiful objects, and the dismay over human and environmental destruction that often accompanies the supply chain, brought Victoria to the shores of sustainable jewelry, and Sulusso Custom Sustainable business. For Victoria, the foundation of sustainability is to value, facilitate, and sustain relationships over time, between human beings and the environment. It is simple. When we wear sustainable jewelry we commit and trust both beauty and meaning.

"Designing custom sustainable jewelry for clients is a delicious opportunity for collaboration and engagement with those committed to sustainability in a profound sense."  - Victoria Skirpa

Victoria is an entrepreneur and artist of incredible creative and material breadth.  As an experienced visual artist, her work dialogues between contemporary design and visual archetypes; contemporary, yet anchored in history. While Victoria respects craftsmanship and is meticulously attentive to detail, her work also radiates energy, movement and life. Studio 106, Victoria’s first successful business, produced sculpture for galleries, museum pieces, as well as architectural metalwork for select clients in the wine country of California. VRS, victoriaskirpa.com

Opening night music by Cornelius Boots
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. CorneliusBoots.com

Renewal and redemption

Sculpture by James Mullen
Closing  party Saturday July 6th 6 - 9pm
Show runs April 29th through July 6th, 2013

A solo show by James Mullen showcasing his 8x8 abstract assemblage art and interactive sculpture, an artist never sleeps.

Artist Statement:
"First and foremost, art is an opportunity for me to express my sense of the absurd. It's like the multiple choice tests we took in school: "Which item doesn't belong in this group?" Answer? "All of the above." James 8x8 Secondly, these abstract assemblage pieces are an exploration in renewal and redemption, in second chances and rebirth, in recycling cast-off items into fresh works of art. The influence of the "Outsider" school of art is also evident in this piece, with its combination of primitive and compulsive elements.
I've fully embraced the art of assemblage, where form is suggested, directed, even dictated, by the objects at hand. My palette is the boxes and shelves of metal and wood cast-offs that I've collected over the years.
Like most artists, I'm seeking pleasing proportion and line and form, through the judicious placement of the elements of each work.
This piece is a celebration of the nonsensical and irrational spirit of Dada. I see it as a study in relationship and pattern, which the human eye is so adept at discerning. It's also an exploration of the power and spirituality that may inhabit objects, even when assembled from the most common and ordinary of materials." - James Mullen
More about Mullen's work: jamesmullenartist.info , submergemag.com/featured/james-mulle

Opening night music:
Laura Inserra is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and artistic director. She is a classically trained musician with a strong improvisational background. She plays contemporary and world music in different projects as a percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. She authors and performs music for theater, dance performances, exhibitions as well as soundtracks for movies with internationally acclaimed musicians.
Laura Inserra.com

Positive Identifications, Prints by Whitson Hunter, Sculpture by Jeff Ritter

Positive Identifications

 
Prints by Whitson Hunter, Sculpture by Jeff Ritter

Opening party Saturday March 30th 6 – 9pm
Show runs through April 27th

Two Oakland artists create work that speaks to our human experience of time, space and identity.

Whitson Hunter
I define art as the physical manifestation of thoughts, predicated upon concept development, the creation process and the viewing experience. As an artist my ultimate goal is to make the immaterial material by efficiently communicating ideas or train of thought. Positive I.D.’s is a series of black and white linoleum prints with collages. Individually, each piece was made to illustrate human attributes and experiences. Collectively they illustrate relationships and commonalities. I hope this body of work can encourage understanding and solidarity among humans.

Jeff Ritter
Going down the river, a clockwise deflection, images on wooden chairs.

gaze not too long into the abyss

"gaze not too long into the abyss"

 
Paintings by Darwin Price & sculpture by Christopher Kanyusik
Opening party Saturday 2/2/13 6 – 9pm
Show runs through March 9th.

Darwin Price and Christopher Kansyusik invite you to gaze into the common emptiness, bare witness to the monstrous and the beautiful.  The Idée Fixe: a still small voice overheard whispering to itself. If we listen closely, this moment frozen in Perspex comes alive and The Abyss Stares Back.

DarwinPrice, Paintings
My art creates religious syncretism. It’s my way of challenging widely held beliefs and creating new, more personal mythologies. I aspire to a psychodrama populated by the imaginary friends from every culture and creed throughout history, but not to make a point. Rather, to excavate deeper and discover newer meanings and purpose for my life. Constructing a personal philosophical framework through art is to me more relevant than religion or any one symbol no matter how sacred. I'm attracted to the idea of Buddha peacefully 'packing a heat,' homeless angels, or Jesus creeped out of his followers because they're a little too cloying and blissful. I take these saints and holy men and put them in their place, along with their pious symbolism, back into the muck and the mire. Consecrating them in the human condition where they originated.  After all if we've got to live in it, they're not getting off so easily." – Darwin Price            DarwinPrice.net   


Christopher Kanyusik, Sculptures

Art bears greater power and relevance through ambiguity.  It transcends commonality by remaining open, provocative, and to a certain degree unclear and unfinished, rather than presenting a banal package complete with an image and a corresponding narrative, leaving little or no room for viewer engagement. My work is a product of and a participant in the historical tradition of sculptural art.  There exists within our collective, common artistic evolution a connection and camaraderie spanning past and present through our chosen subjects, and a tension between direct, reproductive modeling and abstract suggestion in our approach to the interpretations of the imagery we elect to use. The ambiguity I strive to employ in my work is actualized by a combination of elements from these two extremes.  On one side exists a literal depiction of an object, no more than a prop, involved in an explicit scenic narrative, an illustration with little or no conceptual provocation. On the opposite end of this spectrum is a kind of work so intent on being ambiguous that it looses any connection to any possibility or suggestion of conceptual tangibility, thus becoming unclear, encoded, and confusing, ultimately resulting in viewer disengagement, exclusion, and irrelevance.  The inclusion of ambiguity coupled with the implied or inherent content of recognizable forms allows my work to transcend the enclosed relationship between my self as the maker and it, as the object made.  An unspecified, ambiguous intent assists the accessibility of an artwork by engaging and including the viewer, recognizing their distinctly personal interpretation as an indispensable component in the manifestation of art.  Chriskanyusik.com

Protection, transcendence and closure

The art of Darwin Price, Christopher Ellingson & Christopher Kanyusik

Opening, and end of the world costume party 12.21.2012, from 6pm to 9pm   

Please dress as your favorite end of the word character, DJ Champagne will be spinning music to the art work,  free psychic readings by Virginia, Exquisite corpse drawings by the party goers, once complete we will auction them off to the highest bidder and all the proceeds to go to Glide Memorial Church. Bubbling absinthe tea will be served along with other tasty libations.

Three Oakland Riviera artists lead us to the end of 2012, and show us that a new paradigm is nothing to fear. Show runs though January 12^th.

Darwin Price, Sculpture

My art creates religious syncretism. It’s my way of challenging widely held beliefs and creating new, more personal mythologies. I aspire to a psychodrama populated by the imaginary friends from every culture and creed throughout history, but not to make a point. Rather, to excavate deeper and discover newer meanings and purpose for my life. Constructing a personal philosophical framework through art is to me more relevant than religion or any one symbol no matter how sacred. I'm attracted to the idea of Buddha peacefully 'packing a heat,' homeless angels, or Jesus creeped out of his followers because they're a little too cloying and blissful. I take these saints and holy men and put them in their place, along with their pious symbolism, back into the muck and the mire. Consecrating them in the human condition where they originated.  After all if we've got to live in it, they're not getting off so easily." – Darwin Price        Darwinprice.net

Christopher Ellingson, Paintings

For me, painting is divine and it can’t be described by anything but itself. Amidst the flashes of color, turbulence, velocity, and stillness it teaches me new ways of experiencing the natural world. This is a mystery worth investigating.  christopherellingson.com

Christopher Kanyusik, Sculptures

Art bears greater power and relevance through ambiguity.  It transcends commonality by remaining open, provocative, and to a certain degree unclear and unfinished, rather than presenting a banal package complete with an image and a corresponding narrative, leaving little or no room for viewer engagement. My work is a product of and a participant in the historical tradition of sculptural art.  There exists within our collective, common artistic evolution a connection and camaraderie spanning past and present through our chosen subjects, and a tension between direct, reproductive modeling and abstract suggestion in our approach to the interpretations of the imagery we elect to use. The ambiguity I strive to employ in my work is actualized by a combination of elements from these two extremes.  On one side exists a literal depiction of an object, no more than a prop, involved in an explicit scenic narrative, an illustration with little or no conceptual provocation. On the opposite end of this spectrum is a kind of work so intent on being ambiguous that it looses any connection to any possibility or suggestion of conceptual tangibility, thus becoming unclear, encoded, and confusing, ultimately resulting in viewer disengagement, exclusion, and irrelevance.  The inclusion of ambiguity coupled with the implied or inherent content of recognizable forms allows my work to transcend the enclosed relationship between my self as the maker and it, as the object made.  An unspecified, ambiguous intent assists the accessibility of an artwork by engaging and including the viewer, recognizing their distinctly personal interpretation as an indispensable component in the manifestation of art.  chriskanyusik.com

About the music

“I enjoy playing quality music that tickles the ear but soothes the soul. I play various jazz, r&b, classic funk and deep house music. I have DJed all over the bay area and hope to continue to do so”
- Champagne        www.DJCHAMPAGNE.com