1325 Donors' Gallery • Past
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November Promise, acrylic, collage on wood box, 23" x 29”. |
People Places
Linda Mueller
June 9–July 28, 2023
June 9, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
July 14, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
“A person, an expression, where they are in place and time, is the focus of my work.
“Blurring the lines between reality and fantasy to create a narrative that can be challenging and personal is what I try to achieve in each piece. Using journal pages, code, photos, fortunes from cookies and images of money and newspaper are added to further deepen the story.
“Among the artists that have influenced me are Lucian Freud, Gustav Klimt and Alice Neel. I return to their books often to study and refreshed my use of color, style and painterly technique.”
- Linda Mueller
IG: @lindaamueller
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Possible Possibilities, wood panel, 18” x 18” x 2”. |
Remarkably Bright Dreams
Elizabeth Gleason
April 14–May 26, 2023
April 14, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
May 12, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
Marin Open Studios: May 5, 6, 13, & 14; 11am–6pm
I like to tell a story in my artwork with Mixed Media projects on thick wood panel. Each wood panel is richly layered with paper and paint to include images that have been "revealed" or stripped away creating the feeling that my artworks are painted on plastered walls with torn wallpaper. I also sometimes add small objects like buttons, shells, ribbon, jewelry, tags, pieces of packaging, or some glitter to add texture.
www.lizgleasonartworks.com
Instagram: @LizAndriaGleason
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Agave Flower Stalk, Étude No. 1, Angel Island 2022, silver gelatin print, 10” x 10". |
Marine Layer
Olivier Desmet
February 10–March 31, 2023
February 10, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
March 10, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
Photographer Olivier Desmet hopes to convey the notion of Mono no Aware (a Japanese concept used to describe the beautiful transience of all things) through his black & white photography. In 2021, Olivier shifted his focus away from urban subjects, hoping to explore a different style of image-making. Using medium-format cameras, he produced a series of meditative images of nature and still life in the San Francisco Bay Area. A selection of photographs from the resulting project, “Marine Layer,” is presented here. The exhibition coincides with the release of a book on this project
Website: www.olivierdesmet.com
Instagram: @olivier_desmet
Facebook: @olivierdesmetphoto
Cornucopia
Art Works Downtown Members’ Exhibit 2022
Steep yourself in a cornucopia of creativity by perusing three galleries inside Art Works Downtown.
November 25, 2022–January 21, 2023
December 9, 5–8pm: opening reception and 2nd Friday Art Walk
January 13, 5–8pm: reception and 2nd Friday Art Walk
Public Hours:
December: Thursday–Sunday, 1–8pm
January: Thursday–Saturday, 1–8pm
Exhibiting in:
Underground Gallery, Founders' Gallery, Donors’ Gallery
Donors’ Gallery exhibitors
Janis Anton, Jeff Anton, Lucy Arnold, George Evelyn, Virginia Fauvre, Licita Fernández, Alex Friedman, Kathy Gray, Rebekah Harmon, Jonathan C. Lewis, Sanda Manuila, Mary Anne McKernie, Gail Morrison, Linda Mueller, Elise Odom, Cindy Pavlinac, Joy Phoenix, Susan Press, Susan Searway-Fertig, Anne Shaheen, Donna Solin, Vaidis Valaitis, Richard Weinberger
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A Breezy Day at the Port, Xueling Zou, watercolor, plein air, 11" x 14". |
People and Places
Xueling Zou
October 14–November 11, 2022
October 14, 5–8pm: opening reception and 2nd Friday Art Walk
November 11, 5–8pm: reception and 2nd Friday Art Walk
Xueling Zou, an award-winning, Chinese American Artist, lives and works in California. She creates visual stories in oil and watercolor that are inspired by different cultures, literature and nature. With simplicity of palette knife or brush strokes, she paints contemporary impressionistic portraits, figurative paintings, and Plein Air landscapes, revealing a deep sense of humanity and a passion for sharing the beauty of nature.
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The Kiss, Janis Anton, watercolor on paper, 30" x 22”. |
the ef•fi•ca•cy of color
Janis Anton
August 12–September 30, 2022: exhibition dates
Thursday–Saturday, 1–8pm: public hours
August 12, 5–8pm: opening reception and 2nd Friday Art Walk
September 9, 5–8pm: reception and 2nd Friday Art Walk
/ˈefəkəsē/
noun FORMAL
noun: efficacy 1. the ability to produce a desired or intended result.
Janis Anton’s lush paintings are entwined with a narrative and emotive colors that ask for an immediate joyful response. The colors are a catalyst of emotion, are delight to the eye, and beg for your attention. The colors in the paintings are a mode of amplification: color is the invitation, the insistence that you respond. The romantic naturalism and botanical reference in the paintings tell a story or a myth connecting the viewer with questions about memory or a story they already know. The series come from magical gardens of imagination asking to you explore their landscape.
Gil Sambrano
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Gallinas Valley Ponds by Gil Sambrano |
June 9–July 29, 2022: exhibition dates
Thursday–Saturday, 1–8pm: public hours
June 10, 5–8pm: opening reception and 2nd Friday Art Walk
July 8, 5–8pm: opening reception and 2nd Friday Art Walk
Gil Sambrano is a representational California artist whose work is focused on cityscape and landscape paintings. He draws inspiration from his love of big city life as well as the local scenic environment of Marin. Capturing the energy of the city at night is especially intriguing and the most expressive of his works. Although his work can be highly realistic, it can also push boundaries towards the abstract. Gil is a self-taught artist who has developed his skill set through the mentorship, inspiration, and encouragement of many artists over the years. Gil is a member of the California Art Club and has exhibited work in various venues including Edward Montgomery Fine Art Gallery in Carmel, Studio Gallery in San Francisco, Art Works Downtown, Sanchez Contemporary Gallery, Falkirk Cultural Center, California State Fair, Marin County Fair and his work has been featured on the cover of journals, booklets and music CDs.
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Ravens Flight, Vera Tchikoani, mixed media, 20"x20". |
Vera Tchikovani
April 1–May 21, 2022: exhibition dates
Thursday–Saturday, 1–8pm: public hours
Friday April 8, 5–8pm: opening reception and Art Walk
Friday May 13, 5–8pm: reception and Art Walk
Vera Tchikovani is an abstract and gestural painter. Her painting is a journey of self discovery and a search for authenticity in artistic creation. Her process involves her whole being, emotional, intellectual and physical. It reflects her life experiences, visions, responses to life... She does not begin her painting with a preconceived plan or idea, but rather allows the subconscious guide the process and establish the rhythm, harmony and balance. She is especially committed to the search for simplicity and honest in her art, and for that gesture, line and color that would best express her inner world.
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| Whirl © Mathew Felix Sun, gouache on paper, 9”x12”, 2021. |
Imminence
gouache paintings by Matthew Felix Sun
February 11–March 25, 2022
Open Thursday-Saturday, 1–8pm
Reception: March 11, 5–8pm
In-person reception and Art Walk
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| Fall © 2015, paper, bark, leaves, 75” x 24” |
Phyllis Thelen: Coming Full Circle
January 10–February 27, 2020
Receptions: January 10 • 5–8pm + February 14 • 5–8pm
This gallery features a collection of Thelen’s scrolls, where she continues the theme of reinvention and transformation. She incorporates older silkscreen and woodblock prints to create innovative contemporary scrolls.
The theme of celebrating nature continues in works such as Blue Moon, Butterfly, and Toward the Mountain. Fall incorporates organic materials from nature (paper, bark, and leaves.) Other scrolls are made out of antique paper, bamboo, shells, and even dryer lint.
Phyllis Thelen:Coming Full Circle featured sponsors
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| Green Yellow Red Black (Transformer) © 2019 Mark Olson, acrylic on canvas, porcelain insulators, 25" x 36". |
Transformer
Mark Olson
October 11-November 2, 2019
Reception: October 11 • 5–8pm
Painting is transformation. The collecting and applying of various tools and compounds to create an image is perhaps the oldest human act of transformation, outside the human transformation of dance. As artists, we’re transformers in the business of transformation, you might say it’s our stock and trade. The painter scratches his marks or daubs his color knowing that the deep mystery of his work opens a portal between realms, and that, even if only for a moment, whoever truly sees is transformed. Doubtless some have always understood this better than others, as the caves at Chauvet and Lascaux reflect, as well as the likelihood that even back in those times there were probably famous painters. But as just dance transforms the dancer, so does painting transform the painter both during and after the act itself. This is a simple fact, the result of a path authentically pursued. It is not an easy path easily pursued though, nor could it be otherwise. Thus it was in the beginning, so it is today.
The Paradise Camp Fires of 2018 brought a new and darker material aspect to the word “transformer.” Aging power lines and infrastructure have transformed transformers into unpredictable and potentially deadly transformers of the landscape, capable of striking without warning nearly anywhere with raging fire, changing the world in horrific ways into something unknown as the climate itself is transforming into something unknown.
Lost deep in the blazing soul forge of transformation and in the pain of its creation, barely knowing my own name, my literal eyes burning and my nose filled with the smell of the smoke of a burning world, the question arose “What will I do? What is on the other side of all this? How do I get there? How do we all get there?” Thus did the larger world find its unusual place in my creative investigations and struggle. Thus do painters also engage in dance, the dance of meaning.
I’m sorry, I don’t have an answer for all those questions I asked. They sure aren’t in my art and I didn’t really find it in my investigations, either. But still I’m grateful to share some notes and images from the forge, hoping that seeing opens that portal between realms for you, and even just for a moment that moment is transformed, and perhaps for a moment you are transformed as well. Now more than ever we are in a transformational moment, and we can transform to survive or choose not to survive.
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Lona Misa © 2019 Charlie Callahan, acrylic on wood panel, 4' x 5'.
G. E. P. A. © 2019 Charlie Callahan, installation, Art Works Downtown.
Lona Misa (work in progress with artist) © 2019 Charlie Callahan, acrylic on wood panel, 4' x 5'. |
Charlie Callahan
September 13—October 7, 2019
Reception: September 13, 5pm–8pm
Charlie Callahan was born in Columbus, Ohio, and is currently a West Marin artist whose concepts consist of imagining a global environmental protection agency or G. E. P. A.—“One that works for the interest of all sentient beings.”
Charlie has lived in California for 20 years under the moniker Seelife and has exhibited from Tokyo to Chelsea and back to the Bolinas Book Exchange. His public murals can be seen in both Mill Valley and San Francisco. You may also catch his work at the Mill Valley City Council Chambers in November. For exhibition details, commissions, or available works, email Seelife at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. charlieecallahan.com
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| Meanders of Time © Claude Ibrahimoff |
Totems and Symbols
Claude Ibrahimoff
August 9-September 7, 2019
Receptions: August 9 • 5–8pm
Artist Claude Ibrahimoff presents her latest creations, puzzles and vagaries about time, symbols of transformation, perpetual movement and impermanence.
Claude Ibrahimoff was born in France where she studied at a design school and worked as an apprentice in the atelier of the Italian sculptor Louis Molinari. While painting and working on collages, she pursued her studies in Soviet cinema and art. Soon after, she left Paris for San Francisco, where she worked as a film editor on several independently produced films and documentaries, and finally settled in Marin County. There she began work on a series of "Totems," mixed media sculptural and abstract pieces on wood, moving from free-form abstraction to geometric totems. In parallel she works on a series of smaller canvases, combining bright colors and simple basic shapes to translate feelings of light and space. She has participated in several exhibits in France and local venues in Marin County. www.cibra.net
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| Connection © Mary Anne McKernie |
Marin Tranquility, Urban Calm
solo exhibition of paintings by Mary Anne McKernie
July 12-August 3, 2019
Reception: July 12 • 5–8pm
Solo exhibition of paintings by Mary Anne McKernie inspired by the natural and built environments of the Bay Area. McKernie’s color palette can be traced to years of design and color consulting. To achieve luminosity, she employs full-spectrum hues and uses intense color sparingly. This exhibition offers the opportunity for viewers enjoy the visual harmony of familiar environments.
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Gilded Moment from Within © Will Toft |
Shearing Layers
Will Toft
June 14-July 6, 2019
Reception: June 14 • 5–8pm
I was drawn to create this collection for the same reasons I am drawn to the Marin Headlands, fascinated by the area and its multiple layers of use, disuse and reuse. Framing views from within and without, these images are a record of the world of possibilities in this small corner of the globe.
A unique coastal landscape, marked with structures built by unknown engineers to blend into the surroundings, not for aesthetics but for cold function. “Abandoned” is not the right term - these spaces are being repurposed as artists’ canvas, as habitat for life of all kinds, as a quiet private museum for those who make the effort to find it.
Captured at a point in time, these scenes will be different tomorrow and continue to change with each passing day, an evolving architecture. From the expanse of these formidable installations to the smallest details, multiple layers are revealed: the geology and landscape, the structures themselves, the art added over the years and the slow return of it all to its natural state.
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| © Norma Dimaulo |
Norma Dimaulo
May 2–June 8, 2019
Reception: May 10 • 5–8pm
My current body of subtle seascapes and landscapes demonstrates the ‘less is more’ viewpoint that defines who I am as an artist. The oil paintings offer an interpretation of nature that is pared down, fluid and serene. As a studio artist, I’m happy to live in Marin where inspiration envelops me. www.normadimaulo.com
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| Hidden Treasures Hires © Maria Krajan, painting |
Deep Secrets Paintings
Marie Krajan
April 12–27, 2019
Reception: April 12 • 5–8pm
My latest collection of paintings was born out of my love and admiration of the Pacific Ocean. I find this majestic sea both serene and chaotic at once. The calming sound of waves continually crashing on the shore is juxtaposed by their sheer strength and power, above and below the surface.
Coral reefs are among the greatest natural wonders of the world. They come in a seemingly infinite array of shapes and colors and teem with life. These qualities gave me the freedom to experiment with abstract graphic elements and a strong color palette helped me capture their amazing beauty.
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| Beautiful Chaos Abstract © 2014 Lily Pachas, acrylic. |
Lily Pachas
March 8–April 6, 2019
Reception: March 8 • 5–8pm
From the time I was a little girl I have been fascinated with different art media- 3-d modeling, sculpture, 2-d animation, life drawing and painting. Recently I have been focusing my creativity in acrylic and ink. My art is known for dark ink lines and brush strokes, using organic forms that evoke nature and organisms, and using vibrant colors to interpret mood and feeling. The results are abstract while also telling stories of my life which no words can explain. www.lpachas5.wixsite.com/website
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Fill the Wrap © 2016Dan Caven, krypton, phosphor, glass, wood, 14" x 12" x 11".
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Illuminated Boxes
Dan Caven
February 8–March 2, 2019
Reception: February 8 • 5–8pm
I have been an Art Works Downtown artist member for several years. This latest collection uses discarded wooden crates, mirrors, and paint together with hand shaped glass tubes filled with illuminated gas. I learned techniques for shaping glass at The Crucible in Oakland which serves as a resource for artists working with industrial materials.
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The Doors of the Heart © Tina Von Nachtigal, acrylic on linen, 48" x 36".
While the Air Outside Turns Quietly © Tina Von Nachtigal, acrylic on linen, 48" x 36". |
Wild + Free
Tina von Nachtigal
January 11—February 2, 2019
Reception: January 11, 5pm–8pm
Wild + Free is a collection of paintings where I painted intuitively. My focus is to capture the instinct and magic that happens when creating. I allow the act of painting to lead me, letting the work be a record of each moment.
AWD Members Exhibition
November 9-December 22, 2018
Receptions: November 9 + December 14 • 5–8pm
This exhibition showcases the artist members and studio artists of Art Works Downtown by featuring a wide variety of small artworks including sculpture, fiber, painting, photography, and much more. Don’t miss this opportunity to shop for your next masterpiece.
Patricia Ancona, Lucy Arnold, Annie Bates-Winship, Hugh R. Bengs, Beverly Brown, Molly Blauvelt, Dan Caven, Kay Cousineau, Larry Davidson, Susan DeHaven, Norma Dimaulo, Carol Durham,Ryan Erler, Virginia Fauvre, Licita Fernández, Paul F. Ford, Swann Freslon, Janey Fritsche, Dave Getz, Wendy Goldberg, Joanne Harwood, Joseph T. Hayes, Janice Hughes, Claude Ibrahimoff, Megan Kenyon, Judith Klausenstock, Janelle LaChaux, Ann Langston, Patricia Leeds, Ellen Leo, Carol A. Levy, Nini Lion, Dulce MacLeod, Michael Manente, Katya McCulloch, Mary Anne McKernie, Nancy Nichols, Patricia Oji, Marianne Owens, Justin Pastores, Cindy Pavlinac, Cathy Pitzak, Susan Press, Anna Rochester, Kay Russell, Noel Ryan, Bruce Schauble, Susan Searway-Fertig, Anne Shaheen, Valerie Stilson, Matthew James Tasley, Vera Tchikovani, Judith Williams, Melissa Woodburn, Sue Weil
http://www.artworksdowntown.org/exhibits/past/1325-donors-gallery#sigProGalleriaa1fb7ba845
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Calaveras Nichos
Dominican University and Kids Club at the Albert J. Boro Community Center
October 12-November 3, 2018
Reception: October 12 • 5–9pm
Dominican University students in the Community Engaged Art course are collaborating with third graders from the Catholic Youth Charities Kids Club program on artworks that celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Día de los Muertos Celebration at the Albert J. Boro Community Center. Projects on display in the Donors Gallery at Art Works Downtown include Animated Calaveras, a lively humorous series of dioramas depicting skeletons (calaveras) engaged in everyday activities.
This exhibition and receptions are part of the larger project, Latinx, celebrating Latin culture and art. Latinxincludes additional exhibitions and events at Art Works Downtown and various venues in the San Rafael Culture and Arts District. Learn more at artworksdowntown.org and artsanrafael.org.
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Constance © Swann Freslon © Lucie Dupuis |
Traces
Lucie Dupuis and Swann Freslon
September 14—October 6, 2018
Reception: September 14, 5pm–8pm
Swann is a painter, Lucie is a ceramic artist. The two are friends and decided to show their art as the extension of their lives.
Everything we experience, see, feel, leaves a trace on us like the stroke of a brush on canvas, or the kiss of the flames on pit-fired porcelain. From the shores of Normandy for one, to an african childhood for the other, both artists create pieces influenced by their own histories and surroundings. Through art, theses traces deep within, images, emotions and colors can find their way out, raw and intense for Swann, deceptively quiet for Lucie, complementing one another. Swann and Lucie want to propose a dialogue between paintings and ceramics, and let them resonate with each other, and with the viewer’s inner traces of their own lives.
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| Red Flame © 2018 Bobbi Likover, colored pencil, 11” x 14”. |
Botanical Beauty
Bolinas School of Botanical Art Exhibition
August 10-September 8, 2018
Receptions: August 10 • 5–8pm
Artists: Anna Gade, Ashley Ratcliffe, Betsyann Gallagher, Bobbi Likover, Bruce Bowser, Cathy Cook, Dana O’Connor, Heather Clapp, Indigo Molina, John Tillapaugh, Joni Harding, Judith Lowry, Judith Shaw, Judy Stemen, Marisa Willow, Meg Simonds, Melinda Stone, Phil Butler, Phil Binley, Sandy Thomas, Vera Louie
The Bolinas School of Botanical Art exhibition celebrates the beauty and intricacy of various plants found growing in West Marin. These accurate plant portraits were created by local Bolinas and Stinson Beach artists. Media used includes graphite, colored pencils and watercolor pencils.
Botanical art is a centuries-old art form that has a long and colorful history dating back to the 1400’s. With the advent of photography, botanical art went dormant for nearly 100 years, but saw a rebirth in the late 1900’s.
A blend of art and science, botanical art captures the essence of plant species. After closely observing and measuring the plant subjects, the artist discovers amazing details. The challenge for the botanical artist is to both describe each plants’ unique qualities and recreate its grace and beauty.
The BSBA was founded in 2014 by Molly Brown and has continuing ongoing classes in Bolinas.
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Red Shovel © Jenny Snodgrass |
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Summertime
Jenny Snodgrass
July 13-August 4, 2018
Reception: July 13 • 5–8pm
Summertime features paintings inspired by trips to Hawaii, local beaches, and gardens. As a fine-art painter since 2008, Jenny brings her fashion background and textile influences to the canvas. www.farawayi.com
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Dreams of Animals and Tides © Maash Pascal, oil, 48" x 48". |
The Nature of Nature
Maash Pascal
June 8-July 7, 2018
Reception: June 8 • 5–8pm
The focus of my work for many years has been The Nature of Nature; its ephemeral and elemental forces, various patterns created by water, the structure of roots and twigs, and imaginary landscape forms, expressed in oil on canvas, and various drawing media.
While my current work is focused on aspects of nature, figurative work has also constituted an important portion of my output, in drawing and paintings.
I have been influenced by diverse aesthetics: cave pain tings, Japanese calligraphy, Modigliani, Cubists, Georgia O’Keeffe.
Art is not just what one hopes to achieve, but the salient, internalized focus on how I see and experience the world around me. I am inspired by the physical aspects of nature that ignite my imagination, to hopefully create something that is surprising and mysterious even to myself.
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| © Heli Perrett |
Sea Dreams
Heli Perrett
May 5–June 2, 2018
Reception: May 11 • 5–8pm
Heli Perrett is a painter and sculptor. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in the U.S. and overseas. Her work is found in both private and corporate collections in several countries. The current show of Sea Dreams features some 20 seascapes which capture the shifting moods and poetry of the sea and the Bay. www.heliperrett.com
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Unmasked
pen and ink, watercolors by Jasmin Viducic
April 13–28, 2018
Reception: April 13 • 5–8pm
Jasmin Viducic is an artist who uses her skill in pen and ink, as well as watercolor, to create semi-realistic figure drawings and portraits. Jasmin also creates watercolor paintings of the beautiful landscapes that she encounters on her adventures throughout Marin County and the surrounding Bay Area. She is currently a student at Dominican University of California receiving her BFA in Studio Art and is also working as a volunteer intern at Art Works Downtown.
Unmasked is a series of figure drawings that utilize watercolor backgrounds to show the true emotion that gets hidden beneath the surface. Jasmin’s drawings depict each figure or portrait with a sad smile and empty gaze. While a person is struggling with anxiety and depression, they often wear a mask to disguise these feelings. The surrounding pop of color represents the mask fading away as that person learns that it’s okay to show how they’re really feeling. www.jasminviducic.carbonmade.com
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Mysteries of the Unknown
Plamen Tanev
March 9–April 7, 2018
Reception: March 9 • 5–8pm
Mysteries of the Unknown features intuitive paintings inspired by visions and improvisations using mixed media: acrylic, spray metallic, oil, and calligraphy.
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| The Cactus Eater © Naomi Alessandra, watercolor and pen and ink, 26" x 26". |
Ghost Garden
a solo exhibition of recent work by the recipient of the 2017–2018 Max Thelen Studio Residency, Naomi Alessandra
January 12-March 6, 2018
Receptions: January 12 • 5–8pm, February 9 • 5–8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, February 3, 2018 • 2pm–3pm
About Ghost Garden
With Ghost Garden, the artist delves into complicated imagined relationships between her human-like protagonists and the natural and botanical worlds. In these surreal scenes, spectral subjects are engaged in active connection—and sometimes conflict—with plants, animals, and environmental phenomena. Through these complicated and unexpected scenarios, Naomi Alessandra develops mysterious, humorous, and vaguely unsettling allegories that aptly reflect the contemporary American social and political climate.
In addition to the artist’s watercolor and pen + ink works on paper, other mediums explored in Ghost Garden are concrete sculpture, contemporary freestyle Ikebana, and traditional hand-rendered animation. A specific visual vocabulary threads the exhibition and includes such odd symbolic motifs as traffic safety cones and spiny cacti.
About the Artist
Naomi Alessandra is an artist, illustrator and designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A scholar of comparative literature and apparel design, her work is character-driven and often documents fashion trends and other signifiers of cultural identity to create allegorical snapshots of modern life.
Naomi's illustration and design work has spanned the realms of fashion/editorial illustration, book illustration/ design, and packaging design. She has developed illustrations for brands such as L'Oréal/Clarisonic and Princess Cruises; publications including Black Book, Spindle, and StyleLikeU; and fashion illustration monograph Figurines de Moda: Técnicas y Estilos.
Recently, she has turned her attention to expansive projects best suited to a gallery setting, including large format paintings on paper and hand-painted animated short films. Working most often with watercolor and pen + ink on paper, she relishes the technical challenge of developing big projects using materials usually reserved for more modest formats.
Recent solo exhibitions include The Slap (2017), diPietro Todd Mill Valley; Entanglement (2016-2017), diPietro Todd Union Square, San Francisco; The Girls (2016), ArtBeat, Berkeley; and Falling to Earth (2016), AYA Salon, Petaluma. She has also participated in a number of group exhibitions at venues including Art Works Downtown (San Rafael), Smith Andersen North (San Anselmo); Wonderland Gallery, 111 Minna, and Goforaloop Gallery (San Francisco); and Warehouse 416 (Oakland).Naomi is currently the Max Thelen Artist in Residence at Art Works Downtown in San Rafael, California.
AWD Members' Exhibition
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December 8, 2017-January 3, 2018
Reception: December 8 • 5–9pm
This exhibition showcases the Artist Members and Studio Artists of Art Works Downtown by featuring a wide variety of small artworks including sculpture, fiber, painting, photography, and much more. Don’t miss this opportunity to shop for your next masterpiece.
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Little Barb © Susan Ryan |
Barbara Lawrence's Student Art Show
November 10-December 5, 2017
Reception: November 10 • 5–8pm
This exhibition features over 30 works in pastel, oil and acrylic by students of AWD studio artist Barbara Lawrence.
Barbara Lawrence studied at California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland and the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Deciding early on to make her living with art, Lawrence worked in design, production graphics, and computer illustration. Twenty years ago she made the courageous decision to follow the momentum of what she sees as the most creative period of her life and started painting full time.
Barbara teaches classes and workshops in the United States and Europe. Her work can be seen in numerous shows and galleries in and around California and on the West Coast.
Barbara says, “we last had a student show some years ago at the Marin Civic Center. When I started thinking about having another show it became clear the Donors Gallery at AWD was the perfect place. I am very pleased to showcase my students' work so close to home. Some of these works are by brand new students and some are by seasoned regulars. I hope you’ll enjoy these beautiful works of art.”
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| © Armando Quintero |
Armando Quintero
October 13-November 7, 2017
Reception:October 13 • 5–8pm
This exhibition will feature a variety of works, including new ipad-prints, inspired by Armando Quintero’s love of nature.
© Armando Quintero
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| Williams, AZ © Jessica Carsten 10x10 |
Jessica Carsten
August 11-September 9, 2017
Receptions: August 11 + September 8• 5–8pm
Jessica Carsten's series of abstract skyscapes draw the viewer's attention away from the contracted chaos of life on land and into the etherial beauty of the sky. Many pieces are inspired by life on the Marin County coast, while others capture the mood of the south western deserts, pacific northwest lakes, and inland waterways.
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| Eucalyptus Grove © Marilyn Greenblat |
Marilyn Greenblat
plein-air paintings
July 14-August 5, 2017
Reception: July 14 • 5–8pm
Marilyn Greenblat is a devoted painter who focuses on plein-air oil paintings of Marin and Sonoma Counties. She states "The opportunity to combine the natural outdoor setting with the painting process is a positively exhilarating and exciting experience." Her works include bay views, the Pacific ocean, forests, hillsides, wildlife refuges, marshes and occasionally still-lifes, animals and portraits. marilyngreenblat.com
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© Anne Shaheen
© ValerieJelenfy Stilson |
Putting It All Together
assemblage and mixed media collage
Anne Shaheen with guest artist Valerie Jelenfy Stilson
June 9-July 8, 2017
Reception: June 9 • 5–8pm
Anne Shaheen considers herself a ReUse artist and has always been drawn to items that are old, worn, rusted, broken, just waiting to be part of a story that will be interpreted only by the curious observer.
Her mediums of expression are assemblage and collage. Sometimes she just mixes things up with no plan in mind and lets the materials lead the way. Other times she imagines the origin of the materials - who touched them and why - and tries to re-tell a story.
For Anne, it’s all about celebrating the wonderful, natural patina that comes with age, both of people & objects, and finding beauty in imperfection.
Valerie Jelenfy Stilson is a true renaissance woman, who began creating found object altars at the age of 71. Her work is influenced by the Spanish Colonial folk art of New Spain and Mexico. It reflects the passage of time and custom, mixing modern day themes with those of history.
Her technique of choice is assemblage and she transforms this process into a three dimensional form, creating an opportunity for a dialogue to evolve between the viewer and the spirit of the altar.
Valerie defines the techniques of assemblage as, “The art of allowing the bits and pieces of our lives to assemble themselves into a meaningful relationship, creating peace, inspiration and wisdom. Memories may surface, love may rekindle, and answers will come.
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| Siesta Lake © Asmund Gjevik |
Asmund Gjevik
May 5–June 3, 2017
Reception: May 12 • 5–8pm
My experience with dramatic contrasts of land and seascapes gave me an intense appreciation for black and white photography. Abstracting a scene with black and white allowed me to think about composition, texture, contour, light and shadow. I continue to be intrigued by the way light plays with natural or manmade forms be they weathered wood, trees, rocks or the contour of a woman’s form. www.agjevikphoto.com
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Signs of Hope
April 14–29, 2017
Reception: April 14 • 5–8pm
Today’s new political reality has spawned a movement unlike anything we’ve seen since Nixon and the Vietnam War. Millions marched across America and around the world the day after the Inauguration, and hopefully this exciting engagement with the political system will continue.
Folks have gotten off their couches and into the streets, carrying signs of all kinds representing their own point of view about a myriad of issues. The works being displayed in this exhibition are all current protest signs! They will fill the walls of the multipurpose room and the hallways on the lower level, along with all of our outdoor spaces in the rear. And the center of the MP Room will be devoted to a free sign-making workshop.
AWD’s Signs of Hope workshops
April 14, 5-8pm:
RESIST fabric printing by Tansy Brooks of the Crucible
more info
PAMPHLETS OF POSSIBILITY by the Studio 64 artists
more info
ON-SITE SIGN MAKING by United Marin Rising
April 14, 5-8pm
Enjoy great live music by gypsy jazz group Barrio Manouche, a few speakers from local organizations, food, and libations.
This is an event you definitely don’t want to miss!
Special thanks to the MILL VALLEY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK for their awesome support of the Signs of Hope community exhibition. Their mission: MVCAN is dedicated to keeping American democracy alive. Launched immediately after the election by a few caring citizens, they are now 500 member strong.
Website: mvcan.org
Twitter: @MillValleyCAN
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/mvcan
Collection of Signs from United Marin Rising
United Marin Rising engages Marin residents through education and action, toward justice and equity. The signs collected for the exhibition were made by about 20 different Marin artist activists. Many of these signs were made between 2002 to 2008. Now, we are making a new wave of “resistance art”!
United Marin Rising is hosting a “Community Welcome Meeting & Sign & Banner Making Party" on April 23 @ 240 Channing Way, San Rafael. Call 415.721.7241 for details. Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MarinRising
See upcoming events & sign-up to volunteer at www.unitedmarinrising.org
415.721.7241
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MarinRising
Webpage: www.unitedmarinrising.org
Tansy Brooks' Story
The days following the 2016 election were distressing for many. I was trying to come up with some response to all my gloom, a way to get up and move forward, and the word and concept of Resist seemed to help. When dyieng fabric (or other materials), one uses a resist to keep the dye from sticking, from sinking in. I do not want the hopelessness and divisiveness I have felt to sink in - to me, or to my community. I want to preserve what lies underneath, the reasons I am here and the things I can bring to the world. I made a banner for myself, and I thought other people might want to try a version themselves.
Idea: What do you bring to the world? What do you want to encourage, preserve, or bring about? What about you will not fade away?
Community Project: We’ll have squares of cloth in different colors, and some resist and ways to apply it. Choose a color of cloth, decorate it, and we’ll add black or remove color (whichever suits you), leaving your image to show through. We will put together all your beautiful creations in a quilt, representing the resilience of our community, our neighborhood, our world.
PAMPHLETS OF POSSIBILITY
Thank you for participating in this letter journaling project. You have received this Pamphlet of Possibility from a friend who believes that you are interested in carrying on this chain of connection. If for some reason you are not interested in participating please return the pamphlet to the last sender.
The concept is very simple. The “starter” of this pamphlet has set a theme and created one page. Your job is to add another page with a drawing, a collage, a poem, some prose, a favorite saying or anything that inspires you and relates to the theme of the pamphlet. Once you have completed and signed your page please add your name to the list as well as the date and the city and country you are from. The next and final step is to mail the
Pamphlet to a friend you think will be interested in continuing the chain. We would love these Pamphlets to travel the world so if you have foreign friends all the better.
The pamphlet is made up of 5 folded sheets of paper. The front page has instructions and the last page has the list where participants will sign, which leaves 16 pages to cover. You don’t have to go in the order of the book. Pick a background you like and make it your page. Be creative and have fun!
When you are done send the Pamphlet off to a friend.
If you finish the last available page in the book please mail the finished book to:
Studio 64 Marin
64 Louise Street
San Rafael, CA 94901
Before you mail the book please post photos and any comments to this facebook page: www.pampletsofpossiblity/facebook.com
Thank you for participating! There will be a final showing of the books next January and they will be returned to the "starters".
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| © Michael Wong Loi Sing |
Lukuno
An exhibition featuring Surname artists
Isan Corinde, Marcel Pinas, Michael Wong Loi Sing
March 10–April 8, 2017
Reception: March 10 • 5–8pm
Art Talk: March 18, 10:30–11:30am
"LUKUNO," is a common term in Sranang Tongo, the most widely spoken of 27 languages in Suriname's population of under 600,000. "Luku no," is best translated as "Hey look," as it similarly embraces a variety of statements, questions, even commands. As "Hey look," Luku no" can mean "Watch this," "Hey listen," "look then!" "So, here's what I mean," "Well, look then!" even "I told you so!" based on subtle inflections of delivery. We chose to call our exhibit LUKUNO to have you say HEY LOOK.
Suriname is a country steeped in hues of thick green amazonian canopy, winding transclucent brown waterways, birds and flowers competing with and complementing each other in vibrant call and response colors, stark white sand savanna and rust gravel roads.
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Gently Bang Your Head Against The Wall Here: An Installation About The 2016 Electoral College © 2016Lara Myers, machine-stitched and hand-stitched stuffed fabric soft sculpture (fabric, thread, stuffing, pins).
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Gently Bang Your Head Against The Wall Here: An Installation About The 2016 Electoral College
Lara Myers
February 10–March 4, 2017
Reception: February 10 • 5–8pm
The main component of this installation is 538 soft sculpture lips made of machine-stitched and hand-stitched stuffed fabric laid out in a 30-foot long grid that represents the U.S. map of the 2016 presidential electoral college results. Each lip represents one of the 538 electoral votes.
The installation shows how the distribution of electoral votes would change if electoral votes were not awarded under a winner-take-all system in each state, but instead were awarded proportionally based on each candidate's proportion of votes in each state. For example, if a state has 10 electoral votes and Hillary got 30% of the popular vote in that state and Trump got 70%, Hillary would get three electoral votes and Trump would get seven electoral votes, as opposed to the current system where Trump would be awarded all 10 electoral votes.
All of the electoral votes that would be awarded to Trump under this system are stitched shut with red x's. All of the electoral votes that would be awarded to Hillary are left white without being stitched shut with red x's. Red x'd lips = electoral votes that went against the nationwide popular vote. The plain white lips = electoral votes that reflected the nationwide popular vote, or put another way, the will of the people.
This change is shown by unstitching the x'd lips that would change from Trump to Hillary, with the unstitched thread left dangling from the lip. The electoral votes that would switch from Hillary to Trump under the proportional system would be shown by partially stitching the lip with x's and leaving the needle in the fabric to show that the lip is changing from unstitched to stitched.
Another component of the installation is a catharsis wall with different stations encouraging viewer participation. One station will be a padded section of the wall with the instructions "Gently Bang Your Head Against The Wall Here."
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The Near Future Ago
January 13-February 4, 2017
Reception: January 13 • 5–8pm
The Near Future Ago is labor of love by curator, manager, and artist Kip Westerfield. His exhibition-happening format came out of a need for places to exhibit emerging artists. He states “because I've had some experience throwing shows and organizing groups, I chose to start a loose knit group of artists who wanted to show with each other, mostly students, skateboarders, musicians, etc from my life and friends. The connections spread pretty quick once folks found out I was motivated to do the work of keeping it all going. There have been over 80 different artists in our shows and we are growing with each event.”
Westerfield works at Smith Andersen North gallery and frame shop, where he convinced the owner to let him have the first show for a one-night only event. That one-night event brought 34 artists and about 150 guests. After a second successful show at the gallery, other places got wind of it and requested The Near Future Ago in their space for repeated events. Other venues include The West End Bar, Bedrock Records, ProofLab skateshop, and ANDTHEM gallery in San Rafael. This exhibition at Art Works Downtown will be the 14th event featuring an exciting variety of artists who have participated in every exhibition as well as artists who are new to the scene.
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| © Charles Winstead |
Abstract Geometrics
Charles Winstead
December 9, 2016-January 7, 2017
Reception: December 9 • 5–8pm
Modern scientific understanding of the nature of reality postulates multiple dimensions beyond space-time. These dimensions are impossible for humans to directly observe through our physical senses. This art series exercises our ability to comprehend the existence of these extra-spatial dimensions through compression of higher dimensions into two. For example a 3D grid or cascade is expressed in two dimensions, i.e., on a flat surface. This compression is accomplished by using diagonal lines to represent the third dimension. A 4D cube, aka a tessaract, is expressed in two dimensions with the use of a second perpendicular diagonal line. Other compressions are presented for their sensory effect. Forms, which could not exist in space as we experience it, are described in visual terms. Influences cited for this series include M. C. Escher, Al Held, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Piet Mondrian, Mel Ramos, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella, and more.
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Cynthia Pepper
encaustics, monoprints,
hand painted cards
November 11-December 3, 2016
Reception: November 11 • 5–8pm
Cynthia Pepper has enjoyed a colorful life of being a professional contemporary dancer and choreographer, making children's films for television including Sesame Street and currently teaching for San Francisco Ballet in the public schools. Her favorite mediums for visual art are printmaking and encaustics. Her art world can be found at www.cynthiapepper.com Enjoy!
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| Vanishing Northern Shovelers © Rita Sklar |
Wild Things
Rita Sklar
October 14-November 5, 2016
Reception: October 14 • 5–8pm
Wild Things highlights the vanishing birds and other wildlife of the S.F. Bay Area and beyond. Wildlife is an important indicator of the overall health of our environment. Like the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, their decline sends an urgent warning about threats to our water, air and climate.
Rita Sklar has received over forty-five awards for artistic excellence and is a signature member of the California Watercolor Association. The Oakland Museum featured Rita Sklar’s works. She accepted the “Award of Distinction” from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She was a finalist for the BBC International Wildlife Artist. Her paintings have been selected into national shows by acclaimed jurors. Ms. Sklar received a commission from the Alameda County Art Commission and two grants from the Oakland Cultural Arts Fund.
The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford commissioned eight of her works. Her paintings are in prominent government, corporate and private collections. www.ritasklar.com
Media Matters
Mixed media by Judith Juntura Miller
August 12-September 14, 2016
Receptions: August 12 • 5–8pm + September 9 • 5–8pm
Artists are pack rats. We collect. We think, “I may need this someday." These works hold some of my collections.
The smaller works on one wall hold some of my packrat collection: Canvas and twine. Old post office box…symbolic of what? Shells, dice (used by clowns and jokers), old nails, photos, metal sparkles, silkworm cases, microwave‐baked CDs, pearls, and wood bits.
The larger works began as old framed cupboard doors. What kind of ideas do these frames hold? They hint of memory, nostalgia, regret.
Possibly they tell of freedom, hard work, accomplishment, and dreams. www.jjart.com
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| Parable © Judith Juntura Miller, mixed media, 22" x 71". |
Mirage
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| Poetry of Renewal © Sanda Manuila |
Sanda Manuila
July 8-August 6, 2016
Reception: July 8 • 5–8pm
Sanda Manuila's oil and mixed media pastel and gouache paintings are stylized representational images from which exude an allegorical quality. They depict a state of mind in which the boundaries between dream and reality have become very fluid. As the figure loses its definition it takes on a ghostly quality leaving the viewer in doubt of what is appearing or disappearing.
Art Statement
Very early in my life I realized that I had the perspective of an outsider. Because I was born in a Romanian family in Geneva, Switzerland, the eccentric tendencies of my parents often clashed with the principles of the Calvinist society we lived in. My friends called me “Paprika Feet”. Later on and yet in another place in California, while working on my Master’s Degree in contemporary Latin American fiction I experienced instant recognition. The novels I was reading were describing what I had been observing for years: magic realism. Raised in a Cartesian society where only a pragmatic attitude was acceptable, I succumbed to the irrationality of the reality described by Latin American writers. Since then, in my oil and mixed media paintings I have been depicting the paradox of two conflicting perspectives, one based on a rational view of reality and the other on the acceptance of the unusual as prosaic reality.
I draw my inspiration from photographs of statues and figurines I take when I travel. I digitally manipulate the images until they take a different form. The figures seem to become living beings, yet they are statues, conveying a sense of ambiguity, of dislocation in the eye, and what seemed figurative has become abstract.
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| No Title (action 3) © 2015 Mark Olson, acrylic and pastel, 46"x33" |
Dark Matter
Mark Olson
June 10-July 2, 2016
Reception: June 10 • 5–8pm
Through painting and photography, artist Mark Olson explores paradoxical reflections on the unseen seen and the seen unseen.
The Marin-based artist likes sunsets, long walks on the beach, and hard books with lots of pictures.
To read Mark Olson's extended exhibition statement, click here
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| Thinking of You © Helen Steele, acrylic on canvas, 48"x48" |
Helen Steele
May 6–June 4, 2016
Reception: May 6 • 5–8pm
My compositions are never preconceived, yet my themes are recurrent:
The use of the figure as the means of investigating various psychological states:
harmony, serenity, anxiety, isolation....
The figure is my starting point, not my true subject.
My subjects are human presence and absence.
My approach is intuitive, suggesting rather than detailing.
As I work and rework my canvas the image appears sometimes only to elude me then to reassert itself much later. I work in multiple layers with buried images and words. Paint is wiped off and layers are peeled yielding the emerging image.
Symbolic markings, personal imagery, shapes and words appear, questions arise. Intimacy is translated through the sensuality of line, the simplest and subtlest of my tools. The line can be bold and assertive or sublime and quite sensual.
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| Undertow © 2013 Janice Best, oil on canvas, 30x30 |
Tides of Change
Janice Best
April 8–30, 2016
Reception: April 8 • 5–8pm
The Pacific Ocean and all its phases holds a special place in my heart, and childhood memories inspire a sense of awe toward its power and depth of beauty. These paintings express my interest and fascination with all oceans and nature in general.
Using abstract forms and textures allows me to explore my emotions in expressing my concern for the well-being of all bodies of water. I use color and contrast to create atmosphere in the work. The agitated line shows energy and urgency relating to current conditions. Dark masses represent hurtles that still need to be overcome to return the waters to pristine condition.
The oceans are the largest habitat on earth, and they are largely unexplored. I am hopeful that advances in technology will allow scientists to find answers, and that awareness and education will lead to respectful environmental regard for nature's treasure.
An installation by Meg Regelous
March 11–April 2, 2016
Reception: March 11 • 5–8pm
Enter the realm of Meg Regelous' "Fear of Sleep", where sleepless angst and fears of mortality are explored.
Ring a coffin bell,
rest your eyes on a painted bedspread,
be not afraid of inevitable things.
This is the place betwixt what is, and what shall be.
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| The Beauty of Culture, Head Dress, Bali © 2015 Penni Webb, hand tinted photograph, 8"x10" |
Solo Exhibition of Monotypes; Photo Litho’s; Hand Painted, Hand Tinted, and Encaustic Photographs
Penni Webb
February 12–March 5, 2016
Reception: February 12 • 5–8pm
A selection of various mediums that shaped Penni Webb’s current work, The Beauty of Aging and Culture. Theses photographs were taken on her travels during the last twenty five years. Penni received her BFA from the University of Arizona and her MA in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute.
www.penniwebbphotography.com
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| Sea Stars © Ellen Litwiller |
Sea Stars
Ellen Litwiller
January 8–February 6, 2016
Reception: January 8 • 5–8pm
This show is about the Sea Stars, a keystone species in the intertidal zone that maintains a delicate balance for the diverse species that cling to rocks and live between the world of water and air. Since 2013 the Sea Star Wasting Syndrome (SSWS) has been killing an un-precendented number of Sea Stars from Alaska to Baja California (recently SSWS has been detected in Australia and other coasts around the world). This series is a an observation, documentation, and appreciation of the Sea Stars that were once so familiar to me on the rocks of Muir Beach.
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| Bicycle Free for All © Margo Reis |
AWD Artist Members' Exhibition
December 11, 2015-January 2, 2016
Reception: December 11 • 5–8pm
The Members’ Exhibition will showcase the many talented artists who are members of the Art Works Downtown community. Artworks created by studio artists and artists from outside the AWD building will be available for the holiday gift-buying season in a salon style exhibition format. Don’t miss this opportunity to shop for your next masterpiece.
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| Tree Sisters © Rosario Sapienza, photography framed and matted, 22"x28" |
Rosario Sapienza
Photography
November 13-December 5, 2015
Reception: November 13 • 5–8pm
Rosario photographs “Beauty” in whatever expressions he sees; people, scenics, architecture, and cars. This exhibition will feature a new collection of “car photography” as well as some of his most popular photographs acknowledged by judges and collectors.
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| The Hallelulah © 2014 Abigail Lee Goldberger, oil on canvas, 30"x38" |
Stories and Dreams
Paintings by
Abigail Lee Goldberger
October 9-November 7, 2015
Reception:October 9 • 5–8pm
My paintings are inspired by fairy tales, myths, dreams, memories, experience, longing, religion, and nature. They are intensely colored, multi-layered, multi textured, and multi-themed, which creates a complexity that emerges the longer they are viewed. They are meant to evoke a story that touches upon the memories and dreams of each observer so that the story unfolds differently for each person and grows and changes with time.
Sisters: Survivors
Sisters: Violet Fields and Lonnie Graves
September 11-October 3, 2015
Reception: September 11 • 5–8pm
Sisters: Survivors is an exhibit of hope, dedicated to family and friends and “pink” sister survivors and cancer survivors everywhere. Let's all pray for a cure.
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| The Comet and the Crocodile © Deanna Pedroli |
Interlandia Sensations
Paintings by Deanna Pedroli
July 18-September 4, 2015
Reception: August 14 • 5–8pm
Contemporary, postmodern multi-media paintings. Vibrant, richly colored, and dimensional.
Education: San Francisco Art Institute and Dominican University.
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| All She Rote © Dave Gertz |
Dave Getz,
Made to Last Editions
Screen Prints (Serigraphs)
June 12-July 11, 2015
Receptions:
June 12 + July 10 • 5–8pm
Dave Getz is best known as a musician. Since 1966 he has been the drummer with rock band Big Brother and the Holding Co., the band that featured the singer Janis Joplin, but both before that time and during the last 50 years he has had a separate career as a fine artist. Dave received a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, was the recipient of a Fullbright Fellowship in Painting, and taught painting at SFAI. During the 1980s he lived and worked in Los Angeles producing over 35 limited editions from his Santa Monica Studio, Made to Last Editions. During that time he exhibited work at the Ruth Bachofner Gallery, the DeVorzon Gallery, and the Los Angeles County Museum. He has served as the exhibition chairman of both the Los Angeles Printmaking Society and the California Society of Printmakers. Since moving back to the Bay Area in 1987 he has shown his work in dozens of group and solo shows at AWD, Sonoma State University, College of Marin, and Studio Z. His prints are in numerous corporate and private collections in the US, Europe, and Japan.
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| Unexpected © Michael Welch |
Allegorical Portaits
digital mixed media
by Michael Welch
May 1–June 6, 2015
Reception: May 8 • 5–8pm
Through inquiring into Michael Welch’s personal role as an artist, over time he has learned to trust in the varied and unpredictable ways his work manifests itself. Although Welch’s skills have evolved since childhood, his communion with form and color has remained consistent and unchanged.
Born and raised in Northern California, Michael majored in art at California College of the Arts and Sacramento City College. His background includes acrylics, watercolors, pastels, and pen and ink drawing. Michael became interested in Photoshop as a tool for creating art because of the new avenues for creativity it offers.
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| Dappled © Susan McCormick |
Finding the Stillness Within
Paintings by Susan McCormick
April 10–25, 2015
Reception: April 10 • 5–8pm
Abstract Contemporary Land and Seascapes
Cryptology
A Collection of Paintings
by Joel Monty
March 13–April 4, 2015
Reception: March 13 • 5–8pm
Joel Monty is a New England artist born in historic New Bedford, Massachusetts. He started painting in 2002 at the age of 25, shortly after his mother passed away, and moved to lovely Marin County in April 2013. Joel works mainly in acrylic, but does occasionally use other media. He believes his journey as an artist began at birth. Joel's work concentrates on the personal pains of life and the duality of his own nature. He uses the creative process to escape his own very destructive behavior. In his compositions you may notice a lot of ebb and flow, push and pull, a collision of shapes and colors—all representative of one trying to tear apart the other. Many of his paintings display vivid palettes, a false perception of a man ultra-sensitive to the world around him. In the heart of his work Joel does what he has to do to fit in as best he can.
The Art of the Portrait
Photography by Glen Graves
February 13–March 7, 2015
Reception: February 13 • 5–8pm
Great portrait photographers capture the person who is below the surface: a creation of their fantasy or sweet, tender, and vulnerable. For 35 years Glen Graves has worked to discover that person and present it as a work of art.
Casalinga: Painting
the Domestic Arena
Featuring new work by Lauren Bartone, the Max Thelen Artist-in Residence at Art Works Downtown
January 6–February 7, 2015
Reception: January 9 • 5–8pm
Casalinga means housewife in Italian and it is the title Lauren Bartone has given to her newest body of work – a series of paintings about female labor, textiles and the domestic workspace. The paintings use a limited color palette of reds and pinks to consider the ambiguous role of women’s labor and its relationship to the home. The work, which can be seen in the Donor’s Gallery at Art Works Downtown, features imagery of textiles, everyday objects and references to the handmade nature of domestic work.
Unexpected
Artwork by Doreen L. Barton
December 12, 2014-January 3, 2015
Reception: December 12 • 5–8pm
The work in this show was produced over a four year period. My initial focus was on the figurative, the human form, along with portraiture. I've since worked en plein air, in both urban and rural settings, particularly where objects can be seen in an unsettling placement, or thrown together in a confused jumble. I'm often attracted to seemingly ordinary scenes but with compositions that are challenging and unconventional. My parallel interests in late 19th and early 20th century life and costume have lead to a continuing project of pastels derived from period photographs and exhibitions. These explore the differences and similarities of life then and now.
Stuart Gourlay, MD, Artist and Surgeon
Paintings
November 14-December 6, 2014
Reception: November 14 • 5–8pm
Artist’s Statement
As an artist I paint on the canvas what I see in my daily life that interests me. I am always attracted to buildings and other manmade objects and to the interrelationships between people and their environment. My primary medium is oil paint, but I do occasionally paint in acrylics and watercolors. I am most comfortable with representational images and would describe myself to others as a contemporary realistic painter. People often comment on the detail they see in my work and how realistic the paintings look. Until 2007 my work was exclusively done in the studio and from photographic reference materials. Since that time, the primary focus of my work has been to control my detail and develop a little looser style by pursuing outdoor, or plein aire, painting. This has not been as easy as I initially thought it would be, but with increasing experience, I have seen steady improvement in both my plein air and studio paintings.
Alaska
Photography by Alan Plisskin
October 10-November 8, 2014
Reception: October 10 • 5–8pm
Alan Plisskin presents his most recent series, Alaska. The series offers the viewer a chance to enjoy Alaska’s majestic landscape, elusive wildlife, and abstract patterns in luscious large-format prints. This series is Alan’s freshest body of work, coming from his recent trip to Alaska this past August.
Eagle in Flight © 2014 Alan Plisskin
E.A. Betsy Kellas: Recent Polyptychs
oil paint, black gesso, and latex paint on canvas,
paper, and panel
September 12-October 4, 2014
Reception: September 12 • 5–8pm
In this exhibition of her most recent work, Kellas presents diptychs, triptychs, and polyptychs (arrangements of four or more paintings) that push the boundaries of tradition.
“Kellas creates an overall experience filled with specific incident, rewarding close examination with lovely discoveries.” Maria Porges , E.A. Betsy Kellas: Shifting Weights, 2014
painting, mixed media installation | www.betsykellas.com
Between Inks and Pigments
Paintings and Drawings by Judith Miller
August 8-September 6, 2014
Reception: August 8 • 5–8pm
The work at the Donors' Gallery includes both Drawings and Paintings.
The Paintings and Drawings summarize years of observation and puzzlement.
In my childhood while growing up on a cattle ranch I was interested in the mysteries of nature and the mysteries of communication. I loved the hidden meanings of cattle brands. The first codes I read were those pictographs. Then came the miracle of reading and writing.. Other codes came later: shorthand, computer, poetry, critic language, sidestep language, formal art elements.
Art is an optimistic act. It connects 3000 years of human history and portends, all evidence aside, that humans will have an extended future. To paint is to experience death and rebirth as acceptance of painting in the last half-century is constantly dying and being reborn.
Small Stories
Artwork by Mike Goldberg
July 11-August 2, 2014
Reception: July 11 • 5–8pm
Through his paintings, Mike explores the well lived lives of his subjects' well worn faces. More psychological profiles than portraits, Mike sources real people, his imagination and found photographs, merging them to create a powerful emotional atmosphere frozen on canvas.
The paintings are loose representations of the many original characters that Mike engaged with throughout his eclectic work history. As a sanitation man, tow truck driver, emergency room orderly and therapist in a locked psychiatric unit Mike came across many original characters who became the inspiration for these moving untold stories of these unknown people.
The underlying concept of Mike's paintings is about how we process memory. Through their iconic imagery, the paintings are designed to stir deep-rooted memories of people who have influenced us from our past because those memories hold great value to who we are.
Mike paints on found wood with oil bars using his fingers to work the paint into the wood incorporating the rough texture of the surface that enhances the story of each character.
Mike was born and raised in Boston and spent 22 years in Manhattan and Brooklyn before recently moving to the beautiful Bay Area a few years ago. Studying in the traditional French academy approach at Boston’s Fenway Studios, Mike learned the craft of drawing and composition in the style of the French masters. In addition to his 75 or so unique jobs, Mike received a degree in Psychology from Boston University and worked in Psychiatric facilities as a therapist and also worked in a Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Room.
Rock Face
Photography by Tom Rohrer
June 13-July 5, 2014
Reception: June 13 • 5–8pm
This Rock Face series of photographs addresses a sense of presence and personality. Each mountain portrait pictured here has its own unique characteristics. Just as with portraits of people, the texture and surface of each rock face was produced over time by gradual, intense experience.
Each of these faces are several hundred feet tall. Find the trees for scale. Their lifetimes are profoundly long. All of these photos were taken in Yosemite within miles of each other, yet each place reacted differently to the same conditions. Each looks different as the light hits it throughout the day and throughout the year. Each is a landmark.
Coastal Access
Photography by Marianne Owens
May 9-June 7, 2014
Reception: May 9 • 5–8pm
Artist Statement
As a photographer, I am drawn to nature and architecture as my subjects. I enjoy photographing urban landscapes as well as the everyday objects that we see so frequently that we may no longer notice their unique qualities. It is my passion to capture images that convey a mood and engage the interest and imagination of the viewer.
Most recently, I have been taking photographs at Rodeo Beach and the Headlands in Marin County, using my DSLR and iphone cameras. This new collection of images is titled Coastal Access.
I am inspired by the possibilities created by new digital technology and alternative processes. I have incorporated these tools in my image editing, and I continue to experiment with image transfers using digital images. In addition to the Coastal Access photographs, I will be exhibiting black and white, and infrared gelatin silver prints, handtinted prints, and giclée prints.
Hangin' Around
Art by Dixie Elementary 3rd Graders
April 11-April 26, 2014
Reception: April 11 • 5–8pm
A whimsical collection of colorful acrobats spin, twirl and dance on their wire hanger trapezes in this presentation of artwork made by 3rd graders at Dixie Elementary School. Through this community partnership between Dixie and AWD, students have the opportunity to see their artwork professionally displayed in a gallery and get a taste of what being a "real" artist is like.
March 14-April 8, 2014
Reception: March 14 • 5–8pm
A Peek Into the Weird World of
Dr. Flotsam
and His Carny Clan
The art of Mike Shine and friends with special music guest, Beso Negro.
Mystic Realms-Seascapes
Artwork by Tim Burns
February 14-March11, 2014
Reception: February 14, 2014
Viewers will enjoy Tim’s two series, “Land of a Thousand Birds” and “ A Hundred Echoes.” The works include oceanic imagery of naturally occurring abstractions without digital enhancement plus photo-encaustics, which are digitally altered photographs and bees wax.
Bolinas Folk Art
Artwork by Janis Yerington
January 10–February 11, 2014
Reception: Janaury 10, 2014
Bolinas Folk Art... inspired by Bolinas, Melville and the Spirit…art that is folksy, urban, coastal chic - made from driftwood and salvaged wood upcycled from an old artist's studio. Each piece is hand carved and painted, uniquely created with passion and prayer.
Ashwin Narayanan
December 13, 2013 - January 4, 2014
Ashwin Narayanan is a South Bay artist who works with ink. His idiosyncratic ink work delves into the subconscious mind where one is engrossed in meditative flow of process, similar to the idea of automatic drawing or “doodling,” where the physical body is disconnected from the mind and the subconscious creates a different connection.
Ashwin’s work explores the idea of technological circuitry and networking and integrates that with his cultural heritage, resulting in a fastidious work of art.
Mosaic Affinity © Ashwin Narayanan, pen on paper
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Artwork by Art Works Downtown Artists
November 8–December 7, 2013
Reception: November 8 • 5–8pm
Sales of works benefit the San Francisco and Marin Food Banks and Art Works Downtown. Starting bids at half price.
Great Deals. Great Causes.
"Pathways of Southeast Asia"
Photography by Julie Miller
October 11 - November 2, 2013
Reception: October 11 • 5–8pm
Julie Miller's exhibit features photographs from her travels in Asia. Highlights include ancient Buddhist and Hindu stone temples at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in Cambodia dating from the 8th–13th centuries. Also included are serene landscape photographs of Thailand and Laos.
Back to School?!
Digital Abstracts by Suzanne Bean
August 9 - September 7, 2013
Reception: August 9 • 5-8pm
www.facebook.com/suzannebeanartanddesign
China Camp Remixed, © 2013, 21" w x 14" h,
digital image on dye-infused aluminum
Love/Loathe/Long For
Artwork by Stephanie Jucker
featuring a project by the Fortnight Collective
September 13 - October 5, 2013
Fly Girls © Stephanie Jucker
Loring Doyle
July 12-August 3, 2013
Reception: July 12 • 5-8pm
I started out in a commercial art background but always kept a sketchbook and some painting for my personal enjoyment. My current show at the Art Works Downtown 1325 Hallway Gallery shows my influence from my sketches.
Seasons of Hope Singing Trees
April - June 29m 2013
Reception: June 17 • 5-8pm
View the 8x32’ mural painted by homeless and at-risk youth.
Sponsored by Ambassadors of Hope.
