Founders' Gallery • Past
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Sweet Spirit Ceramics, a Tapestry of Collaboration and Friendship
October 5–November 10, 2023
October 13, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
November 10, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
Our Ceramics studio, with master teacher Barbara Andino Stevenson, is a vibrant tapestry of collaboration and friendship, where the art of clay comes alive through collective creativity. Within these walls, hands mold raw earth into expressions of beauty and meaning. The kiln's transformative embrace mirrors our shared journey, firing bonds that strengthen with every piece. Through shared ideas and supportive hands, we shape more than clay – we shape connections that endure, celebrating the profound resonance of human expression fired into every ceramic piece.
artworksdowntown.org/sweet-spirit-ceramics-center-barbara-andino-stevenson
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| Deluge I, multimedia on canvas, 14" x 14" x 3". |
River Mumma
Sharon Virtue
August 11–September 29, 2023
August 11, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
September 8, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
Water is a precondition for human existence. It is a finite, irreplaceable resource, playing an intrinsic role in every culture. River Mumma invites the audience to return to a respect for nature and the power of water and highlights that which is being lost and devalued in our modern world.
Sharon Virtue is a British artist of Jamaican and Irish decent. Her residency has been impacted literally by the current issues of climate change in particular those concerning water.
Sharon Virtue is the 2022–2023 Max Thelen Studio Resident Artist. The Fenwick Foundation generously funds the program in commemoration of Max Thelen Jr. The residency aims to support emerging artists by providing free studio space, exhibition opportunity, and exposure to the public for one year.
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| Hemaling, cast bronze, 17" x 7" x 9". |
Juxamorphic Explorations
Andrew Werby
June 9–July 28, 2023
June 9, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
July 14, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
“Like many artists, I'm fascinated by the forms and textures of natural objects. Some time back, I launched into a lifelong project to capture and unite them into works of art I call "Juxtamorphs". This has taken me on a journey of exploration and discovery through many media, starting with ceramics, through castings in metal and other materials, direct assemblies of found and made objects, holograms, rubbings, 3D prints, and CNC carvings.”– Andrew Werby
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Effluxes/Outpourings, Selected 3D Works and Digitally Printed Photographic Excerpts, 2023 |
Effluxes/Outpourings: Color & Light Works for Sublimity, Wonder, Awe and Delight Visual Antidotes in an Age of Uncertainty and Human Vulnerability
Cheselyn Amato
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
These color and light works, called effluxes meaning outpouring or pouring forth – presented both as 3D experiences and digitally-printed documents – are offered as instigators and incubators in honor of sublimity, awe, wonder and delight! Via the enlivening, compelling and bolstering nature of color and light phenomena, the work is an invitation to curiosity and empowered exuberance, encouragement for the heart, mind and body, and calling to antidotal action in this time of uncertainty and heightened human vulnerability. May we be supported and emboldened by the ever-presence of the possibility of reciprocity, reclamation and renewal.
Instagram: @cheselynamato
Facebook: @cheselyn.amato
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Evergreen, oil painting, 24" x 24" |
Coast to Coast
Norma Dimaulo
February 10–March 31, 2023
February 10, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
March 10, 5–8pm: Reception and Art Walk
My creative journey has spanned many years and miles. Formerly a native of Montreal, I enjoyed a career in advertising and graphic design before moving along the coast to Portland, Maine, the shores of North Carolina and ultimately westward to the Bay Area. The bodies of water and rolling hills that filled me with inspiration became the subject matter of my oil paintings. Today, as a studio artist in Marin, I paint intuitively, gravitating towards an interpretation of nature that is pared down, fluid and serene.
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
Founders’ Gallery exhibitors
Vanessa Bello, Tori Berghoff, Gail Caulfield, Kay Cousineau, Norma Dimaulo, Geraldine Ganun, Dave Getz, Gail Gurman, Joanne Harwood, Juliana Jensen, Marie Krajan, Liz Lauter, Carol A. Levy, Kim Lofrano, Barbara McLain, Jinjer Lee Nelson, Davis Perkins, Dobee Snowber, Josh Stein, June Yokell
 deCHEMpression; clay, wood; 16 x 14 x 11” |
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Micro-Macro
Nicole Follin
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
November 4th, 1991, my life changed forever. It was the beginning of my sophomore year in college. I was changing my major to Environmental Science, life was challenging for many reasons, and stress was at an all-time high and compiling rapidly. I had just turned 19 and suddenly had an AVM brain hemorrhage on the left side of my brain and slipped into a coma.
Almost a month later, I woke up with the same spirit trapped in another body. Since then, it has been hard to communicate, and my vision is compromised, leaving me only able to see half of my eyesight in each eye, as you'll find represented in many of my pieces. Because of that, communication continues to be a challenge.
An RN nurse, Nancy Wolf, was good-natured and supportive. On the weekends, she would bring art materials for patients to doodle. When I was discharged from the hospital, she gifted me the book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Her influence on me and my creative expression was huge, and I am deeply grateful for her. It was very healing. And ever since then, I've been hooked!
1994, I moved to California. Soon, I started taking classes at the College of Marin. I dreamed of being an art therapist, but due to my brain injury, the academic part of the program was too challenging, so I decided to focus only on art. Sculpture and hands-on art were the most satisfying ways to express me.
In my works, the sculptures will sometimes take on their own shapes. This can happen through something as simple as the pressure of my hands or something completely out of my control, like the firing or glazing process. There have been many happy and some not-so-happy accidents throughout this process. But, as my hands dance with the clay, I find a way to communicate and express how I see and experience the world. This process is sometimes joyful, painful, or disturbing, just like life and the world around us. I'm always captivated by the interaction between myself with the clay. It's as if I'm not entirely in control of what is created. I now find beauty in the mystery of what the final product will become, as if something came through me of its own desire.
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Narrative Frame For House In Crete, Sunyoung Lee, digital 3D modeling, rerndering and oil painting, 11" x 17". |
Artisanal: House by the Painter
Sunyoung Lee
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
“Over the last two years, I have designed funky, narrative, gestural spaces through my lens as a painter. The spaces likely do not create a functioning architecture as they are only built inside my small laptop but they participate in a radical sensitivity to experience. My recent studies in the realm of architecture gave rise to a love of the tactility of painting pigments as well as established a re-valuation of the handcrafted tectonics that can evoke basic human emotion. House by the Painter is a painterly space having both computer-aided complexity and artisanal materiality such as the tactile canvas walls made of different shapes and the concrete filigree. The installation eliminates the fixed categories of painting and architecture, gallery and private space, and creator and visitor. People in this synoptic architectural space converge in their dialogic engagements. Everyone is the protagonist of the ever-changing story and leaves their own artistic trace in this space.”
- Sunyoung Lee
Sunyoung Lee is the 2021–2022 Max Thelen Studio Resident Artist. The Fenwick Foundation generously funds the program in commemoration of Max Thelen Jr. The residency aims to support emerging artists by providing free studio space, exhibition opportunity, and exposure to the public for one year.
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Boy on a Train, Bing Zhang, oil on two canvases, 20" x 28". |
Reflecting
Bing Zhang
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
I tend to paint people in moments of introspection or concentration when they show their real character and mood which are normally behind the mask they put on in public. My painting is also about story telling. I try to tell stories that show the hidden truth that I sense exists deep within their own experience of the world, and reflects their living condition, their mental state, their interests, and other aspects of their disposition of being. My goal is to search out the humanity within these situations.
Website: www.bingzhang.net
Instagram: @sophiebingzhang
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bing.zhang.963
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CLOUD Reflections, Marianne Owens, photography, 20" x 30".
Hope, Marianne Owens, photography, 20" x 30". |
Marianne Owens Photography
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
As a fine art photographer, I capture the surprises in nature and architecture, that are often familiar to our everyday lives.
My photographs travel through urban and rural landscapes of objects that are lost because people frequently stop seeing them. They miss how interesting and beautiful they are. It is my passion to share these subjects with a fresh perspective, to engage the interest and imagination of the viewer.
My recent artwork is inspired by Surrealism because of its power to invite each of us to create our own story from the images we see. Each image is its’own story depending on the viewer.
As a landscape and found-object photographer, I play with the possibility of creating new meaning through combined images.
My fine art practice also involves creating community art programs that bring the experience of what art can be. Working with underserved and marginalized youth, who through economic or social circumstance rarely have access to participate in the Arts. Community art gives youth new opportunities for exploration, creativity, self-expression and personal growth.
Art is for us all.
Instagram: @marianneowens
Facebook:@marianneowensphotography
Twitter: @2marianneowens
Marin Open Studios: marinopenstudios.org/members/marianneowens/
Sol Navarrete
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| Thinking of You, Sol Navarrete, oil on canvas, 40" x 30". |
February 11–March 25, 2022
Open Thursday-Saturday, 1–8pm
March 11, 5–8pm
In-person reception and Art Walk
I was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. At the age of seven I would look up at the stars and I dreamed of a better life that was different from the one that I had. So I moved to Mexico City to live with my grandparents. Even though I was not encouraged to pursue art, my passion bloomed in Mexico City. Exposure to Rufino Tamayo, Frida Kahlo and Remedios Varo inspired my painting style. When I moved to the United States I worked for the author Isabel Allende and she asked me "what would you like to create for your life here?" I told her I wanted to be an artist like Diego Rivera. The very next day she gave me paint brushes and said "Here start painting! My style consists of surrealistic women, flowers and nature using brilliant colors and advanced techniques. The style is uniquely my own.
AWD Members Holiday Exhibition 2021
November 12, 2021–January 23, 2022
Underground Gallery and Founders' Gallery
Steep yourself in a cornucopia of creativity by perusing two galleries in the sub-terranian level of AWD. Visitors and holiday shoppers will surely discover unexpected inspiration amongst the variety of mediums, compositions, and expressions.
featuring:
Barbara Andino Stevenson, Lucy Arnold, Baladev Barry, Sunila Bajracharya, Annie Bates-Winship, William Binzen, Karie Buster, Harry Caldwell, Gail Caulfield, Dan Caven, Marc Cohen, Larry Davidson, Norma Dimaulo, Janey Fritsche, Geraldine GaNun, Deborah Gray, Dave Getz, Wendy Goldberg, Mirto Golino, Jill Hoefgen, Claude Ibrahimoff, Ben Kilmar, Marie Krajan, Sheri Langer, Sunyoung Lee, Nini Lion, Sanda Manuila, Hilary Maslon, Mary Anne McKernie, Cecily O’Connor, Patricia Oji, Cindy Pavlinac, Davis Perkins, Joy Phoenix, Minna Towbin Pinger, Susan Press, Margo Reis, Anna Rochester, Susan Saunders, Susan Searway-Fertig, Anne Shaheen, Valerie Stilson, Gordon Sizelove, Vera Tchikovani, Will Toft, Vaidis Valaitis, Richard Weinberger, June Yokell, Bing Zhang
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Kauai, 1980, woodblock print 15" x 12"
Paper Quilt, 2017, plated paper, encaustic, 34” x 27”
Shore Upon Shore (detail) , 1975, serigraph, 32” x 39”. |
Phyllis Thelen: Coming Full Circle
January 10–February 27, 2020
Receptions: January 10 • 5–8pm + February 14 • 5–8pm
PRINTMAKING
1337 Gallery and Founders’ Gallery
Thelen has been experimenting with printmaking since the late 1970s. She has created woodblock prints, collographs, serigraphs, plated and collaged serigraphs, and prints in the form of paper quilts.
While Thelen experiments with a wide variety of materials and techniques in her prints, their titles suggest her ongoing interest in celebrating nature’s bounty. Sea Cradle, Moon Mirror, Dark Seashore, Sunlight, and About Water were made between 1978 and 2018, but they all seem contemporary.
Phyllis Thelen:Coming Full Circle featured sponsors
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| Images: Sunflowers with Seeds © Janelle LaChaux (top left); Like a Rolling Stone © Ellen Leo (top right); Guitar © Claude Ibrahimoff (bottom left); Milagros © Eric Kelly (bottom right). |
AWD Members Exhibition
November 8, 2019–December 22,2020
Receptions: November 8 • 5–8pm + December 13 • 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.
Featuring:
Patricia Ancona, Barbara Andino-Stevenson, Lucy Arnold, David Barry, Annie Bates-Winship, Molly Blauvelt, Kay Carlson, Bianca Caston, Dan Caven, Patsy Chador, Dana Christensen, Lisa Clarke, John Cobb, Annie Curtis, Larry Davidson, Norma DiMaulo, Kathleen Edwards, Licita Fernandez, Janey Fritsche, Sara Gallagher, Dave Getz, Karlyn Good, Dove Govrin, Deborah Darling Gray, Ane Howard, Claude Ibrahimoff, Jude Kaye, Eric Kelly, Marie Krajan, Janelle LaChaux, Sherilyn Langer, Carol A. Levy, Nini Lion, Dulce MacLeod, Hilary Maslon, Gail Morrison, Sandie McCreary, Mary Anne McKernie, Win Normandi, Cecily O’Connor, Cindy Ostroff, Marianne Owens, Heli Perrett, Susan Press, Margo Reis, Kay Russell, Susan Searway-Fertig, Barbara Sebastian, Mary Serphos, Anne Shaheen, Jenny L. Snodgrass, Julia Spaulding, Valerie Stilson, Vera Tchikovani, Nadia Tarzi-Saccardi, Will Toft, Vaidis Valaitis, Liz Wiener, Melissa Woodburn, Bing Zhang
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Legacy D © 2017 Fan Lee Warren, acrylic and watercolor on a monoprint, |
Been Black & Dazed
Fan Lee Warren
October 11-November 2, 2019
Reception: October 11 • 5–8pm
My work examines historic results on contemporary Black American Culture. Figures are arranged within layered fragments of historical memories woven into a visual language steeped in symbolism that analyzes the impact on societal norms and behaviors. The work examines the reality of looking backwards and being in the present simultaneously. Images are drawn and painted on collaged, stressed paper using pigment, graphite, ink, watercolor, and acrylic paints.
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| © Giuseppe Dezza |
Beyond the Image, El Salvador, 1990–1996
25 black and white photographs by Giuseppe Dezza
September 13—October 7, 2019
Reception: September 13, 5pm–8pm
During this tragic time in this country when the expression of hatred and xenophobia are brazenly encouraged, perhaps connections might be drawn from the events documented in this body of work to the current immigration crisis.
website:www.GDezza.net Facebook: Giuseppe Dezza Fotografia
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Clara by the Pool © Mason Bowen Bondi, oil painting, 60" x 60". |
Mason Bowen Bondi
August 9-September 7, 2019
Receptions: August 9 • 5–8pm
Mason Bondi has been making art all of his life. Born in San Francisco and raised in Marin County, Mason’s father is a prominent blacksmith and metal artist, and his mother is an oil painter. Working in a San Rafael studio, Mason’s recent work focuses on familiarity, exploring what is considered familiar and further strives to represent the common and frequently seen as well as bring forth and illustrate the interior chambers of familiarity. www.masonbowenbondi.com
The Bark Beetle
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© Pavel Acevedo
Lycia © Liam Ericson |
Liam Ericson, Pavel Acevedo
July 12-August 3, 2019
Reception: July 12 • 5–8pm
Bark beetles tunnel and etch marks into wood. In some way, this represents the process artists Liam Ericson and Pavel Acevedo employ as linocut and woodblock artists. Ericson states, “our work is really just about the human story: history, immigration, changes in culture, storytelling, and our ever-changing perspectives and interpretations.” Bark Beetle will feature a cross-section of works by these two unique and dynamic printmaking artists.
Liam Ericson: www.instagram.com/canehowlet
Pavel Acevedo: www.instagram.com/pavel_acevedo
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Swag © Hilary Maslon |
Sea Level
Hilary Maslon
June 14-July 6, 2019
Reception: June 14 • 5–8pm
It is the year 2019, and life at sea level is precarious. Though I am presently living 30 feet above sea level, when it rains torrentially, my yard becomes a lake and the creek that runs alongside my studio building becomes torrential, rising dangerously. My new paintings, and drawings were done during the rainy winter and spring seasons of 2019. And while the water rose, I tried to be attentive to the sea within.
I am making studio art in a time that appears to be environmentally, politically and socially precarious. How do I justify this? What purpose do I have, sitting in solitude in the studio, to be a part of this world? What do I have to give, as an artist?
I find my purpose in the very struggle of facing the blankness of the canvas. It mirrors the emptiness in myself. The voices and the images inside of me attempt to captivate my attention. They are like sirens beckoning a ship at sea. But if I am still enough, they reveal themselves, vanish and then I am forces. I become luminous and I shift. I exercise this struggle onto canvas.
My imagery alludes, but it does not define. If something becomes too figurative for me, I am compelled to destroy it, for in the process of discovery definitions create dead ends. I liken this process of resistance to the taboo against figuration in the Muslim religion, or the Judaic law against saying the word g-d. I can’t put a beard on the face of god, without squelching the search. I am never who I think I am. I am greater, smaller and more mysterious.
It is the wish to touch the mystery of life that has always been the motivation for my paintings and drawings, and this is what I attempt to reflect in the integration of my colors and forms.
I touch mystery, and then wonder if I will ever touch it again. This is my precarious existence at sea level.
Synopsis: Sea Level.
I am painting at sea level. I am painting at a time of precarious existence.
What purpose do I have, sitting in solitude in the studio, to be a part of this world? What do I have to give, as an artist?
I find my purpose in the very struggle of facing the blankness of the canvas. It mirrors the emptiness in myself. The voices and the images inside of me attempt to captivate my attention. They are like sirens beckoning a ship at sea. But if I am still enough, they reveal themselves, and then vanish. Then I am forces, shifting, luminous. I exercise this struggle onto canvas.
My imagery alludes, but it does not define. If something becomes too figurative for me, I am compelled to destroy it, for in the process of discovery definitions create dead ends. I don’t know who I am. I am never who I think I am. I am greater, smaller and more mysterious.
It is the wish to touch the mystery of life that has always been the motivation for my paintings and drawings and this is what I attempt to reflect in the integration of my colors and forms.
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They Never Spoke © Vaidis Valaitis |
Vaidis Valaitis
May 2–June 8, 2019
Reception: May 10 • 5–8pm
With a background in sculpture and photography, and coming from a computerrelated career, I was fascinated with digital media and quickly drawn to it. Digital painting started reaching its potential with the advancement of digital art programs and the introduction of the graphics tablet and pen. These became my canvas and brush and gave me the ability to paint and draw. Which I have been doing for the last fifteen years.
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AssassinsBambi © 2019 Simon Bermeo-Ehmann |
Open Space
March 8–April 27, 2019
Receptions: March 8 • 5–8pm + April 12 • 5–8pm
We are excited to announce OPEN SPACE , a group show of four young emerging artists who grew up in Marin County: Simon Bermeo-Ehmann, LaVetta Clark-Poets, Zach McLane, and Mackenzie Morshead.
Marin County is defined by its open space. Its residents coexist with natural space—they live next to it, they hike through it, they drive by it on their way to work. For those of us who grew up in Marin County, we spent our childhoods in open space. We found hidden trails that felt all our own and snuck out late into the quiet intimacy that open spaces afford.
As artists, our work is informed by the world around us, the spaces we inhabit, those places we have left, and those places we have returned to. As young people navigating the space between childhood and adulthood, we often find ourselves in another kind of open space∫ the space of transition. The open space between childhood and the lives we want to live, between the past and what we hope the future might be.
We find our own space, make our own space, ask others to host us in theirs. Art making is about creating a space between oneself and the world, and it is as much about creating that space as it is about understanding it.
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Ceramic Wall Piece © Beth Hardesty
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Twelve x Three
Patsy Chador, Lisa Clarke, Jeff Downing, Emily Dvorin, Tricia George, Beth Hardesty, Susie Kelly, Lee Lisbet, Nadia Tarzi-Saccardi, Susan Weil, Melissa Woodburn, Dave Yoas
February 8–March 2, 2019
Reception: February 8 • 5–8pm
“When viewing art work I find particularly intriguing, I am often left wanting to see more! Twelve x Three offers the opportunity for those seeing this show, to experience three creations by each of the twelve I’ve selected for their unique and very creative approach to their chosen medium.” Susan Press, Curator
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| Dynamic Flow © Alex Friedman |
The Woven Line
handwoven tapestry by Alex Friedman
January 11—February 2, 2019
Reception: January 11, 5pm–8pm
This exhibit will feature some of my explorations of unorthodox tapestry technique. By using slits, eccentric weft, and unusual materials I am able to enhance the expressiveness of a traditional tapestry.
Website: alexfriedmantapestry.com
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/founders#sigProGalleriaa1fb7ba845
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Mictlan
Journey to the underworld, a mixed media exhibition by Ernesto Hernández-Olmos
October 12-November 3, 2018
Reception: October 12 • 5–9pm
Ernesto Hernández-Olmos was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and formally educated in plastic arts at The Autonomous University, Benito Juarez of Oaxaca, Mexico. He has been a practicing artist for over twenty-five years. Currently, he runs a wide variety of art and cultural programs in the Bay Area drawing inspiration from the rich Oaxacan art landscape.
Ernesto has displayed his work in some of the most prestigious art venues in North America, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico City (UNAM); the Oaxacan Institute of Culture; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the De Young Museum, the Legion of Honor and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco; and in Canada, at the Olympic Stadium of Montreal.
Ernesto is a multi-faceted artist who expresses through various media, including but not limited to, painting, sculpture, music and dance. He creates his own musical compositions and even designs his own instruments, which include flutes, drums and whistles. He has also created several murals, including the ones displayed at the MacArthur BART Station in Oakland and one at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley.
“I am an artist because it makes me feel good when I am able to materialize my artistic ideas from the spiritual to the material world. The spirits of my people guide and inspire me to share my artistic creations with the world. I see myself as a creative instrument through which the culture and values of my ancestors are expressed in modern times.”
www.facebook.com/ernesto.olmos.319
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZCwAS03bzo
www.youthinarts.org/artist/ernesto-hernandez-olmos
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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The Bigger Picture
Heather McFarlin
September 14—October 6, 2018
Reception: September 14, 5pm–8pm
For Heather McFarlin, abstract painting and the creative process go hand in hand with intuition and insight, producing a greater understanding of her life and the world at large. Often times the ‘bigger picture’ becomes clear as the painting progresses, and understanding is gleaned in areas such as personal healing, or in response to a specific subject or topic Heather wants to explore, or simply an energetic shift that happens when a painting finally comes together. Symbols, images, gestural marks, color, and even the composition that emerges are all part of this process that help inform her.
The ‘bigger picture’ or insight experience is enhanced by the scope or size of the project. Painting in a large scale provides what feels like a more intense, up-close experience with the subject matter as well as paint itself.
Heather McFarlin studied painting and drawing at California State University, Chico, receiving a B.A. in 1993 with a minor in Art. She went on to study continuing education classes at the Art Institute in San Francisco. Having a long-standing private practice as a professional healer and immersed in the healing arts, she finds fine art and the healing arts inform each other in a synergistic way. She has been exhibiting her work in the Bay Area for the last ten years, and was featured in Netflix’s SENSE8, Season 2 in 2017.
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Drop: Oyster Point #1 © 2017 Victoria Mara Heilweil,
Drop: Lake Tahoe © 2018 Victoria Mara Heilweil, |
Drop
Victoria Mara Heilweil
August 10-September 8, 2018
Reception: September 8 • 3–5pm
Drop is a meditation on water. The patterns in these images echo my experience of standing at the water’s edge, recording the effects of wind and light upon the surface of the liquid. They demonstrate a moment frozen in time using a fast shutter speed, which reveals the markings and patterns. Because we live in time, we are unable examine these intricate nuances without the use of photography. The camera captures a single fleeting moment that can never be repeated. What appears is a serendipitous surprise to me.
Please join Victoria Mara Heilweil for her closing reception for Drop this Saturday, September 8th from 3–5pm. Her multi-media installation is a meditation on water, using stopped motion photography and video to reveal the subtle patterns of wind and light on liquid.
Biography
Victoria Mara Heilweil is a nationally exhibited photographic artist. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from California College of the Arts in 1995. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the de Young Museum, San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, Intersection for the Arts, Southern Exposure, Root Division, California Academy of Sciences, Art Works Downtown, PHOTO Fine Art, Pro Arts and Rayko Photo Gallery in the Bay Area, wall space gallery and Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum in Southern California, University Art Gallery at California State Chico, Minneapolis Photo Center, Visual Arts Center in Portsmouth, VA and Washington Square Art Galleries in New York City. She has also created public and community based art works in conjunction with the ZERO1 Biennial in San Jose, CA, Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, CA and the Bayview Opera House in San Francisco, CA. In 2014 Victoria was awarded a grant from the Puffin Foundation.
Victoria is also an independent curator who has mounted exhibitions at Root Division, PHOTO Gallery and Art Works Downtown. She was also a founding member of MicroClimate Collective, an artist created curatorial project, which produced twelve exhibitions over eight years.
In addition to her exhibition and curatorial history, Victoria has taught for the past 20 years at colleges and community centers, and is a mom to a funny and inquisitive 11-year-old daughter.
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Adagio with Strings II © Nini Lion
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Energy Uncovered: Paintings and Sculpture
Nini Lion
July 13-August 4, 2018
Reception: July 13 • 5–8pm
Nini Lion has always been intrigued by figures—their character and attitude. Her abstract paintings are based on life drawings seen through the lens of color, line, and texture. As the light shifts during the day or night, the viewer is drawn to other planes and images, offering alternate focal points.
Nini's sculptures continue this exploration of figuration, suggesting something elemental, open to multiple interpretations. In her new sculpture series, Adagio with Strings, hand built and carved figures move in response to air currents, as delicate mobiles in a slow dance. In all of her work, Nini uses color and shape, line and gesture, to animate these figures and forms–to infuse them with the energy of life.
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| Monster Hands © Naomi Alessandra |
Monstrosity
new paintings by Naomi Alessandra
June 8-July 7, 2018
Reception: June 8 • 5–8pm
Art Talk: June 9, 11am–12pm
This new series of paintings and studies explores themes of otherness and affliction. Inspired by Mary Shelley and her 200-year-old masterpiece Frankenstein, the work addresses ideas related to this often misrepresented literary text—and its resonances in the 21st century— using watercolor, graphite, and various media on paper.
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Hopscotch © Vera V. Tchikovani |
Vera V. Tchikovani
May 5–June 2, 2018
Reception: May 11 • 5–8pm
My art expresses my deep joy of being alive and being open to the texture of life around me: it's colors, lines, and even sounds! Although I have received formal training, I am an intuitive and experimenting painter, constantly exploring various media: paints, pastels, pencils, different mark makers, and collage. Usually, I do not start with a preconceived idea; I let the painting develop, and then let it speak to me and guide me. www.vvtart.com
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© Matt Tasley |
Aloysius
by Matt Tasley
April 13–28, 2018
Reception: April 13 • 5–8pm
Marin County painter Matt Tasley presents an exhibition of new paintings of his new son, Aloysius, as well as a series of his popular landscapes. Tasley states, "Art is the universal language of love. Through content, line, form, and color, one can express their innermost feelings of beauty and love and share it with others. Our bodies and minds express beauty, love, and passion for life in the form of Art. We are simply conduits of love."
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| Tree of Life © Ryan Eler |
Undertakings
Ryan Erler
March 9–April 7, 2018
Reception: March 9 • 5–8pm
Ryan Erler grew up in the busy city of San Francisco, shrouded in the weekly blanket of fog. Ever since he was a child he always had acute senses. Other kids would indulge in games such as hide and seek, while he could be found lost in the maze of patterns sewn in the fabric of a blanket. His excitement of details and intrigue with textures and colors has grown into a multi-media art practice including painting, drawing, lettering, and graphic design. Undertakings features a mix of Ryan’s most recent work.
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Fox Trot © Drew Klausner
 Corn Indian © Nancy Nichols
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Gang of Four
Loring Doyle, George Evelyn, Drew Klausner, Nancy Nichols
February 9–March 6, 2018
Reception: February 9 • 5–8pm
Loring Doyle is a well known visual effects artist who has been painting for years. Loring has worked on award-winning feature films for over 25 years, starting with George Lucas’s The Empire Strikes Back made at Industrial Light and Magic. Doyle’s passion for painting also extends beyond the silver screen into the fine art gallery. His fine artwork is humorous, surreal, and erotic, and contains bright colors and shapes that suggest dreamlike landscapes. www.ladpaint.com
George Evelyn has directed tons of television commercials, broadcast ID packages, short cartoons, interactive adventures, web-toon series, and those theme-park animation rides wherein one watches the cartoon out the window while being shaken by hydraulics. He works with companies such as Disney Junior, Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel and currently teaches at the California College of the Arts. Evelyn will present fresh watercolors inspired by pages from his sketchbooks.
To view Drew Klausner's "Lost & Found" is to wander, like an Alice in Wonderland, through other people’s old family albums. You come away mulling over your own family, your own friends, your own life, what was then and who you are now. Inevitably the stories you find are your own. www.klausnerart.com
Nancy Nichols is a mixed media artist who works in paper-quilt collage, watercolor painting, and wine and coffee painting. Nichols’ work comes from a love of Marin County’s natural beauty and her experience in fine art and graphic design. www.nancynichols.com
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| And The Moon Rose © Heidi Sandvoll 2016, acrylic, charcoal, and pencil onmasonite, 7'6.5" x 3.5" |
Finding Lost
Heidi Sandvoll
January 12-February 6, 2018
Reception: January 12 • 5–8pm
Ten years ago, I decided to put pen to paper and draw for as long as I could physically draw in order to get over a heart break. The body of work was called “Obsession to Meditation” a hopeful title. I pretended that it worked. But soon enough, I ended up with another heart ache. That pattern has continued and I feel lost in it. I haven’t been able to draw or paint or create anything to get me out of lost. The words “Finding Lost” slipped into my mind one day. Since I was in Lost, I felt that I should see what Lost was about for me. I would paint without planning, more like mindless doodling. I found boats in the doodles and trees and waves. I am sure they have some meaning that I have yet to ascertain. I draw animals simply because I like them and they bring comfort. I think if I make Lost into my home, being there won't be so hurtful.
Website: www.heidi-sandvoll.squarespace.com
Heidi Sandvoll Bio
From Marin County, I began my art study in Los Angeles under the tutelage of Joseph Blaustein. It was a concentration of figurative expressionism. I moved back to the Bay Area and West Marin specifically twenty two years ago, raising both my kids there. I am inspired and affected by the twisty turning lines of nature which are incorporated into my narrative paintings. I have shown consistently at numerous venues in the bay area including Bolinas Museum. I have also branched into costume and set design for contemporary dance and installation work.
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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Expression © Lowell Edelman
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Instinctual
Cedars
November 10-December 5, 2017
Reception: November 10 • 5–8pm
Instinctual is the premiere exhibition for Cedars artists at Art Works Downtown. Cedars has provided residential and program services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities that facilitate creative, productive, joyous lives since 1919. Cedars artists work in professional studios in Marin county and display their work in galleries and exhibitions worldwide Instinctual is an intimate look at Cedars artists, who create authentic, atavistic pieces through which their voices can be heard, felt, and shared.
T.G.I.F © Lowell Edelman
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| Yggdrasill © Brian Andrews |
Brian Andrews
October 13-November 7, 2017
Reception:October 13 • 5–8pm
My intention is to create an immersive sensory experience: that perfect moment during a sunset where racing thoughts and quiet contemplation meet. A half open door of possibility, where all the questions and answers of our existance lie on the tip of your tongue.
This is why I’m drawn to maps as a metaphor. Maps promise a reality that can be known. Some myths are stored in our language, but others are enbedded in our model of the real, our map. My work asks the question: did the map create the teritory or the teritory the map? Is a sunset beautiful, or do we have a sense of beauty that evolved to fit the sky?
The process of carving mirrors this kind of mapmaking. The Taoist idea of the uncarved block tells us wood in it’s natural state represents the essense of wholeness. It represents an intrinsic quality of the world itself. In watching the material take shape and the bed of chips build on the floor I’m literally layering my own map onto the uncarved world. www.brianandrews.net
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| Polar Bear Shark © 2017 Andrea Bergen and Tetsuya Takenomata, cut paper and gel topcoat on wood panel, 3'x4'. |
Paper Zoo
Andrea Bergen and Tetsuya Takenomata
cut paper collage
August 11-September 9, 2017
Receptions: August 11 + September 8 • 5–8pm
Paper Zoo features the collages of creative duo artist Andrea Bergen and designer Tetsuya Takenomata. Their menagerie of animal-centric work ranges from the cute to chaotic and expresses the artists' love for animals and concern about the future of wildlife. The small pieces are fun experiments celebrating the beautiful forms and patterns of nature. The larger pieces imagine the planet after humans have gone extinct and poses a hopeful vision that animals will adapt to the damaged environment and make use of the detritus left behind.
Each image is created using Bergen's singular collaging technique which uses only scissors and colored pastel paper. Thousands of pieces of the hand cut paper are layered together on wood board until the surface of the collage is dense and sculptural. This unexpected use of the medium expands the definition of collage and gives the pieces their bold and energetic appearance.
In this digital era when all trends are moving towards automation and mass production, Bergen and Takenomata seek to put the value back into the analog, hand crafted process. On a screen, the graphic look of the collages can give the impression that they were created with paint or a computer but the power of the work comes from its handmade origin. Just as the digital format could never fully capture the beauty of nature, the collages are best experienced in person when the viewer can observe all the details and effort that went into their creation.
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Get in the Car Kids, It's Time to Go |
Get In The Car Kids, It's Time To Go: IDPs, Refugees, Detainees, and Deportees
Lara Myers
July 14–August 5, 2017
Receptions: July 14 • 5-8pm; July 29 • 1–5pm and August 5, 1-5pm
Get In The Car Kids, It's Time To Go: IDPs, Refugees, Detainees, and Deportees is
This exhibit also showcases Fuel Fossils, the first documentary art installation that she created during her year as the 2016/2017 Max Thelen Studio Residency Artist. The premise is that it is far, far in the future and nobody knows what plastic is anymore. Archaeologists keep digging up plastic packaging, and as archaeologists do today to identify what a fossil is of, castings of the plastic forms were made. The exhibit consists of over 200 plaster castings displayed on a ten-foot by five-foot platform on the floor and the corresponding plastic packaging displayed on the wall.
Reception: July 29, 1:00 to 5:00 and August 5, 1:00 to 5:00 (the final day of the show)
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| © William Ericson |
Seed Shadow
William Ericson
June 9-July 8, 2017
Reception: June 9 • 5–8pm
The work is a series of reflections on California's ecology and how it inflected the cultures that existed here before European occupation. Paying homage to the marriage between humans and landscape.
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Circus Series- Cloud Walkers -Tied to Intuition © 2014 Cynthia Tom, acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18" |
Stories To Tell: Feminine Intuition and Other Musings
Painting, mixed media collage, art installation by Cynthia Tom
May 5–June 3, 2017
Reception: May 12 • 5–8pm
Richly colored paintings and mixed media art works, Cynthia Tom’s cultural surrealism is informed by her familial and feminine life experiences. She weaves together themes of social justice, feminism and outlandish haute couture clothing to tell insightful stories. Seen through the lens of her spirituality and whimsy she helps us to play with our concepts of reality. The use of intense color and bold female imagery dictated by surreal perspectives are her trademarks.
www.cynthiatom.com www.facebook.com/cynthiatomart
Art Statement
Richly colored paintings and mixed media art works, Cynthia Tom’s cultural surrealism is informed by her familial and feminine life experiences. She weaves together themes of social justice, feminism and outlandish haute couture clothing. Seen through the lens of her spirituality and whimsy she helps us to play with our concepts of reality. Her art is her source of empowerment and a way to encourage dialogue within individuals and community.
At heart a Found Object artist, she expresses herself through paintings, mixed media assemblage and art installations. Using acrylic paint, wood, fabric, paper and any manner of found objects, each art work starts with a simple idea, image or phrase. Relying heavily on her intuition her work develops like the unfolding of a story. The use of intense color and bold female imagery dictated by surreal perspectives are her trademarks.
Arresting her analytical mind, she finds the narratives in her finished work, often, predict her (not too distant) future and of the social temperature of the times and communities she cares about.
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Eric Brandon of San Rafael - First Place (Image with Artist in the Square) |
Off the Street and Onto the Walls
Italian Street Painting Marin Photography Exhibit
April 14–29, 2017
Reception: April 14 • 5–8pm
The Italian Street Painting Festival presents the winners of the 2016 photo contest. To celebrate the work of all of their photographers and esteemed judges we will be holding a special exhibition opening reception and awards program in the Art Works Downtown’s Founders’ Gallery on Friday, April 14 from 5pm to 7pm. Following the presentation of the 2016 Photo Contest Awards, we will continue the evening’s program with the presentation of the 2017 Carlomagno Grants for the Arts Program Awards honoring our valued arts education community grants recipients.
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| Elk in Mist © Jonathan Eden |
The Landscape Enchanted
Photographs of the Rocky Mountain West
Jonathan Eden
March 10–April 8, 2017
Opening Reception: March 10 • 5–8pm
These photographs are a celebration of the landscape and wild animals of the great up-thrusting spine of the American West, the Rocky Mountains. Yet these images come from a place of both sadness and hope. Sadness because open wild vistas are disappearing. With the population of the United States exploding with nearly a million more people every year, open spaces are succumbing to cities, highways, and human settlement multiple forms. Numbers of most wild mammals are shrinking with loss of habitat, as their homes are destroyed. Ultimately, though, Jonathan Eden see his photographs as a form of paying respect to environmental activists – individuals who pushed for the creation of the National Parks, permanent public lands, and wildlife preserves. Jonathan has hope that there always will be individuals devoted to preserving wild lands and the creatures that live in these lands.
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Distant Life Painting © Nathan Durfee
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Nathan Durfee: New to Downtown
February 10–March 4, 2017
Reception: February 10 • 5–8pm
Nathan Durfee has garnered notoriety for his captivating, pop-surrealist narratives and intriguing use of color. Currently based in the Bay Area, Durfee was heralded as the Best Local Visual Artist by Charleston City Paper fo four years (2010-2013) and has done illustration work for book and magazine publications across the country. Each of Durfee's solo gallery exhibitions has also been met with critical acclaim and sold out almost immediately. Durfee has also recently profiled in American Art Collector, Charleston Art, and Charleston Scene magazines.
Each of Durfee’s paintings begins with an enormous amount of push and pull from the artist, in which ideas are refined and adjusted, until a rough idea starts to form. He then begins rendering the elements of the painting while maintaining a wandering state of mind. Many of his whimsical characters are faced with tough, yet universal decisions, conveying a sense of security in an unsure world to the viewer.
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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.
AWD Member Holiday Exhibition
December 9, 2016-January 7, 2017
Reception: December 9 • 5–8pm
The Members’ Exhibition will showcase over 100 talented artists. Artwork created by studio artists and artists from outside the AWD building will be available for the holiday gift buying season. Don’t miss this opportunity to shop for your next masterpiece.
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| © Davis Perkins | © Loring Doyle | © Sue Weil |
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| Liberty Island © 2014 Gil Sambrano, 16"x20" |
Profiles: People, Places, and Things
Gil Sambrano
November 11-December 3, 2016
Reception: November 11 • 5–8pm
The exhibition presents a collection of acrylic paintings by artist, Gil Sambrano, featuring works that span the spectrum of portraits, cityscapes and objects. The subject of each painting is indeed a profile; a product of the focused study and observation that is necessary to create each piece. Many artists will note that one has not truly seen or appreciated a subject of interest until one has attempted to transpose it onto paper or canvas. Capturing a subject starts with curiosity. Something captures our interest – we may not know why – and we place it in the crosshairs of our perceptual viewfinder, bringing it into focus. We study the contours and textures and we break it apart into basic elements we can understand: shapes, patterns, colors and lines. We assemble and transfer these elements with paint and brush to form an interpretation made from our unique perspective. Perhaps this exhibition is best considered a collection of subjects that have all captured the artist and inspired him to keenly observe to produce these interesting profiles.
Gil is a Marin County artist who happens to also hold a degree and career in biomedical science. He was raised in West Texas but found his way to California through graduate school. After more than 20 years in the Bay Area, this is home. Gil has exhibited his work in various venues including the Marin County Fair, California State Fair, Marin Society of Artists, and Art Works Downtown. His work was selected for the cover of KFOG’s “Live from the Archives 10th Anniversary” music CD, for an insert of “NYC Subway: Songs from the Underground” music CD, and the cover for the Journal of Neuroscience. Several logos and illustrations have also been selected or commissioned.www.gilsambrano.com
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| Collected Poems © Cayen Robertson, collage, 16"x20" |
Circling
Cayen Robertson
October 14-November 5, 2016
Reception: October 14 • 5–8pm
An active artist since the 1970s, Cayen Robertson has dedicated herself to exploring the essential qualities of shape, line, color, and space. Looking back at her mixed-media works, Robertson sees a continuum throughout the various series she has created, and notices how their elements are related. Her solo exhibit, Circling will feature selections from the last 15 years of her artistic career, and will include her most recent pieces. The exhibit opens October 14, 2016 and continues through November 5, 2016 in the Founders’ Gallery of Art Works Downtown. The opening reception will be held on October 14, 2016, 5 to 8pm.
“My nonrepresentational work is often developed as part of a series,“ says Cayen Robertson. “Each series has a unique theme that I am exploring and this may last for a few days or a few years. I leave the series and go onto another exploration when I feel I have found my internal need satisfied. What I have discovered in one series definitely informs what comes next.
In looking back over several years of work I can see my visual development. The earlier focus is on space and color. Shape, texture, and line are more recent involvements. Over the years of working and teaching I feel I have developed my eye and am now excited to bring all these elements together and I can make work which truly sings.”
Robertson has taught art for the last forty years and continues to facilitate weekly Visual Perception workshops in Mill Valley. She has been awarded an Artist Residency at the Vermont Studio Center for three years in a row (2011-13) and regularly exhibits her works in galleries throughout the Bay Area. Please visit her website: www.cayenrobertson.com or search for her name on UGallery.com to see more examples of Cayen’s art.
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| Child with Goggles © John deLorimier |
Swim Lessons
John deLorimier
August 12-September 14, 2016
Receptions: August 12 • 5–8pm + September 9 • 5–8pm
The “Swim Lesson” paintings were inspired by watching my child take swimming lessons. I was interested in showing the scary predicament of a new swimmer being watched over by a teacher. These paintings lead to the more madonna-like mother and child paintings. The painting “Resistance” continues the theme of mother and child and adds a suggestion of narrative.
A single figure on a simple background, the fun of drawing from the model and my interest in figurative art of the 19th and 20th Century inspired the “Surfer Girl” series. The Internet provides a resource gold mine of past art like the Ashcan school of American art. Artists like George Bellows and Robert Henri motivated me with their strong draftsmanship and innovative compositions to put aside a dependence on photography. However, their images are overwhelmingly rich in structure and tone and I felt the need for simplifying that would allow me to concentrate on capturing the color and proportions of the figure: a lone figure with a suggestion of seashore as in the painting “Sunset”.
Biography
Master of Art, San Francisco State University
Graphic and animation work for many technology companies
Past owner of company that developed mobile phone animation applications
Oil painter
Lives in Bolinas CA, with wife and child
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© David Antonio
Johnny Two Hands Best ©Loring Doyle |
Summer Colors
David Antonio + Loring Doyle
July 8-August 6, 2016
Reception: July 8 • 5–8pm
Summer Colors is an exhibition featuring the colorful paintings of two painters. Loring Doyle’s paintings are humorous, surreal, erotic, and contain colors and shapes that suggest dreamlike landscapes. David Antonio’s works are portal’s into a parallel world which often highlight the ancient and magical symbol, ABRACADABRA.
David Antonio
For me, art is a portal to a parallel world. Painting allows me the joy of being a temporary channel from an unknown source of inspiration. The painting process enhances my life as I discover new ideas and resolve challenges that reveal themselves through the work.
I incorporated ABRACADABRA many years ago in my art as a secondary element, but highlight this ancient magical symbol as the subject of my most recent paintings.
Loring Doyle
Loring Doyle is a well-known visual effects artist who has been painting for years and has recently begun exhibiting his personal artwork. For over 25 years, Loring has worked on award winning, feature films starting with George Lucas’s The Empire Strikes Back, made at Industrial Light and Magic. After working on 35 feature films, Loring has spent the last few years painting ideas and sketches. The work is humorous, surreal, erotic, and contains colors and shapes that suggest dreamlike landscapes.
Devils and Lovers
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a solo show by Meg Regelous
June 10-July 2, 2016
Reception: June 10 • 5–8pm
Through various media including bronze, porcelain, and oil paint, Regelous explores vulnerability, eroticism, and fear in her latest body of work, "Devils and Lovers."
June marks Meg Regelous' last month as the Max Thelen Studio Resident at Art Works Downtown. A new artist will be selected at the end of the month; please stay tuned.
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Abundance © 2016 Regina Christie, 48"x36" |
Emergings 3
Artwork by Regina Christie
May 6–June 4, 2016
Reception: May 13 • 5–8pm
Regina Christie:
I’m seeking to find and express my personal freedom
through painting abstract color fields.
I use rich colors that reflect this.
Sometimes images emerge and recede; they seem to come
from that intuitive part of myself.
I like to open up a chance for the viewer to shift
from thinking to connecting to their own inner being.
Bio:
Regina Christie makes luminous, abstract paintings that are built up through layers of oil paint on linen conveying a compression of time and space and place.
Regina first studied painting with Walter Kuhlman while sharing his studio.
For 8 years she studied with Chester Arnold at the College of Marin. She attended Sonoma State University, where she worked with Mark Perlman. Regina was a student of Connie Smith Siegel for 12 years, and her drawings and paintings were included in Smith Siegel’s book "The Spirit of Drawing". Her continued exploration has led her paintings to be included in a number of highly selective juried shows in Northern California. These include “Out of the Blue,” (juried by Ruth Braunstein) at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes Station, and the Annual Fall Exhibition (juried by Andrea Schwartz) at Falkirk Cultural Center in San Rafael and "Fresh Art" (juried by Rene de Guzman) at Marin Society of Artist's Gallery in Ross.
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Sunburst © Susie Rosenberg, watercolor, 29x29" |
Susie Rosenberg Watercolors
April 8–30, 2016
Reception: April 8 • 5–8pm
This exhibition consists mainly of watercolor still lifes. Many of the paintings are floral, reflecting the colorful and sometimes playful images that have caught the artist's eye. The paintings are bold and vibrant, realistic and detailed.
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| Collage and Watercolor ©2015 Juliette Derr, 9”x12” |
Form, Function, and Environment
Students from the Lycée Français de San Francisco have been working on projects related to architecture.
March 11–April 2, 2016
Reception: March 11 • 5–8pm
The lycée's 8th graders have studied the relationship between shape and function and have experimented by creating a mix of architecture and sculpture, while the 9th graders reflected upon the integration of architectural projects into a natural environment made as a collage. They learned to represent volume and depth of field in two-dimensional works as well as to manage the harmonization of architecture and landscape.
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Still Waters © 1990 Ronald E. Bean, 18" x 24"
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"It's a beautiful day for a watercolor.
Let's paint two."
Watercolor paintings by Ronald E. Bean, Suzanne Bean, and Ron Bean
February 12–March 5, 2016
Reception: February 12 • 5–8pm
AWD studio artist Suzanne Bean and her brother Ron often went out sketching with their father, Ronald E. Bean, who inspired a love of watercolor in them. This exhibit displays beautiful and affordable paintings by all three artists. Landscape subjects include Marin and Sonoma counties, the Monterey Peninsula, the midwest and southwest USA, and Europe.
The exhibit's title, a family saying, comes from paraphrasing legendary Chicago Cub Ernie Banks: "It's a beautiful day for a ball game. Let's play two."
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Yannick © 2013 Tess Felix, beach plastic debris, oils on steel, 48"x48"x3" |
Message from the Deep;
Portraiture of the Anthropocene
Tess Felix
January 8–February 6, 2016
Reception: January 8 • 5–8pm
Message from the Deep; Portraiture of the Anthropocene
(the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment)
Using the classical form of portraiture, Tess Felix’s is building a body of work created from ocean plastic pollution. The portraits call attention to the enormous amounts of waste in our oceans, much of it invisible to us. Out of sight and out of mind, an ecological disaster is building and adversely affecting one of the oldest food sources of the human race and it’s many inhabitants.
Many of us engage in making responsible environmental choices for our personal garbage and carefully cull through it for recyclable waste. In truth, a very small percentage of all waste designated for recycling actually is. Some studies put this figure as low as 5%.
We have to ask, where does our recycled waste really go? And what about the remainder that is sent to land fill? Sadly, much this, regardless of our intention, ends in our oceans. Even with the great successes of local recycling programs, it is clear that our responsibility begins at the point of sale, before we have used an item or consumed its contents.
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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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| Smuggler's Cove I © Janey Fritsche, oil painting and ink on canvas, 36"x48" |
Janey Fritsche
oil and ink
November 13-December 5, 2015
Reception: November 13 • 5–8pm
African Vibes
Artists in Action -- Downtown San Rafael Plein Air Event
September 11—September 23, 2015
Reception: September 11, 5–8pm
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| Drawing after Claude Lorrain #2 © 2015 Josh Powell, pencil on paper, 18"x 24" |
Cul de Sac
Paintings and Drawings
by Josh Powell
August 14-September 4, 2015
Reception: August 14 • 5–8pm
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| Faerie Fire © 2014 Michael Campbell, hydrocal, foam, epoxy, acrylc, glitter, phosphorescent pigment |
Sacred
Mixed Media by Michael Campbell
July 10-August 8, 2015
Reception: July 10 • 5–8pm
Civic Signs
Featuring new work
by Lauren Bartone,
Max Thelen Artist
in Residence at Art Works Downtown
June 12-July 3, 2015
Reception: June 12 • 5–8pm
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Above Gallinas Creek © Stuart Gourlay
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California on Canvas
paintings by Stuart Gourlay
May 1–June 6, 2015
Reception: May 8 • 5–8pm
Visions of the West
paintings by Laura Xu
May 1–June 6, 2015
Reception: May 8 • 5–8pm
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Gang of Four
David Antonio, Loring Doyle,
George Evelyn, Nancy Nichols
April 10–25, 2015
Reception: April 10 • 5–8pm
A group show of artists who are just beginning the struggle and haven't been exiled yet...
Tales As Yet Untold
Mixed Media Found Object Sculptures by Mirto Golino
March 13–April 4, 2015
Reception: March 13 • 5–8pm
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| Grass Stains © Virginia Fauvre, oil ob canvas, 24” x 20” |
Untamed
Paintings by Virginia Fauvre
February 13–March 7, 2015
Reception: February 13 • 5–8pm
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| Remnant: 21 months, 26 days © 2011 Victoria Mara Heilweil, archival pigment print on watercolor paper, 27” x 22” |
Remnant
Photography by Victoria Mara Heilweil
January 9–February 7, 2015
Reception: January 9 • 5–8pm
Abstract Geometrics in Multiple Media
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| Evolution © Charles Windstead,acrylic on aluminum, 45" x 30" |
Artwork by Charles Winstead
December 12, 2014-January 3, 2015
Reception: December 12 • 5–8pm
Sculpture, oil on canvas, textiles, acrylic on aluminum
Chance Encounters
Artwork by Carol Duchamp
An aesthetic exploration
of color, space and fluidity
November 14-December 6, 2014
Reception: November 14 • 5–8pm
Pixel Fluxus
A Video Installation by Atomic Elroy
October 10-November 8, 2014
Reception: October 10 • 5–8pm
Freedom Series
New Works by Patricia Ancona
Oil on panel
September 12-October 4, 2014
Reception: September 12 • 5–8pm
Community Weavings: A Family Album
Artwork by Sue Weil
June 13-July 5, 2014
Reception: June 13 • 5–8pm
Faces and Figures
Artwork by Vaidis Valaitis
May 9-June 7, 2014
Reception: May 9 • 5–8pm
Digital Art
The Hell Brewers
April 11-April 18, 2014
Reception: April 11 • 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.
The Hell Brewers
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.
Barbara Lawrence
January 10 - February 11, 2014
Reception: January 10 • 5–8pm
Colorful works of art by artist and teacher Barbara Lawrence.
Muttisse © Barbara Lawrence
Anita MacAleavey
A Collection of Exquisite
Abstract Horicultural Prints
November 8–December 7
Reception: November 8 • 5–8pm
Migrational Echoes/Mercurial Features
Artwork by Jenny Hynes
September 13 – October 11, 2013
Receptions: September 13, 2013
October 11, 2013
Mary Macey Butler
San Rafael-based fine art photogrpher
July 9 - September 10, 2013
Reception: July 12 + August 9 5 – 8pm
Lawrence Way
Photography
June 14 – July 6, 2013
in the Founders Lounge
Reception: June 14, 5 – 8pm
Suzanne Bean
digital, mixed media, watercolor, photography
May 10 – June 8, 2013
in the Founders Lounge
Reception: May 10, 5 – 8pm
Spontaneous Perceptions
The Art of Dominican University Art Students
Exhibit Dates: April 10 – May 7, 2013
in the Founders Lounge
Reception: April 12, 5 – 8pm
Multiple Perspectives
Special Projects
March 9 - 31, 2013
in the Founders Lounge
Reception: Friday March 9
Undergraduate Research project from Junior Seminar Class
of the Art, Art History + Design Department of Dominican University.
Featuring photography, digital prints, and works on paper.
Dominican University + AWD announce a new collaborative program more
RED-ception 2013: Red art curated by MJG
a special exhibit featuring RED art by AWD artists + staff
February - March 2013
in the Founders Lounge
Art on the Farm
Building-wide fundraising exhibit for Marin Organic
Nov 30 - Jan 17, 2013
in the Founders Lounge
opening reception: Dec 14 • 5 - 8pm
2nd reception: January 11 • 5 - 8pm
Holiday fundraising exhibit for Marin Organic's Farm Field Studies Program; a collaboration between Art Works Downtown, Marin Organic, Marin History Museum and Art on the Farm. Celebrate art and local farms in a fun and educational manner. 65+ artists displayed through out our entire 40,000 sq.ft art center. more
Common Ground
watercolors by Kate Peper
October 3 - November, 2012
in the Founders Lounge
Artist's Reception: Saturday, October 20 • 2-4pm
Watercolors depicting Marin backyard scenes and beyond, with views of Yosemite National Park more
Fiber Art of Wendy Lilienthal
+ Barbara Andino-Stevenson, ceramics
Two AWD Studio Artists
September 2012
in the Founders Lounge
more
Time Exposures
A Photo Intern Reunion Exhibit: Students of Cindy Pavlinac
June 2012
in the Founders Lounge
Originals and Multiples
new printmaking works by AWD Artists
April 2012
in the Founders Lounge
curated by Stephanie Jucker more
Art with a Function
curated by Fiammetta Castaldi
through February 29, 2012
in the Founders Lounge
more
Fantastical Faces
annual third grade student art exhibit
April 7 - April 22, 2011
in the Founders Lounge
more
Our World, Our Utopia
art by Vallecito Elementary School Students
November 16 - 27, 2010
in the Founders Lounge
reception: Saturday, November 20 • 3-6pm
curated by Stephanie Jucker
