Past show Index

• Exoskeleton
• A Rare Alchemy
• What the?
• Plasma Nation
• Poor Man's Art Show
• Human Remains
• AutoErotica
• Art of The Cotton Mill Studios
• Beneath The Surface
• Material Evidence
• ROBOTS ARE ART
• Masks of Africa
• Inside Out
• Homeland Obscurity
• Burdened Dreams
  
• A Question of Belief
• Homage To the Ordinary
• Dreaming Nature
•  Bad Intentions
• Passengers
• Hands in Motion
• Gesture and Gestalt
•  From Aperture to Audio
• RAW, From the streets to the walls
• Gods & Aeroplanes
• déjà vu
• Unassuming Anarchy
•  Duane Cramer WORKS
• Opening month group show

Exoskeleton
Paintings by Philippe Janssens, Sculpture and Jewelry by Victoria Skirpa
Opening party May 9th 6-9pm, with DJ KODA (45 Amp Recordings)
Show runs through June 20th, 2009

Electric, synaptic and mysterious, painter Philippe Janssens and sculptor-jeweler Victoria Skirpa continue to refine the evolution of imagination and adornment. Philippe Janssens' paintings are channeled directly from his spirit and imagination. He gives form to these colorful and odd-shaped beings.  They leave you intrigued and wondering, what multidimensional universe have they evolved from? What universe do we step into as we look upon them?
Victoria Skirpa draws from living forms to create her sculpture and jewelry.  Skirpa makes pieces that are dynamically functional by inter-playing the mechanical and organic, simultaneously. You will discover elements of living organisms and symbols encapsulated in the armor of her work.

Philippe Janssens
Janssens is an artist, certified metal smith and sculptor. His paintings and sculptures are expressions of the linkage between primitive and contemporary art, with the intention to remind you of your cultural and spiritual connections to people from other parts of the world. His designs are channeled directly from his spirit and imagination. With the belief that the power of the creative process itself has produced the artwork he has created.
Born in Brussels, Belgium, he immigrated to the US in 1968, and has been living in Bali since 2008. Jansens graduated from the Academy of Beaux Art, Brussels and the Art & Metiers School in Jewelry Design. He went to work as an apprentice under a master Jeweler by the name of Gustave De Cock (famous in Brussels). In 1969 he came to the US and worked as a jeweler for many years and eventually opened his own business Indigena. Indigena was recently sold in 2008.
Janssens has exhibited his work mainly in Northern California and participated at Art Festivals as well, Mills Valley Art Festival, Marin County Festival, Palo Alto Festival and at Stanford University.
“In my wide space of heaven are figures and signs with, which one you can discover the deepest secrets.”   - Philippe Janssens -


Victoria R. Skirpa, Artist Statement

“Though I am well-known for my futuristic sculpture, in recent years, I have moved more towards jewelry as a source of inspiration.

Unlike other artistic mediums, jewelry is a physical experience. It is sculpture, that engages intimately with the body. My jewelry and small metalwork shows my preoccupation with the human body, its history of protection, and adornment.

Jewelry is also a relic that shows us who we are today and gives us access to memory and history. There has always been a cosmology for the wearing of adornment, from amour to earring: in order to please the sexes, to protect from others, to designate family and tribe, to indicate relationship to God (s), to protect and identify in battle, and many other permutations.  And these things are still true in the modern world. I am profoundly interested in this phenomenon.

As a jewelry designer and sculptor, I am interested in the visual play of dichotomies such as Rough/Smooth, Fine / Crude, Interior / Exterior, Ancient/Modern, and Feminine / Masculine, Machine/Organics”

Victoriaskirpa.com, Jewelrybythelake.com


Opening night music by DJ KODA (45 Amp Recordings)

There is something mystical about the unknown that draws us. A Rare Alchemy showcases the two very different artists and mediums that dabble in the mysterious effects of chemistry, with impressive results.
 
A photographer who uses a camera with no viewfinder must like the surprise and magic that can, sometimes, occur.  The "one-eyed" box is really a three eye effort.  The negative takes in the light and the movement of the moment that the artist has chosen. The result paints an emotional layer onto the physicality of the subject.  The image is the final alchemy of choice and chance
 
Hot glass is completely magical. It can glow bright orange and still be transparent. Working it can take place at any number of temperatures giving many different effects. Glass has been worked for so many centuries that a huge variety of techniques exist for extremely varied possibilities. Further, there are many glasses, which have differing properties, even among those suited for making art.

No other material has its range of possible looks. It can shine like a diamond in the light, a beacon of any color and many colors.
 
S.McGrath Ryan (Sheila)
 
Ryan has  been a black & white photographer for over 3o years, Starting in New York City, Ryan was a "freelance photographer. She has worked primarily in a documentary 35mm style. Her interest in pinhole photography was sparked by Marsha Scheer at the International Center for Photography.  It has since become her major focus. .  Ryan moved to California in 1990.  The work presented here is from then to the present.
 
"The pinhole camera allows things to slow down and catch a moment unlike another" - Sheila
 
David Ruth

Ruth has been producing custom cast glass for individual collectors, architects, and designers since the late 1980's.  Ruth has developed a wide range of aesthetic techniques and applications to the language of Sculpture and Architecture.

As an artist, Ruth has created a unique cohesion between his more ephemeral personal sculpture and more site specific, client designed architectural work. This body of work was influenced by the Iraq war. www.davidruth.com

"The combination of art, science and alchemy drives my work" - David Ruth

About the music:

Travis Wernet has been playing didjeridu for 11 years and performs in a variety of groups. He currently fronts the band project also known as 'Outlaw Dervish' and performs his own original Spoken Word Poetry with musical accompaniment. One such event gathered the group "Darkshine" for an evening of sacred music in the popular and highly coveted musical venue, Grace Cathedral (April 2007). Travis has also appeared with his band at several festival events in San Francisco, California and beyond, including Sea of Dreams, Harmony, Spectra Ball and Howeird.  www.cdbaby.com/cd/outlawdervish

Powerful mixed media artist Lola, and fresh ceramicist Brian Young speak through their select mediums, challenging the viewer to recognize, take responsibility and make sense of what they see.


About Lola:

I am an Environmentalist by default diverting waste from landfills, a self-appointed waste collector in the business of reuse, an opportunist who exploits the discarded, seeking its vast potential for creating art.  My job definition is junk collector, dumpster diver, and scavenger; I call upon all these identities to express myself through my art.

We live in a consumer-driven, disposable and convenience-oriented society; therefore the resources for my intent are innumerable.  Found objects are incorporated into assemblage, paper materials are juxtaposed in collage and panels fabricated from recycled wood inform abstractions.  Not only are the treasures collected integrated into my work but the moments spent interacting in the salvaged world as well.  Collecting materials is my time to engage with the world, exploring the endless possibilities it has to offer.  I have a route but I am always exploring to discover new, fruitful locations.  I spend hours walking railroad tracks and days roaming abandoned environments.  Although I primarily travel by car, it is walking in the physical world I relish in and in this context my creativity soars.  For me, it is where opportunity collides with idea and the creative process begins.

An outdated magazine with dreamy colorful images of women standing prideful in their kitchens warms our stomachs and makes us crave the white trash cuisine our mother's prepared so long ago.  Although these experiences are in brief and intermittent, they are the inspiration behind my creativity and therefore, do not fade into oblivion. My work recaptures these moments and preserves their integrity for others to experience. www.ho-made.org


About this series:

“I have always been attracted to numbers.  Not so much for counting and measuring purposes but for their visual aesthetic as abstract objects. Random numbers and combinations often appear in my work. They are incorporated as abstract forms similar, for example, to a circle, stripe or triangle. The numbers in my pieces do not have meaning or create a formula.  Instead I am drawn to the visual combinations and actual shapes of these forms.  With the absence of meaning, sum or formula; I encourage the viewer to interpret my artwork based on what the numbers mean to them. I challenge the viewer to see themselves through the reflective nature of my work, lost within the meaning of the numerical combinations” - Lola


About Brian Young:


Brian Young's ceramic sculptures have an "edgy" tone.  Thematically they often focus on the violence in our society providing a political commentary on today's issues.  Young's earlier work is strongly influenced by his political and social observations.  In later works, he has utilized the material to express more personal issues, imbuing pieces with mysterious and private meanings. Young wants that the viewer bring their own set of judgments and personal experiences to the viewing his art.

"In the fine art world many say that the use of clay should be relegated to the realm of craft. However, I disagree with this judgment, because with it's pliability and manipulative nature, clay is a perfect vessel for pure expression. My work is influenced by everything from Picasso's cubist portraits to commercial illustrations by Jeremy Fish. And I hope to present a fresh new outlook on the Ceramic Medium."
 
San Francisco based Young graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in fine arts in 2007. In addition to ceramics, Young sketches and creates cardboard backed paintings; these paintings are regularly exhibited and sold in the bay area's traveling Poor Mans Art Show.

Bay Area plasma & neon sculptors offer a tasty array, of the 4th state of matter. Plasma is a rare and highly experimental art form. Using high voltage transformers, hand blown or found glass, these artists capture not only our imagination, but hold hostage and manipulate noble gasses to create contained kinetic magic.

What is plasma?

Plasma is commonly described in nature as the fourth state of matter and is also known as the most widespread phenomena in the universe. Plasma typically takes the form of neutral gas-like clouds (e.g. stars, and our sun). It is considered distinct from other lower-energy states of matter; most commonly solids, liquids and gas, although it is closely related to the gas phase in that it also has no definite form or volume.

Plasma rarely occurs naturally on earth, and when it does, its effects are visually and energetically dramatic. Lightning storms are one example, another is the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights, seen as energy pours into earth’s atmosphere.

Plasmas have only recently been incorporated into a variety of sculptural art forms using plasma ionization by high frequency electrical current. In this way creating illuminated sculptures that have the ability to display a visual lighting effect of movement and colors found in no other medium. Although this technology is considered cutting edge, and in its infancy, much has been learned to be able to control specific and desired effects. Yet, it is likely that there is still much yet to be discovered.

Plasma Nation Artists include:

Norman Moore
“My sculpture uses various materials in combination with light to create a physical poetry borne out of urban experience. I am interested in the metaphors light and shadow evoke such as life, death, enlightenment, blood, distraction and lust. I am always looking for the story behind objects and finding meaning in forms. Walking in twilight, I see light splashing and reflecting in odd locations that spark my imagination.  The unexpected relationship of light coloring an object changes my perception of the world”

Ed Kirshner
“Like Dr. Frankenstein in his lab, I hover over my glass and gas plasma work, spending many hours mixing, balancing and fine-tuning. Still, the plasma light behaves in a way that I can never completely control. I can change or direct its behavior by varying the pressure and mix of gases, or the frequency and the voltage of the power, but I can never fully predict the detailed effects any of my actions will have. Though frustrating at times, this unpredictability is at the very heart of my work. This is the personality, the mystery, the life that I try to create in my sculpture” www.aurorasculpture.com.
* Ed will be teaching the free educational plasma presentation on January 10th 2009.

Michael Pargett
Is Co-Curator on this exhibit. Pargett enjoys the paradox between the high energy that creates the illumination, and the slow, sensual movement of the gas mixtures that can be achieved to present a visual experience that is as compelling as it is hard to describe.  His expressions are at times humorous and at others inspired by a desire to honor the basic elements of the gasses themselves. During the filling portion of the creative process, he attempts to allow the gases themselves to express how they would like to manifest within the glass. “They feel as though they have something to communicate, this medium perhaps gives them a unique opportunity!” www.theartelectrique.com

Bill Concannon
Concannon has been working with neon since 1973. In 1975 he started his own neon studio, Aargon Neon, making neon sign props and special effects neon for the motion picture industry, as well as commercial neon signs and his sculpture. Bill has worked as an instructor teaching neon sculpture at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and the Pilchuck Glass School just north of Seattle. His sculpture has been shown nationally and internationally since 1977. This past June, Bill was invited to present his lecture, “Glass Graphics: The Joy of Signs,” to the Glass Art Society Conference in Portland, OR. www.aargon-neon.com.

David Hollister
Hollister is a woodworker and sculptor who has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1996. His furniture and sculptures have been shown throughout the Bay Area. “I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis.  While in school I discovered my affinity for design and took the opportunity to study furniture and lighting on my way to a degree in architecture.  After a period spent working in construction and traveling, I left architecture.    While visiting many of the structures I had studied in school, I realized that I felt less of a connection to the buildings than I did to the furnishings and art. In addition to my artistic pursuits, I am the wood shop technician at the Crucible in Oakland.  I work primarily in wood and light, but have also created pieces using stone, metal, and plastics.”

Ken Herrick
 “I’m fourth in a five-generation line of artists, but the art-gene, so to speak, expressed itself late.  Only at age 35 or so did I start making art, although from my earliest days I’ve been a maker of “things" of one sort or another. I completed my first artwork, an interactive kinetic one, in the early ‘70s.  Since then I've made other kinetic works, most of them interactive.  In the '80s I got into incorporating neon in my work, going so far as to secure several patents on, and license for manufacture, a neon effect I called “Neon Bubbles”.  I've derived little income from the art, or from the Bubbles for that matter, but such is life and such is art...”

Allison F. Walton
Curator, and co-owner of the FLOAT Gallery, Walton has been a lifelong artist and collector She will be displaying a xenon plasma robot head that is still awaiting a body. www.plasmasculpture.blogspot.com

About the opening party music:

Outlaw Dervish is World Lounge Music with Soul! Enjoy the stylings of Didjeridu Trip Hop, leaning into Deep Chill and Ambient sound with an Electro-Acoustic tint, immersed in sweet melodies and infectious rhythms. The group features Travis Wernet and Special Guests. www.cdbaby.com/cd/outlawdervish





About the painter:

Sally Rodriguez began painting in 2003 while living in Missoula, Montana, she is entirely self taught, and works in a wide variety of painting styles and mediums. Her work creates an ethereal experience filled with colorful characters and festive vibrancy.

Educated at the University of California Santa Cruz she holds a Bachelors degree in Women's Studies, with a minor in Latin American History.  Rodriguez, then 36 found artistic expression so powerful, that she has continued to explore reality through the means of color, texture, and form.  Presently she works full time as an artist and a teacher. http://thefloatcenter.com/archive_415_515.html#gods


This exhibit is in partnership with:

Breaking all the rules of showing and selling art, Everybody Get Up (EGU) has created a powerful street art collective that simply states: Art should be affordable for all, no exceptions, no regrets! All artwork is priced between, $1.00 - $50.00. (Cash or Check only)

What do you have in your pocket? $2.00? $15.00? Whatever the amount, all you have to do is pick out a piece of art amongst hundreds that you like. Just rip it off the wall and go to the casher. Nope you don’t have to wait until the end of the exhibit to pick-up your work, and yes, you are doing a good thing supporting these artists.

So join us for a free party, with DJ’s Justin Adams “Aka DJ Adams” & Scott Taylor “Aka BONSCOTT” of WaxONWaxOff productions who will be spinning funk, hip hop, and jungle during the event. Oh ya, we will be serving Pabst Blue Ribbon by donation, it’s all good.

Who are EGU?

Everybody Get Up (EGU) is an ever changing group of artist that want to spread the message that it’s okay to sell art at affordable prices.  Anybody who enjoys and appreciates art should be able to own it!
EGU was originally made up of three East Bay Artists:  Nobody, Sumbody and Anybody. These close friends have been working with and inspiring each other for the last three years.  EGU's mission started with a lot of beers, street shenanigans and the belief that art can be fun and have a message too.  Since its inception, EGU has made an effort to include and encourage their artistic colleagues in their mission.  Hence the name “Everybody Get Up.”  
When showing work, EGU preserves the soul of street art by never charging expensive gallery prices.  EGU is known for utilizing a variety of mediums. Their signature medium of choice is cardboard.  Everybody Get Up! And come buy art!
 
Artists include:

Nobody, Anybody, Sumbody, Dirtbag, Ken Davis, Shannon Jones, Mary J, Radical, Dave Misled
Ryan Flowers, Spencer, Sveta Gayshan, Scott Taylor, Matt 136, BayTruthSeeker, 2AM, Broke, ESU/Mia, Gats, Jacob Young, Baby-K, Lenny Kiser, Liv, Marlena Morris, Nurdcyfe, Patric O, Rameen, Shalimar, Terms , S+N and Newbetter.

Human Remains
Art influenced by the Iraq war
A Group art exhibit, with war poets

Show opens September 11th, runs through October 11th.
Requiem & Performance September 13th 6-9pm

Not since the war in Vietnam has the United States experienced such raw emotion evoked by unnecessary loss, deep political division and economic waste.

The Human Remains exhibit offers an avenue for Bay Area artists and poets to fully express themselves around these events. Regardless of whether you are pro war or anti war, you can’t help but feel the emotional impact of the artists’ work. During the opening party we will assault the eye and surround the viewer with mixed media, film and spoken word.

Artists included in the exhibit:  Bill Stoneham, Collin Harris, Marty McCorkle , Melissa Sweat, Janeyce Ouellette,  Tess Kavanagh, Peascaror, Diego Marcial Rios, Anastasia Winter Schipani, Bernard Rauch, Heather Whitehead , Jennifer Eye and Marisa Handler.

Mediums include: Paintings, works on paper,  camouflage ball gown, mixed media, music video, animation video, filmed performance and spoken word from War Poets and poetry influenced by the Iraq war.
 
So, come join us for a glass of wine and absorb — flag pins optional

AutoErotica
"It's All About The Car"
A Group show…

Phillip Hall - Digital light painted photography
Bill Silveira - Auto inspired assemblage sculpture
Laurel True - Asphalt Mosaics

Show runs Through 9/9/08
AutoErotica celebration party 8/09/08, 6-9pm

Let’s face it…. Big old beautiful cars are sexy!

The US, with its love for the car, is fighting the need to become fuel efficient, healthy and green. But no, we don’t want to drive a Twinkie! Huge American cars are in our blood and we aren't letting them go easily.

Each of these three Bay Area artists have their own unique take on the love of the car and travel. They honor our rapidly disappearing, uniquely American, decadent automotive past.

About the Artists:

-Philip Hall

When it comes to capturing the fine art of automobiles, Hall understands that the beauty of light is in the details. For more than 30 years, Hall had looked at light from a different perspective. An award-winning lighting designer, photographer, filmmaker and lighting control specialist, it has always been his medium of expression.

Philip’s lighting projects include; televised visits by The Pope, the Queen of England, 4 Presidents of the United States, celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge, feature films, commercials and thousands of permanent lighting systems in the Bay Area, his favorite being the renovation of the San Francisco Opera House. His work is included in the private collection of Jay Leno.

Ever since Hall focused on the definitive detail in that 1953 Corvette, his subject has been the elements of the automobile.  Artist statement: "What intrigues and stimulates me is how shadows detail life, enhancing or diminishing perceptions or emotional reactions to my artwork. Reality is defined in my work by revealing the mystery of an image -- its light and shadow -- through crystallizing or distorting pixels until the inherent beauty of an image is revealed."  www.philhall.biz


-Bill Silveira

Slightly curmudgeonly, a bit on the eccentric side, with a maniacal enthusiasm for the automobile since his early youth, Bill Silveira enjoys making art out of discarded auto parts, rusty scrap metal, and other unique items that seem to find their way into his vast collection of interesting and eclectic junk. A business owner and resident of Oakland's Jingletown arts district since the early 1990's, Silveira likes to think of himself as "Sanford and Son-ish with a slightly twisted bent."

Owner of Automania, this semi-retired used car dealer is also well known in the film industry as the guy who can provide you with just about anything you need from classic cars to caskets for your photo shoot. Learn more about Bill Silveira on Kim Larson’s blog.



-Laurel True

Laurel True is a Bay Area artist specializing mosaic, mixed media and public art. She is the co-founder and director of the Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, CA and principal of True Mosaic Studio, a professional mosaic studio specializing in site- specific architectural commissions and public art.
 
She travels widely to teach and facilitate large- scale, community based projects and maintains artistic or residential bases in Oakland, New Orleans and in Ghana, West Africa. She lectures internationally and has been featured in many books and publications.

"In her new series of mosaic relief panels, artist Laurel True turns away from more traditional mosaic materials such as ceramic, glass and stone, instead creating her works from asphalt, concrete and other roadway detritus collected from her Oakland neighborhood.
 
True bases her works' designs on random and intentional road markings such as tar lines, cracks and skid marks made from sideshows and car spinouts. True's series is a visual and conceptual investigation of what beauty might be found in urban landscapes, exploring the ugliness, grit, solidity and underlying grace in both her materials and surroundings."

Art of the Cotton Mill Studios
Paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media by:
Keiko Nelson, Bill Stoneham, Susan Tuttle and Elizabeth Tennant
Closing party 7/12
6-9pm

On display at the artist owned and operated FLOAT Gallery will be hand-picked, select group of Cotton Mill artists who live and work in the building: Keiko Nelson, internationally accomplished sculptor. Bill Stoneham, painter, sculptor and animator, Elizabeth Tennant, painter and Susan Tuttle photographer and mixed media artist.

Dreams and Distortions…… 

The series of visions currently showing at the Float Gallery at the Cotton Mill Studios is a swim through a dreamy underworld. Bill Stoneham’s tortured figures are emotions flayed raw upon the canvas, their crisp outlines and sharp textures inviting a meticulous examination. Elizabeth Tennant’s gentle monsters glow with the fever of a child’s imagination. Rising for breath, the viewer finds the gentle humor of Susan Tuttle’s photography, which captures daily life in striking clarity. The majestic and fluid forms of Keiko Nelson’s stone, bronze and water sculptures provide an anchor, giving a still point where the real meets the unreal. After an hour in the gallery, the viewer will feel as if she has been gone for days, moving in a sea of dreams.

About the Artists:

Keiko Nelson

Keiko Nelson is an international artist, who has exhibited her works and lectured about her art in the United States, Japan, Germany, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Egypt, Thai, China and Mexico. She was an artist in residence at the University of Chiapas in Mexico for the International Sculpture Symposium, and given a grant for a one –person exhibition by the Ministry of Culture in Egypt. She was given in the Artistic Achievement Award by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York in 2002, among her interests range from sculpture through fine art, design and textiles. Her works feature the subtle flow of natural force. Her work has been described by the Curator Emeritus of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco as “a unique fusion of the East and West, the retrospective and the progressive and delicate and the dynamic.” www.keikonelson.com


Bill Stoneham   

Bill Stoneham's professional art career began in 1972 at Feingarten Galleries in Beverly Hills, CA. Feingarten bought Stoneham's paintings for two years and hosted a one-man show that was reviewed with statements like "...at their best when at their weirdest" and "The best works here deserve the attention of collectors".  In 1992 Stoneham started working at ILM, sculpting in the creature shop, building feature film sets. When art went digital, Stoneham followed, mastering digital 3D modeling and cinematic production. During his career, Stoneham created inspiring digital and fine art for many entertainment companies including Lucas Arts Entertainment, Cyan Worlds, and Crystal Dynamics. Today Stoneham is painting and creating digital art and animations - all in surrealist style - exploring figurative and textural concepts influenced by the urban environment and the social/political forces at work in our world. www.stonehamstudios.com



Susan Tuttle


Susan Tuttle moved from the East Coast to San Francisco in 1978. She is the Director of Montclair Gallery in Oakland, which she founded in 2003 with East Bay glass artist Janet Thompson. Susan is a photographer and jewelry designer, and her jewelry designs are on permanent display at Montclair Gallery. She graduated from Ithaca College in 1976 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and a minor degree in Art History. She studied graphic design at the Academy of Art College beginning in 1982 and was involved in the profession for 20 years. She participates in the annual East Bay Open Studios, San Francisco Open Studios, well as other juried and non-juried exhibits in the San Francisco/Bay Area. From 1999 until 2004, she was involved with San Francisco’s ArtSpan, proofreading the annual San Francisco Open Studios Guide. In addition, she is an associate director at San Francisco SOMA’s new GarageGallery, where she has also exhibited her photography and jewelry designs.



Elizabeth Tennant

Elizabeth Tennant is a native California artist with a BA in studio art. Working in oils exclusively, she is committed to magical realism and the craft of painting. Her lifelong interests in psychology and mythology give her a perverse, fantastical visual language that conveys deep emotion. Her works can be found in collections throughout California and on the East Coast. www.ElizabethTennant.com

Opening party music:

Daniel Berkman is a San Francisco-based multi-instrumentalist who has played with artists ranging from Essence to the San Francisco Ballet. Well known for his inspired West African kora playing, he will be flexing his electronic muscle as Colfax, releasing his debut electronic album later this year.

Closing art party will celebrate the FLOAT Galleries 2^nd year anniversary

DJ BONSCOTT of WaxONWaxOff productions will be spinning funk, hip hop, and jungle during the event. 

Saturday 5/17, from 6-9pm

Wine sponsor:

The capabilities of the human mind like the creative process, is nothing short of astonishing. Beneath the Surface gives us a taste of that brilliance, telling stories from deep within. During this two month show we challenge the audience to experience their own path through paintings, works on paper and assemblage sculpture that utilizes found objects to stir memories.

Our closing party will mark Float’s 2^nd year anniversary in business and participants will have the ability to win a free floatation session every ½ hour during the event.

Liz Mamorsky

An artist all her life Liz Mamorsky was a child star back in New York and currently does voice work for radio, television and games, including Sims 2, Sam & Max, and AVampyre Story. She is also the narrator for the recent PBS documentary, The Remarkable Red Hat Society. Since graduating from Bennington College, Mamorsky has exhibited her unique recycled-materials sculpture, studio furniture, and visionary paintings and drawings nationally and internationally. Her work resides in numerous public and private collections including: The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; The Spertus Museum, Chicago; The Oakland Museum of California, Sony Corporation, Nektar Therapeutics, First National Bank of Arizona, Santa Clara Medical Center and Paramount Pictures for the set of Star Trek:Voyager. You can find her hard at work in her amazing LizLand Studio in San Francisco
 

Paul Baker

Paul Baker is an assemblage artist who creates interactive sculptures. His ongoing series: Machines for Living are built intentionally to help us examine our lives and evoke memories, though insight and humor.

A native of Boston, Baker moved to San Francisco ten years ago. He has been producing art in different mediums for the past 15 years; in 1991 he settled on assemblage sculpture, perhaps latently influenced by a boyhood passion for collecting shelf after shelf of what his mother called "junk".

His background includes exhibit design at the Cleveland Museum of Art; art instructor; bird house entrepreneur; and a stint as a sales clerk in a large department store. His education includes extensive travel abroad and a Masters degree in Medieval Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England. Baker works as an advertising copywriter by day.  www.Paulbakersculpture.com

Piedmont Post Review of Below the Surface

“Material Evidence”

Mixed media work of Peter Boyer, and Master Plasma sculptor Ed Kirshner

Closing Party March 15th 2008, 6-9pm

Closing night will showcase a live performance by Oakland reed renegade Cornelius Boots

Enter a world were materials come alive in an inspiring array of elements, both elegant and serene these masters of design transform materials designed for constructing buildings, into creations that seem to take on a life of their own.

Included in the display are the compellation plasma jellyfish sculptures by Ed Kirshner and Bernd Weinmayer, a master flame worker from Austria.  www.weinmayer.at

Peter Boyer

Boyer's art deals with physical and material elements. He builds paintings by successive applications and deletions of various materials: canvas, muslin, linen, paint, gesso, charcoal and graphite. His is a process of working and reworking the surface by tearing off and reapplying his materials until the work attains what he has described as "presence".

Peter Boyer was born in New York in 1948, moving to the West Coast with his family in 1960. He studied art in California and Oregon, receiving his BA from San Francisco State University in 1977. He also studied architecture at The Southern California Institute of Architecture. Boyer operated a small design/build business in the 1970's, which acquainted him with the materials and techniques of building construction. Much of this knowledge has been applied to the process he follows in creating his mixed media works. www.peterboyer.com

Ed Kirshner

Artist statement:

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

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

DIY Show & Contest  

Show runs through Jan 17th, 08

The robotic art was judged by Monty, from ANYBOTS the first humanoid robot of it's kind.

+++++

KTVU Video Link

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Gallery Pics

12/15/07 Robots Are Art opening party showcased, Monty the first humanoid robot of its kind, who judged the robotic art in this DIY Art show and contest. It was his first open to the public appearance. A few Pleo’s (baby Camarasaurus) wandered through the crowd as critics. Pleoworld.com

Robots served beer, painted paintings and even a disgruntled beggar robot will is on display, so expect robotic diversity to be a cornerstone of this art show. 

A presentation on the history of robotics by Frank Garvey was shown at 6pm, along with spin the robot raffle prizes and free robotic magazines. ( The premier raffle prize will be a cool robot toy from Boss Robots & a visit to ANYBOTS to spend time with Dexter & Monty in thier own natural setting)  

This event will encompass a diverse group of robotic artists including mixed media, painters and kinetic artists. The contest will be 100% violence free, and will focus on form, function, and fun. Prizes will be given for categories such as overall artistic esthetics, unusual functionality, robots as a reflection of society, and incorporation of unusual objects to name a few.  

Judging the robotic art will be, Monty the first humanoid robot of its kind along with Trevor Blackwell, Ph.D. Founder and CEO of ANYBOTS and David Calkins, President of the Robotics Society of America, and founder of the international RoboGames.  www.Anybots.com, http://robogames.net/index.php

Sponsors: 

  Anything, Anytime, Anywhere

   Boss Robots, Berkeley

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