FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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THREE SOLO EXHIBITIONS
NICK DONG
Matter / Antimatter
CHRIS KOMATER
Study for a Series: Love
ELIZABETH SHER
Icelandscapes
MAY 10 - JUNE 18, 2018
GALLERY HOURS & INFO:
- Thursday-Saturday, 12-6pm
- 475 25th Street, Oakland, between Telegraph & Broadway
- (510) 701-4620
EVENTS:
- Artists Reception: Saturday, May 12, 4-6pm
- First Friday Art Murmur: June 1, 6-9pm
ELIZABETH SHER
Icelandscapes
Elizabeth Sher was a resident at Gullkistan Center for Creativity in Iceland twice. Icelandscapes explores her love of nature combined with her interest in technology which she combines with traditional artist materials. The geologic wonders and phantasmal forms offered a glimpse of what the earth might have been like in its beginnings. Underground rumblings randomly spew out steam, lava and rocks through pockets in the earth. Iceland has been called "the land of fire and ice" as the glaciers of this island nation sit atop active volcanos. But all of this will change over the next generation or two - the glaciers are receding, and Iceland has been called Ground Zero for climate change. Sher's vista wide landscape paintings offer a love "letter" to the beauty of Iceland's horizon-wide vistas as well as a "get well card" for the country and the earth. Her artist book "Snow Lines" outlines the patches of snow on the mountains which decreased measurably between her 2nd visit in summer 2016 and her first visit in summer 2012.
ELIZABETH SHER is a long time Bay Area artist and filmmaker. Her work frequently integrates her need as a filmmaker to tell stories with her love of materials and process as a visual artist. Her work in both film and visual art has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Works are included in the collections of SFMOMA, Oakland Museum of California, Carnegie-Mellon University, The Hecht Collection, United States Information Agency, De Saisset College. Her documentary Rituals of Remembrance: Exploring the Art of Mourning, 2017 (made with Maggie Simpson Adams) was seen regionally on PBS and recently screened in Morocco. Her documentary Penny: Champion of the Marginalized, 2014 is currently running on national PBS. Sher is Professor Emeritus of Fine Art at California College of the Arts. This is her first show at Mercury 20 Gallery
NICK DONG
Matter / Antimatter
Nick Dong has created an experimental multi-media installation for the front window of the Mercury 20 Gallery. Facing the street is the "Matter" side of his installation, a mirror filling the entire gallery window, but with several holes for viewing his finely detailed metallic objects that appear to hover and spin in space. Facing the interior of the gallery is the "Antimatter" side, a black acrylic wall, also with viewing holes in which are found other floating objects. In contemplating reality, Dong has utilized a form of Buddhist meditation practice called "visualization."
NICK DONG is a multi-disciplinary hybrid of conceptual metalsmith, mixed-media sculptor, and socio-commodity engineer who employs an array of techniques and materials with the intention of creating works that ignite an experiential moment and even a spiritual bond with the audience. In 2012, Nick was selected by Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum to be included in the 40 under 40, Craft Futures exhibition. Over the the past 3 years, Nick has produced solo exhibitions in Asia University Museum of Modern Art, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art and National Taichung Theater.
CHRIS KOMATER
Study for a Series: Love
Chris Komater's new photo series is inspired by Edvard Munch's 1893 exhibition, Study for a Series: Love. Munch exhibited six paintings that explored "the struggle between man and woman called love." This was the genesis of a larger cycle, The Frieze of Life, a Poem about Life, Love and Death that explored the stages of life, the hopelessness of love, anxiety, infidelity, jealousy and death. Munch's expressive and intensely personal treatment of psychological turmoil over a century ago finds in our era an equivalent in the selfie and Facebook, where intimate moments are documented, made public, discussed and analyzed. Komater's six photos are culled from his recent online dating experiences, but printed in such low resolution as to render details and content almost unrecognizable. The closer one gets to these photos, the less one knows. He's included images from classic Hollywood. Even though they are stripped of detail, they still convey meaning--familiar archetypes of beauty and desirability. Komater draws attention to and frustrates our voyeuristic impulses. We're invited to ponder not only what we're looking at, but how and why.
CHRIS KOMATER is a San Francisco-based artist. His photographs and sound installations have been shown at Cheryl Haines Gallery, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, Mark Wolfe Contemporary Arts, Meridian Gallery, and the LAB Gallery in San Francisco; Jan Kesner Gallery in Los Angeles; Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston, and many other venues. He is the recipient of a WESTAF-NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship, a Market Street Art-in-Transit grant, and was the founding director and curator of Secession Gallery, a non-profit gallery without walls in San Francisco, and the online arts venue, Marjorie Wood Gallery. This is Chris' fifth solo show at the Mercury 20 Gallery.
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