“They are full of holy...”
December 13, 2014 - January 10, 2015
Curator’s Statement Work from the Creativity Explored archives will be on view at the Arc Gallery, San Francisco, in They are full of holy... - a group exhibition highlighting the work of six artists who have worked in the studio for almost a decade or more. The selected artists have exhibited internationally and nationally and represent a diverse range of subject matter such as shoes, trucks, bikes, cakes, portraits, poetry, and personal experiences. Laron Bickerstaff (b.1971), a studio artist at CE since 2007, is influenced by pop culture and brands. His love of brands translates into drawing through radiant and colorful renderings of shoes. A CE studio artist since 2002, Pablo Calderon (b. 1952) is fascinated with forms of transportation creating elegant, vivid depictions of bicycles and large, bird’s-eye views of trucks flattened out into map-like abstraction. Deceptively sweet, Camille Holvoet’s (b. 1952) work draws on remembrances of life’s anxieties and forbidden desires. Her luscious oil pastel drawings of cakes, pies, and pastries are an expression of her relentless introspection. Holvoet has been a CE studio artist since 2001. Vincent Jackson (b.1961) is one of the most prolific and longest practicing artists at Creativity Explored working in the studio since 1984. In his oil pastels of figures and faces, Jackson breaks the human form into geometric shapes filled with heavy impasto of layered color. Text functions as the basis of of John Patrick McKenzie’s (b.1962) practice, and is used for both its visual and scriptural qualities. The crowding and shape of the closed and filled intricacies of his calligraphy add depth and material to the work, and allow it to serve simultaneously as a visual image and as poetry. McKenzie has been a CE studio artist since 1989. A CE artist since 1988, James Miles (b.1957) is known for his ink drawings of miniature scenes that tell stories from everyday life. His miniature scenes unusually combine perspectives, blurring the limits of inside/ outside, near/far, small/large, male/female, and past/present to entice the viewer/listener into the paradoxically immense spaces of his diminutive artwork. In exhibiting work by six prolific veteran Creativity Explored artists, They are full of holy... at the Arc Gallery, showcases the dynamic artists working at CE.
Curator: Paul Moshammer
Catalog designed by Michael Yochum Logo artwork by Pablo Calderon Arc Gallery © 2014
Featured Artists
Laron Bickerstaff Pablo Calderon Camille Holvoet Vincent Jackson John Patrick McKenzie James Miles
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, December 13th, 7:00-9:00pm (donor preview 6:00pm)
Arc Gallery
Exhibition Photographs: Mido Lee Productions
Laron Bickerstaff Laron Bickerstaff (b. 1971) joined the Creativity Explored studio in 1997. Influenced by pop culture and media icons, Bickerstaff uses these sources as a reference, but adds his own stylistic conventions resulting in unique, radiant and colorful portraiture. Bickerstaff is deeply aware of the visual characteristics of language. He is deaf and communicates with American Sign Language. Bickerstaff ’s text-based artwork mixes thoughts, observation, and a pop-influenced love of brand names rendered as a combination of text and bright imagery. These stream of consciousness pieces illustrate the wide ranging stimuli of everyday life: names, stores, food and drink, institutions, and chores.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: 2014 2013 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004
They are full of holy...,, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA StereoTYPE, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA Shoerageous, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA SIDESHOW, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA I Have Never Taken the Time to Really Look, Accident and Artifact, San Francisco CA SMALL, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA 4 Real Faux Animating the Vernacular, Truman State University Art Gallery, Kirksville MO Spectrum, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA Where Are We?, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA Paper! Awesome!, Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, San Francisco CA “Science” Fiction, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA Fibrocosm, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA Super Heroes Super Villains, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA Shadowshine, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA Naked, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA Nature Rules, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Vessels, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Revenge of Monster, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Wear to Go, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Aliens: the Green Ones, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA The Pink Show, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA You Are Here, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Functionable, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Contextual, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
Green Dress Shoe Oil pastel and graphite on paper, 2014 9 x 12 inches $275
Purple Sneaker Oil pastel and graphite on paper, 2014 9 x 12 inches $275
Laron Bickerstaff
Red High Top Oil pastel and graphite on paper, 2014 9 x 12 inches $275
Colorful Stiletto Oil pastel and graphite on paper, 2014 14.5 x 13 inches $275
Laron Bickerstaff
Pablo Calderon Pablo Calderon (b. 1952, El Salvador) came to the US in his late thirties. Calderon joined the Creativity Explored studio in 2002. A profound studio presence—debating, laughing, whistling, or explaining his work to patrons—Calderon exemplifies the heroic artist’s attitude toward life and method. His work is equally bold, preferring painting grand scale and monumental subject matter. Masterfully combining saturated hues in broad strokes, Calderon’s process is based on color and its possibilities. In his paintings of wide-eyed, curly haired subjects (munecas, or dolls), his work is imbued with a kind of ambiguity that invites speculation. He has expanded his subject matter to include different forms of transportation. Elegant, vivid depictions of bicycles and large, bird’s eye views of trucks flattened out into map-like abstractions dominate this current interest in vehicles.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: 2014 They are full of holy...,, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2013 Outsider Artists, Oakland Internatonal Airport, Oakland CA Outside In: The Art of Inclusion, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork Ireland Breaking Barriers: Bay Area Artists with Disabilities, Marin Comuunity Foundation, Novato CA 2012 SFabulous, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Mapping this Moment, Cara y Cabezas Contemporary, Kansas City, MO Parallel Visions, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Calderon: Nine Years in the Making, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2011 4 Real Faux Animating the Vernacular, Truman State University Art Gallery, Kirksville MO 2010 Where Are We?, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA 2008 INsects INsectos, Creativity Explored, San Francisco CA 2006 Sacred Places, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Vessels, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Drawing the Line, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2005 Aliens: the Green Ones, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2004 Radiant Spaces: Private Domain, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Functionable, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Critters, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Heads n’ Tails, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
Tricycle Acrylic and marker on wood, 2012 27.5 x 32 inches $425
Pablo Calderon
Red Truck Acrylic on wood, 2009 48 x 24 inches $475
Flattened Truck Acrylic on canvas, 2009 29.5 x 22 inches $475
Pablo Calderon
Flattened Truck III Acrylic on paper mounted on wood panel, 2009 58 x 40 inches $750
Pablo Calderon
Bicicelta (Yellow) Acrylic on paper mounted on wood panel, 2012 46.5 x 46 inches $750
Flattened Truck Acrylic on canvas, 2009 29.5 x 22 inches $475
Pablo Calderon
Flattened Truck I Acrylic on cardboard cutouts, 2014 37.5 x 30.5 x 4.5 inches $600
Pablo Calderon
Flattened Truck II Acrylic on cardboard cutouts, 2014 40 x 30 x 4 inches $600
Pablo Calderon
Motorcycle I Acrylic on cardboard, cutouts 2013 35 x 60 x 4 inches $600
Pablo Calderon
Motorcycle II Acrylic on cardboard cutouts, 2013 37 x 58 x 3.75 inches $600
Motorcycle III Acrylic on cardboard cutouts, 2013 37 x 58 x 3.75 inches $600
Pablo Calderon
Camille Holvoet Camille Holvoet (b. 1952, San Francisco, CA) is a San Francisco native and joined the Creativity Explored studio in 2001. Deceptively sweet like her work, Holvoet’s practice tends to draw on remembrances of life’s anxieties and forbidden desires. Holvoet’s process is an endless discovery, in which – through repeatedly drawing in oil pastel her sacred objects: dessert, Ferris Wheels, and crossed eyes – the pressures of the past are relieved by the joy of the creative process. When Holvoet combines text with imagery, the resonance between the two is powerful-as beautiful, vibrant renderings of cakes and pies are overwritten with recollections of nightmares, fears, frustrated sexual feelings, and religious doubt. Her texts stretch beyond the confines of language, and she often resorts to the invention of words to represent her (“outspiration,” “invisamble,” “youngry”). .
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: 2014 They are full of holy..., Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA New Zealand Outsider Art Fair, The Nathan Club, Britomart , Auckland, New Zealand Shoerageous, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA INK, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA A Particularly Picky Perfect Goddess: Camille Shelley Holvoet, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2013 Outside In: The Art of Inclusion, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland 2012 (Pre)Fabricators, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Fabulous, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Camille Holvoet: Savory and Sweet, 18 Reasons, San Francisco, CA Are We There Yet?, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2011 The Museum of Everything: Exhibition #4, Selfridges, London, UK Structure, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA SMALL, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Faces, Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA The Masters, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 4 Real 4 Faux Animating the Vernacular, Truman State University Art Gallery, Kirksville, MO 2010 Ritual/Habitual, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA New Media Sex and Culture in the 21st Century, Detroit Museum of New Art, Rochester, MI Spectrum, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Santos y Otros Creatures, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2009 “Science” Fiction, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Repetition, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Legend: Myth and Memory, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2008 Tasty, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2007 Transmissions, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Seeing Memory, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
Chocolate Grape Cake with Orange and Pink Frosting Watercolor and ink on paper, 2013 15 x 22 inches $450
Camille Holvoet
Chocolate Orange Cake Oil pastel on paper, 2014 15 x 22 inches $450
Chocolate Mint Pistachio Cake Oil pastel on paper, 2014 15 x 22 inches $450
Camille Holvoet
Choolate Brown Coffee Mocha Cake Oil pastel on paper, 2014 15 x 22 inches $450
Camille Holvoet
Chocolate Ice Cream Pudding Oil pastel on paper, 2014 15 x 22 inches $450
Mint Chocolate Cake Brown and Light Oil pastel on paper, 2014 15 x 22 inches $450
Camille Holvoet
Chocolate Caramel Cake Oil pastel and pen on paper, 2014 15 x 22.5 inches $450
Camille Holvoet
Flower Decorated Cake Pink and Green Oil pastel on paper, 2014 15 x 22 inches $450
Chocolate Pumpkin Cake Oil pastel on paper, 2014 15 x 22 inches $450
Camille Holvoet
Dark Chocolate White Frosting Oil pastel on paper, 2914 22.25 x 15 inches $450
Camille Holvoet
Lemon Lime Banana Frosting on Top Oil pastel on paper, 2014 22.25 x 15 inches $450
Chocolate Pumpkin Cake Oil pastel on paper, 2014 15 x 22 inches $450
Camille Holvoet
Vincent Jackson Vincent Jackson (b. 1961, San Francisco, CA) is a San Francisco native and joined the Creativity Explored studio in 1984. One of the most prolific and longest practicing artists at Creativity Explored, Jackson is known for his large-scale figurative oil pastels. What is essential for Jackson is the process of making art. He remarks, “It is very important that I create because it makes me feel nice.” In his largescale figurative oil pastels, thick defining lines break the human form into geometric shapes filled with a heavy impasto of layered colors arranged with Jackson’s masterful sense of harmony. The resulting mask¬like works can be viewed as a contemporary renewal of traditional African and Oceanic folk art imagery. “My faces are my way of telling a story rather than writing.”
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: 2014 They are full of holy..., Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA Shoerageous, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2013 Bold and Beautiful, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2012 Out of Order, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2011 SMALL, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA The Masters, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Black and White and Read All Over, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2010 Spectrum, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Where Are We?, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Paper!Awesome!, Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA 2009 TV and Me, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2008 Fibrocosm, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Tasty, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Finders Keepers, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2007 Transmissions, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Shadowshine, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2006 The Beat Goes On, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Nature Rules, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Sacred Places, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Drawing the Line, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2005 Wear to Go, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Aliens: the Green Ones, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA The Pink Show, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2004 Spirits and Saints, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Functionable, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Critters, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
Cool Man Oil pastel on paper, 2011 29.5 x 23 inches $400 Vincent Jackson
Mysterious Man Chalk pastel on paper, 2014 26 x 20 inches $450
African Man from Nigeria Acrylic on paper mounted on wood panel, 2014 64 x 45.5 inches $700
Vincent Jackson
Untitled (Portrait) Oil pastel on paper, 2010 30 x 22.25 inches $450 Vincent Jackson
Untitled (Portrait) Oil pastel on paper, 2014 28 x 22 inches $450
Hip Hop Man acrylic on paper mounted on wood panel, 2014 62 x 42 inches $700
Vincent Jackson
John Patrick McKenzie John Patrick McKenzie (b. 1962, Philippines) moved to the United States with his family in 1964. McKenzie joined the Creativity Explored studio in 1989. Text functions as the basis of McKenzie’s practice, and is used for both its visual and scriptural qualities in order to create work that simultaneously serves as visual image and as poetry. McKenzie’s process is based on a complex and mysterious repetitive sequencing of calligraphy that methodically adds layers of nuance to his chosen subjects, which are most often people and objects from pop culture, current events, and his immediate surroundings. Swirling, multi¬angled, and disorienting, the placement of his language comments on the contradictory, sometimes overwhelming, nature of media attention and celebrity. McKenzie’s original script and arrangement of text are tactile examples of his interpretation of the world, and can be both hilarious and poignant.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: 2014 They are full of holy..., Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA New Zealand Outsider Art Fair, The Nathan Club, Britomart , Auckland, New Zealand Way Out West, Mission District, San Francisco, CA INK, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2013 Outsider Artists, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA San Francisco’s Calacas: Day of the Dead, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Outside In: The Art of Inclusion, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland artMRKT, Fort Mason Center - Festival Pavilion, San Francisco, CA 2012 Out of Order, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA ArtPadSF, Phoenix Hotel, San Francisco, CA FAX, SF Arts Commission Main Gallery, San Francisco, CA Parallel Visions, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2011 After Shelley Duvall ‘72 (Frogs on the High Line), Maccarone, New York, NY John Patrick Mckenzie Is Culture Humbug Sexy, Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand Create, University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA They Are Full of Holy Nonsense, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 4 Real 4 Faux Animating the Vernacular, Truman State University Art Gallery, Kirksville, MO Black and White and Read All Over, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2010 Where Are We?, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Paper!Awesome!, Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA 2009 Words, Verses and Garabatos, City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Collected Fragments, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Sunderland, England Repetition, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA TV and Me, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA John Patrick Mckenzie’s Famous Artworks, Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand 2008 Art Repurposed, Thoreau Center for Sustainability, San Francisco, CA Most Culture Humbug Sexy People Like John Patrick, Monster Children Gallery, Surry Hill, Australia Tasty, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Finders Keepers, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2007 Shadowshine, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Seeing Memory, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Naked, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
They Are Full of Holy‌ Marker on paper, 2013 44 inches x 33 feet 10 inches $5500 (detail)
John Patrick McKenzie
They Are Full of Holy‌ Marker on paper, 2013 44 inches x 33 feet 10 inches $5500 (detail)
John Patrick McKenzie
The Isis Marker on paper, 53 inches x13 feet 4 inches $4000 (detail)
John Patrick McKenzie
United States Marker on offset map, 2009 23.5 x 37.5 inches $950
John Patrick McKenzie
James Miles James Miles (b. 1957, San Francisco, CA) is a San Francisco native and joined the Creativity Explored studio in 1988. Miles is known for his ink drawings of miniature scenes that tell stories from everyday life. Soft-spoken and reticent, Miles’ quiet miniature scenes unusually combine perspectives, blurring the limits of inside/outside, near/far, small/large, male/female, and past/present to entice the viewer/listener into the paradoxically immense spaces of his diminutive artwork. They are spaces that use the logic of dreams and fairytales, but in Miles’ versions, the ambiguity is always celebratory. And like every great universally told story, his reveal our shared love of simple everyday pleasures.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: 2014 They are full of holy..., Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA West Coasts, Museum of La Creation Franche, Begles, France INK, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA A Curious Menagerie, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2013 Undercover Genius: The Creative Lives of Artists with Disabilities, Petaluma Arts Center, Petaluma, CA artMRKT, Fort Mason Center - Festival Pavilion, San Francisco, CA 2012 Fabulous, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA ArtPadSF, Phoenix Hotel, San Francisco, CA Are We There Yet?, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Parallel Visions, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2011 SMALL, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Faces, Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA Create, University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA The Masters, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Black and White and Read All Over, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2010 Ritual/Habitual, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Where Are We?, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Paper!Awesome!, Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA Santos y Otros Creatures, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2009 TV and Me, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Legend: Myth and Memory, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2008 Tasty, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA INsects INsectos, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2007 Miles in the Sky, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Naked, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2006 The Beat Goes on, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Nature Rules, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Drawing the Line, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2005 Aliens: the Green Ones, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA 2004 Spirits and Saints, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA Radiant Spaces: Private Domain, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Functionable, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA This Container Isn’t Big Enough, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Magazines, Newspapers Marker on paper, 2011 7 x 5 inches $300
I Ride a Horse Marker on paper, 2009 10.74 x 11.25 inches $350
James Miles
Crowd Marker on paper, 2013 7 x 11 inches $350
Tate Modern Marker on paper, 2011 6 x 6.5 inches $300
Pie Ballpoint pen on paper, 2011 5.75 x5.75 inches $300
James Miles
My New Bike Ink on paper, 2009 10 x15 inches $350
People Moving Ink on paper, 2010 11 x 15 inches $350
James Miles
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