RULE
- 04.28.18
cover image: Charmaine Koh. Monsters Are Coming, 2017. Oil, flashe, ink, and graphite on canvas.
RULE NO RULE amy cella (sfsu) yangyi chen (sfai) joseph ferriso (stanford) sean howe (stanford) charmaine koh (cca) ans li (sfai) emily meisler (sfai) leslie samson-tabakin (sfsu)
The West Coast art scene is famous for breaking, and re-making the rules. The same way that the advent of abstraction disrupted numerous art historical traditions, interdisciplinary art making blurs and shifts the expected boundaries of each medium. This show embodies the freedom and fluidity of our local art institutions, showcasing joyously uninhibited work from the “Wild West.” While paying homage to precedents set in the 1960s and ‘70s by the folks of Ferus gallery, environmental land artists, and the Californian light and space movement, these artists reinvent the rules of presentation, technique and concept, with distinctly contemporary results.
amy cella (sfsu)
Inspired by the frontier mentality of the formative Pacific Northwest where communities felt they could pick and choose the best of the past without the hindrance of the weight of history, Cella’swork meditates on the ascendancy of the so-called “post-medium age” in contemporary art practice.
Far Right: Amy Cella. Memorabilia (Keychains and Snowstorms), 2016. Found metal and spray paint. Installation view.
Left: Amy Cella. No Man Knows My History, 2016. Deconstructed paper grocery bags, spray paint, staples. Installation view.
Left: Yangyi Chen. Shadow, 2016. Mix medium, photo, silk tulle. Installation view.
Chen pushes tactility and three-dimensionality into her photographic work, creating illusions with unexpected materials that redefine our sense of familiarity with the medium.
Yangyi Chen. Marble, 2016. Inkjet print.
yangyi chen (sfai)
joseph ferriso (stanford)
Ferriso presents Spiral Doorway, an open ended sculpture with no fixed orientation or scale. Bearing no loyalty to the wall, floor or ceiling, this work represents freedom from restraint. As it’s reworked with every presentation, Ferriso also breaks conventional rules of exhibition and archive.
Joseph Ferriso. Spiral Doorway, 2017. Acrylic on plywood. Studio view. Right page: Installation view.
sean howe (stanford) Howe makes paintings that fall somewhere between the classifications of figuration and abstraction. Using cues from geological and ecological sciences, and automatic drawing to push form, color, and texture, Howe creates abundant worlds with vast networks of referents that defy categorization.
Installation view.
Sean Howe. Swirly Gates, 2017. Gouache and gesso on plywood.
charmaine koh (cca) Hybridity is key to Koh’s work, which draws upon diverse influences, from anime, to family photographs, to computer color gradients. As an artist living in between borrowed origins, cultures, and countries, Koh playfully mixes seemingly disparate elements on the canvas so that they neatly co-exist.
Charmaine Koh. Interleaved, 2016. Oil, flashe, ink, and graphite on canvas. Left page: Monsters Are Coming, 2017. Oil, flashe, ink, and graphite on canvas
ans li (sfai)
Li’s work explores the relationship between digital and analogue techniques, highlighting the failings of both while refusing to belong to either. Without ever using a camera, Li digitally designed her pieces, then printed them out on Polaroid film with a “digital-to-analogue” tool. The colors and geometry may appear retro, but Li’s process is concerned with today’s technologies.
Left: Ans Li. DIGITAL-ANALOGUE-DIGITAL, 2017. Dry diffusion prints (Polaroid). Installation view.
Emily Meisler. Unfurling, 2017. Steel rods, aluminum mesh, paper mache, mortar. Installation view.
emily meisler (sfai) Exploring the natural and organic through sculptural forms, Meisler juxtaposes her subject matter with industrial materials like cement and wire that further abstract the original inspiration. This disparity highlights environmental concerns, though the sculptures themselves ironically appear extra-terrestrial, existing in a mysterious space between the naturally occuring and the manmade.
Emily Meisler. Split Foundation, 2017. Steel wire, concrete. Installation view.
leslie samson-tabakin (sfsu) Samson-Tabakin presents Enough Is Not Enough, a sprawling, text-based installation that acts as a mind map, encompassing both stream of consciousness and collected statements. Based on the concept of tautology (the idea of saying the same thing twice in different wording), this time- and site-specific work suggests that perhaps in our tireless search for clarity, new direction and originality, we are simply repeating ourselves.
Leslie Samson-Tabakin. Enough is Not Enough, 2017-18. Pastel on panel, wall. Site specific. Installation view. Right: detail.
acknowledgements Elise Boivin and ArtlyOwl.com Lauren Dare Marcel Houtzager Matt Lopez Brooke Valentine Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture Sartle.com Thor, Zeus & Jasper
Embark Gallery offers exhibition opportunities to graduate students of the Fine Arts in the San Francisco Bay Area. We provide a space for an engaged community of artists, curators and scholars, and we aim to expand the audience for up and coming contemporary art. A non-profit gallery, Embark’s programming represents the diversity of the talented artists studying at eight local artinstitutions: San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, California College of the Arts, Mills College, San Francisco State University, UC Davis, San Jose State University, and Stanford. The juried exhibitions are held at our gallery in San Francisco at the historic Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.
Tania Houtzager | Executive Director Angelica Jardini | Curatorial Director