48 pillars

March 11 - April 15, 2017

Exhibition Statement 48 Pillars was inspired by a chance encounter at Flax with a close-out sale of deep vertical panels, 48” x 12” x 1 5/8”. 24 local Bay Area artists will produce two pieces each on these identically sized panels that will exactly ring the gallery – 48 works total.

This is the second exhibition at Arc Gallery that is essentially a “structural constraint” show. The other exhibition is our iconic annual, end of summer exhibition, FourSquared. In both exhibitions, the artists are unconstrained in subject matter except to the extent that works need to be a series; but they are constrained in format. It should be visually stunning.

Michael Yochum, Curator

Catalog design: Michael Yochum Logo design: Priscilla Otani Arc Gallery © 2017

Participating Artists Jason Avery

Saundra McPherson

Lexie Bouwsma

Erika Meriaux

Elaine Coombs

Annamarie Pabst

Robin Denevan

Silvia Poloto

Sara Dykstra

Gail Ragains

Kim Frohsin

Rachel Sager

Paul Gibson Christine Aria Hostetler & Joel Daniel Phillips

Kirsten Tradowsky Beth Davila Waldman

Kay Kang

Ealish Wilson

Bruce Katz

John Wood

Joshua Young Lee

Sandra Yagi

Katja Leibenath

Aoi Yamaguchi OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, March 11th, 7-9pm

ARTIST TALK & BRUNCH CLOSING RECEPTION: Saturday, April 15th, 12-3pm

Jason Avery

I make paintings that are protean in nature.

They are aware of, and tell a story of their own construction while reflecting my personal human experience.

I use direct observation and photographic reference as a springboard to tell a story about markmaking,impermanence and perceptual imitations.

Walking a line between representation and abstraction, surface and illusory space, these paintings do not attempt to freeze a moment in time, but attempt at a glimpse of a chaotic, complex, mutable universe.

website: http://jasonaverykelch.com/ email: jasonaverykelch@hotmail.com

Fold oil/alkyd paint on wood panel 12" x 48" $2150 Jason Avery

Phantom Limb oil/alkyd paint on wood panel 12" x 48" $2150

Lexie Bouwsma

The vertical format of this show was something of a departure for me. In response, I took inspiration from Chinese watercolor landscapes. These are dreamscapes, combining motion with stillness.

The terrain is moody, trumpeting the grandeur of nature while threatening to recede into inky abstraction and shadows. In dreams, landscapes can be idyllic and potentially sinister at the same time. The motivations of the environment may be as fickle or mysterious as the motivations of its inhabitants.

website: http://lexiebouwsma.com/ email: lexie.bouwsma@gmail.com phone: 415-275-2147

Lexie Bouwsma

Breakfast Blend pen & gouache on paper mounted on wood panel 12" x 48" $1000

So...Which Way Am I Facing? pen & gouache on paper mounted on wood panel 12" x 48" $1000

Elaine Coombs Since 2005, I have created contemporary landscape paintings that strive to capture the essence of nature, as it feels to me at this time, namely, sacred, stoic, and tranquil. I seek to conjure a particularly idyllic moment in time, and that moment need not be a named place, for one can look at it and see many places in it. I want the viewer to have a sense of connection with something more – my depiction indeed hints at a peaceful force beyond us that is benevolent. To wander through a forest is truly to be present in that remarkable goodness.

Painting with knives rather than brushes, dots rather than strokes, lets me play with pattern, repetition and color tone in such a way that these qualities have become a secondary, abstract subject in their own right.

Inherently modern – a pixelated image is evoked by using this painstakingly handmade dot technique. My work, therefore, presents a duality of vision – one that juxtaposes the physical and the emotional, the figurative and the abstract, the handmade and the manufactured.

For this particular show, the tall format allows me to present only a slice of a landscape. I enjoy that the viewer can fill in the details that may surround this visual excerpt, using his or her imagination as they see fit.

Elaine Coombs Fine Art 2339 Third Street, Fl 2R-#15 San Francisco, CA 94107

website: http://www.elainecoombs.com/ email: elaine@elainecoombs.com phone: 415-699-4325

courtesy of: Simon Breitbard Fine Arts website: www.sbfinearts.com email: info@sbfinearts.com

Lyrical acrylic on wood panel 12" x 48" $2500 Elaine Coombs

Woodnote acrylic on wood panel 12" x 48" $2500

Robin Denevan

Works on Steel This latest body of work is based on sketches from my walks along the shores of San Francisco Bay. I use steel sheets so that I can work on a smooth and consistent surface. The sheets are sanded, sometimes primed and submerged in several gallons of mineral spirits. I pour oil paint into the solution and mix it until it is cloudy. Over the period of several days the particles of oil color precipitate and leave sediment on the steel surface. After the oil has completely separated from the mineral spirits I repeat the process with another color. I will sometimes sand or manipulate the surface after the bath. The painting is sealed with a protective finish and mounted on a magnetic substrate.

website: http://robindenevan.com/ email: rdenevan@gmail.com phone: 415-948-4675

Bayshore No. 1 decanted oil and shellac on steel 12" x 48" $2250 Robin Denevan

Bayshore No. 2 decanted oil and shellac on steel 12" x 48" $2250

Sara Dykstra My work begins with the creation of a three-dimensional set made of fabric and handmade forms. Objects delicately balance on each other for support and the composition’s ephemeral nature is evident.

I then make drawings and paintings of the sets from various perspectives. The result is born of imagination and chance.

website: http://saradykstra.com/ email: sedykstra@gmail.com phone: 415-745-5955

Reflection of the Whole I oil on linen on wood panel 12" x 48" $2200 Sara Dykstra

Reflection of the Whole II oil on linen on wood panel 12" x 48" $2200

Kim Frohsin I have to admit that the specifics ( in size and substrate) assigned to each invited for PILLARS, took me immediately out of media/size “comfort zone” : wood? long verticality? At first, this seemed a challenging “exercise”, but after finding my theme, these panels presented me with an arena of fun, freedom and abstraction . My chosen imagery, partial lanes in swimming pools has become, ironically , a literal “comfort zone” for me over the last year; swimming an hour of playful and aerobic laps, a few night per week, makes these paintings autobiographical and symbolic of a sacred time. The pool lane becomes my private , intimate space ( for one hour) to recreate, relax, problem solve and meditate. Visually , I enjoy how pool water and surface reflections are in constant , incessantly varied flux.

I enjoy just staring into stilled water, too . Blues and greens soothe and are so varied , from pool o pool. Being in such “Pillars” of aquatic mass allows for sense both buoyant childlike play , as well as engenders profound thoughts and memories to bubble up from the subconscious. This project has made me want to keep painting pillars of pool lanes!

website: http://kimfrohsin.com/ email: kimfu1961@yahoo.com

Kim Frohsin

Sunset Lane # 1 acrylic, gouache, ink, flashe, tempera, pencils on wood panel 12" x 48" $3250

Sunset Lane # 2 acrylic, gouache, ink, flashe, tempera, pencils on wood panel 12" x 48" $3250

Paul Gibson

Pillar: "an upright shaft or structure, relatively slender in proportion to it’s height" The works created are results of the Pillar, standing alone as a monument, strong with perfect balance but fragile. It is the foundation for the composition in these two works. My visual interest in transparent objects, realism, spacial ambiguity, picture plane, multiple vanishing points and perceptual perspective may make the viewer a bit uncomfortable at times but it is all about visually stimulation. This visual problem I am trying to solve: how to give the viewer a visual experience they have not seen.

The stacked glass vases and blue glasses seem be to be floating in space. The viewer feels as if they can place their hand into the picture. There is a feeling that they are able to push, catch, touch the glass vases as they are ready to fall. It’s a bit about all of our lives - “we are all strong in our way but we are all fragile”.

website: http://www.pdgartist.com/ email: pdgibsonarts@mac.com

Fragile But Strong acrylic on wood panel 12" x 48" $4200 Paul Gibson

Strong But Fragile acrylic on wood panel 12" x 48" $4200

Christine Aria Hostetler & Joel Daniel Phillips

Other Portrait is the first truly collaborative project between Hostetler and Phillips, whose individual work has run parallel in many ways since meeting while in art school.

Both artists have lived artistically and romantically connected lives for many years. In this work, each simultaneously occupies the role of both creator and subject. Through the time-honored tradition of the classical portrait, they examine the other and allow themselves to be examined. The process of collaboration central this dual portrait is an effort to explore their intertwined artistic and personal identities.

Through the incredibly vulnerable process of allowing each to paint the other in their most defenseless state, the artists hope to convey the challenges of continually sharing their most central facet: the artistic process, continually, with the person they hold closest.

The resulting double portrait is a study in the push-and-pull of playing both artist and muse, and of the duality that is central to the role of the creator--where every work is in some way a self-portrait, too.

Christine Aria Hostetler

Joel Daniel Phillips

christinearia.com christine@christinearia.com

joeldanielphillips.com joel@joeldanielphillips.com

Other Portrait watercolor with pen & ink / charcoal & graphite on paper mounted to birch panel 12" x 48" $5000 pair Christine Aria Hostetler & Joel Daniel Phillips

Kay Kang

“Fleeting” Yesterday…………………..

Today………………………….

Tomorrow…………………..

website: http://www.kaykangart.com/ email: kangkay@hotmail.com

Kay Kang

Fleeting No. 1 acrylic, ink on Hanji Paper on wood panel 12" x 48" $3600

Fleeting No. 2 acrylic, ink on Hanji Paper on wood panel 12" x 48" $3600

Bruce Katz

“Trees are poems the earth writes against the sky” – Kahlil Gibran In seeking to capture the beauty and magic of the natural world around me, I primarily focus on landscape and still life in my painting. The tall, narrow shapes of the panels for “48 Pillars” seemed an ideal format to paint trees, in particular the majestic eucalyptus and cypress, so emblematic of the San Francisco landscape. At sunset – ablaze in fiery light – these trees take my breath away. They are the inspiration for poems I want to write in paint.

website: http://brucekatzstudio.com/ email: bruce@brucekatzstudio.com

Evening, Golden Gate Park oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $1850 Bruce Katz

Golden Eucalyptus oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $1850

Joshua Young Lee

I paint to investigate overlooked moments that are foreign yet familiar so that they become specific, accessible and emotional, bringing attention to the obscurities of life. My work tends to focus on the mundane. By taking the time to paint a banal scene, I place emphasis on such banality. I invite the viewer to examine why such a scene is important, drawing to the conclusion that each mundanity is an integral part of life.

I am also interested in using art as a means to record and document life, usually my own. From historical paintings/documents to portraiture and still life to instagram photos, there is a constant inherent need to document the present. I enjoy using ink (a medium that was once vastly used to record) to document in an era where photographs and the digital are ubiquitous.

They Come and Go is a series that focuses on the relationships that fade or remain. I draw and record the version of my family, friends and acquaintances that I currently know albeit knowing that over time these versions will change.

website: http://jyoungl.com/ email: joshyounglee@gmail.com

They Come and Go No.4 sumi ink on wood panel 12" x 48" $950 Joshua Young Lee

They Come and Go No.5 sumi ink on wood panel 12" x 48" $950

Katja Leibenath

My paintings are figurative abstractions of either the human form or a specific place. The format of this show lends itself to one of my favorite subjects, the standing human figure. I work from my own source material: photographs, sketches and memory.

I translate this material into oil paintings over the course of many months in my studio. During the painting process the original object becomes obscured and less important, allowing something new and separate to emerge. The final painting is a record of my relationship to the process of painting itself, and marks the moment where subject becomes object and is ready for connection with the viewer.

Originally from Germany with a background in architecture and art, I have been painting in San Francisco since 2006. My work is part of public and private collections internationally and has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Atlanta, in addition to San Francisco.

website: http://katjaleibenath.com/ email: Katja@KatjaLeibenath.com

Standing Figure 18 oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $1800 Katja Leibenath

Standing Figure 17 oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $1800

Saundra McPherson

Still Here examines aging trees in their fundamental state: limbs bare, trunks exposed.

The series originated as exploration, and continues as an homage. These are intimate portraits of individuals late in life and after death. Still Here refers to their stillness, and to their lasting presence as impression or memory.

When my stepfather, a naturalist and landscape architect who transformed his many environments, died, I found myself painting bare trees, weaving in narratives using text and imagery. Drawing on memories of his birdcalls, practical jokes, vast plant knowledge, and wordplay, these are lovingly built individual portraits, with a little bit of Arturo revisited.

I meet my subjects in visits ranging from urban parks to alpine wilderness, recognizing something worth exploring. Sometimes we exchange wordless conversations, then I collect impressions, and at some point they re-appear in the studio.

My work examines natural order and process, and the nexus of humans with their natural and cultural environments. The work is process driven, working with the physicality and immediacy of materials. My process is intuitive and allows for unanticipated outcomes.

Taking shape over time, the work is built, in a balance between intention and surprise, order and chaos.

website: http://sumcpherson.com/ email: sumcpherson@sbcglobal.net

Still Here No. 1 oil, mixed media on canvas 12" x 48" $2600 Saundra McPherson

Still Here No. 2 oil, mixed media on canvas 12" x 48" $2600 available as diptych - $4500

Erika Meriaux

Persephone was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. She lived happily until she was abducted by her uncle, Hades. She was picking flowers as she usually did, when suddenly the earth opened wide in a loud earthquake. Hades sprang from the rift, pulled Persephone by her leg, and dragged her down to the Underworld to become his queen.

Demeter wandered the world searching for her beloved daughter and Zeus who knew where Persephone was, intervened, sending Hermes to fetch Persephone back to the light of day.

But before leaving, she ate a pomegranate seed that made her spend half of the year in the underworld and the other half at the surface of the earth

website: http://www.erikameriauxart.com/ email: erikameriaux@gmail.com

The Abduction of Persephone oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $1900 Erika Meriaux

Persephone and the Pomegranate Seed oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $1900

Annamarie Pabst I exaggerate shadow and light to create dramatic facial design. The light surfaces take on shapes of their own to reveal form emerging out of darkness.

website: http://www.ampabst.com/ email: ampabst@gmail.com phone: 415-374-9004

Threshold I ink and charcoal on wood panel 12" x 48" $800 Annamarie Pabst

Threshold II ink and charcoal on wood panel 12" x 48" $800

Silvia Poloto

In complex times, the most political act is to transcend politics in order to create necessary work in the richer ground of existence that unites us all. It is there that we meet.

Beginning with my experience as a woman, immigrant, widow and mother, from my own subjective experience and honest reflection, I create work to connect to others. I move beyond my personal identity to a universal self, casting light into and onto human experience. In this way these things that define me are catalysts, but never traps. They are lenses, but never blinders.

They are personal, but only to connect to the universal.

I am interested in the purpose of pain, in the structure of sorrow, in the anguish of grief, in the rapture of love, in the joy of friendship, in the tenderness of self-discovery. I am interested in the exploration of elegance, of simplicity, of beauty.

Like many artists in history, I affirm the existence of beauty itself and the possibility of human connection and shared meaning. However I work in abstraction.

Through abstraction I reveal rather than portray, and invite rather than present.

I use an always evolving approach to materials to express what is there, what is here, what is between.

website: http://poloto.com/ email: silvia@poloto.com phone: 415-305-7470

studio:

860 Innes Ave. San Francisco CA 94124

Haiku No. 1 mi media on wood panel 12" x 48" $2100 Silvia Poloto

Haiku No. 2 mi media on wood panel 12" x 48" $2100

Gail Ragains Drawing from live models has been the Pillar of my art. The shorter the pose, the better. It’s all about capturing the energy of the pose, the model, the moment. I look for the abstract shapes, and gesture, stripping away the non-essential to give way to the essence of the moment. When a model hits a pose for no more than 5 minutes, there is no time to think, only the necessity of working intuitively. Through many years of figure drawing, people watching, a massage therapy career, dance, and interacting with life in a physical way, I have developed an intuitive feel for the human form. The 48 Pillars Exhibition gave me the idea to integrate these gestural drawings into my paintings.

website: http://gailragains.com/ email: Gail@GailRagains.com phone: 650-208-3196

In the Moment I mixed media on wood panel 12" x 48" $1175 Gail Ragains

In the Moment II mixed media on wood panel 12" x 48" $1175

Rachel Sager

My current body of work continues an examination of matter in transformation; metamorphosis, one state to another. I am particularly drawn to how such elemental shifts coincide with the sometimes devastating effects of human beings on the world around them.

Here, I portray this transmutation of matter as calculated explosions on aerial landscapes; the ground living, breathing, and dying all at once, in a heavenly haze.

Simultaneously, these images of meteoric combustion and uncertainty loosely depict colorful images of global warming as seen on climate change maps, thus liberating the mind from any certain and singular symbolism.

Created through a unique process of brushing, rubbing and dusting, my charcoal underpaintings are comprised of the same material they seek to portray, the natural tools of my chosen trade. The charcoal is left in its crude form in order to create an organic, almost visceral surface on which the lush properties of oil paint naturally contrast.

website: http://www.rachelsager.com/ email: Rachel_Sager@sbcglobal.net phone: 415-793-4665

courtesy of: website: inquiries: phone:

Hang Art http://www.hangart.com/ pspadaro@hangart.com 415-434-4264

White Heat oil & charcoal on wood panel 12" x 48" $1100 Rachel Sager

Moving Target oil & charcoal on wood panel 12" x 48" $1100

Kirsten Tradowsky Painting is a means of excavation. My work starts with a found image, often discarded at an estate sale or buried online. Whether it is a forgotten family snapshot or a stack of dishes, the objects are reanimated through the act of painting. In the process, lines, light, and details are dramatized and diminished, uncovering new meaning that encourages a dialogue across time.

My work has been exhibited throughout the United States, including Tinlark Gallery in Los Angeles and Red Dot Art Fair in New York. I earned a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and an MFA from the California College of the Arts. I currently work in San Francisco.

website: http://kirstentradowskyart.com/ email: kirstentradowsky@gmail.com

studio:

1890 Bryant St., Studio # 212 San Francisco CA 94110

Clothing Shuffle One oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $1800 Kirsten Tradowsky

Clothing Shuffle Two oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $1800

Beth Davila Waldman For four decades now, I have been setting up camp around the world. I work with what is revealed by site and the fingerprints I impart always with the help of strangers. My art considers site, community, material and experience. Inspired urban landscapes from my international travels, my paintings explore the vulnerability of the pillars of our foundations as humans through architecture. Six odysseys to my maternal homeland Arequipa, Peru since the 1970s serve as the primary building blocks of my work.

Like so many memories of place, several of my paintings are constructed from a montage of imagery. Others deconstruct a single image creating a shifting landscape of color fields and negative space to speak to the way we experience and register life. The fractured quality of the work results from digitally deconstructed photographs, painted line work and a constructive painterly approach. My artwork uses multiple perspectives to tell the story of a place compound time embracing photography, texture and material. Large abstract planes are juxtaposed with layers of realism; symbols of the past and present exist in conjunction.

Navigating the social and political landscapes inspires me to investigate the fragility and potential of their existence at a global level.

website: http://www.bethwaldman.com/ email: beth@waldmanarts.com phone: 415-317-3103

studio:

Pacific Felt Factory 2830 - 20th Street , Studio 206 San Francisco, CA 94110

Intersections No. 2 plexiglas, archival pigment, rag paper & acrylic paint on wood panel 12" x 48" $1400

Beth Davila Waldman

Intersections No. 3 plexiglas, archival pigment, rag paper & acrylic paint on wood panel 12" x 48" $1400

Ealish Wilson My work investigates pattern and its transformation through surface manipulation. Influenced by travel, architecture, the aesthetic traditions from Japan and the Arts and Crafts movement, my textile constructions showcase materiality using a variety of substrates and structural form created through a process of continual manipulation. The printed surface is where the manipulation starts. Photography plays an essential yet subtle role in my work. I capture imagery from daily life, various cultures and architecture to create my digitally manipulated textiles.

Using techniques normally associated with fashion, such a pleating and smocking, I work meticulously by hand to create structure, which starts to morph the custom-made textile into new iterations. Once, again, I turn to the photographic process to rework the patterns and print an image of the transformed textiles onto cloth before finally pleating and smocking into my textile constructions. This dialogue between architecture, patterns, photography and material is the fundamental thread throughout my work, honoring the time to create beautiful objects that endure.

website: http://ealishwilson.com/ email: ealish@ealishwilson.com phone: 650-454-7617

Ealish Wilson

Spring hand smocked digital print on recycled polyester on wood panel 12" x 48" $1900

Sprung digital print hand smocked with dyed zip ties on recycled polyester on wood panel 12" x 48" $1900

John Wood I have never considered myself a political artist in any way. Instead, emotional connection is the engine behind my work. The current political climate has changed that: Now I am compelled to add my voice, take a stand, speak out. Although most who know me and know my work would describe both as soft-spoken, these two pieces want to have a louder voice.

They are far from screaming, but they are a beginning, appropriate to the times. The two pillars use throw away materials, scraps and trimmings from earlier work to create a mosaic, adding structure to what otherwise might be considered fragments or chaos. Together they form a narrative of my work. The mixed red enamels interrupt the narrative, disrupting its coherence and beauty in the same way all of our narratives have been interrupted this year.

I have just returned from a month away from the Bay Area, trying to gain some perspective, or at least reduce the noise of our current lives. But even isolated in the tranquility of the snow-swept Wyoming hills and plains of the Jentel Artist Residency, the frightening reality was apparent. For me it is clear that my only salvation is to make art.

website: http://www.johnwoodart.com/ email: john@johnwoodart.com phone: 510-520-6573

courtesy of: website: inquiries: phone:

ArtHaus http://www.arthaus-sf.com/ james@arthaus-sf.com 415-977-0223

Obstruction mixed media on paper mounted on wood panel with enamel & cold wax varnish 12" x 48" $2000

John Wood

Disruption mixed media on paper mounted on wood panel with enamel & cold wax varnish 12" x 48" $2000

Sandra Yagi

The Hell's Half Acre panels were inspired by one of my favorite artists, Hieronymous Bosch. I have always been intrigued with his depictions of hell, with the bizarre creatures and nightmarish landscapes. I thought this was a fitting time to revisit Bosch, as we are witnessing a descent into a living hell in our contemporary world. I tried to "channel " Bosch by imagining what he would do with animals that were unknown in his day, such as the dumbo octopus and bobbit worm, as well as contemporary politics and social trends. The title, Hell's Half Acre is in reference to a landmark near Casper, Wyoming, comprised of steep ravines in a hellish alkali landscape. The desolate, forbidding cliffs left a lasting impression on me as a kid, when my family stopped to sightsee there on a road trip. It is appropriately located in the center of a conservative "red" state.

website: http://www.sandrayagi.com/ email: info@sandrayagi.com

Hell's Half Acre I oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $3500 Sandra Yagi

Hell's Half Acre II oil on wood panel 12" x 48" $3500

Aoi Yamaguchi Japanese Calligraphy is a unique art form in that it seeks to deconstruct, rearrange and infuse existing linguistic elements into a a physical expression of an idea.

My idea was to work on a set of words that with contrasting meanings but whose verticallyshaped characters compliment each other and the rectangular panels that house them.

Choosing characters with this shape allows me to focus the energy of the composition from the top of the panel to the bottom and beyond.

Traditionally, Japanese reads from right to left: from the right “静 (Stillness)”, and to the left “ 動 (Motion)”.

The chemistry between tanboku (light-colored sumi ink) and Japanese gasen paper is vivid and magical. From the moment the ink touches the paper, the ink fuses with paper and ripples out.

With the right balance of water and sumi written in an unbroken motion, clear brush stroke edges emerge as the water evaporates. I chose warm black sumi to work on this piece, which, when mixed with the right amount of water, leaves behind hues of gray that illuminate the distinction between light and shadow.

Stillness is clear, graceful and light; Motion is blurred, dynamic and bold. Together, it completes the world of light and shadow, and neither exists without the other.

website: https://www.aoiyamaguchi.com/ email: info@aoiyamaguchi.com phone: 510-859-4352

studio:

1450 Fourth St., # 11 Berkeley CA 94710

é?™ Stillness sumi ink, Japanese gasen paper on wood panel 12" x 48" $2000 Aoi Yamaguchi

ĺ‹• Motion sumi ink, Japanese gasen paper on wood panel 12" x 48" $2000

http://arc-sf.com http://arcfinearts-sf.com 1246 Folsom St. San Francisco, CA

arcgallerysf@gmail.com 415-298-7969