Hemisphere by Robert Ortbal

ro be rt o rt b a l Hemisphere

r o b e rt ortbal

Hemisphere University Library Gallery Annex School of the Arts College of Arts & Letters California State University, Sacramento

Robert Ortbal’s Architecture of Accumulation The sculptor Nayland Blake once remarked that a big part of his practice was learning how to shop at thrift stores. Robert Ortbal is also a habitué of model shops, hardware stores and other businesses that seem to hold an addictive attraction for certain contemporary artists: those who make work from found materials. In Ortbal’s case, it is not about the whiff of nostalgic past lives to be found in discarded junk; he is someone who likes the potential of repurposed and unused industrial, mechanical or other commercial goods. His current body of work is an extended exploration of transparent plastic and related materials that he combines in architectural ways—i.e. emphasizing corners and suggestions of abstracted roofs, floors and walls. Often these assemblages are then augmented through the alchemy of flocking on parts of the work. Flocking is the process of depositing many small fiber particles onto a surface usually prepared with adhesive; the result is a textured, gentle effect, with the added benefit of an opaque color component (usually purple or green for Ortbal). Like his contemporary, the Bay Area artist Vincent Fecteau, (who works with planes of foamcore and papier-maché) Ortbal has for this show made small, painfully considered sculptures, that are usually wall-mounted. He is inspired by Robert Smithson’s meditations on the ways that objects can bounce between presence and absence, and how the space that an object occupies both creates its meaning and is reciprocally created by it. Ortbal uses clear plastic in these works—mostly ladder-like rails—to embody that elusive presence and absence because it is transparent but at the same time able to be formed into three dimensional, if all but invisible, objects. He makes an additional nod to Smithson, (known to insert mirrors into his installations), by adding to these pieces tiny, mirrored mylar elements that complicate the perception between reflection and two and three dimensions. Ortbal also likes the subtle connection between his constructions and the way that he thinks of organic materials being built from structures of DNA; the poetry of the interplay among visibility, accretion and opacity is what he is after.

One characteristic piece, titled “Motes, Specks and other Moments,” makes reference to such items as grandfather clocks or light sconces. Mounted high on the wall a clear plastic mélange, tipped with green flocking at the top, reveals dynamic orange vertical streaks of another plastic, the whole emitting white light at the bottom, like fiber optics. Hanging down from this object are two sets of catenary loops, green-flocked metal ball chains familiar to us from such items as key chains. The resulting piece from all these disparate elements - there’s some green seed-like objects as well - still manages to achieve a kind of crackpot cohesion redolent of 1950s design. Perhaps the breakthrough piece for Ortbal in this collection is “Rumors of Emptiness,” roughly eighteen inches across by six inches high and a foot deep, mounted shelf-like on the wall. It is a triumph of allusion: images of sponge, candy, or eroded landscape all elbow each other aside as they compete for the viewer’s association. Ortbal accomplishes the consummate goal of an artist: to create identity between his work’s form and content. He manages here to lasso the bull in the china shop that is our minds: we submit, our attention taut on a rope. This piece’s brown, white and silver palette and complex surface come together as a tour de force of small-scale sculptural execution.

Renny Pritikin Oakland – October, 2013

Renny Pritikin is an Oakland-based curator and art writer. He is a senior adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, in the curatorial practice graduate program, and is a frequent contributor to the online journal Art Practical.

“Things must be approached through sensitivity rather than understanding…” - Georges Vantongerloo

The Secret of Creation Lies in the Wave Looking at Bob’s drawings I keep thinking of sound. Not something musical, but definitely a tone – some pitch or vibration, a wave of occurrence that modulates itself with respect to your relationship to it. A relationship based not on distance, rather one of scale. This is an important distinction. Bob, in statements about his work, mentions an interest in the cosmological and that’s interesting, because when considering the cosmos we think of vast stretches of time and space; yet in the expanse of visual elements on paper we condense these distinctions into something that the mind can find manageable, comprehensible. Here scale is reduced to the miniature, which abstracts, rendering the space into a realm of the ideational, things seen remotely even if closely. Which makes me think a little of polymath Walter Russell’s quirky diagrammatic illustrations that enigmatically explicate his ideas of a thought-wave universe: that all matter and accumulations of matter are the substance of thought. As Russell explained, “…simply stated, matter is pure thought. All matter has a meaning which tells of the IDEA it manifests. Thinking is for the purpose of building thought-bodies to symbolize thought-imaginings and creating bodies by thought-wave motion to image those thoughts.” Falling somewhere between mystic and crank, Russell asserted (probably rightly so) that his theories weren’t accepted by mainstream scientists was primarily due to a difference in suppositions made about the existence of mind and matter; he attributed the existence of mind as cause while he believed that scientists in general assumed the existence of mind as effect. Russell’s compelling, dynamic visual interpretations on his theories of the universe are at once utterly precise and yet all but dare us in their defying a seemingly rational explanation, in what to him was surely as limpid as crystal. And I think that about sums up what most artists feel when confronted by folks demanding they explain what it is they are trying to express. But a remote or unexplainable quality doesn’t necessarily mean incomprehensible; rather Bob’s drawings exude a mystery born of searching for, struggling towards, some ineffable thingness. Like his sculptures, his drawings are freed from relating to specifics. Much the same way as Russell’s

illustrations, you can grasp the outward quality of the forms, but their meaning constantly morphs the minute you think you’ve understood their essence. Untethered, the arrangement of shapes that Bob generate float in a rhythmic balance of various and mutual possibilities where through sensitivity to form and material they posit questions that elude easy answers. What continues to surprise me is how drawing, whose very elastic and therefore exciting qualities I just mentioned, is still often seen as a preparatory practice; not an end in itself but a means to help achieve some other outcome. It’s a judgement derived from a patriarchal view of art history in which drawing is the weak (read feminine), provisional counterpart to the art of arts, painting and secondly, sculpture. This weird vestigial attitude has always chafed me, it being a rather attenuated view of what drawing is and can embody. And while we can see in certain drawings of Bob’s intimations of what will become realized in three dimensions there are just as many examples, if not more, of what the drawings can express that can never be approached sculpturally. How liberating! Ovals, circles, cones, honeycombs, shield-like forms, bulbous shapes get recycled, stretched, abbreviated, reduced, expanded, and via their many permutations get recontextualized. These protean forms and marks can be discriminating and selective and then veer wildly in the direction of loose and unfussy. What you thought was definitive in one drawing becomes a conundrum in another. They have moods. And moods bring to mind temperament, that collision when sense meets matter - what’s my relation to the world and what do I try to glean from this interchange? It’s interesting to think of temperament in context of its alternate meaning, not as disposition, but as the adjustment of intervals in tuning a musical instrument so as to fit the scale for use in different keys. Which brings us back again to ideas of sound and scale. Bob’s drawings play on this idea of generative forces, that the fundamental elements that get expressed and then recycled in numerous ways describe a cosmos of reverberating forces of time, light and gravity; or as Walter Russell would say the ubiquitous heartbeat of the universe.

Dean Smith Berkeley – November, 2013

Dean Smith is a visual artist who works primarily in the medium of drawing and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He occasionally writes about art.

Motes, Specks and other Moments II ° 2013 Plexiglass, flock and paint 17” x 10” x 8” (left)

Rumors of Emptiness ° 2013

foam, resin, shellac and mirrored mylar 6” x 16” x 10.5” (above)

Number 76 ° 2013 Graphite and ink on paper 11.5” x 6” (left)

Number 92 ° 2013 graphite, colored pencile paint, carbon on duralar 9” x 12” (above)

Motes, Specks and other Moments IV ° 2013 plexiglass, styrofoam beads, flock and paint 17” x 10” x 8” (left)

Desires that hollow us out ° 2013 plastic cups, wood, cement, plexiglass foam, flock and paint 18” x 25” x 14” (above)

beyond the field ° 2012

Motes, Specks and other Moments VIII ° 2013

wood, foam, resin, silicon

dissected fake flower parts, plexiglass

carbide, paint and flock 22 x 22.5 x 10 (above) 14

cast aluminum 17” x 10” x 8” (right)

Motes, Specks and other Moments ° 2013 plexiglass 21” x 9.5” x 4”

Number 83 ° 2013 graphite on paper 8.75” x 11.5” (above)

Motes, Specks and other Moments VII ° 2013 dissected fake flower parts, bead chain, plexiglass mirrored plexiglass, heat shrink tube, flock and paint 97” x 8” x 3” (left)

Motes, Specks and other Moments VII ° 2013 dissected fake flower parts, bead chain, plexiglas mirrored plexiglass, heat shrink tube, flock and paint 97” x 8” x 3” (above) detail

Number 82 ° 2013 graphite on paper 8.75” x 11.5”

Star Skeleton ° 2013 egg carton, resin, plaster mica, silicon carbide and metal flake 10” x 10” x 6” 21

elsewhere ° 2013 foam 7.5” x 10.5” x 2”

Motes, Specks and other Moments VI ° 2013 dissected fake flower parts, plexiglass heat shrink tube, flock and paint 20” x 3” x 2.5”

Navel ° 2013

aluminum foil, yarn and bean bag foam coated in truck bed liner with paint and flock 59” x 49” x 17” (left)

Navel ° 2013

aluminum foil, yarn and bean bag foam coated in

truck bed liner with paint and flock 59” x 49” x 17” (above) detail

Number 85 ° 2013 graphite, colored pencil on paper 8.75” x 11.5” (above)

Motes, Specks and other Moments III ° 2013 plexiglass, foam, aluminum, cement, glitter, flock and paint 33” x 11” x 11” (right)

Number 75 ° 2013 graphite, colored pencil and ink on paper 8.75” x 11.5”

Rumors of Emptiness II ° 2013 screen, aluminum, wood foam and paint 24” x 36” x 32”

Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2013 2012 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2004 2001 1998 1996 1996 1995 1994

Hide-and-Seek, JayJay Gallery, Sacramento, CA Lattice, University Art Gallery, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA different parts of remembering, JayJay Gallery, Sacramento, CA Benign: Growth and Neglect, Weigand Gallery, Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA Neverland, Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley, CA untold wrinkles, JayJay, Sacramento, CA Oxygen’s Shadow, Cabrillo Gallery, Cabrillo College, Soquel, CA New Kingdom, The Oakland Museum of California at City Center, Oakland, CA seeing is believing, Pond, San Francisco, CA Behind One’s Eyes, 1078 Gallery, Chico, CA Lullaby, Four Walls, San Francisco, CA Between Red and Green, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA as above, so below, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA Taste and See, Ohlone College, Fremont, CA

Selected Installations: 2007 2007 2005 2004 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992

into and out, Aqua-Wynwood, Miami Art Fair, Miami, FL Wallworks III, Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley, CA Eureka Fellowship Exhibition, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum above and beneath, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA February’s Song, Sculpture Space, Utica, NY Openings, 9-1-1 Media Arts Center, Seattle, WA What is Art for?, The Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA Fertile Waste, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO Openings, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA Host, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA Navigate: breakfast and desire, AS IS at California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA Stones: The weight of ripening., Contract Design Center, San Francisco, CA Black/White? No neophyte, Opts Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA at the end of desire, Seeing Time Series, Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions: 2012 2011 2010 2007 2007 2006

Flatlanders on the Slant, Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA Beyond Tradition: Art Legacies - 75th Anniversary, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA Blurring the Line, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA Work-A-Day, Blank Space Gallery, Oakland, CA Watershed, Snyderman-Works Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Chapter Two: A show of objects, New York Design Center, New York, NY

2006 2005 2005 2003 2002 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990

Berkeley-Saki Exchange Exhibition, Saki, Japan M Theory, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA Ornament: The Art of Desire, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art Needle Art: A postmodern sewing circle, A traveling exhibition that visited 15 museums and art centers across the United States Being There: 45 Oakland Artists, The Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA Knowing you, Knowing Me, The Lab, San Francisco, CA, Needle Art, Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA 20th Anniversary Exhibition, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA Stirred Not Shaken, Refusalon, San Francisco, CA, Natural Phenomena, Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA Cross Currents, Holy Names University, Oakland, CA Pro Arts Annual, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA, The Object is Bound, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA North by Northeast, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA Introductions, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA

Commissions: 2010 2008 2007 2005

Flora and Fauna, City of Emeryville Bus Shelters, Emeryville, CA Reveries: Water and Sky, University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA I am you, he is she, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA Pollinate, Bath Clubs, Miami Beach, FL

Selected Reviews: Baker, Kenneth. “Is Small Beautiful”, San Francisco Chronicle, April 5, 1997 _____. “Two New Outlooks on Conceptual Art”, San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 1996 _____. “Exhibitions: Pacific Dreams”, San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 1995 Barlet, Jean. “The connections between private and public art create current exhibit at Skyline Art Gallery”, Pacifica Tribune Arts Correspondent, Mercury News.com, Feb. 3, 2011 Bonetti, David. “There is a ‘there’ at Oakland show” San Francisco Chronicle, March 27, 2002 _____. “Fresh names, stale perspective” San Francisco Examiner, July 20, 1990 Buck, David. Ornamentation: The Art of Desire, Artweek, March 2006, Volume 37 Issue 2 Cheng, DeWitt. “Model Magic”, East Bay Express, Sept. 10, 2008, Vol 30 Issue 49 _____. “Uncategorical Imperatives at Kala Gallery”, East Bay Express, November 24, 2010 Cohn, Terri. “Needle Art”, New Art Examiner, September, 1999 Dalkey, Victoria. “Exciting show by Robert Ortbal at JayJay Gallery” Sacramento Bee, April 5, 2013 _____. “Engaging mystery and metaphor”, Sacramento Bee, Friday, December 3, 2010 _____. “A Profession of Art”, Sacramento Bee, April 25, 2008 _____. “Fall Preview: On & Off the Wall”, Sacramento Bee, September 23, 2007

Dunn, Edward. “Ortbal, wrinkles and all”, Sacramento News and Review, Nov 8, 2007, Volume 19 Elliot Sherman, Ann. “Color Scales”, Metro, May 2, 1996 Fahey, Anna. “Spotlight: Robert Ortbal,” Seattle Weekly, August 10, 2000 Hall, Emily. “Drive-By Art” The Stranger Seattle, August 31, 2000, Vol. 9, No. 50 Helfand, Glen. “Stirred Not Shaken,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 19, 1997 Goldsmith, Meredith. “New Kingdom” Artweek, Oct, 2004 #35 Issue 8 Maclay, Cathrine. “The Light Fantastic”, San Jose Mercury News, April 12,1993 Meeker, Cheryl. “High Concept Hand Work”, www.stretcher.org, November 2001 Morris, Barbara. “Knowing You, Knowing Me”, Artweek, May/June, #30, 2000 _____. “Robert Ortbal” Artillery, May-June 2013 Roth, David M., Artist Profile, Art Ltd, Nov/Dec, 2008 _____. “Robert Ortbal @JayJay” SquareCylinder.com, December 15, 2010 Sylva, Bob. “Vision, unclouded.”, Sacramento Bee, December 2, 2007 Vaughn, Michael J. “Deck the Walls”, The Wave Magazine, December, 2005

Selected Catalogs: Chronologically Arranged Lattice, University Art Gallery, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA, 2012, Text by David M. Roth and Robert Ortbal Benign: Growth and Neglect, Weigand Gallery, Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA, 2009 Text by Paul Bridenbaug, DeWitt Cheng, Maw Shein Win untold wrinkles, JayJay, Sacramento, CA, 2007, Text by Diana L. Daniels Eureka, The Eureka Fellowship Awards 2002-20004, University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Text by Constance M. Lewallen Being There: 45 Oakland Artists, The Oakland Museum of California, 2002, Text by Philip Linhares Knowing You, Knowing Me, The Lab, San Francisco, CA 2000, Text by Dean Smith, Behind One’s Eyes, Gallery 1078, Chico, CA 1998, Text by Lisa Martel and Mary Stump Between Red and Green, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, 1996, Text by Sheila D. Pickett as above, so below, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA 1995, Text by Jeff Nathanson, Sandra Rodgers and Timothy T. Taylor

Fellowships - Artists Residency’s - Awards: 2009 2004 2001 1992 1990

Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco, CA Sculpture Space, Utica, NY Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Edgecomb, ME Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

r o b e rt ortbal

Hemisphere Sculpture and Drawings November 5 - December 14, 2013

University Library Gallery Annex California State University, Sacramento 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819 Contact: 916.278.4189 All text and essays Copyright ÂŠ University Library Gallery Renny Pritikin and Dean Smith All artwork Copyright ÂŠ Robert Ortbal Used by permission only. All rights reserved Design Katheryn Starbuck Printed by Reprographics Services, Sacramento State

Cover: detail - Motes, Specks and other Moments II- pg 6

California State University, Sacramento

Alexander Gonzalez, President Charles W. Gossett, Interim Provost Edward S. Inch, Dean, College of Arts and Letters

University Library Gallery

Phil Hitchcock, Gallery Director Leslie Rivers, Assistant to the Director

Department of Art

Pattaratorn Chirapravati

Rachel Clarke

Andrew Connelly

Sarah Flohr

Dan Frye

Ian Harvey

Phil Hitchcock

Tom Monteith

Elaine Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien

Robert Ortbal

Scott Parady

Catherine Turrill, Dept. Chair

Robert Ortbal wishes to extend a special thank you to Phil Hitchcock for his invitation to show in the gallery, Leslie Rivers for her assistance with the numerous details that went into mounting the show, Katheryn Starbuck for her keen eye and help with the catalog, Kevin Ptak for his help lighting the work and at ASL where most of the work was created and as always Mary and Hank.