Embodiment: The Figure in Art
Embodiment: The Figure in Art Claire Burbridge . Melinda Cootsona . Chris Gwaltney . Dennis Hare . Devorah Jacoby Gretchen Jane Mentzer . Waldemar Mitrowski . Nancy Nelson
Embodiment: The Figure in Art Claire Burbridge . Melinda Cootsona . Chris Gwaltney . Dennis Hare . Devorah Jacoby Gretchen Jane Mentzer . Waldemar Mitrowski . Nancy Nelson Exhibition: August 1 - August 30, 2015 Reception for the Artists: Saturday, August 8, 5:30 - 7:30 pm Front Cover: Nancy Nelson, Spectre 5, oil on canvas, 18 x 18 in Back Cover: Waldemar Mitrowski, Pink Room, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 in Photo Credits Claire Burbridge: Bronze pieces: Robert Jaffe Claire Burbridge: Resin: Ian Skelton Devorah Jacoby: Charles Kennard Gretchen Jane Mentzer: Craig Kolb Waldemar Mitrowski: Fred Cushing Nancy Nelson: Jay Daniels, Black Cat Studios Catalog Design: Seager Gray Gallery Direct all inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 108 Throckmorton Ave. Mill Valley, CA 94941 415.384.8288 art@seagergray.com
The human figure in art whether it is a stick figure or a fully articulated portrait evokes in the viewer a more physical relationship to the work simply because we ourselves are figures. If the figure is long and lean like a Giacometti, we feel that stretch in our bodies. If it is dense and heavy like a Botero or a Henry Moore, the weight is as much felt as it is seen. A patch of yellow light on a shoulder warms our own. When the figure is abstracted or positioned in an undefined space it has the power to touch on more metaphysical concerns – loneliness, entrapment, freedom, solitude, mortality. . . The works in this exhibition engage us in both the rich language of abstraction and in the mysteries of the human condition In keeping with the gallery’s tradition of seeking expressions in a variety of media, we brought in the work of Scottish artist Claire Burbridge. Burbridge casts primal figures within a block of clear resin. The figures are golden and transparent. In Halocline, the figure appears to be reaching upward as from the bottom of a deep sea. In Burbridge’s bronze work, Fraternal Twins the two small bronze figures clasp their knees replicating a fetal position, yet the forms appear adult. The artist has brilliantly conveyed the connection between the two, begun in the womb in shared space. In Bronze I, a figure is suspended arms stretched downward both flying and falling. Melinda Cootsona’s canvases continue the Bay Area tradition of the figure as a form to hold rich beautiful paint. Cootsona captures her subjects in private contemplative moments, the brightness of light and coolness of shadows as much a subject of the painting as the sense of intimacy and quiet reflection. Chris Gwaltney’s large Summer Solstice is a celebration in color with bright reds, purples and aquas. Two figures appear to be walking away toward the background while a pair of legs are drawn in the upper right entering the canvas, walking forward. Something is happening here - a story is unfolding. Gwaltney’s 2014 exhibition heralding his return to the figure often presented painterly reflections on the empty nest as his children moved toward adulthood while the artist was left at home to reflect the next stages of his life.
Dennis Hare doesn’t just paint canvases, he builds them. The process is a highly physical one. A gifted painter with a keen eye for gesture and setting, Hare has an ever-increasing interest in surface. At first, he was building up layers of paint, finding his own authenticity in this representation of reality - not glossy and smooth, but rough and textured. He then began to improvise ways of incorporating more objects into the work. The results are meaty paintings, transforming even every-day events into the complex accumulation of random patterns that converge at every moment. Devorah Jacoby’s powerful Against the Wall is as intense as her Woman with Dog is serene – one a graphic, nearly mythical representation of a man stripped down and confronting difficulty, the other a moment’s respite from the often psychologicallycharged issues Jacoby tackles so fearlessly in her paintings. Gretchen Jane Mentzer’s sculptural wall installation, Passage II illustrates this artist’s remarkable innovation with materials. Ten figures made from wax paper, concrete, gypsum, fiber and paint ascend a wall. The lower figures are darker with their limbs bound tightly at their side. As you move up the column, the figures become brighter, their arms defining themselves and finally lifting toward the sky. Classically trained at the Academy of Fine Art in Krakow, Poland, Waldemar Mitrowski is a virtuoso painter who can move from deeply guttural expressions to the most subtle and delicate renderings. Mitrowski came to the Bay Area in the mid eighties and has been included in exhibitions of the newest generations of Bay Area Figurative painters. The paintings are richly layered with surfaces that move from gritty and coarse to whisper smooth and translucent. Nancy Nelson’s figures are shapes in abstract plains, fully integrated into the painting. Their ambiguity as figures allows the viewer to experience the language of abstraction from within the painting. The effect is wordlessly poignant. The paintings, orchestrations of shapes and textures are mysterious and deeply gratifying.
Claire Burbridge Fragment #4
16.5 x 4.5 x 8.25 in (41.91 x 11.43 x 20.95 cm) lost wax, pigment, clear casting resin
Claire Burbridge
Claire Burbridge Halocline
11 x 10 x 7.5 in (27.94 x 25.4 x 19.05 cm) lost wax, pigment, clear casting resin
Claire Burbridge Fraternal Twins
6 x 4 x 4.5 in (15.24 x10.16 x 11.43 cm) bronze pair
Claire Burbridge Bronze I
23 x 11 x 2 in (58.42 x 27.94 x 5.08 cm) bronze
Melinda Cootsona
Melinda Cootsona Yellow Dress
27 x 27 in (68.58 x 68.58 cm) oil on canvas (left)
Melinda Cootsona Between the Lines,
36 x 31 in (91.44 x 78.74 cm) oil on canvas (right)
Melinda Cootsona Improv
42 x 40 in (106.68 x 101.6 cm) oil on canvas (left)
Melinda Cootsona Echo
16 x 16 in (40.64 x 40.64 cm) oil on canvas (right)
Chris Gwaltney Summer Solstice
80 x 60 in (203.2 x 152.4 cm) oil on canvas (right)
Chris Gwaltney
Dennis Hare Holiday
24 x 18 in (203.2 x 152.4 cm) oil and mixed media on canvas
Dennis Hare
Dennis Hare La Playa
48 x 36 in (121.92 x 91.44 cm) oil and mixed media on canvas
Devorah Jacoby
Devorah Jacoby Against the Wall
72 x 60 in (182.88 x 152.4 cm) oil on canvas (left)
Devorah Jacoby Woman with Dog
30 x 24 in (76.2 x 60.96 cm) oil on canvas (right)
Gretchen Jane Mentzer
Gretchen Jane Mentzer Passage II
83 x 8 x 4 in (210.82 x 20.32 x 10.16 cm) wax paper, concrete, gypsum, fiber and paint (detail on right)
Waldemar Mitrowski Content
73 x 54 in (185.42 x 137.16 cm) oil on canvas
Waldemar Mitrowski
Waldemar Mitrowski Game
12 x 12 in (30.48 x 30.48 cm) oil on canvas
Waldemar Mitrowski Pink Room
10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.32 cm) oil on canvas
Nancy Nelson
Nancy Nelson Spectre 5
18 x 18 in (45.72 x 45.72 cm) oil and mixed media on panel
Nancy Nelson Spectre 12
24 x 24 in (60.96 x 60.96 cm) oil and mixed media on panel