Powder
& Smoke
Powder & SMOKE Gale Antokal Raquel Baldocchi Agelio Batle Kay Bradner Joe Brubaker Lia Cook Melinda Cootsona Elisabett Gudmann Katina Huston Nancy Legge Jann Nunn Emily Payne Alexander Rohrig Jane Rosen Kirk H. Slaughter Helen Stanley Sanjay Vora
Powder & SMOKE Exhibition Dates: August 1 - August 30, 2017 Reception for the Artists: Saturday, August 5, 5:30 to 7:30 Front Cover: Gale Antokal, Place 12 (detail), chalk, flour, powdered graphite and ash on paper, 30 x 44 in Back Cover: Helen Stanley, Madrone Litter (detail), casein on clayboard panel, 24 x 48 in Photo Credits: Agelio Batle: John Wilson White Joe Brubaker: Tim Karjalainen Nancy Legge: Charles Kennard Alexander Rohrig: Scotty McDonald Helen Stanley: Jay Daniels All others taken by the artist
Curated by Donna Seager and Suzanne Gray Direct inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 108 Throckmorton Avenue Mill Valley, CA 94941 415.384.8288 www.seagergray.com All Rights Reserved
Powder & SMOKE Seager Gray Gallery presents Powder and Smoke, an exhibition of works emanating from the achromatic colors black and white - literally colors without hue. The variations of these tones are astounding, from dark inky blacks with their complete absorption of light to veil-like washes of white and grey. Although the palette is restrained, the variation in media is not. The exhibition includes works on paper, canvas, wood, bronze, textile, stone, charred wood, stainless steel, clay and more. Included are works by Gale Antokal, Raquel Baldocchi, Agelio Batle, Kay Bradner, Joe Brubaker, Lia Cook, Melinda Cootsona, Tim Craighead, Elisabett Gudmann, Katina Huston, Nancy Legge, Jann Nunn, Emily Payne, Alexancer Rohrig, Jane Rosen, Kirk Slaughter, Helen Stanley and Sanjay Vora. Together the works are a study in dark and light creating an elegant presentation not to be missed.
Gale Antokal Place 12, 2010
chalk, flour, powdered graphite and ash on paper 30 x 44 in
Gale Antokal The drawings of Gale Antokal are made with mixtures of white chalk, graphite, flour and ash. Personal history is always present in her artwork, whether straightforward or oblique. This first hand experience might not be the subject matter itself, but a filter through which the artist perceives her subjects. “I am preoccupied with the question of what we leave behind to prove that we have existed,” said the artist. Using photo sources that are original, from books and the Internet as the basis of her work, she constructs a meaning in the work that is not apparent in the photo, in order to anchor memory. Often she situates her work in a place without a vanishing point, with a vague sense of diminution, to further the ambiguity, and create a stateless space, devoid of specific location. “My subjects are in a state of dispersal. They depict natural migration or cultural deportation. Similarly, the materials I use can be brushed away in a moment. These materials, ineffable light dry powders, can be easily dispersed by the slightest movement of air. The finished pieces are vulnerable even after being sprayed with fixative. This is an appropriate metaphor for any culture or life that has potential of being wiped away in a brief historical moment.” Gale Antokal was born in New York, New York, and received her BFA (1980) and MFA from the California College of the Arts in 1984. She is a Professor at San Jose State University in the Department of Art and Art History and Coordinator in the Pictorial area. Antokal held several visiting artist positions and teaching positions including the San Francisco Art Institute, Instructor of Art History at the Lehrhaus Institute, and the American College in Jerusalem. She was an affiliate faculty member in the JSS Italy program in Civita Castellana, Italy in 2015. In 1992 Antokal received a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gale Antokal
Departure 3, 2004
chalk, flour, powdered graphite and ash on paper 44 x 30 in
Raquel Baldocchi Raquel Baldocchi paints with acrylic mixed media on panel, incorporating layers of pigment, glue, paper and drawing material. Working with a variety of materials enables her to create pieces with rich contrasts and subtleties. She refers to the human figure and animal forms as a source of endless visual interest. Her current work seeks to present characters from potentially distant eras and locales set into a modern, abstract construct. She draws inspiration from historical portraits, vintage photographs and family memorabilia. Her great aunt made innumerable scrapbooks filled with charming images of flora, fauna, and illustrations of all types of human interaction, which often influence the content of her paintings. She is continually drawn to stories and images of incidents, both real and imagined, and strives to recreate some sense of the wonder she feels when considering the lives of the characters depicted in her work. Raquel Baldocchi received her BFA in Printmaking from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco in 1980. She was a part of the Fine Arts Faculty at University High School in San Francisco from 1984 to 1995. Raquel Baldocchi Max, 2017 mixed media 40 x 40 in
Raquel Baldocchi Adele, 2017
mixed media 40 x 40 in
Agelio Batle
Vapor Figure, 2017
handmade graphite paint, acrylic on book boards 64 x 80 in
Agelio Batle Agelio Batle is a multi-discipline artist adept at shifting between practices in sculpture, painting, installation and performance art as well as craft and design. His interest in material investigative work stems from his background in both the sciences and the arts, having earned a BA in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1986) and a Masters degree in Fine Art from the California College of the Arts with High Honors (1993). His early ceramic work was chosen by New York’s American Craft Museum to represent the best work in the country by artists under thirty years old in their Young Americans exhibition. His work has since been featured in galleries and museums and across the United States, including the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Corcoran Museum in Washington DC and in American Craft Council Shows in Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta and many other cities. Recently, he has completed residencies at The Workshop Residence in San Francisco and Tbilisi, Georgia.
Agelio Batle
Womb, 2017
handmade graphite paint, acrylic on book boards 9.5 x 9.5 in
___________
Reflecting Pool, 2017
handmade graphite paint, acrylic on book boards 9.5 x 9.5 in
Kay Bradner
3 Seagulls, 2017
scratchboard and ink 11 x 14 in
Kay Bradner Kay Bradner has shown with the gallery since its inception in 2005. She is known for her paintings on aluminum uniquely infomed by her background as a master printmaker. Highly respected for her skills in that area, Bradner has been essential in helping many artists achieve remarkable works. They include Joseph Goldyne, Gary Bukovnik, Mark Adams, Beth Van Hoesen, Michael Mazur and Matt Phillips. In 1974, Bradner established Katherine Lincoln Press in San Francisco. The press was named for her grandmother whom she admired greatly. Bradner was born in Foxboro, Massachusetts. She attended Oregon State University where she studied geology. She soon realized that it was not just the “logic” of landscapes that engaged her, but the beauty of them – in her words, “Beauty informed by logic.” She turned her focus to making art. She received her Masters in Fine Art from the CCAC (California College of Arts and Crafts) in 1975. Bradner has taught at at CCAC, UC Davis and The San Francisco Art Institute. Bradner grew up on a pond and has always been enchanted by nature and water. These three seagulls by the waterside were drawn in reverse : white lines on a solid black surface. The white clay base of the scratchboard was revealed when a thin layer of black india ink was scraped away with a needle.
3
Joe Brubaker Joe Brubaker carves wood and assembles
found materials to create figurative and abstract sculptures that reflect his concerns with time and the ongoing process of loss and discovery. He transforms shape into object, bringing it into our physical space. In “Dark Moon I,” Brubaker presents an elegant assemblage of shapes and found objects. This homage to Louise Nevelson brings Brubaker’s own developed sensibilities into the mix. Brubaker paints the raw wood and then hand rubs it with powdered graphite. He drills holes into some of the elements, creating negative space that pulls the viewer deeper into the work. In others he curves the pieces both from side to side and from the surface inward, further enhancing the feeling of the final piece as a rich playground for the eye. Joe Brubaker was born in Lebanon, Missouri and raised in Southern California. He received his B.A. from Sacramento State University, then attended UCLA where he earned his MA and MFA. From 1980 to 1988 he lectured in Art and Design at UCLA, as well as at Long Beach State from 1982 to 1984. In 1987 Joe moved with his wife and two children to the San Francisco Bay Area. He continued to teach as an Art and Design lecturer at both San Francisco State from 1989 to 1994 and Academy of Art College from 1989 to 1997. He retired from teaching in 1997 to begin full time work on his own sculpture.
Joe Brubaker
Dark Moon 1, 2017
cedar, black paint, rubbed graphite 53 x 53 x 6 in
Joe Brubaker
Dark Moon 3 , 2017
cedar, black paint, rubbed graphite 20 x 16 x 3 in
Lia Cook Lia Cook is a visual artist who combines weaving, painting, photography and digital technology to create her work. Cook’s work attempts to shatter restrictive theories about craft, art, science and technology. Her focus is on the history and meaning of textiles in all cultures and its impact on our humanity. Binary Traces: Young Girl is a perfect addition to Powder and Smoke because the artist is working entirely with dark and light cotton thread. Her mastery of the weaving medum coupled with the use of digital photography has allowed her to capture wisps of hair shining in the light along with the shadows in the contours of the face in this candid photo of a young girl. Cook combines digital technology and traditional influences in her work using the Jacquard loom and other innovative processes. Her cutting edge work blurs the distinctions between the traditionally disparate media of computer technology, weaving, painting, and photography. Using personal portraiture as a visual base, Cook’s work lingers on the edge of intimate and monumental. Lia Cook is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including several NEA grants, the California Arts Council Fellowship, and the Flintridge Foundation Fellowship. Her work is in the permanent collections of major international museums including the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the American Museum of Art and Design, NYC; the Metropolitan Museum, NYC; and the French National Collection of Art, Paris.
Lia Cook
Binary Traces: Young Girl, 2017 woven cotton 68 x 48 in
Melinda Cootsona Melinda Cootsona might be considered the Intimiste of abstract figuration. Her paintings are reminiscent of Bonnard and Vuillard in their depiction of private intimate moments in a personal life and world. They are depictions of everyday life often featuring a single figure. Her colors are soft and creamy with pleasing contrasts. Cootsona received her BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1981 and was an instructor at the Academy of Art in San Francisco in 1991 and 1992. Since 2001, her workshops in painting have been enthusiastically attended. Melinda has been exhibiting since 2001 when she showed her monoprints at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art and was included in the Triton Museum’s “Alliance of Visual Art.” Since then she has shown at galleries in Georgia, New Mexico and throughout California. She has shown with Seager Gray Gallery since 2012 and is always a favorite among collectors.
Melinda Cootsona
Girls in White Dresses V, 2016 oil and cold wax on canvas 36 x 33 in
Melinda Cootsona
Girls in White Dresses III, 2016
oil and cold wax on canvas 20 x 20 in
Elisabett Gudmann Night/Day, 2017
acid etched metal, chemical patinas, charred wood 32 x 48 x 3 in
Elisabett Gudmann Elisabett Gudmann is a Northern California based artist focused on creating works infused with color, texture, and form. While most widely recognized for her metal wall pieces, she is also an accomplished sculptor and often creates 3-dimensional works with her partner, Kirk H. Slaughter. ​ METAL WALL PIECES: The complex and physically demanding process involves laboriously etching the metal to create detailed surface textures and imagery in relief. Unique and intricate patina colors are achieved by working with a variety of caustic chemicals, layering colors and often employing a reductive technique. Mostly conceptual in nature, her imagery evolves through layered complexity and evokes references to natural and manmade environments. Influences of abstract expressionism infuse her work, striking a balance between the abstract and the recognizable. Her most recent work incorporates the ancient Japanese technique of Shou Sugi Ban, the charring of wood to preserve it against the elements. The artists are drawn to the gorgeous, deeply textured and rich black color, contrasting the refined, smooth surfaces of the metal with the textured and stacked charred wood.
Elisabett Gudmann Meditations, 2017
acid etched metal, chemical patinas, charred wood 72 x 32 x 4 in
Katina Huston
Katina Huston is a mixed media visual artist working in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received a B.A. in the History of Fine Arts from New York University and earned a Masters of Fine Arts from Mills College in Oakland, California. Ms. Huston started life as an art historian and sculptor. She is best known for a body of drawings of shadows. Her work is in the collections of the San Francisco Fine Art Museums, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Steve Wynn, Visa International, Charles Schwab, Clay Museum of Art, Charlestown, WV, Grand Hyatt, New York, Yale University Gallery, New Haven, Ct. Ms. Huston’s articles and reviews on contemporary art have been published in Artweek, New Art Examiner, Ceramics Monthly, New Mission News, Art and Conversations, Sgraffitto and Visions, Art Quarterly. She is occasionally on faculty at California College of the Arts in the graduate fine arts area, and other Colleges and Universities. Bends but Doesn’t Break is a study in patterns upon patterns. Using her usual medium of drawing the shadows of forms onto mylar, Huston painted the patterns of what appears to be bamboo shoots onto mylar, breaking the painted whole up into squares that she mounted onto a panel. Intermittently and sometimes upon the squares of the drawn plant, she created additional patterns of perfect circles in silver and white, giving the whole a pleasing orchestration of sensations. Katina Huston
Bends but Doesn’t Break, 2017 oil and acrylic on mylar 48 x 36 in
Nancy Legge
Muir II (Scottish: Moor Dweller 2016 bronze
Nancy Legge Over 33 years ago, artist Nancy Legge first encountered the Stones of Callanish, the 5000 year old circle of stone in Scotland. She saw the monoliths as elusively figurative and they became the primary inspiration for her ongoing series of widely collected clay and bronze sculpture. Her navigations in the space between figuration and abstraction yielded a body of work characterized by mystery, power and grace. Legge’s figures look like they would be at home in such ancient environs. They appear to have risen up from the primordial soup or willed themselves into being out of the pliant clay fashioned by the artist’s hands. Legge’s fragmented and totemic sculptures take full advantage of the paradoxical quality of clay such as its humble relationship to the earth, its mutability and its durable yet fragile fired state. In her focused interaction with her materials, she has arrived at that stripped down stark impact that struck her when seeing those monolithic stones so many years before. What remains are the most primal aspects of the human condition – growth and decay, fragility and resiliency and the hope of transcendence. Legge studied at Pratt, the New York Studio School and finally the National Academy of Design, where the opportunity to work consistently with models led to her to the realization that the figure and sculpture was to be her chosen direction.
Nancy Legge
Erik (English: Brave Ruler), 2017
porcelain, iron 11 x 2 x 1.5 in ---------------------------------------
Rune (Norse: Secret Lore), 2017
porcelain, 8.5 x 1.75 x 1.25 in
Jann Nunn Tusk, 2017
hand-cut archival microprint paper, bronze, charred white ash, stainless steel 25 x 36 x 8 in
Jann Nunn The content driven artwork of Jann Nunn primarily takes the form of sculpture, large-scale sculptural installations, and works on paper engendering both conceptual and poetic sensibilities. Copious research and gut instinct- a marriage of head and heart- inform the decisions in each of her site-related, site-specific, situation-responsive projects. Not unlike words in a poem, material selection along with scale and presentation become greater than the sum of their often-unrelated parts. Every aspect and implication of material usage is carefully considered and specifically relates to the work’s content and context. Nunn uses a variety of materials including welded steel and stainless steel, cast bronze, glass, lead, fiberglass, paper and wood. She has held a life-long penchant for repurposed materials. Frequently disparate materials are employed in a single work to accentuate duality, tension or evoke multifarious interpretations. She leaves no stone unturned in her quest to symbolically convey personal, political or spiritual manifestations with authenticity and relevance. Nunn says, “The driving force behind my work resides in conjoining idea and aesthetic. Often described as a draw-you-in kind of beautiful, my art embodies a strong physical presence with carefully considered and often laborious craft, yet the ideas remain paramount.� Jann Nunn has exhibited her work, lectured and held residencies nationally and internationally since 1987. She has a BFA degree from University of Alaska Anchorage, attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and earned an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently a Professor of Sculpture at Sonoma State University.
Jann Nunn
Tusk (detail), 2017
hand-cut archival microprint paper, bronze, charred white ash, stainless steel 25 x 36 x 8 in
Emily Payne
Loop Diptych, 2017 graphite on book boards 36 x 54 in
Emily Payne As a sculptor and former book artist, Emily Payne likes to take apart old books and mine them for their parts. She finds her books in dumpsters or in the discard pile in local libraries. She recycles the books, once functioning primarily as containers for words, and transforms them into a combination of two- and three- dimensional collaged and sculptural works. In Loop Diptych, she cut and reassembled the rectangular book covers into a puzzle-like form that she glued together as her “canvas.” An extension of Payne’s highly successful exhibition, Heave Heft/Weave Weft in the gallery in February, Loop Diptych plays with concepts of shadow and light. Restricting herself to the cream and tans of the inside boards of the books and painstaking drawing in graphite, the artist plays with our perceptions. The coiled “loop” appears as light superimposed upon variations of shadow. The effect is multidimensional and enormously pleasing. Payne’s ingenious work with book boards and book covers began when she received her MFA in printmaking and book arts at San Francisco State University. She found herself continually drawn to the materials as sculpture and began to assemble them in ways that celebrated their innate qualities while forming a surface she could draw and paint upon. At the same time she was creating work with wire, and became fascinated with the way 3-dimensional objects enliven the environment they inhabit. Her concern was about relationships - between the work and the environment, between one work and another as well as the juxtaposition of space, shadow and light created by the whole. The combination of the two media merges in works like Loop Diptych, where the artist is able to create the impression of the object directly on the patterned surface.
Emily Payne
Loop Diptych,(detail), 2017
graphite on book boards 36 x 54 in
Alexander Rohrig Alexander Rohrig lives and works in magnificent surroundings in the mountains in San Gregorio. After completing his education at the University of California in Santa Cruz, Rohrig took a position as studio assistant to artist and sculptor Jane Rosen in 2009 on her ranch, a beautiful natural preserve high in the California mountains. Under Rosen’s tutelage and with his daily practice of drawing from these extraordinary surroundings, Rohrig developed a drawing style and vision all his own. He was featured in three exhibitions in 2015 and was the subject of an article in Works and Conversation, an insightful chronicle of California art and artists published and written by Richard Whittaker. Earlier this year, Rohrig had a one person exhibition in Gallery 3 that showed his versatility in both painting and sculpture.
In his sculpture, Rohrig works minimally and intuitively. He loves the physicality of the materials and the pleasure of touching things. His ingeniously simple stone and marble animal sculptures are put together often times from left over materials. He assembles the works and with a few lines or chipped in textures somehow unerringly gets at the nature of the animal. His Oak Tree combines spackling compound, ink and charcoal to illustrate the textural quality of nature and the play of dark and light.
Alexander Rohrig
California Quail, 2017 limestone and ink 11.5 x 2.5 x 8.75 in
Alexander Rohrig Oak Tree, 2013
spackling compound, ink and charcoal on wood board 24 x 24 in
Jane Rosen
Raphael, Leonardo, 2017
handpainted etching with lithography
44 x 30 in
Jane Rosen
New York native, Jane Rosen studied at New York University and then the Art Student’s League in the early 70s. She recalls going often to the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum studying the falcon-headed God Horus, God of the sky. Birds appear in her work as early as that same decade, in the form of abstracted wall-hung heads, which evolved gradually into freestanding figures in the ‘80s. She became interested in raptors through staying with a friend who ran a raptor rescue center in upstate New York, even requiring her students to ‘adopt’ one the birds and help care for it—and draw it--as part of a class requirement. During what was intended to be a sabbatical break, she crossed the country to live for a few months on a friend’s horse ranch near San Gregorio, a few miles south of the Bay Area. In this area of extraordinary natural beauty, she found herself watching the birds—the hawks that wheel and float on the currents of warm and cool air that rise from the ground at different times of day, the ravens and crows, the darting swallows. For a decade she shuttled back and forth between both coasts, but finally sold her NY loft to settle on her own California ranch. Rosen was selected by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for inclusion in their Annual Invitational in New York in 2010 and again in 2015. This prestigious exhibition is juried by some of the greatest artists of our time. A masterful and sought after teacher, Rosen has taught at numerous elite institutions including the School of Visual Arts and Bard College in New York, LaCoste School of the Arts in France, Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. Rosen’s work has been reviewed in the New York Times, ArtForum, Art in America, and Art News. She has been exhibited across the United States and is in numerous public and private collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Aspen Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Chevron Corporation, the collection of Grace Borgenicht, JP Morgan Chase Bank, the Luso American Foundation, the Mallin Collection, the Mitsubishi Corporation, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Jane Rosen
Pescadero Bird, 2017
painted limestone
15.5 x 7 x 8 in
Kirk H. Slaughter & Elisabett Gudmann Passages, 2017
marine grade stainless steel and charred wood 84 x 26 x 22 in
Kirk H. Slaughter and Elisabett Gudmann The sculptures by the collaborative duo of Kirk H. Slaughter and Elisabett Gudmann transcend the starker aesthetics of minimalism by combining a clean architectural context with sensual sophistication. Through a delicate balance of form and content, the clean lines and smooth surfaces reflect a masculine strength while at the same time maintaining a feminine sensibility. The work is precise, bold, and immaculate in execution. They play with movement, contrasting angles and varying planes; often juxtaposing colors, materials and textures. Their most recent work incorporates the ancient Japanese technique of Shou Sugi Ban, the charring of wood to preserve it against the elements. Historically used for exterior wood applications, the charred wood naturally resists rot, fire, and insects, and is designed for outdoor environments. The artists are drawn to the gorgeous, deeply textured and rich black color, contrasting the refined,smooth surfaces of the metal with the textured and stacked charred wood. Gudmann and Slaughter, a couple, take different approaches to their creative endeavors and have merged their diverse talents, styles and skills to create this body of work. They collaborate throughout the entire process in their combined studio, from conception and construction to completion. Slaughter conducted formal studies at the Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN, and the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, and currently lives and works in Northern California.
Helen Stanley
Madrone Litter, 2012 casein on clayboard panel
24 x 48 in
Helen Stanley Helen Stanley’s individual style, keen sense of observation and love of process have long distinguished her work. She has been widely exhibited in many galleries including the prestigious Paula Anglim Gallery and William Sawyer Gallery in San Francisco and the Susan Cummins Gallery in Mill Valley. She received a Life Work award by the Marin Arts council and was given a retrospective show at the Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California. Journalist Nancy Ellis once wrote that Stanley’s “evocative works come to the viewer through her unerring eye, impeccable hand and generous heart.” Stanley grew up in Farmington, New Mexico. After graduating with honors from the San Francisco Art Institute, she would go on to an award-winning career as an artist with numerous solo shows and group expeditions. She was featured in a KQED public television special titled “For All Seasons.” At the same time, she taught painting and drawing to generations of students at the Art Institute and at San Francisco City College. After 33 years in the classroom, she recently retired from teaching to pursue her artistic vision full-time.
Helen Stanley
Eclipse, 2011
graphite and watercolor on clayboard 18 x 14 in ---------------------------------------
Lilies, 2011
graphite and watercolor on clayboard 18 x 14 in
Sanjay Vora
Untitled (Home Videos London), 2015 oil, acrylic and gel medium on panel 48 x 60 in
Sanjay Vora Sanjay Vora’s work is born of reflection, derived from a lived American life as well as a cultural heritage rooted in East Indian traditions and music. Born in New Jersey into a musical Indian family, both his music and art have been strongly influenced by his bicultural upbringing as well as the surrounding rural American landscapes of his childhood. In addition to an undergraduate degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia in 2002, Vora obtained an MFA in Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005. Vora’s practice at present is to create a distinct and mimetic vision (based largely upon photographs), which lies mostly beneath, but also at times amongst and over the layers of veiling. The painted veiling serves as a mediating function between the “then” and “now”, as the tender representational painting recedes and arises re-constructed into visions of a dream-like quality of the world. As he covers and obscures the initial painting, he enacts a process of retrieval. In particular pieces, this process repeats upon itself.
Sanjay Vora
Snowball Fight, 2005
oil, acrylic and gel medium on panel 58 x 46 inn