Natural Impulse
Abstract Paintings By Joan Weiss & Kathleen King
- When
- Event has passed (Fri Nov 2, 2007 - Sat Dec 1, 2007)
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- Galleries
Description
November 1 - December 1, 2007Opening Reception: Friday, November 2 from 6:00 - 9:00pm (in conjunction with First Friday/Oakland Art Murmur).
Joan Weiss and Kathleen King open an exhibition of new work at Mercury 20 Gallery on October 5th with a reception for the artists from 6:00 - 9:00pm.
In Natural Impulse, Weiss and King focus attention on phenomena observed in nature and in the urban environments where they live. Inspired by processes of change and survival—adaptation, growth, movement, current and flow—the artists discover abstract form through exploration and manipulation of the painted surface. By connecting observation, intuitive process, and artistic risk, each painter has developed a particular vision which produces organic and intimate paintings that continue to expand the possibilities and promise of abstraction.
Kathleen King is an East Bay artist whose work delights the viewer with tangled line, eccentric shape, calligraphic gesture, and emotional color. Recent paintings extend a vocabulary of marks that accrue, interlock, overlap or obscure each other as a dense network of elements is woven. Asymmetrically placed aggregations energize these pictures with a visual syncopation that moves the eye through an expanding and contracting space. Complexity is an important aspect of the content, encouraging the viewer to lose themselves in the experience.
Kathleen King was born in Oakland, CA and graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Studio Art. Her work has been exhibited locally at Pro Arts, Hang Gallery, and 66 Balmy and is represented in numerous private collections.
Coming of age in the 60s, Joan Weiss responded to increasing pollution and destruction of the natural world with dark emotions of grief and anger. The spiritual ethos of the time led her to escape into ecstatic experience and forge a passionate connection to the wilderness. Though early paintings explored minimalist abstraction with a focus on color and geometry, the work eventually evolved as unexpected and chaotic elements from the unconscious -- ghosts, canyons, tree forms—began to appear.
Recent paintings originate from observation of particular places. Weiss photographs or sketches natural phenomena such as water, reflections, hillsides and these studies inform her finished paintings. A series is generated from this source material, as ideas and possibilities are explored. Image transforms into abstraction and new forms and colors develop from the immediate process of painting itself. An inherent rawness in paint and canvas is emphasized in the work, and is related to similar qualities that the artist finds in the natural world, and in her own inner life.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Joan Weiss received a BFA in Painting from the University of Michigan, and an MA in Psychology from Sierra University. She has exhibited her work locally at ACCI, Alameda Center for the Arts, BAC, and other local galleries, and has work in numerous private collections.
Mercury 20 also presents an ongoing group exhibition in its back gallery. The artwork changes monthly and features new work from the gallery artists. Mercury 20 Gallery is an artist-run gallery in the heart of downtown Oakland; part of the emerging arts district in the Broadway/Telegraph corridor.
There will be an opening reception on Friday, October 5th from 6:00 - 9:00 pm in conjunction with First Friday/Oakland Art Murmur. Gallery hours are Friday and Saturday, 12:00 noon - 3:00 pm, or by appointment. For additional information, please contact [email protected] or 510.701.4620.
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