Artist:
Kyle Milligan

Show Description:
As Milligan was the artist in residence at Studio Quercus, this was a multifaceted show, offering a formally presented gallery exhibit along with a more casual invitation to part the curtains and enter Milligan’s workshop, where more sculptures will be displayed among the artist’s assortment of tools and industrial machinery.

The work itself is by turns whimsical, physical, intricate, and heavy. In many instances, it’s all of the above.

Whimsy comes through frequently in the mashing together of unexpected shapes, and in the humorous characterization of body parts. Similarly, names of many of the pieces were plucked from medical manuals, and are like clues that may lead to either an appreciative laugh or a scratch of the head. In the past, Milligan studied and practiced Traditional Chinese Medicine, which in part explains his fascination and familiarity with anatomy and medical terminology.

Physicality is plain to see, to the point where some visitors to the gallery are likely to find body parts where none were meant to be seen. (In his artist’s statement, Milligan reminds us that sometimes a flower really is just a flower.) To make up for such instances, there are also some rather saucy physical references that are all but impossible to pick out. So, there is no getting around the fact that human anatomy is a big part of Milligan’s work. As a case in point, on one piece, several breasts of eye brow−raising proportion appear to belong to an octopus-like agglomeration of firehoses. Milligan titled this one “Country Club Attire.”

The intricacy of the work comes not just from convoluted concepts, but also from delicate smaller pieces, some cast in iron, that suggest a deep appreciation for the Arabesque while also demonstrating Milligan’s great skill with a scroll saw.

As for the heaviness of the work, that’s meant quite literally. Some of these pieces are big, and extremely dense. One, consisting largely of molded plaster, weighs in at over 900 pounds. The studio purchased a forklift in order to move some of the works from the back workshop to the front gallery, a distance of perhaps 20 feet.

Read a review of this show on the Press page.

Artists:
Susan Danis—assemblage; Mieko Hara—mixed media collage; Daniel Healey—collage; John Hundt—collage; Clint Imboden—assemblage; Stephen Keyton—assemblage; David King—collage; Michael Mew—digital mixed media collage; Catie O’Leary—collage; Sarah Ratchye—collage paintings; Inez Storer—mixed media collage; Tag Team (Tim Sharman & Walter Robinson)—collaborative mixed media collage

Show Description:
Curated by Jamie Brunson

Reclamation: New Trends in Bay Area Collage and Assemblage included selections by regional artists who have introduced fresh content and technique into the practice of cut-paper collage and found object assemblage, injecting these traditions with new vitality and possibilities. 

Reclamation highlighted new approaches to process and content including digitalization, collaboration, abstraction, and politicization. While some of these methods extend the working processes that have conventionally been used to fabricate collage and assemblage, others influence the content in this contemporary work. 

Jamie Brunson is a painter, teacher, critic and independent curator. She studied painting at the California College of the Arts (BFA, 1978) and at Mills College (MFA, 1983). As an independent curator, Brunson focuses on presenting the work of lesser-known or emerging artists in conjunction with work by established, mature artists to underscore the equivalences in their work. She also looks for patterns of ideological or thematic connection within the regional arts community. Brunson believes that working artists often have access to, and recognize, accomplished artists who have been overlooked by the commercial art establishment. She uses her curatorial practice to bring these artists to the forefront, by creating a context for their work.

Photos of Show: Philip Ringler

Artists:
Alex Carabella, Barbara Morris, Emil Barber, Fred Kling, Gael Fitzmaurice, Greg Goodman, Greg Piatt, Jeff Carr, Jerry Doty, Jill Ringler, KG Greenstein, Lana Kai, Nathaniel Parsons, Philip Ringler, Robert Murray, Rudy Drat, Scott Leddy, Susan Casentini, Tim Englert, Tim Sharman, Valerie Kim, William Rose

Show Description:
An exhibition and installation featuring art, artifacts and ephemera. A wholly unprepared public is invited to step into a Thatched Refuge for exotic imagery and terrifying carved figures that only monsoon-addled minds could dream up. It is a celebration of Tiki in America: a volcanic admixture of anthropology and overactive imaginations, a lava-flow of creativity, a symphonic din of exotic birds and ukuleles, a manageable mob of hand-hewn moai and taboo totems, and all the coconut curiosities you could ever hope to see. 

Photos of Show: Philip Ringler

Artist:
Alex Jackson

Show Description:
Alex Jackson's recent paintings and drawings play with the idea of substitution- the selective replacement or framing of chaotic natural textures with simplified orderly patterns and decoration. This replacement is analogous to the unconscious imposition of order and aesthetic value that we exert in the process of reading and understanding our world.

Photos of Show: Philip Ringler

Curated by:
Tim Sharman and Jack Ford

Show Description:
An exhibition of prints spanning 60 years of printmaking from the print shop at the California College of the Arts—formerly known as the California College of Arts and Crafts. Examples of lithography, intaglio, relief and screen printing will be on display. Over the years, the CCA(C) print shop has seen many students and teachers using the presses to create images to remember. This survey is a celebration of that long history of creativity. Curated by CCA(C) alumni and instructor Tim Sharman and CCA(C) alumni and professor Jack Ford, this exhibition honors the traditional craft of printmaking.

Photos of Show: Philip Ringler

Artist:
Joy Broom

Show Description:
Joy Broom describes her art pieces as “Insect Specimen Boxes.” They are that, certainly, and more. Her dioramic art, which combines natural and fabricated elements—including actual insect specimens, combined with her own paintings and pen drawings, preserved in purified beeswax—hearkens back to the cabinets of curiosities popularized by European aristocrats in the 16th and 17th centuries.