Foster/White Gallery presents the last installation of our Elements series: Elements: Air. The collection features new and existing works by gallery artists. Some interpretations are literal, while others rely on abstracted or symbolic representations of the element.
Shar Coulson, White Wind Woodland Air, mixed media on panel, 18 x 24 inches.
Foster/White Gallery presents the last installation of our Elements series: Elements: Air. The collection features new and existing works by gallery artists. Some interpretations are literal, while others rely on abstracted or symbolic representations of the element.
Eric Louie, Joy Inside, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches.
Taking inspiration from the natural world in their work, many artists gravitated towards depictions of birds in flight, flowing trees, and cloudy skies, selecting photography, painting, or sculpture as their media. Paintings by two new artists to the gallery, Eric Louie and Nicole Katsuras, join artworks by gallery artists in the last installment of the Elements series.
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Working primarily with gouache on brown paper, and sometimes additions such as ink, graphite, charcoal, or collage, James Martin’s figurative scenes are at first glance humorous, with a myriad of characters from parrots, fish, and monkeys to Shakespeare, Picasso, mermaids, and pilots. A closer read reveals how ingenious the artist is, often utilizing the most subtle visual word play, and veering headlong into topics that without his deft hand may feel weighty. Martin's exhibition Taming the Square Mushroom showcases the gallery's current collection, with over 100 works of art on display.
]]>Working primarily with gouache on brown paper, and sometimes additions such as ink, graphite, charcoal, or collage, James Martin’s figurative scenes are at first glance humorous, with a myriad of characters from parrots, fish, and monkeys to Shakespeare, Picasso, mermaids, and pilots. A closer read reveals how ingenious the artist is, often utilizing the most subtle visual word play, and veering headlong into topics that without his deft hand may feel weighty. Martin's exhibition Taming the Square Mushroom showcases the gallery's current collection, with over 100 works of art on display.
The Great Pickle Mystery, gouache on paper, 13 x 15.5 inches
Martin's paintings are shown across the Northwest, including Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; and Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA. James Martin is also the subject of Sheila Farr’s 2001 monograph, James Martin: Art Rustler at the Rivoli. His work is in collections including Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; the Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA; and the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Foster/White Gallery has represented James Martin for nearly four decades.
James Martin passed away on December 15, 2020. He was 92.
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Cody Cobb’s striking photographs communicate the solitude of remote locations, places he seeks to immerse himself in untouched wilderness. The isolation allows him more sensitive observations of the external landscape and his internal experiences within it. Cobb's Spectral series was featured in the June 2023 volume of National Geographic Magazine.
CC4179, archival pigment print, 42 x 56 inches. Also available in 15 x 20 inches and 42 x 54 inches.
Cody Cobb’s striking photographs communicate the solitude of remote locations, places he seeks to immerse himself in untouched wilderness. The isolation allows him more sensitive observations of the external landscape and his internal experiences within it. Cobb's Spectral series was featured in the June 2023 volume of National Geographic Magazine.
CC3513, archival pigment print, 40 x 30 inches. Also available in 20 x 15 inches and 56 x 42 inches.
These photographs reveal a hidden luminescence in the wilderness of the American West. From collapsed lava tubes lines with microbial mats to high elevations where lichens thrive, a strange fluorescence occurs when certain minerals and organic materials are subjected to ultraviolet radiation.
This parallel world is briefly unveiled in the darkness of night with long exposures using an ultraviolet emitting light source. The eerie light that is emitted from these once familiar surfaces transmutes the mundane into something otherworldly. - Cody Cobb
CC2683, archival pigment print, 40 x 30 inches. Also available in 20 x 15 inches and 56 x 42 inches.
Cobb has shown his work across the United States and internationally, including in London, UK; Sydney, Australia, and Moscow, Russia. He has received extensive press coverage including features in Wired, Photograph Magazine, and National Geographic among others. Cobb’s photographs won the International Photography Exhibition Award from the Royal Photographic Society, based in London, UK.
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Bratsa Bonifacho’s paintings draw from the artist’s interest in language, classical music, and dynamic color, and more recently, from his interest in technology and cultural identity. Building off of his previously established visual language, Bonifacho's No Sugar Added series employs a simplified grid structures and code-like symbology that seem to embed messages on their colorful surfaces.
]]>Irrevocabile Verbum, oil and acrylic on canvas, 78 x 78 inches
Bratsa Bonifacho’s paintings draw from the artist’s interest in language, classical music, and dynamic color, and more recently, from his interest in technology and cultural identity. Building off of his previously established visual language, Bonifacho's No Sugar Added series employs a simplified grid structures and code-like symbology that seem to embed messages on their colorful surfaces.
De Facto, oil and acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches
Over his long career, Bonifacho has created work in a variety of media, influenced most significantly by his experience growing up in the midst of WWII and the resulting repercussions on his home of Belgrade. By combining phrases and letters, positive space and negative space, he creates abstract paintings with messages embedded on their surfaces. Beyond social commentary, Bonifacho's paintings are celebrations of color and form, richly saturated or articulately muted.
Lasenka Song, oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
My choice of title No Sugar Added refers to a paring back of frills and unnecessary adornments to reveal the power of simplicity. I have a relationship with each painting which is driven primarily by emotion. This collection picks up from the previous Celebration series, focusing on simplified grid structure and interrupted code-like symbology. However, while the Celebration series focused on an overall presence of white with bright color accents, this collection features rich, deep colors in combinations which reflect mood and intuitive impulse, emphasizing the all-encompassing importance of the present moment. - Bratsa Bonifacho
One Night in Tolbruc, oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Bratsa Bonifacho holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Arts Belgrade, Serbia, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Belgrade School of Architecture, Belgrade, Serbia. Bonifacho's paintings have been shown across North America and internationally. His work is held in many private, corporate and permanent museum collections across the world including the Canadian Embassy in Argentina, the Museum of Modern Art, Serbia, the National Museum of Serbia and JP Morgan Asia, Tokyo, Japan.
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Small Works will focus on small scale works, with the intention of making art more accessible to first time buyers and seasoned collectors alike. Drawing from existing and new pieces by gallery artists, there is something for everyone in this diverse collection of unique artworks.
]]>Left: Ilana Zweschi, Halloo, oil on canvas, 23 x 20 inches
Center: Cody Cobb, Syzygy, archival pigment print, 20 x 16 inches
Right: Shar Coulson, Small Works 73, mixed media on panel, 12 x 12 inches
Small Works focuses on small scale works, with the intention of making art more accessible to first time buyers and seasoned collectors alike. Drawing from existing and new pieces by gallery artists, there is something for everyone in this diverse collection of unique artworks.
Right: Robert Marchessault, Old Taos Sage, oil and acrylic on canvas, 11.75 x 11.25 inches
Right: Rachel Maxi, Letters from the Landscape, oil, gold leaf, beeswax, and sumi on panel, 18.5 x 16 inches
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Stephanie Robison’s Call and Response showcases the transformative nature of sculpture. Creating playfully unique shapes with the materials she uses, Robison’s works are continuously in conversation with one another.
]]>Call and Response, alabaster, wool, 14 x 13 x 5 inches
Stephanie Robison’s Call and Response showcases the transformative nature of sculpture. Creating playfully unique shapes with the materials she uses, Robison’s works are continuously in conversation with one another. By combining traditional stone carving and needle felted wool, two seemingly opposing materials, Robison explores a myriad of different relationships. Using contrasting forms, she intentionally challenges their original nature. By transforming stone and felted wool, Robison’s organic shapes come alive through her labor-intensive process of creation.
One Circle Around the Sun, reclaimed marble, wool, 8 x 12 x 8 inches
Sculpture for me is about tangibility and transformation. Being able to manipulate materials with my hands, transforming it into something else, is an intimate and magical process. The sculptures in this exhibition combine traditional stone carving, and the process of needle felting wool, to explore relationships between form, texture, and color. The title Call & Response is a nod to process; I’m responding to the materials and allowing them to guide me, finding each form through action and reaction. The combination of the physicality of the process and the labor-intensive demands of these materials allows for a focused, slowing down and becomes a mediation on what is happening around and within me. - Stephanie Robison
Missing Link, limestone, wool, 15.5 x 9 x 6 inches
Originally from Oregon, Robison currently resides in California teaching sculpture and serving as Art Department Chair at the City College of San Francisco. Robison holds a BFA from Marylhurst University and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Oregon. Robison's work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions on the west coast in San Francisco, Tacoma, San Jose, Seattle and Portland, as well as in Denver and Kenosha. Pacific Northwest Sculptors Organization awarded Robison 1st prize for their annual group exhibition in 2021.
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Robert Marchessault's work continues to focus on responding to space, form and color in landscapes. Using the genre of landscape, Marchessault references an awareness and concern for our natural ecology. While his work showcases the beauty in the natural world, the stresses are equally evident.
]]>Robert Marchessault's work continues to focus on responding to space, form and color in landscapes. Using the genre of landscape, Marchessault references an awareness and concern for our natural ecology. While his work showcases the beauty in the natural world, the stresses are equally evident.
Marchessault uses a number of techniques, using acrylic and oil paints plus various custom tools, to achieve this. Painting in stages, he uses the energy of his body with expressive movements and gestures to apply the paint in a way that shows natural forces. In the later stages of a work, he slowly goes in with smaller brushes to bring out specific details and textures that contrast with larger spaces.
Departure, oil and acrylic on panel, 12 x 24 inches
This year I spent time in the marine forests along the Atlantic Coast of Georgia. The windswept trees that hold the dunes against the sea excited me. I present some paintings from a new ongoing series exploring this subject. The exhibition title, An Exchange of Forces, implies that the elements composing my paintings cannot be isolated but require a dynamic exchange to achieve my intent.
Typically, I work rapidly during the initial painting stages. I use the energy of my body with expressive movements and gestures to apply the paint in a way that shows natural forces. In the later stages of a work, I slowly go in with smaller brushes to bring out specific details and textures that contrast with larger spaces. - Robert Marchessault
Beach, oil and acrylic on panel, 48 x 96 inches (triptych)
Robert Marchessault received a Visual Arts Diploma from Dawson College, Montreal, QC; a BFA from Concordia University, Montreal, QC; and an MA from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON. His work has been shown internationally including at Gotland Museum, Visby, Sweden, and many galleries across North America. He has received dozens of awards including a Canada Council Travel Grant and has received extensive press coverage. Marchessault’s paintings are in numerous art collections such as 20th Century Fox, Bank of Montreal, Rothschilds Inc, and Royal Bank.
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Julie Himel's Second Nature series is about the natural environment and our current relationship to it. Using both real and imagined places for her inspiration, Himel creates pathways and landscapes that invite the viewer to step into her dreamlike environments. The paintings represent present and future, and presence and absence at once. It is a longing for connection and a call for symbiosis with the natural world around us.
]]>Julie Himel's Second Nature series is about the natural environment and our current relationship to it. Using both real and imagined places for her inspiration, Himel creates pathways and landscapes that invite the viewer to step into her dreamlike environments. The paintings represent present and future, and presence and absence at once. It is a longing for connection and a call for symbiosis with the natural world around us.
Night Vision Love Story, oil on board, 12 x 12 inches
These heavily textured, mixed media landscape paintings reach for sources of light. Using bold, active strokes with both rush and palette knife, Himel's application of brightly saturated layers of oil and acrylic paint create depth and movement. Their unorthodox chromatic play invites the viewer to enter them both experientially and emotionally.
Holographic Dreams, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Himel received a Diploma of Fine Art from Langara College, Vancouver, BC; a BFA Honours Degree from York University, Toronto, ON; and a Graduate Diploma from the Toronto School of Art, Toronto, ON. Her work has been exhibited across North America, recently being featured in digital exhibitions with Visionary Projects, New York, NY; the I Like Your Work Podcast, and the TD Thor Wealth Management Juried Exhibition: Quest for the Environment, Quest Art, Midland, ON. Himel’s paintings are included in private and public collections across the world and in several corporate collections.
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Will Robinson conveys an effortless elegance within his large-scale stone sculptures. Robinson's Figments looks to the natural world for its inspiration, capturing a myriad of subtleties such as the undulations of sails in the wind, the flukes of a whale, or the outline of a bird's wing in motion. Stones balance impossibly atop one another, emphasizing contrast between polished and raw stone. Each piece highlights the natural properties of the stones themselves.
]]>Strident Voice, green granite, 78 x 33 x 36 inches
Will Robinson conveys an effortless elegance within his large-scale stone sculptures. Robinson's Figments looks to the natural world for its inspiration, capturing a myriad of subtleties such as the undulations of sails in the wind, the flukes of a whale, or the outline of a bird's wing in motion. Stones balance impossibly atop one another, emphasizing contrast between polished and raw stone. Each piece highlights the natural properties of the stones themselves.
Sliver of Wind, basalt & granite, 36 x 32 x 18 inches
Will Robinson studied History at the University of Washington. His work has been shown across North America, including at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT; SOFA Exposition, Chicago, IL; Toronto International Art Fair, Toronto, ON, and around the Pacific Northwest. His sculptures were selected for the City of Woodinville’s Juried Invitational Exhibition, Woodinville, WA and the Bainbridge Island Invitational Classic for the Arts, Bainbridge Island, WA. Robinson’s artwork has been selected for numerous public art collections and site-specific sculpture commissions such as for Swedish Medical Center, Issaquah, WA; the Las Vegas Cleveland Clinic designed by Frank Gehry, Las Vegas, NV, and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Memorial Plaza, Bremerton, WA. His work is part of corporate and private collections across North America.
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The second 2023 exhibition of Tony Angell, Bird Day, showcases the daily habits of 24 species of birds as they conduct their lives in habitats around the world. Angell's clayboard ink etchings are selected from his collaborative book, Bird Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Avian Lives. The book is co-authored with ornithologist Mark E. Hauber and published by the University of Chicago Press.
]]>Secretary Bird, clayboard, 20 x 16 inches
The second 2023 exhibition of Tony Angell, Bird Day, showcases the daily habits of 24 species of birds as they conduct their lives in habitats around the world. Angell's clayboard ink etchings are selected from his collaborative book, Bird Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Avian Lives. The book is co-authored with ornithologist Mark E. Hauber and published by the University of Chicago Press.
Oilbird, clayboard, 10 x 8 inches
Over the past half year, I've been on an adventure in depicting the wide range of behavior and also the beauty of twenty-four different species of birds from throughout the world. Having the opportunity of researching and studying these birds preparatory to drawing them has in itself been gratifying. Depicting them individually amid their diverse habitats and giving emphasis to their stunning appearance and unusual behaviors has provided yet another sense of delight. A forthcoming book from the University of Chicago Press will feature all of these drawings and a narrative will provide the factual backgrounds describing their unusual lives. - Tony Angell, 2021
Eclectus Parrot, clayboard, 14 x 11 inches
Angell holds a BA in Speech Communication from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he also completed two years of graduate studies. Among other achievements, he received the Illustration Award and Overall Winner from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, for his 100+ drawings in the book In the Company of Crows and Ravens, written with John Marzluff. His book The House of Owls received the National Outdoor Book Award when Yale University Press published it in 2015. Angell’s work has been featured in dozens of gallery and museum exhibitions and his work can be found in many private and public collections locally and internationally.
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For two decades, Mark Rediske created his sought-after color field paintings while laying the panel on a flat surface. In Language of Gravity, he experiments instead with painting upright on an easel. The resulting downward pull of the paint enhances Rediske's distillation of skyscape and atmosphere. Alternating between areas of transparency and opacity, the paintings convey the essence of vast expanses of space and light.
]]>Expanse, acrylic on panel, 98.5 x 98.5 inches
For two decades, Mark Rediske created his sought-after color field paintings while laying the panel on a flat surface. In Language of Gravity, he experiments instead with painting upright on an easel. The resulting downward pull of the paint enhances Rediske's distillation of skyscape and atmosphere. Alternating between areas of transparency and opacity, the paintings convey the essence of vast expanses of space and light.
Landfall I, acrylic on panel, 40 x 48 inches
I have been profoundly impacted by the unique natural allure of the places where I have lived, including the incredible beauty of the Pacific Northwest. I see my paintings as emotive landscapes inspired by nature and guided by the organic rhythms of transformation and renewal, which govern the natural world. I am very interested in the emotional impact of color and its power to convey an intimate personal resonance. There is a gravitational pull that holds us to place and time; to memory, hope, loss, and desire. It is my aspiration that my work inspires some common thread to the universal forces that unite us. - Mark Rediske
Landfall III, acrylic on panel, 40 x 48 inches
Mark Rediske's paintings reference horizons, sky, and terrain. His color-washed surface patina conjures the erosion of ancient civilizations; his titles explore mythology and physical places, or are drawn from the past. Developing a process that allows him to achieve unique effects in his work, Rediske creates exquisitely crafted panels with beautiful colors and painterly mark-making. The resulting pieces invite close inspection at different times of day and night. Rediske's capacity for composition creates tension and resolution within each piece, while the slow fading from one color to the next provides a grounding quality to his work.
Mark Rediske holds BFA and MA degrees from St. Cloud University, St Cloud, MN. He shows his work across the United States, including at Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA. Rediske taught art at St. Cloud University, St. Cloud, MN; Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, and Oregon College of Arts & Crafts, Portland, OR. His artwork is part of dozens of collections, including American Airlines, Seattle, WA; The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, DC; Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, NJ; Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chicago, IL.
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Inspired by the geology of the Cascade Mountain range, Sarah Winkler further explores landscape in terms of the distinct layers that she is known for. She depicts the overlapping, collage-like terrain as a textured rise in elevation, with lower and middle elevations covered in coniferous forests, waterfalls, and wildflowers, while higher altitudes evoke meadows, alpine lakes, and glaciers. Winkler mimics the process of erosion by applying paint onto wood panels, then sanding back through layer after layer. Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, she pays close attention to borders, boundaries, and edges. Viewers get a sense of the landscape adapting and transitioning, beckoning toward adventure and exploration.
]]>Edge of the Wild, acrylic on panel, 60 x 60 inches
Inspired by the geology of the Cascade Mountain range, Sarah Winkler further explores landscape in terms of the distinct layers that she is known for. She depicts the overlapping, collage-like terrain as a textured rise in elevation, with lower and middle elevations covered in coniferous forests, waterfalls, and wildflowers, while higher altitudes evoke meadows, alpine lakes, and glaciers. Winkler mimics the process of erosion by applying paint onto wood panels, then sanding back through layer after layer. Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, she pays close attention to borders, boundaries, and edges. Viewers get a sense of the landscape adapting and transitioning, beckoning toward adventure and exploration
Gates of the Cascades, acrylic on panel, 48 x36 inches - Sunrise Yellow, Yakima Valley, acrylic on panel, 60 x 40 inches
Sarah Winkler’s work explores geological aspects of landscape formation. Combining Studio Art, Earth Science, and Creative Writing during her studies at William Paterson University, Winkler began her career as a collage artist and graphic designer. Currently, she sketches in a collage format using printed imagery that she creates either physically or digitally. Each layer is then hand painted to retain the cut-paper aesthetic and convey the strata of geological time in landscapes. Locations like Mount Rainier National Park and the Yakima Valley are not depicted with identical exactness. Winkler instead positions her work in the abstract state between the physical world and the emotive experiences of place.
Winkler’s art is represented in galleries in the US and Canada and has been exhibited in museums and Art Fairs including Bakersfield Museum of Art in California, Art Aspen and the LA Art Show. Her work has since been included in over 100 prominent US and international collections including Maker’s Mark Whisky in Kentucky, Vail Health in Colorado, and Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Her work is in private collections worldwide. Winkler is a participating artist in the US Department of State’s Art in Embassies program, where she is showcased at the American Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. She was recently named one of the top ‘Women Painters on the Rise’ by Artsy Inc. and was curated into their 2022 digital billboard campaign 'Scenes of Summer' exhibition in NYC. Her work has been featured in Scientific American, Times UK, Vail Valley, Mountain Living, Cowboys & Indians Magazine, American Art Collector, New American Paintings and in the documentary, 'Moment' by Making Art Films.
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As he approaches 30 years of exhibiting his vernacular, street-influenced paintings in galleries and museums, Casey McGlynn returns to one of his earliest metaphors in his new collection I Am the Horse. Grazing and at rest, the horses appear in herds and as silhouettes, their interiors filled with a cacophony of symbols and color that bristle with a fervent, raw energy.
]]>All Seeing Horse, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 60 inches
As he approaches 30 years of exhibiting his vernacular, street-influenced paintings in galleries and museums in Canada and the United States, Casey McGlynn returns to one of his earliest metaphors in his new collection I Am the Horse. Grazing and at rest, the horses appear in herds and as silhouettes, their interiors filled with a cacophony of symbols and color that bristle with a fervent, raw energy.
In several brightly colored, large-scale canvases, the artist delights in a dense visual palimpsest, with abundant references to aliens and spaceships, apartment buildings, tent encampments, animals (especially work horses), and blob-like human beings. The overall achievement is wonderfully idiosyncratic, as the paintings resemble giant panels of borderless comics.
I AM THE HORSE (Artist Statement)
When I was twenty five I did a painting of a sheep that changed the course of my life completely
I discovered my artistic voice with the image of the four legged animal
Those early works were also the first pieces I had ever sold and made me realize a career in painting was not only possible…it was happening unintentionally
Recently in a interview for a short documentary I make the declaration “I am the horse” in my work
The horses I paint are stocky solid working animals
I am a working class artist I grew up with factory workers for parents and I identify to the ethos of the working class
I am the horse
-- Casey McGlynn
Left to Right: Herd in Yellow Field, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, Herd in Red Field, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Casey McGlynn’s paintings, often including collaged elements, are honest, vulnerable, and dynamic. Inspired by the early punk rock scene in Toronto, and a musician himself, McGlynn's connection to punk’s rejection of the mainstream is evident. Nevertheless, McGlynn’s rebellion remains approachable, posed as a question he continues to explore in his sensitive work.
McGlynn holds a Diploma from Ontario College of Art & Design, Toronto, ON. His work is shown across North America, including at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO; Alabama State Council of the Arts, Montgomery, AL; and SOFA Exhibition in Chicago, IL. McGlynn has received multiple awards, and was a guest lecturer at several universities including at Brock University, St. Catherines, ON.
When Tony Angell walked into Richard White's office to share his artwork in 1972, it was the beginning of a 50-year journey in art and nature that Foster/White proudly continues to celebrate with Angell's new exhibition of sculptures, Aloft and At Rest. For half a century, Angell's representations of birds have dazzled viewers with scientific accuracy and a virtuoso sense for the inner temperament of his subjects that conveys their intangible spirit and resilience.
]]>In Pursuit, 2/2, bronze, 17 x 19 x 3.25 in.
There is a curious reciprocity between the artist and the subject. The subject becomes the teacher/instructor, revealing secrets, posing questions and fashioning mysteries as I try to pay it tribute in the work. It is an ongoing adventure I hope to sustain to the end of my days and I remind myself that while science can tell us what is probable, art can explore the possible. -- Tony Angell |
Aloft and At Rest, new sculpture by Tony Angell, celebrates 50 years of exhibiting with Foster/White. Angell's representations of birds provide both scientific accuracy and a virtuoso sense for the inner temperament of his subjects to convey their intangible spirit and resilience.
Skycutter, 1/1, bronze, 16 x 20 x 10.5 in
Tony Angell’s work is featured in dozens of gallery and museum exhibitions across the United States, including the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI; Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA; and the Gilcrease Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK. His art can be found in many private and public collections including the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. His book The House of Owls received the National Outdoor Book Award when Yale University Press published it in 2015. Angell's clayboard drawings illustrate Bird Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Avian Lives, co-authored with Mark E. Hauber, and anticipated autumn, 2023.
For a complete listing of available work and biographical information, please visit Tony Angell's primary collection on our website.
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Foster/White Gallery announces the debut of Ritual Vessels, a new collection of ceramic sculptures by George Rodriguez. Varying from human faces peering out of animal costumes, to a pack of small dogs, to conjoined and single figures, to planter pots large and small, Ritual Vessels celebrates Rodriguez's vibrant imagination as he nears 20 years as an artist.
]]>From left to right: Abundant Jaguar Summer, 30 x 27 x 20 inches, Ascending Macaw Spring, 29 x 21 x 21 inches
My latest body of work is a collection of ritual vessels. Vessels that contain history and future. Vessels that capture human emotion. Vessels that create cultural connection. Vessels for an unspecified ritual. These vessels take the shape of animals, figures, vases and relics. When I think about clay, I think about the ritual of cutting my block, rolling slabs, gathering molds, and collecting my fork. I think about the different rituals I value and create for myself. I want to revert back to simplicity and let go of some material control. Go back to the transformation of glaze on clay. Go to a place of rediscovery. As I observe my human vessel and the rituals I rely on, I think about the impressions clay makes on my body. I think about the stress, the joy, the cracked skin and the sensitivity of my fingertips. I invite the viewer to wonder about the rituals that create or transform your own human vessel, what you hold, and how that shifts with time.
-- George Rodriguez, Statement for Ritual Vessels
Canidae (Northwest), stoneware with underglaze and glaze, 8 x 20.5 x 5 inches
Ceramicist George Rodriguez has sculpted clay for almost 20 years. His sculptures Mexican American Gothic and Seven Indulgences are included in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and the National Museum in Stockholm Sweden. His large scale public art installation Let the Music Take You recently opened on Concourse A of the Kansas City International Airport.
For complete artist history and links, please refer to the artist's primary collection on our website.
]]>Sheri Bakes has been painting the natural world with an ethereal intensity for more than 20 years. Her new collection of landscape paintings draws inspiration from a close friend's challenging circumnavigation of Mt. Rainier on the Wonderland Trail. Highly attuned to atmospheric conditions that border on the non-visual, such as fine mist in the air or thin veils of fog lifting in morning sun, Bakes seeks to represent subtle qualities of being alive and present in time and space.
]]>Sheri Bakes | Wonderland Trail
March 2 - 25, 2023
Sheri Bakes has been painting the natural world with an ethereal intensity for more than 20 years. Her new collection of landscape paintings draws inspiration from a close friend's challenging circumnavigation of Mt. Rainier on the Wonderland Trail. Highly attuned to atmospheric conditions that border on the non-visual, such as fine mist in the air or thin veils of fog lifting in morning sun, Bakes seeks to represent subtle qualities of being alive and present in time and space.
With her characteristic blend of Pointillist abstraction and contemporary Impressionism, the artist brings a strong sense of movement to large portions of her canvases where kaleidoscopic fields sparkle and shine with color. In Bakes' deft portrayal, nature consists of both substance and feeling. As much as we see the alpine meadows with lupines in bloom, it is through the feeling of wind and the elements that we sense the full force of the artwork, as a refuge or place of stillness in the cacophony of modern existence.
Foster/White Gallery returns to its series of group exhibitions focused on the classical elements with Elements: Water, featuring a range of media from photography and collage to painting, textile, and sculpture. Following its predecessors Elements: Earth (2020) and Elements: Fire (2021), the latest thematic collection draws from both new and prior work by many of the gallery's artists spread across the North American continent and Australia, including locals Tony Angell, John de Wit, Eva Isaksen, and Cameron Anne Mason. Representations of water alternate from figurative to abstract, and while the color blue is a popular choice, especially for painters, there are wonderful departures from expectation.
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Group Exhibition | Elements: Water
February 2 - 18, 2023
Foster/White Gallery returns to its series of group exhibitions focused on the classical elements with Elements: Water, featuring a range of media from photography and collage to painting, textile, and sculpture. Following its predecessors Elements: Earth (2020) and Elements: Fire (2021), the latest thematic collection draws from both new and prior work by many of the gallery's artists spread across the North American continent and Australia, including locals Tony Angell, John de Wit, Eva Isaksen, and Cameron Anne Mason. Representations of water alternate from figurative to abstract, and while the color blue is a popular choice, especially for painters, there are wonderful departures from expectation.
Ancient philosophers as diverse as Heraclitus and Lao Tzu recognized the fascinating qualities of this form of matter, calling our attention to the ways in which water "...is fluid, soft, and yielding. But [it] will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong,” wrote Lao Tzu, while the most famous of Heraclitus' fragments distinguishes that we "cannot step twice in the same river," since it would imply that "we both are and are not.
From left to right: Cody Cobb, CC297, Edition of 10, archival pigment print, 40 x 30 inches; Eric Zener, Man Treading Water, mixed media on panel with resin, 30.5 x 41 inches
Throughout Elements: Water, participating artists are about evenly divided in terms of abstract versus figurative approaches, with an abundant blend of both in many pieces. The figurative work explores water's motion, its mirror-like quality, transparency and luminosity (David Burdeny, Robert Marchessault, Steven Nederveen), as well as the animals that live in such environments like water birds and whales (Andre Petterson, Tony Angell, Sarah McRae Morton). Human beings are often absent, yet when they occur they appear almost lethargic (Joshua Jensen-Nagle) or mysteriously illuminated (Eric Zener).
Carol Inez Charney, After Abraham Mignon 2: Still Life With Fruit, Oysters, and a Porcelain Bowl, 1660-1679, Edition of 8, chromogenic print, 40 x 40 inches
As painter David Hockney fascinatingly observed about his obsession with swimming pools, water "...can be any colour, it’s movable, it has no set visual description,” and thus representations of it, whether figurative, abstract, or somewhere in between, can be hypnotizing. As much as they paint or sculpt, photograph, weave or carve their materials -- these nimble artists are not just sharing a collective interest in water as a subject, but giving us a glimpse at the elusive sources of inspiration that float and drift along currents of imagination. Artists, like poets, delight in the paradoxes and dualities inherent in the human condition, and as our sun begins its journey into the Aquarius constellation, we invite you to plunge into the New Year with Elements: Water.
Old pond...
a frog leaps in:
water-sound.
- Basho (ca. 1686)
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Sarah McRae Morton stands with one foot firmly in the tradition of Western figural art and the other in a hauntingly beautiful dreamscape of her own unique imagination. Often referencing literature, natural history, and memory, her paintings convey myth-like narratives that blend reality with dreaming, while highlighting her mastery of paint. McRae Morton's animal menagerie in Fair, Hail includes some of her favorites like whales, boars, and horses as well as some that are less familiar such as alewives, and snow crabs. People in 19th century attire are integrated with the animals often with a sense of blurred movement that the artist is recognized for. Many of the new paintings are presented on panel, and some are as small as 10 x 10 inches, contrasting with the large new canvas of a whale, Fulton's Last Bow.
]]>Fulton's Last Bow, oil on canvas, 45 x 72 inches
Sarah McRae Morton | Fair, Hail
December 2022 - January 2023
Sarah McRae Morton stands with one foot firmly in the tradition of Western figural art and the other in a hauntingly beautiful dreamscape of her own unique imagination. Often referencing literature, natural history, and memory, her paintings convey myth-like narratives that blend reality with dreaming, while highlighting her mastery of paint. McRae Morton's animal menagerie in Fair, Hail includes some of her favorites like whales, boars, and horses as well as some that are less familiar such as alewives, and snow crabs. People in 19th century attire are integrated with the animals often with a sense of blurred movement that the artist is recognized for. Many of the new paintings are presented on panel, and some are as small as 10 x 10 inches, contrasting with the large new canvas of a whale, Fulton's Last Bow.'
March of the Ale Wives, oil on panel 20 x 20
"My paintings mimic American academic construction. The compositions draw from a canon of western paintings where a common goal was to deceive the viewer- to build a believable window view to an invented scene by an alchemic process using dirt, stone oil, sap, gems and flax. The style of the pieces varies according to the prevalent style of art during each character's lifetime, displaying facets of aesthetic traditions, or challenges to convention that made American art history."
- Sarah McRae Morton
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Quebrada, book with pigment, 5 x 12 x 7 inches
By The End Of The Day, oil on canvas, 12 x 24 inches
Guy Laramée | Quebrada | Thirteen Views on a Stay in Brasil
December 2022 - January 2023
Guy Laramée's longstanding fascination with Brasil inspires his new Foster/White exhibitions, where he probes questions of belonging and estrangement in a series of atmospheric landscape paintings as well as a group of new sculptures sourced from second-hand bookstores in Florianopolis. Often with mountains or coastlines shrouded in mist, the paintings form a loose, narrative sequence closely associated with the ambiguity between dreaming and waking.
Laramée explains the connection between the paintings and book sculptures by focusing on the linen covers of the books: "...the faded jade tones of the fabric inspired most of my palette for the paintings." The poetics of travel weigh on the artist's mind as he studies questions of identity and belonging: "In traveling between cultures – and countries – something is abandoned, perhaps definitely. What is it? Is it the adhesion to one’s sets of beliefs? Is it the dream of finding a 'perfect world'?"
Explo, book with pigment, 8 x 9.5 x 8 inches
"In Portuguese as in Spanish, the word Quebrada has a double meaning. Literally, it means ‘broken’. But it is also used to designate a ravine, where the landscape gives the impression of being sunken down. Unlike my previous book work, I started each piece by breaking the spine of the book – apparently its most sturdy part. So I formed the book into a curved or broken shape before carving it. I was quite aware of the metaphor while working in this new way: breaking a book is obviously damaging the knowledge it contains. What does this say about our world? After two years of pandemic, we may have started to feel that our civilization is fragile. How long will it last? Some of the book titles evoke that: Paraiso Perdido / Paradise Lost, for example. In a way, our civilization is broken. Can it heal itself or is it bound to make room to a new one? But often times, from stark perspectives stem hope and the will to continue. Thus, using the other meaning of the word Quebrada, I carved those ravines into luxurious landscapes, suggesting that in this sinking down, something of life will go on." - Guy Laramée
Entering The Dream, oil on canvas, 12 x 24 inches
"Over fifteen years, I accumulated about three years in Brasil. My last stay lasted six months. This painting project is an opportunity to encapsulate the feelings that draws one to quit one’s culture, the inner experiences triggered by living in a foreign country. The paintings have a light narrative structure around my last trip in 2022. Each painting has a title that situates it within that narrative. From the first one, Entering the Dream, to the last one, Traveling Between Two Dreams, one questions if one ever comes back from those trips. In traveling between cultures – and countries – something is abandoned, perhaps definitely. What is it? Is it the adhesion to one’s sets of beliefs? Is it the dream of finding a “perfect world”? " - Guy Laramée
Fauna Flora Figure 208, mixed media on linen, 40 x 40 inches
Shar Coulson | Rhythmic Reflections: Pursuit of Nature's Pulsing Heart
November 2022
Shar Coulson's exhibition Rhythmic Reflections: Pursuit of Nature's Pulsing Heart distills the essence of the natural world through gestural abstraction, revealing core truths that resist categorization beyond her longstanding tripartite series title of Fauna, Flora, and Figure. Her paintings convey a profound physicality and texture while also establishing a dynamic range of contrast and color. With formal training in figurative realism, she perceives nature's underlying patterns in wonderfully surprising ways. She often works from accumulated memories and incorporates earlier plein-air experiments.
Fauna Flora Figure 214, mixed media on linen, 54 x 54 inches
"Each endeavor is a free-flowing exploration where the abstract touches the familiar. Something definite is created, but its mystery is still intact. In the beginning, each painting is abstract in all aspects. It’s throughout the paint application that figuration appears and disappears. Periodically, I’ll define an organic shape, pushing it forward to a place of familiarity. One viewer may see plant-like forms, animals, figures or landscape, but others only textured abstract shapes and patterns bathed in lush earth tones." - Shar Coulson
VIEW THE COLLECTION
Nighthawk, metamorphic stone, 51 x 24 x 12 inches
Will Robinson | Movement & Gesture
July 7 - 23, 2022
Seasoned stone sculptor Will Robinson’s nuanced sensibilities with his material have become highly instinctual throughout the three decades his career has spanned. Achieving warmth and softness with unforgiving stone, Robinson breathes life into each piece, revealing the innate qualities of the natural medium he works with. His sculptures are as much about discovery as they are reflections of the artist’s intuition.
Finding boulders and slabs across the Pacific Northwest is the beginning of his artistic process. From the exterior it is often impossible to determine the characteristics and mineral properties within each stone. It is only after he has begun to carve through each piece that he discovers what might be interesting attributes to highlight through sculptural form. Utilizing a wide range of tools, Robinson achieves finished works that not only celebrate the natural elements from which they are hewn, but composes fluidly balanced pieces. Within his newest body of work, Robinson weaves a diverse array of sculptures together through the common thread of his pursuit of beauty.
Fight or Flight, basalt and granite, 87 x 30 x 24 inches
Says Robinson, “my work stems from a free-flowing concept rather than being grounded in any sort of intended meaning.” Will Robinson was born in Bremerton, Washington and studied History at the University of Washington. Robinson's desire to create art began at an early age, growing up in a home filled with art, antiques and bonsai. He chooses to work primarily with stone because of its solidity and ability to withstand the elements and time.
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June 2 - 25, 2022
Opening First Thursday June 2, 2022 | 6 - 8 pm
Artist in Attendance
Convergent Paths is Mason's second body of work created during the pandemic; she continues to find refuge in her home and neighborhood, deepening her exploration of the convergence of natural and man-made. Not shying away from the domestic, Mason embraces it. Her work is inspired by her home environs, including plants found close at hand, and her daily view of the Puget Sound. While her suburban setting can be one that insulates from the harsher realities of climate change, Mason challenges us to look beyond our immediate neighborhoods. Only by thinking globally will we truly impact the safety of our own backyards.
Cameron Anne Mason holds a degree in Visual Communication from the Art Institute of Seattle, and studied Liberal Arts at the University of Washington. Her work has been shown across the country and at galleries around the Northwest, as well as Whatcom Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, and Bellevue Art Museum. Her work was also included in a group exhibition at Miniartextile in Como Italy, and the Rio Patchwork Design Show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Foster/White Gallery is pleased to present the work of 5 sculptors who are new to the gallery. The artists work in an intriguing range of techniques and materials, from glazed medite and sintra to stone carvings with needle felted wool, and from stitched, salvaged neoprene to slip cast and assembled ceramics. This collection of works runs the gamut from the most simple to the most complex combinations of shape, color and form.
Sara Coffin’s glazed medite and sintra wall mounted sculptures, which the artist refers to as sconces, repeat a simple rectangular form within a larger rectangular form. Utilizing a unique glazing technique to create a spectacle of candy like colors, these pieces seem to be super-naturally glowing with light emanating out of every edge and angled join.
Kyle Johns’ builds complex, multi-faceted molds to create slip cast ceramics which fall between vessel and sculpture. These works take on the appearance of multiple components stacked or assembled, one on top of the next, like a colorful and far more inventive version of Jenga, or a teetering tower with shapes and contours that seem to be moving in every possible direction all at once.
Gabriel John Poucher takes a building block approach to his highly complex ceramic structures which he has described as maximal and cacophonous. Inspired by industrial aesthetics and childhood construction toys, the artist embraces the unpredictability of his chosen material. As the clay reacts to the conditions of firing, stability deteriorates and these pieces contort and collapse resulting in somewhat chaotic forms that veer in and out of accidental harmony.
Stephanie Robison’s stone and felted wool sculptures bring these seemingly opposing materials into unexpected conversation with each other. Simple organic shapes which at times look like strange creatures, with rounded extremities protruding outward, neatly interact with themselves. They are odd and awkward but simple and delightful, and seem to have been dreamed up with a light-hearted sense of humor and freedom.
Henry Jock Walker is an Australian artist whose practice is intertwined with his surfing lifestyle and surf culture. His instincts for breaking up space with line and shapes are somewhat classical but the use of neoprene, which he sources from used wet suits, brings a satisfying texture to the surface. The stitched seams create soft grooves which behave as graphic elements between brightly colored patches of fabric. Often playful and with unexpected titles, the assorted mix of salvaged neoprene offers varying levels of reflection and light absorption which allows the work to take on a more serious tone at times.
Steven Nederveen, Secret Hideout, mixed media on panel, 54 x 54 inches
STEVEN NEDERVEEN
FEELS LIKE HOME
April 7 - 23, 2022
Opening First Thursday April 7, 2022 | 6 - 8 pm
Steven Nederveen’s artwork has long been grounded in the artist’s meditation practice and influenced by the calming effect of immersion in his favorite places. The artist creates oceanic coastlines, panoramic landscapes, and tree compositions using heightened colors and an almost magical, high contrast golden light. The world becomes a place of wonder and mystery as we recognize what is familiar and discover what we are invited to perceive.
Utilizing a unique and layered process, Nederveen’s artworks combine techniques that result in richly textured surfaces. For his newest body of work, Feels Like Home, Nederveen returns to childhood memories of frequent sailing trips with his family - times that cultivated comfort and familiarity with the waters of the Salish Sea. These early journeys in the waterways of the Western Canadian Coast provided Nederveen with a sense of home deeply connected to the elements of the region. Shores on the Puget Sound, views of open waters and distant landscapes - environmental realities that kindled the exploration of maintaining a transmutable home within the world. Feels Like Home includes works that are in form familiar to inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest; yet by using fantastical colors, Nederveen allows us to see his landscapes as though through a lucid dream.
Steven Nederveen, Pillars of Home, mixed media on panel, 60 x 48 inches
Correlations created through climate and geography only go so far; Nederveen takes his specific memories and expands the notion of home to envelop the universal potential we all are welcome to experience; finding the peace of home within ourselves.
Steven Nederveen received a Bachelor of Design from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, and studied at Medicine Hat College, Medicine Hat, AB. He has shown his work across North America. His artwork is part of many collections including Armani Canada, Richmond, BC; Air Canada Lounge at La Guardia, New York, NY; and the Al-Fayed Family Collection, London, UK. He has been the subject of many media features including House and Home Magazine Canada; West Coast Homes and Design; and Vancouver Home Magazine.
Tom Burrows, Elisha Bay, polymer resin, 48 x 48 inches
TOM BURROWS
THE CURVE OF TIME V
March 3 - 26, 2022
Opening First Thursday, March 3, 6 - 8 pm - Artist in Attendance
Artist Talk: Saturday March 5, 12:30 pm
The artwork included in The Curve of Time series by Tom Burrows are named after bodies of water and landmarks from the Inside Passage (Puget Sound near Seattle up to Alaska). The Curve of Time by Wylie Blanchet is inspiration for the series and it takes place in the Inside Passage. This book recounts Blanchet's summer sailing adventures with her five children and dog in the 1930s and 40s.
After realizing that many places along the Inside Passage were named for the admiralty of the explorers, Burrows decided that he could just as well name them after some of his family who have enjoyed their cabins in the British Columbia waterway for a few generations. Elisha Bay is named for his son, Elisha; the two sail together, and the piece is a rich blue. Other pieces with family names are Gina Rocks, Josh Cove and Yasmine Arm.
Burrows approaches his work with an open, intellectual thoughtfulness. His artworks embody concepts through color, exuding presence and luminosity. Each piece provides its own space for meditative encounter and reflection. The Curve of Time V was born of Burrows observations of and experiences within a familiar region he has long inhabited, but which in some ways has changed noticeably. Surrounded by the Salish Sea, Burrows spends much of the year at his island studio, where the effects of climate change are clear.
Tom Burrows, Okisollo Channel, polymer resin, 48 x 48 inches
In his artist statement, Burrows shares “Very early in the summer of 2021, a searing heat dome hung over the island for days emphasizing the presence of a record drought that by mid-August had lowered the local aquifer to the level that my pump failed. We had no water for the first time in fifty years on that island. A third of my planned studio production had to be abandoned. Luckily, we were spared most of the smoke wafting from the burning mainland forests as I fumbled about trying to reconstruct the plumbing. By November the highest recorded rainfall for that time of year had finally penetrated the heat-baked soil and the aquifer began to rise. Water re-emerged from the faucets.
We live in a time of crisis. The sheltered interconnected seas and channels that line the Northwest coast from Puget Sound to Alaska offer protection from the vast powers of the open Pacific. If one attempts to read the ever-changing light of that inner passage, its tidal surge, the spawn of its creatures, there is a possible solace. The Curve of Time V (a series now in its fifth year), strives to portray the luminosity of those inner coastal waters in its subtle variance."
It is indeed this notion of solace that Burrows so aptly captures and shares. With subtlety and exactitude, Burrows allows his artworks to appear effortless; each is filled with character, highlighting the sublime colors of the natural world from which Burrows draws comfort. Yet far from being static, the wall sculptures contain within their fields of color gentle insistence that we pay attention; to ensure that what inspires us today exists in perpetuity.
Tom Burrows, Beazley Passage and Sockeye, both polymer resin, both 48 x 30 inches
Throughout his career, Tom Burrows has explored a myriad of sculptural materials and styles, ranging from performative, site-specific installation work to two-dimensional pieces. His work has always been concerned with drawing attention to social and environmental issues; he has presented research-driven artist responses to homelessness, housing, and displacement, and more recently refers to the increasingly evident negative impacts of climate change. Having developed a unique process through his explorations in casting polymer resin, Burrows’ resulting wall sculptures showcase color as an entity, light as an active participant, and stillness as essential.
Tom Burrows has a BA in Art History from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, and studied Sculpture at St. Martin’s College, London, UK. He has shown his work internationally, at galleries across North America, and at places like the Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium; Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France; and Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC. His work is part of collections including the Canadian Embassy to Japan, Tokyo; Government of Ontario Art Collection, Toronto, ON; the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC; and Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON among others.
Carol Inez Charney, Invisible Man, chromogenic print, laminated and mounted to panel, 24 x 24 inches, edition of five
The colorful curls and wisps of smoke in Carol Inez Charney’s newest series are sophisticated and elegant while being rich with metaphor. The series, Secondhand Smoke, highlights the dangers of cultural censorship, the limiting of individualism and artistic expression. Book burnings and the destruction of artwork have been an all too common practice in both modern and historic eras, public demonstrations meant to show the power of authoritarian governments. However, the pieces in Secondhand Smoke seem to remind us that such censorship can sneak in; can whisper and spread like rumors, creeping in around the edges, as smoke can.
Secondhand Smoke also poignantly considers the dichotomy between artistic expression and the proliferation of falsified information – as well as the resulting political division. But the pieces speak softly; Charney was inspired to create work both beautiful and reflective, in a way providing respite from the world while at the same time holding a mirror up to it.
Carol Inez Charney, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, chromogenic print, laminated and mounted to panel, 24 x 24 inches, edition of five
The images in Secondhand Smoke share their titles with literary works that have, at points throughout recent history, been banned or burned by governmental entities seeking to silence individual voices; says Charney, “Incinerating intellectual, creative and critical thought has harmful reverberating effects on society, just as second hand smoke does for all of us. It’s about maintaining control of individuals by censoring the ideas necessary to evolve: suppressing enlightenment and creative freedom.”
Carol Inez Charney, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, chromogenic print, laminated and mounted to panel, 24 x 24 inches, edition of five
Known for her characteristically eloquent photographic abstractions, Charney here utilizes a more ethereal approach. “Ultimately smoke represents aftermath—what remains of provocative of ideas. Secondhand Smoke is a cautionary tale of the growing threats facing artistic expression around the world.”
Charney received a BA in painting from the University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, and an MFA in Photography from San Jose State University, San Jose, CA. She has shown her work at galleries across the country, and in museums such as the Museum of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; and the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Berkeley, CA. She has received numerous awards, and her photographs are part of collections including the AT&T Art Collection, New York, NY; Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond, WA; Reese Witherspoon's Art Collection, Los Angeles, CA; and the Escalette Permanent Collection of Art at Chapman University, Irvine, CA.
GROUP EXHIBITION
ELEMENTS: FIRE
Opening November 4, 2021
The second of four group exhibitions grounded by the elements, Elements: Fire opens at Foster/White Gallery on November 4, 2021. A wide range of interpretations, the artwork in this grouping includes explorations of the increasing frequency of forest fires and their implications, the raw violence of fire, and the beauty of a flame; we are reminded of water's power against an inferno, given images of death and rebirth, of natural cycles, and of the devastation left in a fire's wake. And, despite the impact of that devastation, many of us have deeply cherished memories attached to fire - it can represent gathering with loved ones, staring into embers beneath starry skies, learning to make a s'more for the first time, or warming cold hands after hours in the snow.
Historically relied upon to sustain life - warmth, light, the daily preparation of meals - fire has taken a lesser role in our lives in modern society; its domestic presence is typically limited to the infrequent hearth, reserved for back-yard fire pits, and camping trips. Still, collectively we acknowledge the power and mystique of its immense force; one that we control when we can, and are lost to when we cannot.
Elements: Fire is a challenging exhibition in light of the current reality and impact of forest fires around the world, but beautiful in its diverse perspectives. We grapple with the knowledge that this combustion often stems from the negative impacts of our race on the natural world, while also navigating the inherent truth of an environmental cycle that includes fire and its effects as part of a healthy rhythm. In a world that has changed so significantly in the past fifty years, we have yet to find a balance between ourselves and some of the most constant and elemental forces of our planet. Seeking to master fire, we are as yet subject to its tendencies, despite how drastically our own have changed.
Says participating artist Sarah Winkler,
"In the Smoke Signals paintings, I want to capture the explosive dance of the wildfire. Emit the heat of the moment. The splatters of smoke and lines of a blaze where the almost amorphous land forms appear to melt. A wildfire is an event which demonstrates both nature's violence and its vulnerability. Though this environment is nothing but hostile for human life, through choice of color these images have a sensuality, a sense of calmness. A pure celebration of the power of nature."
Shar Coulson, Fauna Flora Figure 173, 48 x 40 inches, $8,300
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Eva Isaksen, Small Steps, collage on canvas, 36 x 48
EVA ISAKSEN
Here Now
Opening September 2, 2021
Eva Isaksen’s newest body of work carries a deep sense of gravitas, a level of self-assurance communicated through the simplification of the abstract. Continuing her explorations in collage, Isaksen incorporates physical elements of significance from her life; personal textiles, letters, and clippings of favorite texts are layered within steady forms and a sophisticated palette. Describing the works as reflecting her search for the unknown, there is yet a grounded calm in her quest.
Isaksen’s confidence in her artistic voice is strong here. There is a sense that she has reached a significant moment of resolution in her work and life that provides a cohesion to the pieces in Here Now. Says Isaksen “Life is short and I feel an urgency to fully embrace it. There are so many more ways to work and evolve [...]. The work has its own narrative, glimpses of stories, history and memories but ultimately it is about form, space and abstraction. It’s also about a place where the intuitive becomes one with all the experiences collected from a lifetime as a working artist."
Eva Isaksen, Summer Follows Spring, collage on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Eva Iskasen holds an MFA in Painting from Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, as well as a BFA from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD. Isaksen studied at the Nordland School of Arts & Crafts Narvik, Norway. Isaksen's artwork has been exhibited international including at Galleri G. Guddal, Rosendal, Norway; Galleri Bodøgaard, Bodø, Norway; Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA; US Embassy, Brussels, Belgium; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; and Museo de los Pintores Oaxaquenos, Oaxaca, Mexico. Isaksen has also shown her work extensively across North America, has been a recipient of dozens of awards and public art commissions, and was a founder of Seattle Print Arts, Seattle, WA. She has participated in artist residencies across the world, most recently at Tare Steigen Air, Tare Art Center, Steigen, Norway and at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Bally, Ireland. Her work is part of dozens of private, public, and corporate collections including those of the Boeing Corporate Headquarters, Chicago, IL; Hilton Hotel, Seattle, WA; Seibu Department Stores, Funabashi, Shizoka Higashi, Totsuka, Japan; Goldman Sachs, New York, NY, and the United States Embassy in Riga, Latvia.