Sanchez Art Center presents

A MESSY WORLD

Dee Hooker and Dag Weiser

When
Event has passed (Fri Jan 10, 2020 - Sun Feb 9, 2020)
Cost
Free
Tags
Art Openings, Arts, Galleries, Artists

Description

A Messy World with Dee Hooker and Dag Weiser

Sanchez Art Center begins the new year with three new exhibitions, opening Friday, Jan 10, with a reception from 7 to 9 pm. In the Main Gallery are mixed media works by painter Dee Hooker and sculptor Dag Weiser, in a show titled A Messy World, curated by Susan Hillhouse Leask. The East Gallery features works by members of Women Eco Artists Dialog (WEAD) in an exhibit titled Feat to Fire: Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage. In the West Gallery, the Art Guild of Pacifica presents a group show on the theme of Home. Music for the Jan 10 reception will be provided by Jamey “The Breeze” Brzezinski.

Dee Hooker is an award-winning artist known for her thought-provoking portraits of real and imagined people. Her work is rich, quirky, and often humorous, with a bittersweet, even nostalgic, flavor. Art critic Brian Sherwin said about Dee Hooker's mixed media paintings, “The characters captured in Hooker's portraits are an intriguing mix of the real and imagined.” In Hooker’s own words, “The fictitious portraits leave it completely up to the viewer to provide the character and narrative for the image. . . . The imagined person is a composite of many histories assembled to my liking. In the end, whether real or imagined, they become a synthesis of both the subject and the artist, and an example of how history will be skewed by the historian.”

Hooker often refers to her work as “mixed media paintings,” in which has she combined digital rendering with traditional painting techniques. This system of borrowing, manipulating, and distorting, using digital tools, is then integrated with the mixed media world, using everything from encaustic to rust to smoke. It is indeed a gift to be able to work in such a complex mix of media, yet produce works that are eminently engaging and accessible, as her characters often are.

Dag Weiser has been creating installations and multimedia art projects in Santa Cruz County for 30 years. In 2007 he received the Gail Rich Award for his artistic contributions to the City of Santa Cruz. He has created elaborate props and sets for dance and performance artists Therese Adams and Leslie Swaha of Moving and Storage Performance Company/Crash, Burn and Die Dance Company. Each Halloween he transforms his front yard with an installation. Themes include Candy; Math; the Undersea World; Good and Evil; The All-Seeing, All-Knowing Eye; Crows; Monarch Butterflies; and The Last Supper.

Weiser has created large-scale oil paintings that were shown at the Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, and at the Cultural Workers Union, Santa Cruz, among other places. He has also painted in acrylic and created kinetic sculptures. However, since 1976, when Weiser helped create the first and only completely cardboard boat to compete in the annual Capitola Begonia Float Parade, cardboard has been his medium of choice. But, as one viewer commented: “You’d never know it’s cardboard to look at it.” Notably, Weiser has taken cardboard to the level of fine art, as in The Sentimental Layer, a large wall-hanging piece made from cardboard with gold leaf. This piece, with its sure combination of complexity (texture) and simplicity (the materials used), is both moving and inspiring.

Women Eco Artists Dialog (WEAD) is a nonprofit group formed to lift up and support art that focuses on environmental and social justice issues. Their goals are to provide relevant information to artists, curators, writers, art administrators, educators, and others about these concerns, as well as to facilitate international networking. In the title of their exhibit, Feat to Fire: Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage, WEAD celebrates the history and achievements of women raising their voices and concerns, a mission that group members continue 100 years later, as they focus on ecological and social justice content in their art.

In support of the group’s eco art focus, WEAD is holding a workshop on Sunday, Jan 26, from 1:30 to 4:00 pm. The workshop, “Reclaimed Paper Collage,” will include instruction on materials, tools, and techniques, as well as discussion of composition and the placement of visual elements in a work of art. The artist instructors are longtime environmental artists Carrie Blanche and Michelle Echenique, both WEAD board members. The cost is $25, and you can register on Eventbrite.com (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reclaimed-paper-collage-workshop-tickets-85022848629).

The Art Guild of Pacifica’s exhibit in West Gallery is titled Home, a wonderfully cozy theme for cold winter days. This group show explores concepts of family, ethnic descent, ancestors, and background.

Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd in Pacifica, about a mile east of Highway 1. Following opening night, the galleries are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm, and by appointment, through Feb 9. For more information call 650.355.1894 or visit SanchezArtCenter.org/index.htm.

More Info

Link
http://www.sanchezartcenter.org
Call
(650) 355-1894
Email
Contact Form (account required)

Schedule

Sanchez Art Center
1220 Linda Mar Blvd
Pacifica, CA
Event has passed

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Location

  1. Sanchez Art Center
    1220 Linda Mar Blvd, Pacifica, CA