Afterglow: Rethinking California Light and Space Art

Description

Afterglow: Rethinking California Light and Space Art
First exhibition to recognize 70s-era California Minimalism as a leading influence on the current generation
BELMONT, California, July 30, 2010 – The Wiegand Gallery is presenting “Afterglow: Rethinking California Light and Space Art,” from September 23 through October 30, 2010, the first exhibition to explore the legacy of California’s metaphysical brand of Minimalism in the work of current generation West Coast artists.
The opening reception takes place on Sunday, October 3 from 2 - 4:30 p.m. and will include a talk by guest curator Melissa Feldman at 3 p.m.
“Like James Turrell, Robert Irwin, and Larry Bell before them,” said Ms. Feldman, “the artists in this exhibition present their work as inquiries into perception and the nature of seeing. Often deploying abstract optical effects, these works in various mediums—including installation, painting, weaving, photography, and video --invite interactivity, aiming to sensitize the viewer to the experience of looking and seeing.
“Precise execution, the use of reflective materials such as glass, mirror, fluorescent marker and crystal-laced acrylic, and meditative, reductive imagery or experiences is among the ways in which the artists take up the precepts of the earlier generation. Overall, the works encourage slowed-down and sustained looking.”
The exhibition also showcases a number of artists from the earlier generation such as Thomas Akawie, Lewis Baltz, and Helen Lundeberg, whose works from the 70s offer tangential histories to the development of the genre. Baltz’s photographs of the Nevada desert and Akawie’s illusionistic spray-paintings of the sky and outer space also represent the palpable light of the West and its expansive landscape, as well as the highway and space exploration in redefining space and perspective. Lundeberg's hardedge paintings of de Chiricoesque landscapes and interiors represent yet another lineage of proto-light and space art.

The fourteen-featured artists are Thomas Akawie, Lewis Baltz, Michelle Blade, Gina Borg, Claude Collins-Stracensky, Michael Damm, Chris Fraser, Evan Holloway, Ruth Laskey, Helen Lundeberg, Laurie Reid, Jonathan Runcio, Kathryn Van Dyke, and Dean Smith.

Wiegand Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday noon-4 p.m. Admission is free.

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http://www.ndnu.edu/the-arts/wiegand-gallery/

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650.508.3595

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