I am in a wonderful show, Brittle Wonders, that opens tomorrow evening at Los Medanos College. The show is a thoughtful creation organized by artist and curator David Tallitch including artists Amanda Smith, Darren Cockrell, Cindy Williamson, Diana Fayt, and myself.
Opening reception for the artists
6:30-8:30 PM on Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Los Medanos College Art Gallery will host Brittle Wonders: Ceramic Art in the San Francisco Bay Area from November 11 – December 10, 2009. Brittle Wonders is a group show featuring the work of five Bay Area ceramicists, representing a diversity of approaches to the art of ceramics. The San Francisco Bay Area has a strong ceramics tradition, with innovation and insight into the human condition as its hallmarks. The five artists presented in Brittle Wonders continue in this tradition. Each uses ceramics to offer fresh insight into life as it is today, employing unconventional techniques to create distinctive artworks – these “brittle wonders.â€
Amanda Smith creates bas-reliefs depicting a strange world filled with ordinary things and populated by fierce young girls who seem to be always up to the daunting challenges facing them in their beautiful land. Crystal Morey creates delicate ceramic figures and drawings that expose our vulnerability as a species and the tenuous relationship we have with the natural world – a relationship that we lose to our own peril.  Darren Cockrell fires his work “in a wood-fired kiln for 8-10 days where rivers of flame and layers of ash build to provide a surface that integrates the process into the piece†– a violent process that is appropriate for his vessels inspired by the forms of bombs and harbor mines. Diana Fayt studied ceramics and printmaking, and combines both in her work in a process she calls “etching in clay,†the result of which are striking vessels and platters covered with intricate drawings depicting intimately observed flora and fauna. Cindy Williamson creates rugged sculptures of humans, animals, and combinations of the two – all imbued with a haunting, life-like quality that defies the fired clay that they are made of.
An opening reception for the artists is scheduled from 6:30-8:30 PM on November 11, 2009. A Gallery Talk by the exhibiting artists is scheduled for 7:00-8:30 PM on November 19, 2009. The public is invited to attend both events, which will take place at the Los Medanos College Art Gallery, located in the Library building at Los Medanos College, 2700 East Leland Road, in Pittsburg, California. The Los Medanos Art Gallery is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from 12:30-2:30 PM and 6:30-8:30 PM. Admission to the gallery is free; however, parking costs $2.00. The gallery is wheelchair accessible. For more information call (925) 439-2181, ext. 3463 during regular gallery hours.
art blog:Â losmedanosart.blogspot.com