Upcoming Show
March 26th, 2012John Casey Collaboration
September 3rd, 2011Wonderful artist and friend, John Casey, will be having a show at Swarm Gallery this October. He had the great idea of collaborating with fellow artists to make a series of drawings that all started with hands and pants he had drawn. This is where I ended up!
I can’t wait to see all of the final works!
10/1/11 – 11/6/11: Tall Tales: Collaborative projects by John Casey & Friends
John will be showing a project of collaborative works with 30+ artists titled “Hands & Pants.” The exhibition will also feature a collaborative project with Mary Kalin-Casey titled “Call & Response,” which will feature a limited edition companion book for sale.
Openings Saturday, October 1st, 6-9pm.
June 11th, 2011
Come see my work tonight at the Compound Gallery Annual Group Show!
COMPOUND GROUP SHOW & OPEN STUDIOS
(JUNE 11- JULY 17, 2011)
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 11th, 6-9pm
Live Music by Alright Class
Alison O.K. Frost
Andreina Davila
Annie Frykholm
Crystal Morey
David Spiher
Eric Sanchez
Faye Kendall
Genessa Kealoha
Giles Goodhead
Jeanne Lorenz
Kiera Heiser
Lena Verderano Reynoso
Mary Marxen
Matt Reynoso
Michelle Morby
Noah Sakamoto
Ryan McJunkin
Sophie Leininger
Stevie Howell
Take Etani
Tallulah Terryll
Thomas Haag
Zach Clark
Zan Truman
New work
March 5th, 2011New larger piece!
Detail!
Studio Shots: March into the Sea
November 22nd, 2010I am in to middle of intense thought, making, and finishing. I am in work mode and counting down the days until my show at Rowan Morrison.
Last night I was finishing up the catalogue for ‘March Into The Sea’ with my dear husband Shane, and ran across this poetic description of a phoenix. I am keeping this image in my mind as I finish the show!
‘A phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet. It has a very long life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self.’
Klimt Drawing
Last work to complete!
Small works
Trees
Detail
In the kiln: Prayer to the kiln Gods
Large head
Complete chaos!
Work At POVevolving Gallery in LA
August 10th, 2010I have a wonderful drawing at PROevolving Gallery in Los Angeles! I am showing with wonderful artists and it is the second anniversary for the gallery!
http://povevolving.com/gallery/
“Irregular Cycles”
15″ x 15″
Paper Collage and Ink
$450
New Studio Opening
April 12th, 2010My studio has moved, I am now at the new Compound space located at 1167 65th St. Oakland, CA 94608.
Come Join us this Saturday evening for the re-grand opening of the Compound GAllery and the Swee(t)art Drawing Gallery. The entire space has been in a state of transformation for the last month and now has finally come together for this event!
I will be showing new ink drawings in the Swee(t) art Gallery along with other sculptors who draw! Lucien Shapiro, Bruk Dunbar, and Carrissa Bowman will also be showing new works.
Obi Kaufmann had some very thoughtful questions for me about how I work, and where my imagery comes from.
Crystal Morey, the Record of the Maker
Crystal Morey’s strong yet delicate sculpture has only gotten more strong and more delicate as the years of gone on. As a fan of her work, I am thrilled to include her in the show this month at the Swee(t)Art Drawing Gallery. The show is calledProtoform and from her startlingly consitant and strong portfolio, the gallery will showcase her drawing, a mode of her work that she doesn’t regularly show. If you are a fan ofCrystal Morey’s Website than you do know her drawn work and if not, please visit us on the night of the reception, April 17th, 2010. I visited her new studio in the Compound’s new space on 65th in North Oakland and I asked her a couple of questions.
Obi: How did you come about to sculpture? Is it something you have always done, or were you a draw-er at first?
Obi: I have noticed that your relationship to landscape, as a theme in your work is changing over the years. Am I right about this? Your figures exist in an environment now. Can you describe how that process came about and how you chose the imagery for the environment?
Obi: Sometimes I think your figures look like you. Is that right? Where do these people come from?
Her statement for the drawing show:
“In making the drawings for ‘Protoform’ I worked in an additive way. I collaged the drawings together by cutting out pieces and adding them for surface and texture.”
Obi: How did you come about to sculpture? Is it something you have always done, or were you a draw-er at first?
Crystal: I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. I grew up in the rural mountains of Northern California where I spent lots of time roaming the forests and building forts. In the evenings I would draw with my father, making elaborate stories about the animals and indigenous people that lived in the woods. This love for adventure and imagination fueled my desire to draw and has led to many other artistic passions.
I didn’t start sculpting until much later in life. Drawing is something that doesn’t require special equipment, only a surface and a tool to make marks. The way I work is no different, I have a surface and a tool to build with, the separation is in the process and the outcome. I think learning to draw first has only made my sculpture more informed, immediate, and inventive. Drawing and sculpting are both equally important to me. I have found that sculpting is more rewarding for me in its hands on visceral quality, it leaves a record of the maker that I haven’t been able to achieve through drawing.
Obi: I have noticed that your relationship to landscape, as a theme in your work is changing over the years. Am I right about this? Your figures exist in an environment now. Can you describe how that process came about and how you chose the imagery for the environment?
Crystal: I think my work has become less introspective in the past few years. For a long time I was very interested in emotion and focusing on the gesture, over exaggeration and animation in the body. I am still working with these ideas although in recent works I am looking at natural environments in relation to human emotion. I have always seen my figures in landscapes, although before, I only drew them. I am now making full environments, full narratives and landscapes.
The imagery for my landscapes are taken from objects, pictures, films, books, nature, and memory. I then reconstruct these images to make an environment that conveys the ideas and mood I want to show.
Obi: Sometimes I think your figures look like you. Is that right? Where do these people come from?
Crystal: Many people see the work as self-portrait, other people see the work first, and then on meeting me, can’t see the connection. For me, the figures don’t represent specific people, they represent feelings, situations, and states of being, and they are simply a vehicle to show an idea. I relate to humans and I am interested in both the relationships we have with each other and in nature.
Working In A New Way
March 23rd, 2010I have started a new body of work unlike anything I have made in the past! I am very excited! I am making full backgrounds and environments for my figures, it is liberating!
Protoform: Drawings by Sculptors
March 23rd, 2010
03.22.10
Press Release: group-art exhibit
Protoform
Drawings by Sculptors
Artists in show
Carrissa Bowman
Brük Dunbar
Crystal Morey
Lucien Shapiro
Curator, Obi Kaufmann
The SWEE(t)ART Drawing Gallery
1167 65th Street
Oakland, California
Show Runs April 17th -May 23rd, 2010
Opening Reception Saturday, April 17th, 6-9pm
First Friday Reception Friday May 7nd 7-10pm
Tea (Last Sunday of Show) Sunday April 16th 3-6pm
Swee(t)Art Drawing Gallery has moved and this is the opening show of 2010!
This show is based around sculptors and ceramicists’ drawn work as art in and of itself. The gathered roster includes emerging and established artists from a regional and national level who have built their careers on exploring their voice in three dimensions. This show explores their never before seen works at their creative genesis, as drawings. How does the sculptor relate to only two dimensions? Is their a tactile element that is maintained? How much of form is simply illusion.
Oakland curator Obi Kaufmann and artists/gallery owners Matt and Lena Reynoso continue their partnership with the side-project of the Compound Gallery, The Swee(t)Art Drawing Gallery. Now in its new location around the corner from its old spot, the Compound Gallery opens once again in April and is proud to host this unique Bay Area gallery.
Mission
The Drawing Gallery operates philosophically from a place near the origin of visual art. As a force in the world, Drawing separates humanity from all other terrestrial life-forms with its mysterious ability to transmit rudimentary information about beauty, mortality and emotive trans-generational divinations. Modern Art has subdivided itself into a million nodes of fashion and commodity and still there remains this mark-making impulse that ties us to the beginning of all art which begat then language: writing, theater, the visual arts, et al. The Drawing…the first beautiful word of the hand, the first dance, where the mind meets the eye and the creative spark is kindled and kept.
Swee(t)Art? Yes. It used to be a magazine,and then a website…now a gallery. Mixing both the Sweet and the Tart, Swee(t)Art has always been about the many flavors of contemporary Oakland. Although the gallery is committed to showcase regional and national art and the focus is on the local community, the scope of the work is not provincial and the themes, craftsmanship and presentation of all the high-concept shows at Swee(t)Art are of the highest aspiration in both presentation (of the individual) and cohesiveness (of the group).
CONTACT
OBI KAUFMANN
Phone 925-951-7501
Email: obikaufmann@msn.com
Fresh Produce 2009
November 21st, 2009I am in a wonderful holiday art show in San Jose at Anno Domini. The show opens December 4th and is full to the brim with original art under $250!
50 artists from around the world have created hundreds of works of art for this highly anticipated annual exhibition and sale. These artists were invited based on their unique artistic vision and contribution to urban/contemporary arts and culture. Each artist has submitted up to 10 works of original art, all affordably priced at $250 or less.
Exhibition & Sale Opens: First Friday, December 4, 2009
8pm til late, free and open to the public
On view through January 16, 2010
Here are some works I will have available!
1. “Morning, Keep The Streets Empty For Meâ€
Ceramic and Underglaze
$125
2009
2. “Forest Families IIIâ€
(Hand wing figure)
Ceramic and Underglaze
$125
2009
3. “Forest Families Vâ€
(Grass chest)
Ceramic and Underglaze
$125
2009
4. â€Forest Families VIIIâ€
(Hand body)
Ceramic and Underglaze
$175
2009
5. “Forest Families VIIIIâ€
(Hand body)
Ceramic and Underglaze
$175
2009
6. “Our Spring Is Sweet Not Fleeting Iâ€
Ceramic and Underglaze
$175
2009
7. “Our Spring Is Sweet Not Fleeting IIâ€
Ceramic and Underglaze
$175
2009
8. “The Big Flightâ€
Ceramic and Underglaze
$195
2009
9. “Take Me Home Before The Stormâ€
Ceramic and Underglaze
$195
2009