Art Gallery March/April Exhibitions
Through April 14, 2016, two beautiful new exhibits are on display in our Cypress College Art Gallery.
Tales That Must be Told:
Contemporary Narrative Art
Curated by Siobhan McClure
Artists: David Balin, John Frame, Wendell Gladstone, Julie Heffernan, Nathan Huff, David Jien, Melissa Kauk Macias, Thomas Whittaker Kidd, Tom Knechtel, Laura Krifka, Siobhan McClure, Tom Miller, Kristen Morgin, Yoshi Sakai, Kate Savage, Devin Troy Strother, Eve Wood.
Cypress College Art Gallery is pleased to present Tales That Must Be Told: Contemporary Narrative Art a group exhibition of contemporary art curated by Siobhan McClure. The telling of tales with paint can be traced back to cave paintings and was central to art making until the mid 20th century. Once, the meaning of these visual tales was clear to the intended audience; cultures were homogeneous and symbolism was shared. Over time we lost all or part of the tales imbedded in the imagery, yet the desire to tell or see visual tales did not dissipate. Today’s narrative paintings are products of this history. Shared cultural references have dissolved, and in their place are highly personal narratives. “Personal” is the key word since all of the artists in this group are creating personal tales. Sometimes they integrate or transform scraps of old tales into new ones while at other times they fabricate completely new tales. Often, the specifics of old tales are not readily apparent although a sense of meaning and tone can be grasped. Unlike their predecessors, these contemporary narrative artists are comfortable with this ambiguity, with multiple interpretations of their tales. Their images are not detached from meaning nor are their tales without purpose. They are tales they are compelled to tell.
IN THE PROJECT SPACE: Frido Evers: Letter to Pauli
Curated by Merete Steiro Mortensen
The theme of Norwegian artist Frido Evers’ large-scale installation titled Letter to Pauli is a cascading spectacle of the universe, grounded in the harsh materialism of the earth. It shows us our predicament as finite stargazers knee-deep in mud. Making use of high-tech equipment, always probing deeper towards the limit of human capability, the precision of Evers’ manual craftsmanship forms a tangible contrast to his oeuvres’ ephemeral atmosphere.
Herein lie the traces of a working humanity, exemplified by the decomposing industrial ruins that frequents as his motives. Juxtaposed to an indefinite space over and above our worldly efforts, it catapults the mind to a sublimated state where the duality absolves and we’re left with the relativity of a universe where no absolute point of view can be determined.
Evers’ work is not just a manifestation of an Apollonian creator reveling in his own splendidness; rather, it incites the desire of creativity in the perceiver, inviting us to come along for a while on the journey that never ends as long as we’re still around to take part in it.
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Gallery Hours: Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. The gallery is closed Friday, except by appointment. The Art Gallery is located on the Cypress College campus: 9200 Valley View, Cypress, CA 90630. For more information, please call (714) 484-7139
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