Mercury 20 Gallery
25 Grand Ave., Oakland CA 94612
510-701-4620
www.mercurytwenty.com

Hours: Fridays 4-7pm, Saturdays 12-3pm and first Friday of each month 6-9pm

Dave Meeker: Plugged In, 1978-2009

Margaret Chavigny, Kathleen King, Jill McLennan, Charlie Milgrim: Don’t Look Back: sculpture, painting, mixed media

Julie Alvarado, Jo Ann Biagini, Chela Fielding, Patricia Gillespie, Maya Kabat, Jamie Morgan, Laura van Duren, Anna Vaughan, Joan Weiss: Works on Paper
 
Exhibition dates: February 5 – 27, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, February 5 from 6-9pm (in conjunction with Oakland Art Murmur)

At times, an unexpected light shines on outer terrain and reveals to us a reflection of the inner world. Employing an unusual combination of emotionally lush imagery with a graphic and often austere compositional sense, photographic artists Noele Lusano and James Minton bring us snapshots of these illuminated moments.

In addition The World Turned inside out will be on view Saturdays from 2pm-5pm at Oakopolis during the month of February. As well as the first two Saturdays in March from 2pm-5pm.

Article X
Featuring:
David Trautrimas + Kristina Lewis
Artist Reception Feb 5th, 5-8pm
Show Runs Jan 30th – March 20th

Johansson Projects presents Article X, where functional objects are removed from their usual contexts and placed in zones of ambiguity, absurdity, and anxiety.
Observe Article X, a peculiar specimen, removed from its natural habitat, on the verge of death or banality and given a new purpose by unknown forces. Photographer David Trautrimas dismantles and sculpts rusted household refugees—coffee pots, refrigerators, electric razors, oil cans and waffle irons—which are then digitally re-imagined as top-secret outposts. The Skunkwork structures are situated in Cold War landscapes, channeling the tangled relationships between militarism and consumerism. His experiments hypothesize the fictional origins of appliances and common household goods that defined the zeitgeist of the era. Kristina Lewis frees utilitarian objects from their allegiance to human agendas and gives the materials of our disregarded possessions space to evolve. Emancipated zippers, stilettos, and light switches (complete with their wiring), become indescribable relics that could be machine or animal. Reassembled high heels flaunt their insides: the grosthetics of metal bones, ragged flesh and skinned horns suggest the underlying torture of tottering on heels. Though we recognize the residuals of what was, her creations test the human urge to classify, ridding the shoes of their “shoeness,” as what we would normally recognize evaporates into the idiosyncrasies of its parts. 

Kristina Lewis

Sheila Ghidini, "A Conversation with a Crow"

A Thousand Ways to Kiss the Ground

Mari Andrews and Sheila Ghidini

February 5 – March 20, 2010

Opening Reception:  Friday, February 5  6 – 9 PM

Through careful observation, collecting and re-presentation, Mari Andrews and Sheila Ghidini honor both nature and the man-made.  Andrews gathers multitudes of leaves, stones, seeds, moss and other objects she finds on nature walks in the Sierras and elsewhere.  Working intuitively while surrounded by these specimen-like treasures, she singles out some, combining them with wire, pasta, pipe cleaners or paper to create sculptures she describes as three-dimensional drawings.  Either mounted on the wall or suspended, these delicate juxtapositions recall web-like structures, pods and other fundamental forms.  As in nature, each of Andrews’ works can be seen individually as a subtly complex whole, or it may be viewed as one unique element among a symphonic array of interrelated parts.

Ghidini is also a collector of natural objects and images, many of which she finds at her rural Connecticut refuge.  She closely observes roots, birds, feathers and nests, which she uses as subjects for sensitively rendered graphite drawings that she coats in beeswax.  The man-made is not excluded from these representations, for many bird nests actually incorporate bits of stray string, paper, ribbon, etc.  In Ghidini’s most recent works, she creates drawings directly on the wall and assembles with them found objects such as branches, a chair or an old tricycle to create vignette-like installations.  Encountering one of these is like discovering a succinct and evocative haiku.  Weaving together disparate elements, the works of Andrews and Ghidini invite us to rethink distinctions between drawing and sculpture and to reconsider boundaries between the natural and the manufactured.