770 West Grand Ave. | Oakland, CA | 94612 |
Phone: 510-271-0822 | [email protected]
Hours: Thursday to Saturday 12-5pm | First Fridays 5-8pm
770 West Grand Ave. | Oakland, CA | 94612 |
Phone: 510-271-0822 | [email protected]
Hours: Thursday to Saturday 12-5pm | First Fridays 5-8pm
Gearbox Gallery is proud to present Prototype, an exhibition of new work by guest artist David Fought and member artist Eileen Starr Moderbacher. Fought creates sculptures with metal rods and plaster that arise from his engagement with the physical world in a quest to uncover the authentic object. Starr Moderbacher’s acrylic and water stick paintings on paper affixed to panel are vibrant compositions that celebrate the emotive nature of color.
In the artists’ words: “In our individual art practices we reach for a unique small part, a sliver or a wisp of what is often un-articulable, or un-worded. Using aspects of color, hue, value, shape, line, mass, surface, etc. as if they are actual art materials, we (each of us) find meaning. The result of putting our work side by side invites a step even further. Our work merged here, in this room, is a unique piece of work unto itself. It is an only of its kind. It is a one-off. It is a PROTOTYPE.”
Inspired by the mass-produced infrastructure around us, like concrete rain gutters or steel girders that support a freeway, Fought’s sculptures are deep studies of surface and gesture. Fought creates forms that are at once unknown and familiar. In the artist’s words: “I study surfaces to divine what’s underneath, to understand what gives objects their presence.”
Starr Moderbacher creates sweeping paintings that organize complex marks and color families within an underlying sense of design. While presenting the viewer with un-named forms, her paintings draw from her deep knowledge of painting from life. Organic forms appear backlit in front of an otherworldly sky, and brushstrokes evoke a tactile sensation.
All are welcome to join us for the Opening Reception celebrating a decade of presenting contemporary art in Oakland. Stop in anytime Saturday, April 19th, 1-4pm to greet the artists and enjoy the light refreshments. Free street parking in the nearby neighborhood.
David Fought received an MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco, CA, and a BA from the New College of California, San Francisco, CA. Previously an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA, his work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States including solo and group exhibitions in California, New York, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Oregon, Colorado, among others. Fought has been included in international group exhibitions in Japan and Mexico as well as exhibitions at the Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA; the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA; Rocky Mount Arts Center, Rocky Mount, NC; and the Western Colorado Center for the Arts, Grand Junction, CO, among others.
“Fought explores perception, time, and the brain’s form-creating proclivities with spare sculptures deriving from geometric abstraction and Minimalism. “5 Wire Objects” and “5 Crosswire Fills” are, respectively, wall-mounted and pedestal-mounted polygonal constructions of metal rod, plaster, paint and lighting that initially resemble half-assembled kites, tents, or butterfly chairs. Move around them, however, and they change shape. Shadows turn out to be drawn lines, and vice versa. Convex flips into concave, presence into absence. The spatial/optical play recalls Cubism and later works by Josef Albers, Al Held, and Richard Tuttle”.
-DE WITT CHENG
Eileen was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. There she received her BFA in Printmaking from the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Shortly thereafter she relocated to the Bay Area and received her MFA in Painting from California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California some years later. She was an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts for two years, before concentrating on her work in her own studio. She has shown her work extensively throughout the United States and Japan, and been included in group shows, as well as solo shows in the Bay Area.
She has also recently released a book titled “How Much Further”, It is a retrospective of Eileen S Moderbacher art— From early years to present day, available on BLURB,
“Throughout her artistic career, the artwork of Eileen Starr Moderbacher has been in constant motion, luring viewers into her worlds with a blend of sublime beauty and bold choices partnered with an exciting allusion to the unknown. Her newest abstract works spring from their roots in her earlier representational pieces, carrying with them not only the vitality and beauty but a subtle narrative sensibility that intrigues and inspires.”
— Julie McCray, owner of SHOH GALLERY
770 West Grand Ave.
Oakland, CA 94612