June 30 – July 30, 2016
FIRST FRIDAY RECEPTION: July 1st from 6-9 pm
Jerry McLaughlin and Sawyer Rose create intricate surfaces through complex layering.
McLaughlin’s work is about finding quiet space, “space where the inner dialogues are silenced, where there is no sense of time.” He begins with a surface of visual commotion: color, chaos, marks, and text. As the layers of complex texture evolve, McLaughlin quiets his paintings. In the end, there are only hushed reverberations of any prior noise, silenced by his neutrally toned, minimalist surfaces.
Using a soldering iron as a paintbrush, Sawyer Rose creates emblematic forms using layers of molten metal. Abstracted botanical shapes on the surfaces are clad in layers of silver solder and copper, as if their bodies are growing the armor they need to flourish in the increasingly corrupted environment humans are leaving for them. Using the texture of the metal as her primary mark-making medium, the liquefied silver morphs into bark, or feathers, or scales.
Both artists are intimately tied to their media and processes. The viewer experiences that intimacy in the sensuality & depth of the resulting works.
Jerry McLaughlin is also co-author, with Rebecca Crowell, of the forthcoming book, “Cold Wax Medium”, to be released later this year
The exhibit will be at GearBox Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave in Oakland from June 30 – July 30, 2016 with an opening reception during the First Friday Art Walk, July 1st from 6-9 pm.
Also showing at the GearBox Gallery are works by member artists.
The GearBox is open Thursdays and Fridays from 12 to 6 pm and Saturdays from 11 am to 5 pm. GearBox Gallery is also open 6-9 pm the First Friday of every month as part of the Oakland Art Murmur Art Walk.