November 24, 2018 – January 5, 2019
Opening Reception:
Friday, December 5th from 6-9 pm
with special installation in the Inner Room
About Face: Marsha Balian & Deborah Benioff Friedman
Jules Campbell, like Jerry Leisure, invests herself in the processes and materials of making art. Engaged in her environment, observing the color, grit and texture of the streets of Oakland where she works, Campbell translates the experience to her paintings by adding paint, layers of paper and debris, and then scraping, sanding and abrading back the surface. Over time the wood panels absorb the inherent struggle between the new-ness of creation and the wear and use of experience and action. Ultimately the paintings come to a place of satisfaction and recognition of the time and effort intrinsic in the work and the urban environment that inspires it.
Jerry Leisure comments: “For me there is great satisfaction in engaging the resistance and compliance of traditional materials for making art. I believe that this self-indulgence still has a justifiable place in a technological age. An art object can pass on the contemplative aspects of its making. It doesn’t have to speak a particular language to have effect and it may speak to the time of its making or beyond. Whatever a crafted object can or cannot do, there remains the fact some people just like to make stuff.
My sculptures are constructed of several possible varieties of wood including Western Maple, Basswood, Sugar Pine, and Jelutong. I have used artist’s oil paints and/or acrylics for the poly-chromed pieces. Sometimes I’m asked if the heads depict someone in particular. Instead, I see them as small meditations that share some of the same gestural intent as the other pieces. Even the more abstracted pieces have figurative elements. Often, I enjoy putting a bit of whimsy together with some serious intent.”