CREAM from the top
Surfacing talent from Bay Area MFA programs.
The Richmond Art Center is pleased to present CREAM, from the top, featuring artists who have risen to the top of their respective Master of Fine Arts classes in 2009. From 2002 through 2008, Curator Kathryn Weller Renfrow presented the exhibit at a non-profit arts organization in Benicia, CA before moving the project and expanding it in 2010 to include two exhibition venues, the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, CA, and the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in Novato, CA.
Annie Vought Creamed Chicken and Olives, paper cut letters, dimensions variable, 2009
This year’s exhibition features 14 artists who received Master of Fine Arts degrees in the spring of 2009 from one of 6 schools in the region: California College of the Arts, Mills College, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco State University, University of California Berkeley, and University of California, Davis. The artists have been chosen from a field of nearly 200 candidates, and their work is among the newest, freshest, and most accomplished expressions of contemporary visual art in Northern California. Many of the artists are already achieving success in their careers, receiving honors, awards, artist residencies, gallery exhibits and glowing reviews of their work.
Seven of the fourteen artists participating in the project in this year will be featured in Cream, from the top at the Richmond Art Center.
Graduates of the San Francisco Art Institute's MFA program include Swiss-born artist Carina Baumann, whose dark, seemingly monochromatic photographs hauntingly reference the theme of life and death; Nina Elder, who "explores the delineation between land and landscape, beauty and banality through the vernacular of landscape painting, using parking lots, highways, ore piles, factories, and junk heaps as (her) source material"; and April Grayson, born and raised in a small town in the Mississippi Delta, whose experimental films address her deep-rooted interest in matters of race, history, and ideas of redemption and reconciliation.
Both Annie Vought's and Brian Caraway's work reflects the commitment to highly achieved production values melded with conceptual rigor exemplified by the Mills College MFA program. Concerned formally with color, line, and the grid, Caraway uses "sleight of hand variations and quiet exactness of line" to explore visual perception and its impact on the viewer's state of mind; for the past 3 years Vought has re-created notes and letters that she has found, written, or received by enlarging them onto new paper and then "dissecting the intricate negative spaces with an exacto knife", producing sensational cut-paper tracery memorials to each original author.
"Flirtatious gestures, the body language of longing, and the private moments of anticipation” are Julia Elsas' subject matter. A graduate of the MFA program at UC Davis and current artist-in-residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, Elsas' black and white embroidered "samplers" depict women's eyes and mouths as signifiers of sexual desire and attraction. UC Berkeley MFA graduate Aaron Maietta’s multidisciplinary practice reflects his interest in exploring ideas of spatial theory and imagination. His installations "re-plot conventional relationships between real and imagined locations to yield yet another place that is at once real and imagined"
The Artists’ Forum on April 10th at 2 pm is an informal discussion moderated by Kenneth Baker, art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. It provides an opportunity for the artists to engage in a conversation about their work with the eminent writer, focusing on contemporary directions in art practice as exemplified by the work in the exhibitions. The public is invited to attend and join in the discussion. This event is free and open to the public.
Also: CREAM from the top at MarinMOCA
March 20 – April 18
www.marinmoca.org
415.506.0137
The 45th Annual WCCUSD Student Art Show
Meisenhard Carina Baumann
projection on digital print, sizes variable, 2009
Annual art exhibition featuring current Richmond Art Center members
The Richmond Art Center is proud to present this beloved and well-received exhibition of the incredible and diverse talents of its members. A group show of regional artists working in a wide range of media, the exhibition serves as a testament to the creativity of those that support the Art Center, live nearby, take or teach classes and have often been involved with the Art Center for years.
The exhibition remains a true celebration of the collaborative, creative community that is alive and well since our humble beginnings nearly 75 years ago when our founder Hazel Salmi stated that “the art center grew out of the needs of people in the community to exercise their innate abilities for creative expression.”
Members’ Showcase
Featuring 2009 Members Only award winners: Vicki Folkerts Coots, Elaine Gerber, Regina Gilligan, Florence Lewis, Jose Perez and Michael Warner.
Each year, the Richmond Art Center’s Curatorial Advisory Committee awards a select number of Member’s Only artists to be featured in the following year’s Members’ Showcase exhibition. This year Vicki Folkerts Coots, Elaine Gerber, Regina Gilligan, Florence Lewis, Jose Perez and Michael Warner will be featured. Working in media ranging from ceramics to salvaged automobile parts, these featured artists will showcase 4 to 6 of their recent works.
Now in its 45th year at the Richmond Art Center, The Annual West Contra Costa United School District (WCCUSD) Student Art Show is a collaborative project between WCCUSD and the Richmond Art Center.
Artwork by Middle and Senior High school students fills the walls with their diverse visions and individual creative voices. This exhibition is organized by art teachers at the Middle and Senior High schools of West Contra Costa County. The students’ and teachers’ participation, enthusiasm and support are essential components of this project’s continued success.
The Richmond Art Center is proud to continue supporting and celebrating the energy, creativity and the important voices and visions of our youth.
Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios
Preview Exhibition
East Bay Open Studios connects the public with over 400 artists in 14 cities in the East Bay. Pro Arts produces this annual event that runs Saturday and Sunday, June 5 -6 & 12 - 13, 2010. Since 1979, this event remains the largest art event in the region and draws an annual audience over 50,000.
Many studio visitors plan their East Bay Open Studios tour by viewing the over 400 artworks and presentations displayed salon-style in the annual Preview Exhibition. This year, the preview exhibition will be presented across three East Bay community arts venues: Richmond Art Center, Pro Arts and Berkeley Art Center.
Artists will have the opportunity to exhibit in their respective communities through this new collaboration. The exhibitions will be on view starting in May of 2010, opening at Pro Arts on May 4, at Berkeley Art Center on May 15, and at Richmond Art Center on May 11. As part of the exhibitions, artist networking sessions will take place at all three venues in addition to an opening reception at Berkeley Art Center on May 15 and an artists’ reception at the Richmond Art Center on May 22. The annual East Bay Open Studios Gala will be held at Pro Arts on June 3, featuring live music and champagne followed by a free reception for friends and family.
This collaborative exhibition embodies the multi-city partnership and increased visibility for the arts community encouraged by 510arts.com, an initiative supported by the East Bay Community Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation. www.510arts.com is a web portal that highlights arts activities in four cities across the East Bay—Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond—to “heighten awareness of our cultural landscape, deepen the impact of the arts on their cities, and further the sustainability of artists and arts organizations”. For this year’s Open Studios presentation, 510arts.com will be involved in special efforts to help promote the events and raise the visibility of Open Studios and its three collaborating arts partners.
Members Only
Florence Lewis Your Eyes are Pools
Stoneware, 15” x 12”, 2009
Regina Gilligan Inside Out
38"h x 32", deconstructed steel motors, 2010
