Craig Nagasawa’s paintings examine the complexities of departures, asking viewers to consider such questions as: “What do we experience when someone leaves this world; how can we visualize such moments? Is it possible to create a liminal space in a painting where we are suspended between memory and the present?”
Chris Ashley is an artist, writer, and educator who lives and works in Oakland, California. In addition to his paintings, Ashley is known for his multi-year drawing project, which uses HTML tables to make browser-rendered images posted daily on his blog, Look, See.
The Townsend Center is pleased to have Ala Ebtekar’s striking diptych, “A Breath of Air” on display for the 2009 spring semester. Born in the United States to Iranian parents, Ebtekar was raised in both Iran and the U.S. As a young teenager he joined the K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), working with artist Tim Rollins on collaborative artworks involving groups of urban youth.
Plug-in Pavilion, Valparaíso, Chile features the award-winning architectural designs of René Davids, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, and Taylor Medlin, MA student in Architecture. The work in the exhibition comes from Medlin and Davids’ entry to the 43rd Central Glass Architectural Design Competition, which won first prize out of 733 international entries.
Portals is an exhibition of small watercolor paintings and relief prints by Julie Oppermann. In her work, Oppermann borrows imagery from textile patterns, wallpaper designs, and other decorative arts. The collage of these elements creates intimate dreamscapes—drawing the viewer into an imaginative world of colors, patterns and shapes. In all of the paintings, colors, lines and forms come together in unexpected ways.
Vanishing (Portraits) features color photographs of miniature (mostly black and white) cemetery portraits found on tombstones in the south of France. These portraits of portraits explore themes of history, memorialization and time. Sharnoff writes: “I was moved by two desires: first to record effects of time on the found photographs showing the alterations due to years of exposure; and second, to preserve the portraits before further damage made them unrecognizable.”
As an illustrator Ward Schumaker's work appears frequently in such publications as the L.A. Times, New York Times, Poetry, and Le Figaro; in collateral for United Airlines and Hermès; and in books. He has illustrated two limited edition for The Yolla Bolly Press: Two Kitchens in Provence by M.F.K.Fisher; and Paris France by Gertrude Stein. His personal work has appeared in solo shows in Nashville, Shanghai, and recently at the Meridian Gallery in San Francisco.
John McNamara came to the Art Practice Department in the fall of 1993. In 1994 he developed and implemented the course "Art 8, Introduction to Visual Thinking," an entry-level course focusing on the investigation of art processes and conceptual strategies. "Resource," a reference guide for new Cal students, named it one of the most student recommended classes to take within the University.
An exhibition, lectures, and films focused on the explosion of interest in real and imagined pasts, especially medieval pasts, since 1989, from Estonia in the north to Bulgaria in the south.
Paintings by Squeak Carnwath
Squeak Carnwath is widely known for her large, luminous canvasses. “Carnwath builds her paintings up layer by layer, blending poetry and imagery with color and luminosity to emphasize the essence of her message: We should all take the time to appreciate and revel in the familiar circumstances of our daily lives,” art critic Miriam Seidel has said. As Carnwath herself puts it, “Art is the antidote that reminds us to breathe, to feel the soles of our feet and the touch of the ground on the bottom of our toes.”