Gallery is open 1-6PM on Wednesdays & Thursdays and 12-3PM on Saturdays
Arc Gallery encourages but does not require visitors to wear face masks during gallery hours and in-person events.
Disposable masks will be available to all visitors, as needed.
Arc Gallery encourages but does not require visitors to wear face masks during gallery hours and in-person events.
Disposable masks will be available to all visitors, as needed.
“FANTASY” National Juried Exhibition
May 11 - June 8, 2024
click above image for online catalog
The Fantasy printed catalog can be purchased here: https://a.co/d/0pzQGOM
|
ZOOM ARTIST TALK, May 22, 6-7pm:
Participating Artists: Ric Ambrose, Kordula Coleman, Pilar Gagliasso Barnes, Karen Hochman Brown, Jaki Katz, Ina Morava, Liese Ricketts. See recorded talk below. ZOOM ARTIST TALK, May 29 6-7pm
Participating Artists: Zoe Caron, Edward M. Corpus, Sarah Curtiss, Natasha Dikareva, Victoria Hendrix Oppenheimer, Silvia Poloto, Mythili Kattupalli, Donnalynne Lefever. See recorded talk below. |
JUROR: Philip Bewley
Principal, Philip Bewley Art Advisory
President, Visual Art Council, Vita Brevis Club
Philip Bewley is a Curator and Art Advisor with over twenty-five years of experience in the curation of fine art and in the production of exhibitions. He is the President of the Visual Arts Council for Vita Brevis Club (VBC). Philip has led the Council in awarding significant funding for the VBC fellowship artists and support and promotion for VBC member artists. Prior to VBC, he was Director and Curator at DZINE Gallery, producing exhibitions featuring Bay Area artists. Philip was also previously Gallery Director for Therien & Co, Inc. His design for the San Francisco Decorators Showcase presenting artist Elina Frumerman was featured in Architectural Digest and other publications. As a Fine Art Advisor, he has placed significant works of art from international galleries with private collectors. Philip has volunteered for arts organizations including participating as a juror and panelist for ArtSpan, as a juror for SFWA, and with artist portfolio reviews at Arc Gallery.
Juror Statement
Fantasy is grounded in our ancient oral traditions and mythologies and in the history of art to the present day. The exhibition, Fantasy, at Arc Studios, is a seminal contemporary exploration of the subject with extraordinary visual depictions by contemporary artists in an expansive breadth of media: painting and drawing, collage and mixed media, photography, sculpture, and more. As a juror, I was entranced by the artwork the artists presented – alternately strange and wondrous, and humorous and terrifying, often at the same time. This exhibition invites the viewer to come in close, explore the fantasy worlds created by these artists, and to set their own imagination free.
Just as in our ancient mythologies, unexplained natural phenomena witnessed in the present age can inspire the creation of new deities and elaborate creation myths. In the oil painting on canvas, Stardust Journey, high fantasy ascends into a universe where a heroic female figure arrayed in futuristic body armor suspends a pennant of DNA, and stands on an elemental orb encasing a recumbent figure. Fantasies about space have informed this artist’s work since childhood after witnessing a dramatic UFO event with their brother over the Wullenweber on the Lummi Reservation in Washington State.
Fantasy creatures have been incorporated as gargoyles into the facades of Gothic cathedrals but have also inhabited children’s books and illustrations, where they speak and wear clothes and do all manner of fantastical things. Seen one way, fantasy creatures in art can be benevolent and humorous. Yet the same depictions can also be the stuff of nightmares. In a work of glazed ceramic art, Gremlin Bowl, a head of a fantasy creature is presented with large ears and a protruding forked tongue. The artist asks the viewer to consider, “Will the fantasy be a terror, or will it be a delight? Is it a monster, or is it a miracle?”
In another work on view, Mistress of the Robes from the series Angels, Ghosts and Fairies, the artist combines painting and photography to explore themes of the esoteric and the initiate from a feminist perspective. While being a juror for this exhibition, I found that fantasy in art is not limited as a specific genre or stylistic approach. Fantasy also has the power to inform and express ideas as a vehicle for narrative in the very best of contemporary art.
Principal, Philip Bewley Art Advisory
President, Visual Art Council, Vita Brevis Club
Philip Bewley is a Curator and Art Advisor with over twenty-five years of experience in the curation of fine art and in the production of exhibitions. He is the President of the Visual Arts Council for Vita Brevis Club (VBC). Philip has led the Council in awarding significant funding for the VBC fellowship artists and support and promotion for VBC member artists. Prior to VBC, he was Director and Curator at DZINE Gallery, producing exhibitions featuring Bay Area artists. Philip was also previously Gallery Director for Therien & Co, Inc. His design for the San Francisco Decorators Showcase presenting artist Elina Frumerman was featured in Architectural Digest and other publications. As a Fine Art Advisor, he has placed significant works of art from international galleries with private collectors. Philip has volunteered for arts organizations including participating as a juror and panelist for ArtSpan, as a juror for SFWA, and with artist portfolio reviews at Arc Gallery.
Juror Statement
Fantasy is grounded in our ancient oral traditions and mythologies and in the history of art to the present day. The exhibition, Fantasy, at Arc Studios, is a seminal contemporary exploration of the subject with extraordinary visual depictions by contemporary artists in an expansive breadth of media: painting and drawing, collage and mixed media, photography, sculpture, and more. As a juror, I was entranced by the artwork the artists presented – alternately strange and wondrous, and humorous and terrifying, often at the same time. This exhibition invites the viewer to come in close, explore the fantasy worlds created by these artists, and to set their own imagination free.
Just as in our ancient mythologies, unexplained natural phenomena witnessed in the present age can inspire the creation of new deities and elaborate creation myths. In the oil painting on canvas, Stardust Journey, high fantasy ascends into a universe where a heroic female figure arrayed in futuristic body armor suspends a pennant of DNA, and stands on an elemental orb encasing a recumbent figure. Fantasies about space have informed this artist’s work since childhood after witnessing a dramatic UFO event with their brother over the Wullenweber on the Lummi Reservation in Washington State.
Fantasy creatures have been incorporated as gargoyles into the facades of Gothic cathedrals but have also inhabited children’s books and illustrations, where they speak and wear clothes and do all manner of fantastical things. Seen one way, fantasy creatures in art can be benevolent and humorous. Yet the same depictions can also be the stuff of nightmares. In a work of glazed ceramic art, Gremlin Bowl, a head of a fantasy creature is presented with large ears and a protruding forked tongue. The artist asks the viewer to consider, “Will the fantasy be a terror, or will it be a delight? Is it a monster, or is it a miracle?”
In another work on view, Mistress of the Robes from the series Angels, Ghosts and Fairies, the artist combines painting and photography to explore themes of the esoteric and the initiate from a feminist perspective. While being a juror for this exhibition, I found that fantasy in art is not limited as a specific genre or stylistic approach. Fantasy also has the power to inform and express ideas as a vehicle for narrative in the very best of contemporary art.
"FANTASY" JUROR'S CHOICE AWARDS
Trish Harding, Victoria Hendrix-Oppenheimer, Silvia Poloto
click on an image for a larger view
"FANTASY" GALLERY ARTISTS
Ric Ambrose, Trung Cao, Zoe Caron, Steven Carpenter, Kordula Coleman, Edward M. Corpus, Sarah Curtiss, Anthony Demartini, Kees den Breejen, Katie Dever, Natasha Dikareva, Pilar Gagliasso Barnes, Lance Glasser, Eric Hamlin, Karen Hochman Brown, Mythili Kattupalli, Jaki Katz, Katlyn Koester, Melissa Lackman, Christopher Lane, Donnalynne Lefever, Christopher Mooney, Ina Morava, Amber Odell, Liese Ricketts, Randy Rocchi, William Salit, Pauline Crowther Scott, Marsha Shaw, and Yuting Wang.
A SELECTION OF WORKS BY GALLERY ARTISTS
click on an image for a larger view
"FANTASY" ONLINE ARTISTS
Laura Abrams, Peter Bartczak, Annette Batchelor, Jen Blalock, Collette Brooks-hops, Ted Chin, John Comisky, Susan Costes, Preston Craig, Katie Dever, Julien Dourlen, Corinne Farago, Theresa Felice, Kristen Fissell, Ken Gold, Angela Han, Tessa Harrison, Peter Hassen, Tori Hong, Jeanne Ichnowski, Jaki Katz, Eric Kelly, Joseph Kosdrosky, Christopher Lane, , Jessica McCoy, Ethan Mertz, Cynthia Miller, Craig Odle, Dominique Pfahl, Heather Renaux, Jennifer Robertson, Sterling Sam, Gary Schwartz, Steve Trettel, and Josh Wright.
A SELECTION OF WORKS BY ONLINE ARTISTS
click on an image for a larger view
