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Patricia Sweetow Gallery

March 21 - April 26, 2009

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480 23rd Street Oakland, CA 94612
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Urban Idiom
EARLY MORNING SATURDAY RECEPTION - March 21, 11AM- 1:30PM Patricia Sweetow Gallery is pleased to present Urban Idiom, an exhibition with artists Ernest Jolly, Irmel Kamp, Matt Gordon, Dustin Kelly, Lauren Davies, Frederick Hayes, and Jefferson Pinder. Co-curated by Susan Chen. Exhibition dates: March 21 - April 25, 2009. The artists' reception is Saturday, March 21, 11:00 – 1:30 p.m. Patricia Sweetow Gallery introduces Urban Idiom, an exhibition echoing the texture of our urban environment. Frederick Hayes presents his drawings of Modernist buildings in charcoal and pencil; while the video installation of Ernest Jolly explores shifting patterns of light and sound that inundate our daily lives. Washington DC artist Jefferson Pinder captures two shoe-shiners as they ply their trade on the streets of Washington DC. Lauren Davies makes the ultimate urban accoutrement, not to mention our favorite urban dweller, the ubiquitous dog, using dog hair donated from various sources. German artist Irmel Kamp documents the Bauhaus buildings built between 1930 – 1939 in Tel Aviv; and Matt Gordon takes the everyday objects of modern living, recombines them and delivers as a reinvented drawing. Last but not least, Dustin Kelly took the remnants of b-level comic books from the 80's, collaged them into an heroically ambitious mural, leaving us the fragments and ambitions of aspiring graphic fiction practitioners. German photographer Irmel Kamp (b. 1937) has documented Modern Architecture of the late 1920!s through the 1930!s in nine European cultural capitals. Her resume includes Tel Aviv, New Building, 1930-39; the zinc covered houses of the Belgium-German border region; Brussels, Les Annees Trente, Neues Bauen, New Buildings in Brussels, and now regions in the former Eastern Bloc countries. Kamp has devoted her multiple decade career photographing International Style Architecture in regions overlooked for their modern architectural treasures. Through her singular approach of pure, cool neutrality, Kamp has preserved an historical record informed by contemporary tableau. Her photographic projects have enlivened debate, and encouraged preservation of buildings designed by leading architects of the era. Her last project, Les Annees Trente, Modern Architecture in Brussels, began an International Tour at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen. Born in 1970, Jefferson Pinder received an undergraduate degree in theater, and an MFA in painting and mixed media from the University of Maryland. A video performance artist, he gained national attention with the exhibition Frequency at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 2006. Recent exhibitions include shows at the High Museum in Atlanta, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Connecticut, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland and G-Fine Art in Washington DC. Pinder's work has been written about in the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Art in America, the New York Times, Artillery, NY Arts magazine, and others. Frederick Hayes, with deep roots in San Francisco now lives and works in New York. Hayes subject is never accidental, rather thoughtful and provocative, "I look for new ways to evaluate notions of desire and belonging via the black experience, and the search for self." Hayes talks about finding connections through repetition, from one image to the next, from the past to the present. "This wholeness is the self, this wholeness is also my experience as an African American within the confines of genuine American imagery." Hayes received the Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship at San Francisco Art Institute in 2002, the Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2001, the Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation in 1999, and the San Francisco Art Commission Individual Artist Grant in 2000. Collections include San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Addison Gallery of American Art, MA, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Lauren Davies lives and works in San Francisco. Recent exhibitions include Aggregate at the Richard L. Nelson Gallery at UC Davis, The Butterfly and the Tsunami, California Academy of Sciences, and Natural Blunders at the deSaisset Museum at the Santa Clara University. Her series, The Breeders explores the world of dogs, with each model made from the specific fur of the breed represented. Ernest Jolly is a musician, and a visual artist who combines both interests in unique ways. His music is hypnotic, minimal, and atonal. His use of materials, combining light with throbbing sound in a constructed environments leaves viewers somewhat agitated always anticipating the experience beyond what it delivers. Jolly received his MFA from Mills College in Oakland. Matt Gordon, and Dustin Kelly will receive their MFA's from College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2008.