The Oakland Art Gallery is pleased to present Bestiaries, an exhibition curated by Anna Vaughan focusing on the relationship between humans and nature.
The exhibition features work by Jo Ann Biagini, Michael Hall, Peter Honig, Misako Inaoka, Tara Lyons, Daniel Ross, Tara Tucker and Anna Vaughan.
David Hevel’s works provide a humorous but poignant critique of American consumerism and fascination with celebrity culture. Working in mixed media, he creates installations combining items familiar in everyday American life, such as arrangements of fake flowers, with statues of wild animals. These ridiculous conglomerations emphasize the absurdity of human attempts to domesticate nature and use it to perpetuate a consumer culture. Hevel sites television and pop culture, which he was exposed to from a young age growing up in rural mid-America, as a central influence on his work. Hevel received an MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts in 2002 and his works have been displayed in numerous solo and group exhibitions all over the country.
The work of Misako Inaoka explores the boundary between the natural and the artificial and the distortion of the familiar. Her miniature sculptures of hybrid animals offer a commentary on the issues of vanishing species and the mutation of nature. The works often include animation and sound elements which further blur the line between what is alive and created by nature and what is created by the artist’s hand. Inaoka was born in Japan but moved to the United States and received a BFA from RISD and an MFA from Mills college. Her works have been shown in exhibitions both in the United States and abroad.
Michael Hall is an Oakland based artist and a current MFA candidate at Millis College in Oakland. He received his BFA from California College of the Arts and has shown in museums and galleries in California and Arizona. His delicate drawings of human hands holding small birds suggest the complexity of the relationship between man and nature. The title of his drawing, I Hold You Tight To Keep You Safe, refers to man’s need to protect nature without stifling it.
