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Royal NoneSuch Gallery

December 3 - January 3, 2011

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4231 Telegraph Avenue Oakland, CA 94609
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Plot Plot, New work by Samantha Lautman and Jeff Ray
Opening: Friday December 3, 2010 7-10pm The Royal NoneSuch Gallery is pleased to present Plot, an exhibition of work by artists Samantha Lautman and Jeff Ray. Through drawings and sculptural objects, Plot provides opportunities to both examine and experience ways in which we navigate space, structure, and social spheres.   Samantha Lautman’s large scale graphite drawings convey people making their way, alone or in groups, in open space or through generic city centers. Their  origin is indecipherable and their interactions ambiguous, however their actions and gestures are familiar. Through recognizable facial expressions and body language, potential narratives are elicited- is this group planning a revolution or discussing the merits of a new commercial product?  The combination of vagueness and familiarity in the situations decpited give rise to ideas of human interaction in general- our tendencies to group, collaborate, socialize, and co-habitate.   Rather than focus on the people who navigate, the sculptural objects in Jeff Ray’s series, Shelters, explore the phenomenology of sound and of dwellings. The pieces employ a combination of sculpture, sound, composition, design software, video, photo, aromatherapy, and pen and ink drawings to dig into the myths and theories behind structures and architecture. The pieces invite engagement that is experienced through physical interaction, as well as sight, smell, and sound. Through this multi- facted experience the objects of Shelters  speak to contemporary notions of utopia and how it can be achieved.   About the artists: Jeff Ray is an artist, musician, filmmaker, short story writer, and a food, environmental, and arts activist. He is a 2010 MFA candidate at SF State where he studies New Media Arts. He has won numerous awards, and residencies including an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and a Murphy Cadagon award from the SF Foundation. He has shown/ performed at various venues and places such as SFMOMA, Kulturhuset, Stockholm Sweden, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, and Elanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco. Jeff Ray is the Founder and Executive Director of Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival in which within the programming of the festival he has introduced the first Bay Area multimedia performance series, Collision. He has been on the Board of Directors, Advisory Board and programming committee at The Lab Art Space in San Francisco for the past 6 years. He has worked at Rainbow Grocery Worker Owned Co-op for the past 19 years in the building maintenance department, and the Public Relations/ Marketing committee.  Samantha Lautman is an artist whose work in drawing and mixed media explores human interactions with their environment and each other.  Lautman’s work has recently been presented in the Bay Area at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, di Rosa Preserve, Intersection for the Arts, SFMOMA Artist Gallery, and the Kala Art Institute where she was a 2008-09 Fellowship Award recipient.  She has a BFA in Printmaking from CCA. Gallery hours: Saturday and Sunday from 1-4pm and by appointment* *The gallery will be closed Saturday, December 25-Saturday, January 1