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Triple Base Gallery

February 18 - March 21, 2011

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3041 24th Street San Francisco, CA 94110
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Axis Mundi Axis Mundi 1, 2011, gouache on handmade paper, 12 x 13 inches
Opening Reception: Friday, February 18, 7-10pm Triple Base is proud to announce AXIS MUNDI, a solo show of new work by Alexander Kori Girard, originally a Berkeley-based artist who now resides in Los Angeles. For this new body of work, Girard used a set of shapes as the starting point and each painting unfolds much like a chain reaction in which every color and shape was born out of the context of its predecessors. All of the images in the exhibition are built out from a central axis, creating a mirror reflection within each composition. Rather than these mirrors being mathematically exact, they are instead closer to the approximate symmetry found in the nature. “Axis Mundi” is sometimes referred to as the "Naval of the World". In most cultures, you can find a prominent symbol of Axis Mundi; often depicted as a human form, tree, mountain, staircase or tower. It is the pulse or center that growth and development expands from. Girard regards these new paintings as windows or corridors that invite the viewer to cross a threshold into another space. This collection of work was influenced greatly by Girard’s numerous trips to India, evident in his treatment of color as well as the spiritual function of the paintings. Alexander Kori Girard graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York 2001. He is an artist design consultant living in Los Angeles. He is currently working on a book with Todd Oldham about the life and work of his grandfather, renowned designer Alexander Girard. Girard was recently awarded and featured in the New American Paintings #91 featuring the winners of the 2010 Pacific Coast Competition juried by Lawrence Rinder. His collaborative works with Oliver Halsman Rosenberg will be included in the upcoming exhibition Abstract Now and Then at the Berkeley Art Museum. In the Backroom: The Romanov New Work by Chechu Álava February 18 – March 20, 2011 Opening Reception: Friday, February 18, 7-10pm The Romanov is a new body of portraits by Paris-based Chechu Álava that depict the daughters of Tzar Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia. The works are both haunting and charming with an authentically historic feel. Chechu Álava was born in Piedras Blancas, Asturias in 1973. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Salamanca in 1995 and won the Erasmus scholarship to study at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Álava currently resides in Paris. Álava’s personal way of working is focused on the eternal representation of what surrounds us and the search for identity through painting. This trail begins in her subconscious and is completed by visiting museums, reinterpreting genres such as portraiture and landscape, and studying literature of the nineteenth century and cinema. Her final work demonstrates her passionate love of pictorial language. Álava is represented by Espacio Liquido in Gijon, Spain.