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Vessel Gallery

June 21 - August 28, 2011

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471 25th Street Oakland, CA 94612
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Portraits 'Peers' detail 36.5" x 74.5" x 8.5" sculpture by Cyrus Tilton
An exploration of the various interpretations of portraiture through the mediums of painting, sculpture, and video installation. Artists Tino Rodriguez, Virgo Paraíso, Walter James Mansfield, Sanjay Vora, Cyrus Tilton, and Sohyung Choi come together in this very special group show. "This show examines portraiture through the eyes of each artist presented. I'm curious about the pursuit of portrait art by contemporary artists. The artist makes interpretations of a character and chooses to reveal the outward appearance and inner significance of the subject. How an artist expresses, conveys, and represents, the essence of a subject is, without a doubt, most intriguing. "Portraits" opens a window in understanding that the format of portraiture continues to provide endless possibilities for artists to exert their vision of a either a person, self, or animal. This show is definitely NOT a historical examination of portraiture. It IS a current, diverse, and vital exploration of the portrait genre." - Lonnie Lee, Curator Serenity 8" x 10" oil on wood painting by Tino Rodriguez "My work is my search for a spiritual philosophy that transcends simple duality. Western religions often set up simplistic dualities: Good and evil, heaven and hell, spirit and body, etc. I am fascinated by the complexity of human sexuality, transformation, longing and transgression. I represent our human exuberance and decadence. I show the reverse alchemical process of putrefaction and rebirth, the total abandonment of rationality. I want to continue creating a syncretic universe in which all is integrated, whether it be good or evil." - Tino Rodriguez "Far away from the sterile, pseudo-sanctified realm of the art museum, Tino Rodriguez gained his first exposure to the art world in the Catholic churches of Mexico. In these mysterious, hushed interiors, images of saints and angels seduced him, the scent of candle wax and incense beguiled him. Angels in particular – androgynous, half animal-half human creatures – captivated Rodriguez with their allure. The legacy of this seduction is visible in Rodriguez’ work. Rodriguez’ work also challenges received gender ideologies, another strategy with personal roots. Many of his self-referential images borrow iconographies traditionally associated with femininity in an attempt to claim for himself and others “feminine” behaviors and feelings. Thus, images of babies and fetuses as well as androgynous figures donning bridal veils populate his paintings, insisting that procreation, nurturing, creativity and beauty be the modus operandi open to all. The veils, in particular, are potent signifiers of his personal history. As a child, Rodriguez dressed up and danced in his sister’s first communion veil. Weaving together signifiers from Celtic fables, Northern European fairy tales, Mexican myths, Native American legends, the history of art, as well as Catholic and Hindu iconography, magic, cross pollination, and gender are major themes in the art of Tino Rodriguez. A citizen of the world, Rodriguez rejects the seriousness and sterility of modernism for the fantastic iconographic wonders of postmodernism and post colonialism. In addition, his paintings – reflective but not literal, self-referential but not solely self-destructive – conjure events from his personal history in an attempt to engage the beholder in dialogue." - Charlene Villasenor-Black Forebear 72" x 48" acrylic and oil on wood painting by Walter James Mansfield Walter James Mansfield continues the pouring lines of his abstract paintings. Without fail Mansfield guides the most agile, open, and adventurous to explore his intricate portraits. Don't Go Back to Sleep 16" x 20" oil on wood by Virgo Paraíso "Paradise, Metamorphoses and Hybridism are re-ocurring themes that appear throughout the worlds in my paintings. These scenes mainly focus in the connection between nature and human kind. A connection that awakens sensation, enlightenment and spirituality, Transforming its inhabitants into nature itself. These visions are of lush green rainforests, tropical oceans, and waterfalls, exotic and ancient cultures, fairytales and fantastic dreamscapes. A virgin paradise without human destruction. My ancestors, the Nahua people from ancient Mexico, believed that a person’s fate was determined by their “Nagual” or animal twin spirirt, which some had the power to transform themselves into. They also believed that we are born with a physical heart and face, yet we must create a deified heart to shine through our face before our features become reliable reflections of ourselves. If we are unable to do so, we are merely vagrants on the face of this earth." - Virgo Paraíso "I question the time and space of one’s existence through found objects and the photographic image. Both serve as records of time: of how innumerable histories and memories have already passed and been forgotten, but remain inside us....It is my hope, that the commonality of experience and one’s identity in globalized compound culture will be realized by the viewer. In encountering my work, I hope viewers will consider their own faded histories, the unseen influences on its identity and the transitory nature of life." - Sohyung Choi "These sculptures reflect a turning inward to examine myself, personal obstacles, and the process and pressures of decision-making the moments when I examine the distance between who I am today and where I envision myself at a personal peak...Being in this place of personal reflection has influenced the style and content of my work." - Cyrus Tilton "My paintings are born of reflection. It is the feeling of nostalgia and the act of longing which grounds me and fills the void left within me by the absence of a personal faith. As the present routines and uncertainties remove me further from a connection that I hold dear, it is through the act and practice of painting that I encounter my own sense of history and truth. Through the physicality of painting - in the act of retrieving scenes through paint, a type of psychic archeology is formed. Within this process, the language of revealing personal memory through a particular material with direct association to the past, inevitably evokes a specific time period for all of us in our collective memory." - Sanjay Vora Don't miss our Street Level Gallery, Upstairs Gallery, + Jewelry Gallery !
Portraits Don't Go Back to Sleep 16" x 20" oil on wood by Virgo Paraíso
Portraits
Portraits Untitled by Sanjay Vora
Portraits Forebear 72" x 48" acrylic and oil on wood painting by Walter James Mansfield
Portraits 'Serenity' 8" x 10" oil on wood by Tino Rodriguez