Event

Jeffrey Long, Birds of California, the West and Other PlacesPost an Event »

Toomey Tourell Fine Art

July 7 - July 8, 2011

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49 Geary Street San Francisco, CA 94108
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This is a two-gallery exhibition at Toomey Tourell and at the Transamerica Center, 505 Sansome Street, San Francisco. There will also be two receptions for this show: The reception at Toomey Tourell is Thursday, July 7th from 5:30 - 7:30pm and the reception at the Transamerica building at 505 Sansome Street, is Thursday, July 14th from 5:30 - 7:30, with wines catered by Crushpad. Jeffrey Long comes from the lineage of painters standing at that point at which pure abstraction meets the representational. Though primarily known in the last decade for a more purely abstract orientation in his approach, Long has always embraced myriad influences and practices in his work. The newest body of watercolors for this exhibit, entitled Birds of California, the West and Other Places, shows Long investigating birds – a reflection of his ongoing fascination with nature and landscape. Though clearly related to archetypal American traditions (Audubon and the like), Long goes on to reveal new levels of narrative and analytic interpretation that mark the subject with a post modern resonance. As in his abstract works, there is a sense of language created by Long’s use of color and image that creates territories of discord and rhythm that play off of one another. The sheer technical virtuosity of composition is coupled with psychological and social content- “introducing elements of contemporary ecological awareness, the history of humankind’s impact on nature, and possibly a bit of allegory”. Upon closer viewing, each image is imbued with references of the history of the species depicted – past present or future. The narrative of these images may allude to displacement or annihilation at worst, or tenacity and adaptability at best. In Long’s words, “The process of painting these subjects reminds me, that for all our divorcement from nature, these living things are still recognized across cultures as a shared language of associations for humans. Today a bird, mammal, fish, reptile or insect is seen not just for itself, intrinsically, but as embedded in the matrix of its history as influenced to the good (rarely) or for the worse (overwhelmingly often) by humans. Dark events such as extirpation, extinction, or contamination may have marked a species’ history over the past couple of centuries. In some rare cases, on the other hand, a species may have benefited by symbiotic association with humans, or by direct benefit through concerted restoration efforts. I shall repeat the sentiment, by now all too boringly familiar, that goes as follows: Although our information and knowledge of nature has grown vastly since Audubon’s time, nature has, paradoxically, receded from our grasp as part of everyday experience. I think what is referred to in the preceding paragraph as the thing we have lost is the experience of nature, unmediated, unadulterated, raw, mud-between-the-toes, and thrilling. Instead we are left with nature as a theory, a text, a long and sorry tale, at a remove. This text is often a lament, elegiac in tone, full of grief. We know all too much about the wounded hills, scalped mountains, acidic oceans, bleached corals, burnt rain forests, dead albatrosses, floating plastic gyres, dead rivers, road kill, paved meadows, dispossessed indigenous communities, and tigers crowded out. Another way to put it is that the story that has swamped all others is one of humankind’s ever-growing exploitation of nature and the resulting collateral damage. We know in a detailed, science-based way, just how implicated we are… Is a bird ever a bird and just a bird? Nevermore. And that goes for mammals too. But what are the legions of American birders seeking but a glimpse of the mystery of life, the marvel of migration, the beauty of the sublime? What remains is still a miracle. That is what these watercolors, in the end, are about.” Jeffrey Long has long been a Bay Area resident. He has been a recipient of numerous grants and awards, among them the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, the Gold Award, and the Gottlieb Foundation Grant. His work is in many important public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum and Stanford University. More information is available upon request from the gallery. It should also be noted that the shows will benefit the well known environmental organization founded by David Brower, Earth Island Institute. Jeff’s work is included in a group show at the David Brower Center in Berkeley called Hello Tomorrow currently running and featuring one of his new watercolors. This is Long’s seventh show with Toomey Tourell Fine Art.