On October 21, SLATE contemporary will open a multi-media exhibition of painting, photography, sculpture, and site-specific installation in their new gallery on 25th Street in Oakland. The show features work by SLATE regulars Joanne Fox and Caroline Seckinger, alongside five artists new to the gallery including Jonah Burlingame, Brian Mancl, Pouke Halpern, Michelle Lynn Dyrness, and Rachel Dawson.
While varied in medium, style, and approach, the works in this exhibition all operate on the premise that less can be more, and that an object or an image that is barely even there can hold its own special power as a work of art. Perhaps the greatest power is that it requires the viewer slow down, to turn away from the cacaphony of electronic and digital stimuli that fill our eyes and minds, and pay careful attention to looking at something. Restrained and austere at times, but human, expressive, and elegant at others, this is demanding but ultimately formally and intellectually rich work.
