Event
Dance - Dream - DramaPost an Event »
Mercury 20 Gallery
November 5 - December 12, 2015Info
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http://www.mercurytwenty.com/
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(510) 701-4620
Reception
November 14, 2015 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Fernando Reyes: "POETIC GRACE I" (2015) oil on wood panel, 19 3/4 in. square, (photo by Dana Davis)
Drawing from live models is how Fernando Reyes conveys the beauty, strength, and sensuality of the human form. The show, DANCE - DREAM - DRAMA, is very much about body language, or the conscious and unconscious ways in which our bodies communicate, often with much richer honesty than verbal language allows. Reyes has a modern and striking aesthetic and his current work, though still essentially representational, reveals steps toward abstraction. Drawings, paintings, and woodcut block prints include single figures as well as complex juxtapositions and overlapping of multiple figures. The show offers a sophisticated take on sensuality, invoking the title themes: dance, dream, drama. The artist feels his influences are broad in scope, but points out that three of the works in this exhibition (Rollicking I, II and III) were specifically inspired by the "Blue Nude" pieces seen in a Henri Matisse exhibition, "The Cut Outs," at MoMA in New York in 2014.
www.freyesart.com
Art is a second career for Fernando, who spent 17 years in banking in San Francisco. After some years as a self-taught artist, he received a BFA in 1997 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has lived and worked in Oakland since 1998. His studio is located in the Jingletown neighborhood, at Ford Street Studios. Reyes' work is primarily representational and includes oil paintings, drawings, and prints. Subjects include figurative nudes, landscapes, and urbanscapes, with a primary interest in the human figure. He has exhibited widely, both as a solo artist as well as in group shows. His works have been collected regionally, nationally, and internationally.
EVENTS: - RECEPTION: Saturday, Nov 14, 4-6 pm (with Artist Talk at 4:30) - Third Thursday on 25th Street: Nov 19th, 6-8pm - Art Murmur First Friday: Nov 6th, 6-9pm - Art Murmur First Friday: Dec 4th, 6-9pm