Event
Peter Honig: A Nervous System, Joanna Salska: New PaintingsPost an Event »
Mercury 20 Gallery
February 27 - April 5, 2014Info
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http://www.mercurytwenty.com/
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(510) 701-4620
Peter Honig is a photographer and assemblage artist whose work humorously explores themes of mortality, the nature of self-reflection, human relationships, and the passage of time. Working from a large collection of found objects amassed over two decades, the artist finds expressive possibilities arising from a mass of inanimate debris, creating small tableaux, which he then photographs. The resulting large-scale still life images, miniature models of consciousness, resonate with dark humor and offer entry into an elegantly ordered interior world.
Regarding his work, Peter states, “When all goes well, the technical structures of the photographic composition and tonality work together to create and support an internal logic, a scaffold for daydreams, composed from almost nothing, about… almost everything. Both the physical compositions and the logic are fragile constructions, and this fragility echoes what it is to be human, a nervous system."
Peter Honig was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied Art History and Fine Art Photography at Hampshire College in Amherst. He currently lives in Santa Barbara where he works as a professional photographer and art educator.
When Joanna Salska paints a portrait, she uses her artistic vision to scan the layers between the subject and society, the core self and the constructed self… what she calls the “anxious masquerade”. She strives to record what she finds in the visual space between a person–shaped by life experience, and absurd social conventions–and identity labeling. Salska uses doll’s heads, damaged masks, and models in stage make-up to help reveal the frightening moment when the true self of unmediated human need emerges from the false self of social expectations. She sees her work as a psychological excavation, bringing to light the frightened children that are buried under the assumptions of adult confidence. www.joannasalska.com
Joanna Salska grew up in Poland, and received a Master of Fine Arts from Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. She has had many exhibitions in Europe and USA, and her paintings are in private, corporate, and museum collections, Beijing National Museum among many others. She has twice been invited to participate in Beijing Biennale, and has been honored with many residencies, including Yaddo Foundation. She lives in Berkeley with her husband and daughter. She also works under the pseudonym Uba Owl.
Artist Talk and Reception: Saturday, March 8, 4-6pm
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday: Mar 7, 6-9pm
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday: April 4, 6-9pm
Third Thursday: Mar 20, 6-8pm