Author: Montalvo

Less than 50 years ago, “the Summer of Love” was more than a pop culture fad: it aspired to bring about a major social and political shift in America. Today, however, we face a near total lack of public debate about love as the basis of connection, understanding, and acceptance in our culture and our communities. Technological innovation makes it possible for us to be better informed about each other’s lives and feelings than any other time in human history. But is it deepening our connections with others? Or do cell phones, e-mail, and social media strip nuance from our communication and leave us lonelier than before? L O V E, Montalvo’s latest exhibition, considers the challenges…

With COME HEALING, its 2013 outdoor Art on the Grounds exhibition, Montalvo invites you to be restored. On view are works by six national and international artists exploring the relationships between healing, wholeness, and place:​ Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan (Brisbane, Australia) consider the connections between wellbeing and home with Dwellings: Project Another Country (Saratoga Hills) and Wing In Ground. Small houses produced from recycled moving boxes during workshops with local participants are transformed into two large-scale installations. Rashomon, a 15-piece installation of 3-foot high steel sculptures by Chuck Ginnever (Putney, Vermont), challenges viewers to question their perspective, suggesting that our life…

Of Maori, Indian, and Pacific Island decent, Lucas Artists Visual Arts Fellow Tiffany Singh (Auckland, New Zealand) draws inspiration from her varied cultural backgrounds to create work consisting largely of natural mixed-media-based installation and participatory community building. She has garnered critical acclaim for her use of ceremonial and ritualistic materials gathered from and transcending everyday culture. Continuing her ongoing investigation into the concept of sacred spaces, in 2013 she created the participatory sculpture The Bells of Mindfulness at Montalvo Arts Center. Working with community groups and in collaboration with rural artisans in western India, she produced an installation of 1000…

Through existing works and new commissions, artists Susan O’Malley, Leah Rosenberg, and Christine Wong Yap explored the question: ​How do we cultivate happiness? Wong Yap's series of text-based works sewn from ribbons and installed directly on the gallery wall depicted messages encouraging positive mental habits, while a large-scale drawing diagrammed the interconnections between theories of subjective well-being. Rosenberg explored how color, light and material impact our sense of contentment. Inspired by the use of light as a therapy for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), she invited gallery visitors to stand in front of her Illuminated Stripe Works, a series of small striped…