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Art on the Grounds

Art on the Grounds

Untitled (Marble and Wood Sculpture)

Marble, wood, steel, canvas, graphite, mixed media46 x 48 x 24 in.Courtesy of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery, San FranciscoPhoto: Diane Roby No longer on view. The cottage gallery portion of the exhibition closed November 13, 2022. Jackson spent extended periods in 1983 and 1985 in Carrara, Italy, working on marble sculptures, which he has continued in his studio in Oakland, California. In an art historical sense one might perceive the figures in his otherwise abstract paintings as an attempt to resolve or at least investigate the space between abstraction and figuration. That would be wrong. His figures are…
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Art on the Grounds

Of Color

Photo courtesy Pilar Agüero-Esparza The large-scale painted and woven canvas tapestry mural by Pilar Agüero-Esparza, brings together the power of the hand-made, references to the body through skin color and prismatic color found in the landscape. While juxtaposing ideas related to social hierarchies and stratums, the tapestry interweaves symbolic color both of the physical body (as represented by a skin tone palette) and color found in nature. Through the creation of a wall like structure, Agüero-Esparza evokes the tradition of Chicano muralism, which is often used to uplift marginalized communities, into the social space of the Montalvo Arts Center Italianate…
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Art on the Grounds

One Legged Woman Standing

Courtesy of Dolby Chadwick Gallery and the Estate of Stephen De Staebler. The fractured human form has long been a subject for acclaimed American sculptor Stephen De Staebler. As with many of his works, One Legged Woman Standing recalls the fragmented remains of figurative sculpture from classical antiquity. The incomplete figure registers the vulnerability of the human body—the cataclysmic effects of time, disease, and war—as well as the modern existential experience of the individual who feels psychically and spiritually fragmented. Balancing atop one leg, it also alludes to human endurance and tenacity. De Staebler’s One Legged Woman Standing finds a home among a classical…
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Art on the Grounds

Return to the Garden of Eden

High-fired stoneware, porcelain, glazes; aluminum baseOverall: 80 x 30 x 38 in. / Base: 30 x 40 in.Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery, San FranciscoPhoto: Isaiah Plaza Return to the Garden of Eden is deeply inspired by Zhang’s upbringing in Maoist China, his subsequent disillusionment, and his ultimate relocation to California as a young artist in the 1990s. The sculpture reflects both a geographical journey and an ideological search. The monumental clay figure features the artist’s signature style – a blend that reflects Bay Area Figurative and California Funk traditions with nods to Chinese history. Inspired by his…
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Art on the Grounds

Color Face

High fired clay with glaze30 x 31 x 37 in.Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery, San FranciscoPhoto: Isaiah Plaza Wanxin Zhang began his Color Face series in 2007 as an homage to his homeland. These works specifically reference Chinese opera performances where actors’ faces are painted in a stylized fashion or masked to represent a character’s personality or cultural status. The use of certain colors can distinguish goodness from evil, and strength from serenity. Although the designs can be complex, there are usually only two or three colors used for each character. Dripping with multi-colored glaze, this sculpture…
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Art on the Grounds

Strike

Polished stainless steel122 x 120 x 30 in.Courtesy of the artistPhoto: Airyka Rockefeller In Strike, based on a 1935 lithograph by Louis Lozowick depicting an encounter between a protester and a policeman, a disembodied arm raised up and wielding a nightstick is grasped at the wrist by another hand, the forearms forming a triangular geometry. This piece, made of gleaming stainless steel with a mirrored finish, resembles a trophy. In these works too, the intentional ambiguity, the incompleteness of the disembodied figures, leaves viewers the opportunity to find meaning in their own questions about what it is they are seeing.…
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Art on the Grounds

Marble Sculpture No. 1

Marble56 x 23 x 27 in.Courtesy of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery, San FranciscoPhoto: Isaiah Plaza Jackson spent extended periods in 1983 and 1985 in Carrara, Italy, working on marble sculptures, which he has continued in his studio in Oakland, California. In an art historical sense one might perceive the figures in his otherwise abstract paintings as an attempt to resolve or at least investigate the space between abstraction and figuration. That would be wrong. His figures are not trying to become something else, they exist in between states — being and becoming, living and dead, dreaming and awake.…
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