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Past Exhibition

Swarm Gallery is proud to announce the exhibition IMPROVISED TERRITORY JEFF EISENBERG + CHRISTOPHER LOOMIS May 24 - June 22, 2008 Artist Reception \| Friday, May 23, 2008, 6-8PM Sound by Matt Volla Hyper-conscious to materials and our relationship to them, Christopher Loomis begins his art-making process by imagining a journey to uncertain destinations. Using primarily wood, he searches for structural and visual qualities in it, knots and grains that bend and carve uniquely. His designs emerge from this improvisation with the material. Jeff Eisenberg has traded in his colored pencil on Mylar technique for graphite drawings depicting home-scapes. He constructs unusual dwellings, like islands on the paper, huge cathedrals rising out of the soil. These structures are uniquely tempered - they're nostalgic remnants of places he's been, where he grew up and territories of his imagination. Jeff Eisenberg, Relay Solution (2008), Graphite on paper, 9.5 x 15" Christopher Loomis, Rest (2008), Recycled Hungarian Oak Wine Barrels PROJECT SPACE JOHN CASEY \| Picket Fencing In the project space, Oakland-based artist John Casey creates "Picket Fencing" -- A mixed media installation on wood including a cast of characters developed over time that "fence with pickets." Drawing from the obvious pun in the name, Casey also has fun with latent angst tied up in middle class suburban culture. "A father of four young boys told me this story. His sons were out playing in their large backyard one afternoon. At one point, the father went out into the backyard and found his sons wildly battling each other with numerous wooden pickets torn from his pristine white-picket fence. The boys were literally fencing with pickets. Aside from the obvious pun, for me, the story conjured images of an epic battle where the combatants splinter their environment to extract weapons to wield against each other. With total disregard for the iconic power of the white-picket fence (middle class structure, suburban culture, ownership society, etc.), the manic adolescents destroy the fence with glee. 'Picket Fencing' is simply my attempt to capture the spirit of that manic scenario using a cast of characters I have developed over time. The implied politics or metaphors are left open-ended for the viewer to parse. Remember, it's always fun until someone looses an eye." -- John Casey

Swarm Gallery is proud to announce the exhibition

IMPROVISED TERRITORY
JEFF EISENBERG + CHRISTOPHER LOOMIS

May 24 - June 22, 2008

Artist Reception | Friday, May 23, 2008, 6-8PM
Sound by Matt Volla

Hyper-conscious to materials and our relationship to them, Christopher Loomis begins his art-making process by imagining a journey to uncertain destinations. Using primarily wood, he searches for structural and visual qualities in it, knots and grains that bend and carve uniquely. His designs emerge from this improvisation with the material. Jeff Eisenberg has traded in his colored pencil on Mylar technique for graphite drawings depicting home-scapes. He constructs unusual dwellings, like islands on the paper, huge cathedrals rising out of the soil. These structures are uniquely tempered - they're nostalgic remnants of places he's been, where he grew up and territories of his imagination.

Jeff Eisenberg, Relay Solution (2008), Graphite on paper, 9.5 x 15"

Christopher Loomis, Rest (2008), Recycled Hungarian Oak Wine Barrels

PROJECT SPACE
JOHN CASEY | Picket Fencing

In the project space, Oakland-based artist John Casey creates "Picket Fencing" -- A mixed media installation on wood including a cast of characters developed over time that "fence with pickets." Drawing from the obvious pun in the name, Casey also has fun with latent angst tied up in middle class suburban culture.

"A father of four young boys told me this story. His sons were out playing in their large backyard one afternoon. At one point, the father went out into the backyard and found his sons wildly battling each other with numerous wooden pickets torn from his pristine white-picket fence. The boys were literally fencing with pickets.

Aside from the obvious pun, for me, the story conjured images of an epic battle where the combatants splinter their environment to extract weapons to wield against each other. With total disregard for the iconic power of the white-picket fence (middle class structure, suburban culture, ownership society, etc.), the manic adolescents destroy the fence with glee.

'Picket Fencing' is simply my attempt to capture the spirit of that manic scenario using a cast of characters I have developed over time. The implied politics or metaphors are left open-ended for the viewer to parse. Remember, it's always fun until someone looses an eye."

-- John Casey