ZONAL CONFLUENCE
Merging Perspectives on Land and Environment from four California College of the Arts MFA Graduates

June 23 - August 5, 2007

Reception for the Artists: Thursday, July 12, 2007 6-9PM

Jessalyn Haggenjos, "Del Amo Batholith", 2007, Renee Gertler, "Clouds", 2007

Swarm Gallery presents a curated group exhibition ZONAL CONFLUENCE, featuring CCA graduates Renee Gertler, David Gurman, Jessalyn Haggenjos, and Elizabeth Mooney.

Geologists define a zone as a continuous area or mass characterized and distinguished from other zones by distinct physical conditions, composition or content. Confluence is the point of junction where things come together. ZONAL CONFLUENCE at Swarm Gallery brings together four up-and-coming artists, each addressing environmental phenomena in their work. Varying perspectives include natural disaster, industry and topography, human impact (technology, tourism and war), and other ways we interact with our landscape.

For the past two years, Renee Gertler has been using model-making materials and techniques to create fantastical versions of natural phenomena such as waterfalls, tornadoes and meteors. David Gurman's recent Reflector Project investigates the Euphrates river as a recorder of natural/cultural collision. His light-boxes display imagery of the Euphrates as the IKONOS satellite passed over Al Fallujah, Iraq on 11.14.2004, at the peak of Operation Phantom Fury. Jessalyn Haggenjoss paintings and sculptures examine real-life American landscapes affected by toxic intrusions into the ground, by way of mines, spills and other impacts. Elizabeth Mooney is inspired by the history of landscape painting, specifically Gilpins definition of the Picturesque as the aesthetic ideal. She explores how technology, travel and speed have altered the way we perceive and interact with landscape. Her paintings literally integrate non-static mechanical features and function as a way for viewers to experience an altering of space and landscape.

In PROJECT SPACE

Fired!

Curated by Casey Jex Smith in conjunction with the Garage Biennale

Participating Artists: Shay Church, Justin Hoover, Amanda Lynch and Jim Melchert

Amanda Lynch, "Girl with Golden Goose", 2007. (courtesy of Jack Fisher Gallery)

Traditionally, the Bay Area has hosted some of ceramic art's most significant artists and movements. The region has played a fundamental role in catapulting the medium from the realm of craft into the contemporary art world at large. This exhibition highlights the resurgence of clay as an important medium in contemporary Bay Area art featuring artists who have pushed and continue to push the boundaries of clay.

The Garage Biennale is an annual event that began in 2006 as a means of bringing many artists together to create a series of exhibitions. Unlike the many "biennale" exhibitions worldwide, the Garage Biennale is broken into pavilions displaying the different exhibitions over a period of 6 consecutive months.