Exhibition, Installation images

When we closed our gallery doors, it was with some trepidation that we wouldn't be able to honor the beautiful work of our colleagues in the same way.

I think, with Amorphous Dreams, we've put that fear to rest, and thank all the wonderful people who were instrumental in making this exhibition happen so beautifully. They are in chronological order: Susan Longini and Prema Murthy, Silvia Levenson, Warren Poole, Cynthia Plevin, Marvin Lipofsky, Jay Musler, Bella Feldman and JP Long, Dorothy Saxe, Clifford Rainey, John Green, John LaPrade, Michael Damm and Francesca Ginocchio.



Amorphous Dreams is on exhibition at Bekris Gallery from March 3 through March 29. The opening reception for the artists is Saturday, March 5 from 2 to 4.30. We hope you can stop by and spend a moment with us.

AMORPHOUS DREAMS (Project 2:2011)

Please join us at the opening reception for

AMORPHOUS DREAMS: Prema Murthy, Susan Longini, Marvin Lipofsky, Jay Musler, Bella Feldman, Silvia Levenson, Clifford Rainey.

Saturday, March 5 from 2 to 4.30 pm

Micaëla Gallery + Projects in collaboration with

Bekris Gallery

49 Geary Street (2d Floor)

San Francisco, CA 94108

925.457.5645 http://micaela.com

Exhibition runs March 3 through March 29

Preview works from the exhibition online at http://micaela.com/home/Project_2_2011.html

"Some men see things as they are and say 'why'? Others dream things that never were and say 'why not'?" -George Bernard Shaw

Micaëla Gallery + Projects, in collaboration with Bekris Gallery, is pleased to present AMORPHOUS DREAMS (Project 2:2011) an exhibition of artwork by seven contemporary artists whose mediums of expression are glass and new media.

Invoking ideas of beauty and mythology, while commenting on contemporary culture, these artists simultaneously challenge our intellect as well as our sensory experience with their sculpture. Meticulously, and expertly, crafting artwork with color, material and, in some cases, sound, each artist presents vibrant compositions. The artworks address personal cultural references of contemporary community, life, metaphysics and politics by Prema Murthy, Susan Longini, Marvin Lipofsky, Jay Musler, Bella Feldman, Silvia Levenson, and Clifford Rainey.

With a resume that includes exhibitions at PS1/MoMA Contemporary Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, among others, Prema Murthy introduces the Merkaba, known as the star tetrahedron, a portal into higher dimensions. Comprised of video, drawings and an installation, Murthy’s work is an extension of the artist’s ongoing exploration into the ever-shifting boundaries of embodiment, cognition and Mind. She references math and science to locate and map our interconnections to the universe on micro and macro, inner and outer, physical and spiritual planes.

Susan Longini’s work references the lost community of Caithness, Scotland, where windswept landscapes and crumbling buildings bear witness to abandoned homesteads. Using pâte-de-verre to create variegated landscapes, Longini devised a unique and convincing way to unify realism with traditional landscape abstractions, and address her social comments in so doing.

Marvin Lipofsky, collaborator, educator, inveterate traveler, multi-awarded artist, respected sculptor, and passionate supporter of the arts, is credited with bridging international communities of artists, overcoming ideological barriers and continents, to form an international glass community. His career as a working artist is a story of artistic depth and broad recognition over a five-decade journey. A master colorist, Lipofsky’s work deliberately pays homage to the communities he works with, classically addressing sculptural concerns of light and space. He established respected glass programs at the University of California at Berkeley and the California College of Arts and Crafts.

Jay Musler is a visual person. He states, “Wherever I go and whatever I do is reflected in my work.” His inspiration begins with reverie-like assemblages of shapes, forms, and colors. Working with glass to reconstruct patterns he finds in nature, landscapes, and architecture, he cuts, shapes, and paints the glass of his sculpture until satisfied. An abstractionist, Musler’s work incorporates humor with playful thoughtfulness.

Since 1992, Bella Feldman has been occupied with two series of work involving movement and interaction. The first, inspired by the Gulf War and her own concerns, is "War Toys," a flock of comic, ferocious, fantastic machines with wheels and clumsy movement. Made small, ankle to knee high, they impart on the viewer an opportunity for Olympian detachment. Alternatively, they are pet-size, seductively interesting, and inviting to play with. A new series, “War Toys Redux,” continues the concerns of the original "War Toys." These toys in glass and metal reference bio-terror. Feldman states, “As in the earlier series, these sculptures intend to please and provoke and to address war itself as an ongoing preoccupation.”

Silvia Levenson addresses life and femininity with wry wit and beautiful work. Addressing concerns of daily life and the veiled ambience of home, her work offers viewers a darkly comic window of “bliss.” Modern self medication, “happy-ness,” the home, as cocoon and battlefield: a place of love, hate, and tension, are playfully displayed with dualities of fragility and imperviousness - effectively conveyed via her chosen mediums of glass and video. Much of her work is an attempt to resolve the difficulties of living with threats of violence, political and domestic, that are out of our control.

Classical icons, contemporary society, and diverse cultural symbols collide in clever, allegorical sculptures. Clifford Rainey’s first issued edition work, Amphictyonis: Greek Goddess of Wine and Friendship Between Nations is nothing less.

Born in Northern Ireland and now a San Francisco Bay Area resident, Rainey chairs the Glass Program at the California College of the Arts. His work is exhibited in collections that include the Victoria and Albert Museum, the MH de Young Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. Rainey’s work pushes the veristic boundaries of figurative glass sculpture, finding opulent visions in muscle, bone and sinew to create dense and exquisite allusions. Always working with glass, introducing techniques of polychromy married with ideas of personal expression, Rainey’s sculpture and its seemingly abstract manipulation of the human figure reveal alarming depths in the loveliest of forms.

AMORPHOUS DREAMS is about visual expression - the ideals, interpretation, materials and hope - articulated by these artists and used in a contemporary and classic vernacular. We are honored to present this exhibition of magnificent artwork.

Micaëla Gallery + Projects is a project-oriented program and art advisory, independent of traditional gallery confines, retaining presence through curated exhibitions, international art fair participation, collaborations with private art consultants and gallery colleagues, publications, gatherings (where select artists, critics and friends come together to enhance our visual art community), and of course, through new and traditional social networks.

Micaëla Gallery + Projects presents AMORPHOUS DREAMS in collaboration with Bekris Gallery at 49 Geary Street (2d Floor), San Francisco, California. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 to 6, and by appointment. Contact info@micaela.com with any questions or to set up an appointment.

Images, top to bottom, left to right: Susan Longini. Caithness Coast #8, 2010. Kiln cast pâte-de-verre, 35 x 41 x 1.5 in. Prema Murthy. Merkaba II, 2010. Wool yarn. Installation. Dimensions variable. Marvin Lipofsky. Pilchuck Summer Series 1988-1990 #12, 1988-1990, 15 x 18 x 16.5 in. Jay Musler. Enjoy the Silence, 2010. Lampworked glass, oil paint. Bella Feldman. Church. Steel, blown glass, 16 x 16 x 10 in. Silvia Levenson. Life Strategies, 2006. Video and kiln cast engraved glass, chair. Dimensions variable, approximately 6 x 6 ft. Clifford Rainey. Amphictyonis, 2010. Glass, wood, gesso, oil paint and gold pigment, 30 x 12 x 8 in. Edition of 7.

"Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity." -Khalil Gibran

Winter Salon 2010 Opens Nov 2

Micaëla Gallery is pleased to announce the Winter Salon 2010 exhibition of artwork by artists Kathleen Elliot, Grant Garmezy, Scott Kildall, Mark Leibowitz, Silvia Levenson, Prema Murthy, Eugenia Pardue, Lorraine Peltz, and Nicole Schmoelzer.

Opening with a private reception co-hosted by Leibowitz and Ruinart Champagne (a Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy company), the exhibition presents work unified by ideas of extravagant beauty and thoughtful indulgences.

Images by California-based photographer Mark Leibowitz's portfolio, an ongoing series titled, "Backstage" will be featured collaboratively with Ruinart (LVMH) and Whitewall Magazine at his introduction to Art Basel Miami at the Betsy Hotel on December 2. Plan to read Whitewall Magazine’s post-Art Basel Miami commentary.

The Winter Salon 2010 opens for viewing November 2, 2011.

We're very excited that Mark Leibowitz joins us for the reception on Thursday, November 4, from 5 to 7.30 pm. We hope you will help us welcome him and discuss his globe-trotting work for the fashion avant garde and haute couture houses such as Vogue and Galliano.

You won't want to miss seeing Leibowitz’s exquisite images, so please mark your calendar now.

Silvia Levenson COLD+HOT 2010

Silvia Levenson
The Pursuit of Happiness, 2009
Kiln-cast glass and metal
17.75 x 13.75 x 4.375 in.

COLD+HOT 2010

Opening Reception 1 July Exhibition through 28 August

MICAËLA GALLERY presents COLD+HOT 2010, an annual showcase of the work of selected national and international glass sculptors in a single exhibition. Featured artists are Peter Bremers, Kathleen Elliot, Michael Janis, Michelle Knox, Weston Lambert, Carol Lawton, Silvia Levenson, JP Long, Susan Longini, Thomas Scoon, Carmen Spera, and Kristiina Uslar, who collectively demonstrate the expansive versatility of glass as a sculpture medium in terms of material, color, and form, alongside the video work of Tim Tate and photography of Mark Leibowitz.

The exhibition title, "COLD+HOT 2010," derives from the distinct processes used by glass artists for millennia - sculpting its form, or cold-working it while cold (actually, at room temperature), very hard and brittle; and working hot glass, shaping it while molten, using blowing and/or kiln forming techniques at temperatures ranging from 1700 to over 3000 degrees.

Rich in visual vernacular, "COLD+HOT 2010" introduces the work of new artists to Micaëla Gallery, Kathleen Elliot, Michael Janis, Tim Tate, and Mark Leibowitz.

You are cordially invited to join us for a welcoming reception for the artists on Thursday, 1 July 2010, from 5 to 7.30 pm.

For inquiries or a preview of these works, please contact info@micaela.com.

A print exhibition catalog, PDF exhibition catalog, photographs and high resolution images are available upon request. To order print exhibition catalog, please contact the gallery at info@micaela.com

All images are courtesy of the artists and Micaëla Gallery, protected by all copyright/trademark laws everywhere. ©1997-2010 micaëla and micaëla gallery, its name, logo and all website content are copyright/trademarks of micaëla gallery llc.

Exhibition ends May 1

On May 1, Micaela Gallery's current exhibition, featuring paintings by Lorraine Peltz and Nicole Schmoelzer, and a multi-media installation by Silvia Levenson, will come to a close.

The exhibition essay, written by Maria Porges, was placed online by ArtSlant, and is published in Peltz' exhibition catalog. Sabine of Art Moco, also wrote a short review, lightly referencing Lorraine Peltz' occupation with the feminine agenda in our daily conundrum.

Image: Lorraine Peltz. Chandelier Yellow, 2010. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 40 x 40 in. Singular.

SILVIA LEVENSON, LORRAINE PELTZ + NICOLE SCHMOELZER

Opening 2 March
Reception 4 March
Exhibition through 1 May

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - 21 February 2010 (for immediate release)
Micaëla Gallery is proud to present "SILVIA LEVENSON, LORRAINE PELTZ + NICOLE SCHMOELZER," a multi-media exhibition showcasing artworks by three talented artists, Silvia Levenson (Italy), Lorraine Peltz (Chicago), and Nicole Schmoelzer (Switzerland), whose work takes a unique approach to issues of women's fantasies, ideas of beauty, and modern day living interpreted through mediums of sculpture, paint, and video.

Lorraine Peltz's recent paintings are complex ruminations on the nature of private identity and public persona. Using imagery culled from both personal history and the contemporary moment, they reference both past and present. The image of a chandelier conjures a remembered culture and the patterned flowers, starbursts, and decorative flourishes present the now - particularly women's fantasy and desires - through pure painterly pleasure.

Nicole Schmoelzer works with paint on linen and paper, developing a number of series whose topic is the very behavior of color itself. In Schmoelzer's paintings, the color yellow plays in important role. As she states, "...partly because it is extremely difficult to replicate, its presence an act of resistance to the age of mechanical (and digital) reproduction... It is also an evocative color with a wide range of associations, foremost of which, perhaps, is light: like sun breaking through, implying heat, energy, life."

Silvia Levenson's sculpture presents a dark and comic vision of modern home life, by re-fashioning house wares and pharmaceuticals in candy-colored glass. In her work, a standard IKEA chair with a kiln-cast seat is placed on a floor of fused, iridescent glass tiles, sandblasted with the names of common antidepressants. The pastel colors used by Levenson for the tiles convey a certain idea of calm and relaxation, in contrast to the names of medicines. In the background, there is a projected video piece, "Everything is OK," which she made with her daughter, Natalia Saurin.

Image credits:
Above left: Nicole Schmoelzer. Staining 1109-132, 2010. Oil on Linen, 70 x 60 in.
Above right: Lorraine Peltz. Chandelier Black, 2010. Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 40 x 40 in.
Left: Silvia Levenson. Life Strategies, 2009. Installation: Glass, found object, video. 70 x 70 in.

A print exhibition catalog, PDF exhibition catalog, photographs and high resolution images are available upon request.