Upcoming Exhibitions
UNUSUAL BALANCE: Jeff Sully & Mina Markovich
Exhibition Dates: February 2-26, 2012
Artist Reception: Thursday 9th, 2012 5:00-7:30 pm
Sandra Lee Gallery is proud to present NEW ABSTRACTIONS, a 2 person show featuring Jeff Sullyand Mina Markovich. Although both working within the Abstract space, the artists have emerged with their own unique styles, thematic motifs, and emotional devices.
“I am intrigued by what a painting, through its unfolding, then through its surface, depth, and illusion, shows about the ways we experience life” says Jeff Sully, whose paintings evolve through the application of a variety of processes, part stress and part caress – from application of paint, to burning of the surface, to washing, scraping, and scarring. Mr. Sully draws on his experience as a wood sculptor to alter the shapes of the paintings and further expand the unique character of each piece. Traditional rectangular canvases are nowhere in sight, and each piece emerges as a call to action, violent or tranquil. This series of work can be seen as an expression of the random fall of mental events. Yet, while this is a sort of meditation-through-material, the activity allows the paintings to unfold and settle well beyond ostensibly undirected beginnings. As Jeff Sullycomments, “What the paintings are, ultimately, might be considered a hidden order which lets its presence be revealed in an arena preceding any familiar concept or description.”Jeff Sully received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.
To Mina Markovich, “painting is a process of discovery, of journey into memory, fancy, mind both unconscious and aware.” Mina’s new series is playful and experimental, disciplined and unruly, where process carries materials, colors, forms and shapes to a point of becoming an entity signifying completion. The artist’s process resembles archeology, only – digging is led by intuition, search is without a plan, and discovery is the recognition of Something that had to be, but lay hidden before. Ms. Markovich’s bold new series of work is titled Political/Lyrical Abstraction. She writes: “There is no escaping political realities, a moment in time on a continuum of history. Personal associative thought may attach political content to abstract, as well as figurative images – and be not necessarily of the same mind as the artist’s. Liberated from propaganda or didacticism, giving a viewer the same freedom the artist aspires to, abstractionism can be both political and lyrical…” Ms. Markovich received her MFA from the SanFrancisco Art Institute.
Sandra Lee Gallery is located at 251 Post St. at Stockton. Please contact Sandra Lee Gallery for more information.
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