Reclamation, with its connotations of recycling/repurposing, and its similarity to the French réclame, i.e., notoriety or publicity, is an appropriately complex title for this small but select collage/assemblage show, curated by painter Jamie Brunson. Its thirteen artists, Susan Danis, Mieko Hara, Daniel Healey, John Hundt, Clint Imboden, Stephen Keyton, David King, Michael Mew, Catie O’Leary, Sarah Ratchye, Inez Storer, and Tag Team (Tim Sharman and Walter Robinson), continue the collage/assemblage tradition pioneered a century ago with conviction and imagination, creating work (some of it employing digital technology) that is mysterious, enigmatic, poetic, well crafted, and scandalously good to look at and think about. Brunson’s curatorial statement provides concise introductions to the artists’ working methods and goals.
To many art historians, collage/assemblage, the juxtaposition of discordant elements taken from diverse contexts in order to generate new forms and feelings, is the defining idea behind modernist art. The Surrealists derived their notion of poetic shock from the Count of Lautréamont’s famous simile (in his 1868 Les Chants de Maldoror) “as beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissection table.” Today, that memorable image is still cited as art-historical precedent, even if the sulfurous, blasphemous work from which it is taken is probably more “referenced” than read. Bay Area viewers can trace the beginnings of the long-lived idea in the Picasso exhibition at the de Young and the Kurt Schwitters exhibition at Berkeley Art Museum, both previously discussed here. The cutting edge of collage can be seen in the twenty-odd pieces shown at Studio Quercus, an artist-run nonprofit venue that explores the odd, quirky and personal (it’s Oakland, Jake!) with infectious enthusiasm. Reclamation runs through October 15. An artists’ talk (with Michael Mew, Daniel Healey, Sarah Ratchye and Tag Team (Tim Sharman/Walter Robinson) ) is scheduled for Saturday, October 8, 4-5pm. Studio Quercus, 385 26th Street, Oakland (near Broadway), 510-452-4670, 1st Friday 6-10; Sat 12-6; & by appt. www.StudioQuercus.com.
1. Studio Quercus,
2. The marquee, plus mixed-media works by Tag Team: “Snail Bait,” “Plaid T.V.,” and “California Quake.”
3. Tag Team (Walter Robinson and Tim Sharman).
4. Tag Team, “Plaid T.V.”
5. Reception.
6. Reception.
7. Reception.
8. Sarah Ratcheye with oils on canvas, “Ripling with Bulbs,” “SrilEan DrEm,” and “Preshr.”
9. Sarah Ratcheye, “Preshr.”
10. Mieko Hara, “Aston 2,” mixed media.
11. Mieko Hara, “Grande Green Unit” (detail).
12. Mieko Hara, “Grande Green Unit” (detail).
13. Susan Danis, “La Femme en Rose,” mixed media.
14. Danis with curator Jamie Brunson.
15 Funny girl!
16. Susan Danis, “La Femme en Rose” (detail).
17. Artists Marcia Donahue and Ehren Tool.
18. Catie O’Leary collages made from engravings.
19. Catie O’Leary, “Untitled (Lee Miller)” detail. Lee Miller was the American muse of Man Ray (her lips appear floating in the sky in his 1934 Surrealist painting, “The Lovers”) and, later, an acclaimed war photographer.
20. Catie O’Leary, “Untitled (columns)” (detail).
21. Clint Imboden (right) with his scavenged-metal-strip geodesic spheres.
22. Cllnt Imboden, “Sphere “4” and “Sphere #5.”
23. Cllnt Imboden, “Globe 1a” and “Globe 1b.”
24. Reception.
25. Walter Robinson, Jamie Brunson and Alan Rath.
26. Michael Mew, “The Man Who Thinks,” collage, paint, resin on wood panels.
27. Michael Mew, “The Man Who Thinks” (detail).
28. Michael Mew, “The Man Who Thinks” (detail).
29. Collages by John Hundt.
30. John Hundt, “Portrait of a Scientist.”
31. Stephen Keyton, “Pin Ball,” mixed media.
32. Stephen Keyton, “Pin Ball” (detail).
33. Stephen Keyton, “Totem (Sister Slim #4),” mixed media.
34. David King, “Inside Stillness #4,” “Inside Stillness #5,” mixed media.
35. Unobstructed view. Beneath the wonderful collaged and painted botanical/astronomic elements are excerpts from Asher Durand’s 1849 “Kindred Spirits” and Gustave Moreau’s 1876 “Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra.” (Just doing my duty to Art.)
36. David King, “Inside Stillness #4” (detail).
37. David King, “Inside Stillness #5 (detail).
38. Wearable collage (right).
39. Reception.
40. Daniel Healey with “Orpheus conducts Le Sacre du Printemps,” ink and transfer tape on canvas.
41. Daniel Healey, “Orpheus conducts Le Sacre du Printemps.”
42. Daniel Healey, “Orpheus conducts Le Sacre du Printemps” (detail).
43. Inez Storer, “Passages,” oil and collage on panel.
44. Inez Storer, “Passages” (detail).
45. Reception.
