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Introductions

Gallery Exhibition/Event

New Work in Printmaking and Drawing by Artists with Developmental Disabilities is Showcased in Exhibition at Creativity Explored

August 13 through September 30, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 13, 2009, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

San Francisco, July 5, 2009—During the traditional gallery introductions season, Creativity Explored presents new work in drawing and printmaking by four studio artists. Says Amy Taub, Executive Director of Creativity Explored and co-curator of the exhibition with Amy Auerbach, Gallery Manager, “we chose to highlight the work of these four artists because in each instance, it represents a heightened level of creativity and skill on the part of the artist. Walter Kresnik has returned with new vigor to drawing, a medium that he hasn’t practiced for several years, and for Doris Yen, Bertha Otoya, and Ana Maria Vidalon, printmaking has been a breakaway medium that each has embraced with her own distinctive style.”

Revisiting and refining his previous work in portraiture, Walter Kresnik uses iconic artists and musicians as his subjects. Among them are Picasso, Monet, Dali, Van Gogh, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. Kresnik’s meticulous pen and ink drawings are paired with freely-drawn charcoal renderings of cultural landmarks from the country of origin of each of his subjects. For example, the portrait of Monet is accompanied by the Eiffel Tower, Van Gogh’s is joined by a windmill, and The Beatles are accompanied by London Bridge. Kresnik’s new work also includes another series of portraits of musicians, which he has approached in a different manner. In this suite of images, his detailed and expressive pen and ink portraits of Beethoven, Mozart, and Handel, and contemporary musicians Ravi Shankar and Ray Charles, are drawn—in a nod to their artistry—on pages of sheet music with washes of color added.

Ana Maria Vidalon, who has experimented with several printmaking techniques to introduce entirely new content to her work, also uses music as her subject matter. Inspired by sheet music, she employs chine-colle techniques that enable her to incorporate actual sheet music into her delicate compositions of lines and notes that dance across the surface of these works on paper. She also uses sheet music as the starting point for three remarkable artists’ books, the covers and pages of which are completely filled with her elongated and stylized hand-drawn riffs of music notes and symbols. She employs this technique as well, in her large-format black-and-white and cinnabar monopirnts. At first glance, both the artists’ books and the monoprints appear to be works of art composed of elegant calligraphy, while closer inspection reveals the intricacy and extra layer of meaning resulting from musical notes being transformed from the art of performance into visual art.

Doris Yen‘s mastery of line is further highlighted in her vigorous exploration of the printmaking process. In her monoprints she achieves an effect of startling clarity in her white-line images of fish and animals printed on jet black backgrounds. The creatures all have a prehistoric aspect, and some of the animals, such as her porcupine, are fearsome; all, however are elaborately rendered and highly decorative, and each is imbued with a sense of personality. In some cases, Yen’s work incorporates suggestions of anatomy, as in her print of a mammoth. Here, some of the animal’s ribs, the top of its spinal column, and some of its foot bones are revealed in cut-away fashion. This technique and the fact that only parts of the skeleton are suggested creates an interesting tension that invites the viewer to decide whether or not these are in fact anatomical references or purely decorative elements.

Fish, along with a number of other creatures, also populate Bertha Otoya’s work, which includes leaves, script, and numerals as well. Her fish are often covered with numerals in place of scales, and her animals, such as buffalos and wolves, have a mythic quality that suggests the type of imagery that would accompany creation myths. By layering these components in her monoprints along with text copied from a variety of sources, Otoya produces imagery that is rich, complex, and intriguing. In addition to her monoprints, she has used these elements to create a stand-out work in another medium: a 70-foot illustrated and hand-written scroll that is housed in its own customized case. A visual narrative unfolds as the scroll is unrolled to reveal passages of text copied in black ink interspersed with pen and ink drawings of Otoya’s mythic fish and animals. The scroll is unified by a recurring motif of stamped wood-block images of fish printed in red ink. One of the work’s culminating images is a fantastical drawing of a wolf-like animal to which Otoya has applied gold leaf.

Calendar Listing

Introductions

GROUP EXHIBITION AND OPENING: New Work in Printmaking and Drawing by Artists with Developmental Disabilities is Showcased in Exhibition at Creativity Explored

What

During the traditional gallery introductions season, Creativity Explored presents new work in printmaking and drawing by Walter Kresnik, Bertha Otoya, Ana Maria Vidalon and Doris Yen. The four artists employ a remarkable expressiveness of line in their mediums, which is further enhanced by their monochromatic palettes.

Walter Kresnik revists and refines his previous work in portraiture, using artists and musicians as his subjects. These intricate drawings are paired with renderings of cultural landmarks from the country of origin of each of Kresnik’s subjects.

Doris Yen, Berta Otoya, and Ana Maria Vidalon vigorously explore printmaking, a medium that is new for the three artists. Yen‘s mastery of line is further highlighted by the printmaking process, as seen in her works of fish and animals. Bertha Otoya also incorporates fish as a subject matter, along with animals, script, and images from hand-made stamps in her monoprints and in a stand-out 70-foot long scroll. Vidalon has experimented with several printmaking techniques to introduce entirely new content to her work. Inspired by sheet music, she employs chine-colle techniques that enable her to incorporate actual sheet music into her delicate compositions of lines and notes that dance across the surface of her works on paper.

When

• Opening Reception: Thursday, August 13, 2009, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
• Exhibition Dates and Times: August 13 through September 30, 2009; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, Thursday from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, and Saturday from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Where

Creativity Explored Gallery, 3245 16th Street at Guerrero Street, San Francisco CA 94103 (Map)

Information

• (415) 863-2108
• www.creativityexplored.org

Cost

FREE

Creativity Explored is a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art.

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Press Contacts

Barbara Traisman: publicity@creativityexplored.org
Amy Auerbach: (415) 863-2108 · gallery@creativityexplored.org
Amy Taub: (415) 863-2108 · director@creativityexplored.org

# Posted on July 8, 2009