The Idea of Undoing: a 25 year survey of the art of Phil Amrhein – Curated by Angela Casagrande

Axis Gallery is pleased to present a selection of work from former Axis Gallery member, Phil Amrhein. The Idea of Undoing: a 25 year survey of the art of Phil Amrhein displays the evolution of Amrhein’s work over  a 25 year period from early figurative paintings to current, black  voids. His exploration of the aesthetics of black began as a rejection of  decorative painting styles, rendering a canvas without a discernible reference by removing what is recognizable. Amrhein’s minimalist sensibility engages with the painting as a visual object which, according to the artist, “engages the eye more than the mind.” His paintings embrace nothing and reflect his process of destructive reduction, freeing the work from the constraints imposed byrepresentation.

QWERTY – a show about “work” in the information age

William Mead and special guest Lauren Kelly
posted in: Bill Mead, Main Gallery show, Shows | 0

This collection of work by William Mead, along with guest artist Lauren Kelly, explores some of the many facets of working in a digital, Information Age, where our interactions with our colleagues is often mediated through the use of a keyboard and a screen. Our digital information driven work has seeped into our souls and is part of what defines our relationships as well as who we are as individuals. It stands, at times, in stark contrast to physical labor.

Angela Casagrande – “Everything That I Could Keep Inside”

In her latest exhibition, Everything That I Could Keep Inside, Angela Casagrande’s new work is centered around the afterlife of memory. Resulting from a fascination with the frailty of memory, her work examines memory as an aspect of liminal space, the beings that inhabit this space and the artifacts left behind, both physical and immaterial. Her graphoscopes serve the dual purpose of reliquary and assemblage – both housing sentimental mementos while displaying these items as narrative pieces. The act of encasing photographic images in encaustic wax refers to methods of Spiritualist communications with the spirit world through wax divination, along with preservation and occult binding practices. By coating these images in layers of wax, Casagrande binds the memory in place, saving it from decay.

Richard Gilles – HOUSE

When asked to draw a house a child will most often draw a rectangle and put an isosceles triangle on top. After adding a door and a window or two you have the standard drawing of a house. This rudimentary shape has become a universal symbol of a house. With computers this symbol has become simplified even more to become an icon. The “home” icon is used to return the user to the start, to back the user out of complexity and return the user to a place of relative safety.

Roma Devanbu – Keep, Toss, Give Away, Sell

Roma Devanbu’s use of intricate pattern reflects her ongoing fascination with the human compulsion to make things and decorate them. In this, her third, solo show at Axis Gallery, Devanbu contrasts these patterned elements, with representational passages, such as hands that hold on or let go of the objects, relationships and ideas of our making.

A chronic, but mostly manageable, hoarding disorder gives Devanbu a measure of personal expertise when it comes to understanding our attachments to things and to the meanings these objects hold. Devanbu explores these ideas in new drawings and paintings, as well as in interactive work which invite gallery goers to engage with the perpetual hoarder’s dilemma – Keep, Toss, Give Away or Sell?

Switching Gears

Tamera Avery, Marsha Balian, Jules Campbell, Harry Clewans, Deborah Benioff Friedman, Phyllis Lasché, TaVee McAllister Lee, Irene Nelson, Ruth Santee, and Gina Telcocci
posted in: Main Gallery show, Shows | 0

Axis Gallery is happy to announce Switching Gears, a group exhibition featuring members of Oakland California’s GearBox Gallery. This exhibit coincides with a similar exhibition at GearBox, featuring work from Axis Gallery members. The concurrent shows in Sacramento and in … Continued