Embark Gallery Opens Get Lost Exhibition

Local Emerging Artists Present Contemporary Perspectives on Queer Identity

Simon Garcia-Miñaur, Welcome to Introduction to Fractal Sex (Video still), 2015, HD video, Single Channel

Inspired by philosopher Herbert Marcuse's notion of "the great refusal," Embark’s latest exhibition Get Lost showcases contemporary takes on queer identity politics. By challenging the representational imagery that queer art is perhaps best known for, these artists present a new understanding of the self through displacement and absence, suggesting that queer activism in the digital age may take more nuanced forms of expression.

The video work of Simón Garcia-Miñaur (SFAI) features the inaccessible body, mystifying the shared sexual experience and using technology to speak to invisibility in queer relationships. These short fiction films deny the viewer access to their preconceived notions of human interaction and sex, further queering the queer body through digital rendering. Courtney Trouble (CCA) also uses techniques of erasure politically, literally grinding up photographs of queer bodies and spaces into dust. Through this transformation of subject to object to abstraction, she takes the medium of photography which is so essential to the history of queer art, and makes it fragile, fleeting and thoroughly unrecognizable.

Izidora Leber (SFAI) presents a textual piece in several forms: spoken word, video and installation. The work, titled A rumination of the queer body in documentary and video making history - and suggestions of how to get lost as a concept for identitarian escape is informed by the idea of hybridity and aims to disrupt normative categorizations of identity. Richard-Jonathan Nelson challenges the assumed roles of black queer bodies via vibrantly colored textiles. His digital collages and soft sculptures refuse heteronormative ideals and present a multifaceted and nuanced perspective on queer masculinity and racial power structures in the queer community.

This exhibition was juried by Avram Finkelstein, a founding member of the collective responsible for the Silence=Death poster, and of the art collective, Gran Fury, with whom he collaborated on public art commissions for international institutions including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Venice Biennale, ArtForum, MOCA LA, The New Museum, and The Public Art Fund.

Embark Gallery offers exhibition opportunities to graduate students of the Fine Arts in the San Francisco Bay Area. We provide a space for an engaged community of artists, curators and scholars, and we aim to expand the audience for up and coming contemporary art. The juried exhibitions are held at our gallery in San Francisco at the historic Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

Press Preview: Wednesday, January 25 [by appointment]

Opening Reception: Friday, January 27, 5-9 PM

Hours: 12–5pm every Saturday and Sunday from January 28 to March 4, and during the week by appointment.

Media Contact:

Tania Houtzager

tania@embarkgallery.com

Press Release for #simulacra

For Immediate Release: 

October 3, 2016

Embark Gallery Opens #simulacra Exhibition

Local Emerging Artists Question Reality in Provocative Photography Show

Image: Mike Cole. Big Rock, 2015.

Embark Gallery’s newest exhibition, #simulacra, asks how Jean Baudrillard’s philosophical treatise “Simulacra and Simulation” is relevant in the digital era. We live in a visual culture in which it is increasingly easy to participate. Images are all-important, and no longer mere symbols of truth. As Baudrillard predicted, reality itself has begun to imitate what was once its model. This medium-specific show explores signs, memory and documentation from a diverse sampling of perspectives.

Mike Cole and Jacqueline Sherlock Norheim both stray from traditional photography, utilizing the mark of the artist’s hand in two different takes on landscape, one manufactured and pixelated, the other ethereal and ephemeral. Shisi Huang’s video piece addresses voyeurism and the blurred line between public and private realities in an age where we are often being recorded. Marcela Pardo Ariza’s playful photographic sculpture references the unraveling of the meaning of images in the contemporary moment, whereas Qian Zhao’s deliciously colorful prints evoke a surreal nostalgia. Tamara Porras investigates the past without nostalgia, exposing how photographs can take on a new life of their own once those pictured are gone. Shaghayegh Cyrous’ work is planted firmly in the present, taking the form of a live feed from an apartment in Tehran, Iran. The piece references the malleability of time and place made possible by new technologies and questions the nature of reality in an increasingly global world.

This exhibition was juried by Julie Casemore of Casmore Kirkeby Gallery, and Allie Haeusslein of Pier 24 Photography.

Hours: 12–5pm every Saturday and Sunday from November 5 to December 17, and during the week by appointment.

Press Preview: Wednesday, November 2 [by appointment]

Opening Reception: Friday, November 4, 6–9pm

Media Contact:

Tania Houtzager

tania@embarkgallery.com

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Embark Gallery Opens “Humor US” Exhibition

For Immediate Release

August 25, 2016

Humor US features seven artists using levity to address political issues in the run up to the 2016 elections

Nathan Becka. Civility Pedal, 2015

Humor US will be on view from September 9-October 22, 2016, with an opening reception on September 9 from 5-9pm. This exhibition considers philosopher John Morreall’s definition of humor as “amusement that takes pleasure in a cognitive shift.” Indeed, much of what we find laughable also allows us to think differently about people, ideas, and states of being. Yet, in light of the current election season, humor can also function as an aggressive act of power and cause destructive effects. The graduate students featured in Humor US utilize comicality as a medium to reflect on the world outside of academia in the new upcoming presidential tenure. Through installations, videos, and photographs embedded with wittiness, the artists display personal experiences of disenfranchisement, criticisms regarding the American Dream, and platforms for positive social and political change made possible by the simplicity of simply listening to one another.

Jin Zhu. El Requerimiento, 2015, video.

Jin Zhu’s video piece sets the tone for the exhibition by providing viewers with a historical context and well-trodden path associated with Western politics––the disruption and marginalization of the “other” by the white male.  Douglas Angulo's video piece, and his deafening stare within it, builds on Zhu’s concepts and asks us to take a hard look inward to consider how we form and project identity, and construct misconceptions of identity. The work of France Viana and Hui Meng Wang question what it means to step in and out of traditional and individual identity in a photographic exploration and video piece, respectively. Viana searches for answers in the neighborhoods of Filipino Americans and confronts their political values. In a satirical commentary on the emerging Chinese middle class, Wang’s video investigates the disconnection between their idealized lifestyle and actual reality that is increasingly shaped by the political and social interests of the West.  Nathan Becka's objects and the installation of Kaitlin Trataris mock the blind acceptance that follows campaign endorsements and empty promises given by both powerful figures and everyday citizens simply due to the chase of the American Dream. Finally, it is Boris Scherbakov’s sound installations that presents viewers with some answers while grappling with the current political elections: to truly embrace our everyday surroundings and focus on conversations that lead to greater cultural and political understanding.

This exhibition is curated by Tanya Gayer (CCA), whose proposal was selected in Embark's recent call for curatorial proposals from Bay Area graduate students.

Artists in this exhibition include: Douglas Angulo (SFAI), Nathan Becka (CCA), Boris Scherbakov (Mills), Kaitlin Trataris (SFAI), France Viana (Mills), Hui Meng Wang (SFAI), Jin Zhu (UC Berkeley).

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Opening Reception: Friday, September 9th, 5-9pm

Open Hours: Saturdays, September 10th-October 22nd, 12-5pm or by appointment during the week

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Following Humor US, the exhibition #simulacra will be on view from November 5th to December 17th, 2016. For this exhibition, artists were asked to submit works that the increasingly visual culture we live in where images are all-important, and are no longer mere representations of truth. This photography show, juried by Julie Casemore and Allie Haeusslein, is an exploration of reality vs model, signs, place, and memory.

From January 28th to March 4th, 2016 the gallery will host Get Lost, an exhibition inspired by philosopher Herbert Marcuse's notion of "the great refusal.” Get Lost showcases contemporary takes on queer identity politics by challenging the representational imagery that queer art is perhaps best known for suggesting that queer activism in the digital age may take more nuanced forms of expression.This exhibition was juried by Avram Finkelstein.

Embark Gallery, a 1,500 sq. ft. non-profit art space that opened in February 2015 and located in Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, helps create and support an engaged community of young artists, curators and scholars during their studies and as they leave their graduate programs. We assist students to embark on their professional careers, while expanding the audience for up and coming contemporary art. The gallery represents the diversity of the talented artists studying at eight local art institutions including California College of the Arts, Mills College, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Davis.

For more info go to EmbarkGallery.com

Media Contact:

Tania Houtzager

Tania@Embarkgallery.com

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Embark Gallery presents the Inaugural screening of Frame(s)

Frame(s) is a series of ONE-NIGHT-ONLY screenings of selected artists' video art pieces and films. Beyond providing juried shows for Bay Area MFA students we are now adding this platform for bringing more video artworks to the fore. 

A poetic exploration of the body in landscape across a diverse sampling of contemporary film & video art. Dance and movement, innovative video techniques, queer experimental cinema and intricately woven together narratives make up this exciting night of films from emerging local artist.

Skye Bennett. Accelerated Sensation, 2015. 

Artists:

Malic Amalya & Max Garnet

Skye Bennett

Blaze Gonzalez

Nicole Lavelle

Embark Gallery Hosts Exhibition featuring UC Davis MFA Graduates

For Immediate Release

Coined by cognitive scientist Colin Cherry in 1953, the “Cocktail Party Effect” describes the filtering out of a multitude of sounds in order to focus on a particular conversation. It involves tuning into a single voice and detecting objects of importance, while tuning out visual and auditory clutter. Like the viewing of artwork, it works best when “hearing with both ears,” letting the senses fully activate in engagement with the object.

Over the last two years, each artist represented in this exhibition has collected and processed ideas and materials, listening for that singular voice amid the din. They have arrived at a place unique to their research. The work you see here is the culmination and distillation of that process, presented through painting, performance, installation, video, sculpture and printmaking.

About the UC Davis Art Studio M.F.A. Program

The Master of Fine Arts Degree in Art Studio, established in 1969, is a two­year, critically engaged studio program that provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary study in the visual arts. As part of a small tight­ knit community, students explore a wide range of media and approaches to studio practice. Current faculty members include Shiva Ahmadi, Tom Bills, Darrin Martin, Hearne Pardee, Lucy Puls, Annabeth Rosen, Young Suh, Robin Hill, Tim Hyde and Gina Werfel.

Students explore a wide range of media and approaches to studio practice. Drawing on the strengths of a multidisciplinary research campus, the program encourages research collaborations connecting the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences. The program is committed to delivering an innovative educational curriculum that promotes the blending of art theory and creative practice, with a goal to prepare students for professional engagement in the arts, including but not exclusive to academic careers. We aim to advance theories, methods, tools, and knowledge in emerging areas of studio art practice. 

Artists:

Sarah Chan
Zach Clark
Anna Davidson Kristin Hough
Jeff Mayry
Julian Tan
Brett Alex Thomas Angela Willetts

Opening Reception: May 13th, 5­-9pm

Facebook Event // UC Davis Show Site

For further information, please contact Tania Houtzager at 415­902­1013 or by e­mail: Tania@EmbarkGallery.com

Embark Gallery Presents CAMPUS: Interventions into Public Space, featuring Live and Interactive Performance at Fort Mason Center

For Immediate Release

Postcard Image: “Violence and Fragility,” performance proposal by Yvette Dibos.

Campus: Interventions into Public Space is a one-time performance event happening Saturday, May 21st at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, in the alleyway between Buildings B and C. This juried exhibition prompted artists to submit artwork that engages the architectural space at Fort Mason and promotes audience participation. Our esteemed juror Justin Hoover, Creative Director or Arts & Culture at Fort Mason, selected three site-specific works that activate the unique site of the alleyway.

Though diverse, all winning proposals explore the "space between" structures, people and cultural categorizations in provocative and creative ways. Charlie Ford and Dana Morrison (SFAI) explore constricts via the edges and limitations of the human body in an ephemeral and poetic dance performance. Yvette Dibos (CCA) challenges boundaries with her at once humorous and ominous balloon performance. Referencing the radical history of feminist performance art, Dibos takes issues of labor and sabotage into the contemporary moment. “The Expanding Gallery,”  the project presented Elizabeth Bennett (Mills), asks visitors to label found “artworks” around Fort Mason, challenging the value systems in the art world through crowd-sourced participation.

Elizabeth Bennett. Near Castle Rock State Park and Hwy 9. Part of "But Now I'm Found" 2016 Series.

Embark Gallery is a 1,500 sq. ft. nonprofit art space that opened in February 2015. Our mission is to support an engaged community of young artists, curators and scholars during their studies and as they leave their graduate programs. We assist students in embarking on their professional careers, while expanding the audience for up and coming contemporary art.

The gallery represents the diversity of the talented artists studying at eight local art institutions including California College of the Arts, Mills College, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, Stanford University,  University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Davis.

Artists:

            Elizabeth Bennett | Mills

Yvette Dibos | CCA

Charlie Ford | SFAI

Dana Morrison | SFAI

Opening Reception: May 21st, 1-4pm

For further information, please contact Tania Houtzager at 415-902-1013 or by e-mail Tania@EmbarkGallery.com

Embark Gallery Opens Exhibition Addressing Technology

For Immediate Release

Embark Gallery Opens “Technophilia” at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture

Paulina Berczynski. Consider the Difference, 2015. Cotton, hand-woven on digital Jacquard loom.

Technophilia Features Multi-Media Artworks by MFA Students

An obsession with innovation pervades our contemporary environment. Is this reverence towards progress positive, or are there malignant implications? Technophilia explores how rapid technological advancements affect not only art practices, but ourselves, relationships and environment. 

Our esteemed jurors Amy Cancelmo (Root Division), Kerri Hurtado (Artsource Consulting) and Megan McConnell (Anthony Meier Fine Arts) selected artworks of all media that utilize technology in new and unexpected ways, and that respond to the technological shift in culture so prevalent in the Bay Area.

This event coincides with the opening reception for San Francisco Open Studios 2015, presented by ArtSpan and  Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture from Oct. 23-25. 

Embark Gallery, a 1,500 sq. ft. non-profit art space located in Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, helps create and support an engaged community of young artists, curators and scholars during their studies and as they leave their graduate programs and embark on their professional careers, while expanding the audience for up and coming contemporary art. 

The gallery represents the diversity of the talented artists studying at eight local art institutions including California College of the Arts, Mills College, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Davis. 

Artists:
Paulina Berczynski | CCA
Irene Chou | CCA
Cy Keener | Stanford
J Kung Dreyfus | CCA
Heather Murphy | CCA
Christopher Nickel | Stanford
Randy Sarafan | SFSU

Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 6-9pm
Press Preview: Friday, October 23, 5-6pm

On view 11-5pm every Saturday from 9/23-12/5 and by appointment every Monday from 10/26-11/30

For further information, please e-mail info@embarkgallery.com

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