Embark Gallery Presents “Taking Temperature”

For Immediate Release

August 15, 2018

10 Local Artists Respond to the Environmental and Political Complexities of the Climate Change Crisis

Tashi Wangdhu. Nature Reflection, 2018. Oil on canvas. Photo courtesy of artist.

Taking Temperature is a group exhibition presented in tandem with Coal + Ice, a documentary photography exhibition and climate festival coming to Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture this Fall. Co-curator of Coal + Ice and Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas, along with independent curator Jillian Schultz, selected ten artists whose work is concerned with the consequences of climate change. On both a personal and global scale, how have these shifts affected landscapes, cultures, and communities? What are the implications of living in a country whose government actively denies climate science? Themes include extreme weather events, apocalyptic scenes from the present and future, the refuse created by consumer capitalism and, overall, an urgent plea for environmental activism.  

The artists of Taking Temperature address these issues poetically, exploring the emotional impact of a rapidly changing world and capturing those feelings with varying aesthetic approaches. For example, Darcy Padilla’s haunting images of the devastating aftermath of last year’s Northern California wildfires are authentic, yet otherworldly. The strange scenes show what happens when suburban sprawl pushes communities to the edge of nature and human arrogance continues to test the boundaries of the environment. Padilla’s unedited photographs reveal the result- a startling new reality.  

Darcy Padilla. Untitled, 2018. Framed Archival Pigment Print. Photo courtesy of artist.

Mika Sperling brings us to the other side of the globe, to Norilsk, a mining city in Northern Siberia where temperatures reach as low as -67°F. Climate change has led to the thawing of permafrost here, leaving buildings at risk of collapsing and creating potential leaks in the pipelines of the Siberian tundra which would ruin the local economy. Through a striking video exploration of industry there, Sperling reminds us that global warming also leads to the suffering of the individual, and is to the detriment of disenfranchised communities throughout the world.

Conceptual sculpture, creative photography techniques, carbon prints of endangered tree species, tapestries made of recycled and reclaimed fabric, and larger than life depictions of a natural disaster are some of the other offerings you will find in the exhibition.

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Participating Artists: Noah Greene (UC Davis), Amber Eve Imrie (Stanford), Darcy Padilla (UC Davis), Alana Rios (SJSU) Joseph Robertson (SFAI) Stephanie Sherriff (Stanford), HyeYoon Song (CCA), Mika Sperling (SFAI), Tashi Wangdhu (Mills), Eve Werner (SFAI)

Press Previews by appointment.

Opening Reception:  Friday, September 7, 2018, 5-8PM

Hours: 1–6pm every Thursday-Saturday from September 8 - October 13, 2018.

Media Contact: Angelica Jardini | Curatorial Director | info@embarkgallery.com

Embark Arts offers exhibition opportunities to current and recently graduated Masters of the Fine Arts students 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.

Embark Gallery Presents “All Welcome: The Clay Days Experiment”

For Immediate Release

July 10, 2018

Matthew Goldberg Explores the Possibilities of Community Art Making

Boomer, 2018. Ceramics.

All Welcome marks our first Community Spotlight exhibition in which Embark features the work of a group, collective, class or other kind of community. Clay Days began as a solution to the problem of affordable studio space in San Francisco, an offering of place to fellow artists in need. Goldberg had the room (and the clay) and all anyone had to do was show up and create. What started as a humble gathering of friends grew, organically and exponentially, into a program that acted both as a democratizing force in a competitive and often hierarchical art world, and an important facet of Goldberg’s own practice.

For Goldberg, Clay Days became a way to delve into the infinite possibilities of the medium, through shared experimentation and investigation. He also acted as the facilitator and the instructor, helping his brood to understand how learning, teaching and collaboration can affect artistic output. Sharing in the making process was essential to the project, the communal effects of making together almost reaching spiritual heights.

As he says, “A ceramics practice is tactile and therapeutic. Clay reveals the secret liquid state of all things – that material can slip between states of matter – that water informs shape. This is as much an artistic medium as it is a way to navigate the world.”

This exhibition is unique in that the work of all participants is exhibited on an equal plane. Clay has historically been the material that shifts between art and artisan, fine art and craft. To conflate that old tale, Clay Days accepts both professional artists, amateur makers, and non-makers equally. High and low have been flattened – the classroom and medium democratized, as have the often unapproachable walls of the fine arts gallery.

What similarities and themes occur when all ideas and techniques are validated? When the barriers of access are consciously diminished as much as possible? And, in a city whose history of radical art-making is rich while its displaced artists are decidedly not, what could be more radical than an experience that is affordable?

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Press Previews by appointment.

Opening Reception:  Friday, July 27th, 2018, 5-8PM

Hours: 1–6pm every Thursday-Saturday from July 28 - August 25, 2018

Media Contact: Angelica Jardini | Curatorial Director | info@embarkgallery.com

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Embark Arts offers exhibition opportunities to current and recently graduated Masters of the Fine Arts students 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.

Embark Gallery Presents “Elizabeth Bennett: In Context”

For Immediate Release

July 10, 2018

Artist Elizabeth Bennett Uses Words to Create Humor and Poignancy

In this Spotlight Exhibition, Embark presents the textual work of artist Elizabeth Bennett. In these works, Bennett explores the most effective means of giving language a physical form. Using various processes, materials, and scale, Bennett adds layers of meaning and power to concepts expressed in writing.

Several large banners of printed text have been soaked in water, obscuring and blurring certain parts. Bennett affixed these huge sheets of paper to a pier in Eastport Maine, allowing the tide to rise and melt the ink off of the paper. By allowing this natural process, the artist gives the powerful words new connotations. In Dr. King and the Declaration (pictured above) the ocean has significantly washed away the quotation on the right from the Declaration of Independence implying the wearing way of this truth, and echoing the silence spoken of by Dr. Martin Luther King on the left.

Left: Banana, 2017. Screenprint on brown paper bag.  Right: Product Haiku, 2017. Print.

In the two series Grocery Stories and Product Haikus, Bennett’s search for meaning in the overwhelming banality of capitalism is taken to the point of comic absurdity. In the former, the humorous and self-deprecating text is screen printed on plain brown shopping bags. Placed on pedestals, the work juxtaposes the mundane encounters with the prestige of fine art exhibition. The posters created for Product Haikus pull images from advertising and rely on the farcical idea of making meaningful poetry out of brand name products.

In these and several other works, Bennett manipulates language and form to evoke both laughter and somber meditation from her viewers.

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Press Previews by appointment.

Opening Reception:  Friday, July 27th, 2018, 5-8PM

Hours: 1–6pm every Thursday-Saturday from July 28 - August 25, 2018

Media Contact:  Angelica Jardini | Curatorial Director | angelica@embarkgallery.com

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Embark Arts offers exhibition opportunities to current and recently graduated Masters of the Fine Arts students 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.

Embark Gallery Presents “Home | Maker: Reactions to Definement”

For Immediate Release

May 20, 2018

 

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 16, 2018, 5-8PM.

Home | Maker: Reactions to Definement

Ryan Carrington and Lynn Dau Explore the Nuances of Domesticity and Labor

Ryan Carrington. Bake Sale, 2017. Plywood, neckties, pie tins.

In our second annual Spotlight exhibition, Embark is pleased to present the sculptural work of Ryan Carrington and Lynn Dau as they investigate notions of traditional gender roles through artistic labor, humor, and surreal presentations. Taking recognizable and arguably mundane objects and creating spectacles, Carrington and Dau tackle the promises and realities of the “American Dream” as it pertains to idealized family life and economic disparity.

Labor is essential to Carrington’s work, which is comprised of wood, brick and other materials obtained straight off the shelves of Home Depot. Carrington probes the distinction between Blue and White collar occupations by mimicking the labor-intensive work of construction, shining a spotlight on the performative nature of masculinity, and using the trope of the “uniform” to make dynamic connections that resonate across different communities.

Ryan Carrington. Oven Mitt, 2017. Brick and mortar.

Taking the familiar scene in Americana of the barbeque or backyard cookout as a starting point, Carrington creates a fantastical world by remaking objects out of unexpected materials and playing with size and form. For example, in Oven Mitt, the useful and protective tool is enlarged and carved out of brick and mortar. Though due to expert craftsmanship and finishing the glove still appears soft, the construction-like materials render it heavy and useless. The surprising juxtaposition lends levity to the piece, but there remains an underlying commentary on the weight of domestic labor.

Dau’s work moves us inside of the home, exposing the fallacy of “perfect family life” through her use of household items made to go awry. Silverware explodes out of pots and pans, with knives and forks even propelling themselves straight into the walls. The banality of housework, the endless and often thankless task of motherhood, and the shattered dream of a fairytale marriage are all conveyed.

Lynn Dau. Domestic Apocalypse, 2016. Found objects.

In Domestic Apocalypse, the task of doing the dishes becomes a symbol for frustration. The scene is that of a natural disaster, caught at its apex, a detonating expression of underlying emotions and unsaid truths. In Dau’s surreal installations,  once one gets past the novelty of the impeccable creation, there is something almost sinister lurking underneath. Her work is both constructive and ruinous. Again we see the complexity of the themes of labor and societal expectations deftly captured in the manipulated objects.

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Press Previews by appointment.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 16, 2018, 5-8PM.

Hours: 1–6pm every Thursday-Saturday from June 16 - July 14, 2018.

Media Contact: Angelica Jardini | Curatorial Director | info@embarkgallery.com

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Embark Gallery Presents “fieldnotes for useful light”

For Immediate Release

May 20, 2018

 

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 16, 2018, 5-8PM.

fieldnotes for useful light

A photographic exhibition by tamara suarez porras in collaboration with the Prelinger Library

tamara suarez porras. Untitled, 2018. Archival Pigment Print.

Embark Gallery is pleased to present the work of tamara suarez porras as our second annual rendition of R&D Projects, a series of research-intensive postgraduate fellowships and summer solo exhibitions. This exhibition is a poetic photographic exploration of the Prelinger Library, an independent research library in San Francisco featuring image-rich historical ephemera from the 19th and 20th centuries.

What began as an investigation into photometry (the science of the measurement of light, in terms of its perceived brightness to the human eye) evolves towards something less tangible - a meditation on light as a signifier for time and space. In porras’ work, the light in the Prelinger Library becomes a metaphor for discovery. Like the revelations of research, the secret shadows of the Library unfolded sporadically, organically, and with serendipity, and became for the artist as fruitful for artistic consideration as the texts themselves.

                 tamara suarez porras. Untitled, 2018. Archival Pigment Print.

Porras’ photographs are an archive of the ephemeral. The collection presents alternative ways in which to understand concrete truths, quantifying the affective qualities of light through captured moments, while reveling in their transitory nature. The works by porras will be accompanied by an ambient 2-channel sound installation by Portland artist Sei Harris, which considers the ways in which subtle shifts in sound, like light, can transform perception.

In tandem with the exhibition at Embark Gallery, porras will be presenting an evening of performance at the Prelinger Library alongside other West Coast artists Sei Harris, Pauline Gloss, and Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai. Offerings will range from experimental electronic music, literary sound art, performative lecture to recontextualized archives. June 14, 2018 at 7PM. 301 8th St #215, San Francisco, CA 94103.

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Press Previews by appointment.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 16, 2018, 5-8PM.

Hours: 1–6pm every Thursday-Saturday from June 16 - July 14, 2018.

Media Contact: Angelica Jardini | Curatorial Director | info@embarkgallery.com

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Now Accepting Submissions for Fall 2018!

Embark Gallery seeks work by local MFA students for 2 juried exhibitions. Any students currently enrolled in one of the following graduate programs or graduating in 2018 is eligible to apply: UC Berkeley, SF State, UC Davis, San Jose State, Stanford, CCA, SFAI and Mills. Applications are FREE through Submittable.

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Taking Temperature

Exhibition Dates: September 7 - October 13

In partnership with The COAL + ICE Project, a documentary photography exhibition and climate festival coming to San Francisco this Fall, Embark Arts seeks artwork that responds to the environmental and political complexities of the climate change crisis. 

On both a personal and global scale, how have these shifts affected landscapes, cultures, and communities? What are the implications of living in a country whose government actively denies climate science? Possible themes include, but are certainly not limited to, extreme weather events, apocalyptic predictions for the future, public land use and regulations, and hope in the form of environmental activism. We would like to focus on how these issues can be addressed through a variety of art forms and as such we encourage artists working in all mediums, including performance, to apply. 

MANDATORY DATES:

Artwork Drop Off/Artist Meet Up: Sunday, August 26, 12:00PM-4:00PM

Opening Reception: Friday, September 7, 6:00PM-9:00PM

Artwork Pick Up: Monday, October 15, 10:00AM-5:00PM

APPLY HERE

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Wave Forms

Exhibition Dates: October 26 - December 8

Embark Gallery seeks artworks that engage meaningfully with light and/or sound. This exhibition will ruminate on how these forces can be effective as the focus of a visual artwork, or how they can enhance a viewing experience. Artwork should capture the unique energy of light and sound waves, considering the vast diversity of both and/or how they can function together. Embark seeks a broad applicant pool for this show in order to demonstrate a variety of approaches to light and sound art, and as such encourage artists working in all mediums (including performance) to apply. 

MANDATORY DATES:

Artwork Drop Off/Artist Meet Up: Sunday, October 14, 12:00PM-4:00PM

Opening Reception: Friday, October 26, 6:00-9:00PM

Artwork Pick Up: Monday, December 10, 10:00AM-5:00PM

APPLY HERE

Please contact info@embarkgallery.com with any questions. 

Embark Gallery Presents “Deep Horizon”

Dionne Lee and Richard-Jonathan Nelson Explore the Black Body in the American Landscape

 

For Immediate Release: April 10, 2018

Opening Reception: May 5, 4-7pm

In the first ever Spotlight exhibition, Dionne Lee and Richard-Jonathan Nelson investigate the complex relationship between Blackness and nature. Considering histories of violence, the African diaspora, and the perceptions and realities of identity, Lee and Nelson explore the anxieties and trauma associated with the American landscape, and navigate us towards a deeper understanding of who is allowed to benefit from natural environments.

Richard-Jonathan Nelson. Rnelsonprint:  In a verdant eddy, I remembered I lost you, 2018. Digital print.

The Black body has become, through years of outward cultural control, synonymous with both toil and the land, but barred from communing with it. This has left many communities to be defined in the American imagination as urban, and as such, dynamically public in their existence. Lee and Nelson stake a claim to the solitude of nature and its potential as a tool for liberation, while acknowledging that at the same time, being alone and Black in the woods means, historically and quite literally, to be at risk for danger. Their work poses the question, “How does the Black body make a home among the soil, grasslands, and foliage of this country under a net of oppression?” Ultimately, through video, photography, and installation, this exhibition provides a new cartography for the safe travel of Black bodies through the terrain of modern wilderness.

Dionne Lee. collage_1-  of yard or field or hand or concern and promise, 2018.

About the Artists

Dionne Lee’s practice is based in photography, collage, and video, and engages ideas of agency and power in relation to the American landscape. A touchstone of her research is the history of black bodies on American soil. Specifically, in the labor directly engaged with the land during slavery, the repercussions of the false promise of land in the aftermath of Reconstruction, the synchronized passing of the Civil Rights Act and the Wilderness Act in 1964, up to the impact of urbanization and contemporary expectations of who willfully engages, thrives, and is safe within the foliage of America.

Born in New York City (1988) and based in Oakland, CA, Lee received her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2017. Her work has been exhibited at Aperture Foundation, the school of the International Center of Photography, and Rush Arts Gallery in New York City; Aggregate Space in Oakland; San Francisco Arts Commission, and Root Division in San Francisco. In 2011 Dionne was a Photography Fellow at The Camera Club of New York; in 2016 she was awarded the Barclay Simpson Award and was a Graduate Fellow at Anderson Ranch Arts Center.

Richard-Jonathan Nelson is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses textiles, video, and digital manipulation to create alternative worlds of speculative identity. His work is multi-layered, chromatically intense and mixes images of the natural world with reference to hoodoo, queer culture, and Afro-Futurism. He uses his constructed worlds to examine the overlapping spheres of culturally perceived identity and the emotional memory of what it means to be a queer black man. Thereby creating a limbic space free from the weighted excepted western cultural reality, and able to examine the unspoken ways systems of power persist. Nelson received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2017 with a focus on textiles. His work has been exhibited at Southern Exposure, Embark Gallery, and Root Division in San Francisco, and Aggregate Space and Ctrl + Shift in Oakland, among others. Nelson received the Byron Meyer Scholarship in 2015 and is a 2017 Graduate Fellow at Headlands Center for the Arts.

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Press Previews by appointment.

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 5, 2018, 4-7pm.

Hours: 1–6pm every Thursday-Saturday from May 5 - June 2, 2018.

Media Contact:

Angelica Jardini, Curatorial Director

info@embarkgallery.com

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Embark Gallery offers exhibition opportunities to current and recently graduated Masters of the Fine Arts students 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.