Thirty-six artworks by eighteen artists were selected from more than
a hundred entries by the Oakland Museum of California’s René de
Guzman and Berkeley Art Center’s former Acting Director, Kate
Eilertsen, for this annual juried members’ show (to which
admission is, of course, free). The artists include Henrique Bagulho,
Leigh Barbier, Mariet Braakman, Iris Charabi-Berggren, Emily Clawson,
Morgan Ford, Julie V. Garner, John Hundt, Lisa Martin, Liz Maxwell,
Anthony Lazorko, Masako Miki, Camilla Newhagen, Henry Navarro, Sarah
Newton, Jonathan Solo, Hyewon Yoon, and Alex Zecca, and the work covers
a wide range of subjects, styles, and approaches to the versatile
medium of paper.
There is no common theme to the work, of course, but among the
noteworthy pieces are Henrique Bagulho’s two “I am the World” digital
photos, presenting multiple versions of himself engaged in various
scenarios — awaiting execution by a pantomime firing squad at
some prison or bunker, and swarming about the grand stairway at San
Francisco’s City Hall; Leigh Barbier’s mixed-media paintings “The New
Arrivals” and “The Valley of Decision and Trade,” depicting fantastic
or fairy-tale mountain landscapes filled with small groups of enigmatic
elfin figures; Iris Charabi-Berggren’s graphite drawings of birds
(gyrfalcon, hummingbird, and Budgerigar) on partially woven sheets of
paper that suggest plumage or nests; Morgan Ford’s color photograph,
“Vintage,” with its cropped view of 1962 or so, judging by woman’s
print dress and the sky-blue Mercury Comet behind her; Julie V.
Garner’s large-format color photos of industrial architecture (“Sugar
Factory,” “Alameda Grey”), cut into strips and woven together; John
Hundt’s surreal collaged-engraving portraits of a cephalopod scientist
and a paleontologist; Anthony Lazorko’s California roadscape woodcuts
of a truck stop and a McDonald’s both seen from far off, as if from a
speeding auto; Lisa Martin’s conceptual ink drawings based on maps of
the United States in the mid-18th century; Liz Maxwell’s white-on-black
drawings, “Thistle” and “Wings for Another Leo,” their linear and
transparent floral motifs suggesting psychic states; Henry Navarro’s
white-on-white cut-paper “Self” collages, probably based on
photographs; Sarah Newton’s aquatint photo-etchings of San Francisco
street scenes, “Cesar Chavez and Mission” and “Mission St., Parking
Lot”; Jonathon Solo’s gender-bending portrait drawing with collage
“Hunted” and “She Loved Me”; and Hyewon Yoon’s ink drawing “Abandoned
Structures 1,” depicting a white plain filled with odd structures of
rock and shell. Juried@BAC: Works on Paper runs through
September 20 at Berkeley Art Center (1275 Walnut St., Berkeley).
BerkeleyArtCenter.org or
510-644-6893.
