Picture

At Seager Gray Gallery through March 31: From left, Dean Allison, Kitchen Floor Series #2; Adrian Arleo, Genesis; and Aggie Zed, Animal Figures. Courtesy images.

For each of the past six years, Donna Seager and Suzanne Gray of the renowned Seager Gray Gallery have presented an examination of artists and how they interact with their materials, often pushing boundaries and demonstrating a fascinating variety of artistic expressions. The exhibit’s 7th edition features 23 artists working in wood, cast glass, pastel, clay, encaustic, oil, aluminum, weaving, resin, stainless steel, graphite, glass powder, steel, shredded money, paper, glass beads, mica, wire, hand blown glass, beeswax, limestone, photography, thread, cardboard, latex iridescent watercolor and ceramic. It runs March 3-31 and kicks off with an artists reception on Saturday, March 7, 5:30-7:30pm.

This year’s exhibit also features artists Robert Adams, Dean Allison, Gale Antokal, Adrian Arleo, Kay Bradner, Joe Brubaker, Lia Cook, Stephen Paul Day, Daniella Dooling, Jane Hambleton, Michael Janis, Lisa Kokin, Dana Lynn Louis, Jann Nunn, Emily Payne, Sibylle Peretti, Ross Richmond, Jane Rosen, Liz Stekettee, Susan Stover, Tim Tate, Jessica Williams and Aggie Zed.

Seager says the exhibit includes a number of artists working with glass, including Dean Allison, Stephen Paul Day, Michael Janis, Sibylle Peretti, Ross Richmond, Jane Rosen and Tim Tate.  Allison, who has made a name for himself in glass portrait sculpture, often creates actual life casts of his subjects, capturing intimate details. For his Kitchen Floor Series 2, as seen in the image at top left, Allison used a scan-and-print technique due to the inability of his subject to actually sit still for that long. “The result is a work that is intensely personal and universal at the same time,” she says.

The exhibit also features a pair of clay artists whose work the gallery has not shown before: Adrian Arleo and Aggie Zed.  Some years ago, Arleo created a dozen or so figurative wasp nest sculptures out of clay and began to wonder about the more succulent quality of its counterpart, honeycomb. “After taking a 7-8 year hiatus from making the honeycomb sculptures, she recently began to revisit the series with a sense that the passage of time, and all the ensuing changes in the world, would bring something new to the imagery,” Gray says. “Her intention with the first was to render the face of a very young child. What began to emerge inadvertently was a close likeness to Greta Thunberg, and Arleo felt compelled to bring her out.”

“The idea of connecting her to pollinators seemed very apropos,” Arleo says.

Aggie Zed’s humorous clay works merge man and machine, man and dog, man and horse, man and fish and more. Her small figures have become prized collectibles and her larger sculptures speak to a world where man has been morphed by his own creations.

The 411: Seager Gray Gallery‘s 7th Annual “Materials Matter” exhibit features 23 artists working in wood, cast glass, pastel, clay, encaustic, oil, aluminum, weaving, resin, stainless steel, graphite, glass powder, steel, shredded money, paper, glass beads, mica, wire, hand blown glass, beeswax, limestone, photography, thread, cardboard, latex iridescent watercolor and ceramic. It runs March 3-31 and kicks off with an artists reception on Saturday, March 7, 5:30-7:30pm. MORE INFO.

Want to know what’s happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!