UNUSUAL SURFACES

SEPTEMBER 2 – OCTOBER 2, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 5-8PM
SECOND RECEPTION: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 4-6PM

Unusual Surfaces celebrates radical creativity from a diverse group of contemporary artists rejecting traditional fine art surfaces in favor of atypical mediums. Moving beyond the standard canvas, images gain new depths. Featuring a dynamic selection of work from emerging and mid-career artists, this exhibition encourages divergent approaches to representation and meaning making. Melissa Meier contemplates the relationship between spiritual connections to the natural world and the future of fashion with her sculptural clothing hybrids made from organic materials. Mike Stilkey extends the lives of discarded books by transforming them into sculptural totems featuring whimsically painted characters occupying ambiguous fantasy spaces. Visualizing racialized lived experiences, Linda Vallejo invokes the unrecognized presence of essential workers in her Brown Bouquets, Victorian style floral arrangements that continue to symbolize privilege in contemporary cultural contexts with the same vigor as the widening class divide in the United States.