AutoEroticia at the FLOAT Gallery

AutoErotica

"It's All About The Car"

A Group show…

Phillip Hall - Digital light painted photography

Bill Silveira - Auto inspired assemblage sculpture

Laurel True - Asphalt Mosaics

Show runs 7/13 – 9/6/08

AutoErotica celebration party 8/09/08, 6-9pm

Let’s face it…. Big old beautiful cars are sexy!

The US, with its love for the car, is fighting the need to become fuel efficient, healthy and green. But no, we don’t want to drive a Twinkie! Huge American cars are in our blood and we aren't letting them go easily.

Each of these three Bay Area artists have their own unique take on the love of the car and travel. They honor our rapidly disappearing, uniquely American, decadent automotive past.

About the Artists:

-Philip Hall

When it comes to capturing the fine art of automobiles, Hall understands that the beauty of light is in the details. For more than 30 years, Hall had looked at light from a different perspective. An award-winning lighting designer, photographer, filmmaker and lighting control specialist, it has always been his medium of expression.

Philip’s lighting projects include; televised visits by The Pope, the Queen of England, 4 Presidents of the United States, celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge, feature films, commercials and thousands of permanent lighting systems in the Bay Area, his favorite being the renovation of the San Francisco Opera House. His work is included in the private collection of Jay Leno.

Ever since Hall focused on the definitive detail in that 1953 Corvette, his subject has been the elements of the automobile. Artist statement: "What intrigues and stimulates me is how shadows detail life, enhancing or diminishing perceptions or emotional reactions to my artwork. Reality is defined in my work by revealing the mystery of an image -- its light and shadow -- through crystallizing or distorting pixels until the inherent beauty of an image is revealed." www.philhall.biz

-Bill Silveira

Slightly curmudgeonly, a bit on the eccentric side, with a maniacal enthusiasm for the automobile since his early youth, Bill Silveira enjoys making art out of discarded auto parts, rusty scrap metal, and other unique items that seem to find their way into his vast collection of interesting and eclectic junk. A business owner and resident of Oakland's Jingletown arts district since the early 1990's, Silveira likes to think of himself as "Sanford and Son-ish with a slightly twisted bent."

Owner of Automania, this semi-retired used car dealer is also well known in the film industry as the guy who can provide you with just about anything you need from classic cars to caskets for your photo shoot. Learn more about Silveira on Kim Larsen’s blog.

-Laurel True

Laurel True is a Bay Area artist specializing mosaic, mixed media and public art.

She travels widely to teach and facilitate large- scale, community based projects and maintains artistic or residential bases in Oakland, New Orleans and in Ghana, West Africa. She lectures internationally and has been featured in many books and publications.

"In her new series of mosaic relief panels, artist Laurel True turns away from more traditional mosaic materials such as ceramic, glass and stone, instead creating her works from asphalt, concrete and other roadway detritus collected from her Oakland neighborhood.

True bases her works' designs on random and intentional road markings such as tar lines, cracks and skid marks made from sideshows and car spinouts. True's series is a visual and conceptual investigation of what beauty might be found in urban landscapes, exploring the ugliness, grit, solidity and underlying grace in both her materials and surroundings."

About FLOAT:

FLOAT, Floatation Center – Art Gallery is the only floatation center & art gallery in the San Francisco Bay Area, floatation therapy is a unique and powerful tool that allows you to shut out the world, and drift into the deepest possible level of physical and mental relaxation. FLOAT an urban art spa offers new, public exhibits of local artists to stimulate and challenge your senses.

FLOAT, Floatation Center – Art Gallery 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116 (located in a store front loft of the historic Cotton Mill Studios) Oakland, CA 94606

Media is welcome to "experience" a complementary float

For more information and high resolution images please contact: Allison Walton, 510.535.1702

info@thefloatcenter.com , www.thefloatcenter.com

East Bay Open Studios

Jingletown's participation in the East Bay Open Studios the weekends of June 7 and 8, and 14 and 15 was reported to be a huge success. Saundra Warrens of In Saundra's Garden ceramics/mosaics and Kim Larson from the 420 Gallery are said to have made record sales this year. There was a lot of foot traffic and art fans.

Institute of Mosaic Art had a community meeting to discuss changes that will be taking place in their future.

Other artists, vendors and pedestrians were out in full force making this event one of the best to date.

Way to go, Jingletown!

FLOAT!!

FLOAT Gallery in celebrating the Art of the Cotton Mill Studios

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show details 3:30 PM (2 hours ago)

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Closing Art Party at FLOAT Galleries

Beneath The Surface
Visionary Paintings & Works on Paper by Liz Mamorsky
Interactive Assemblage Sculpture by Paul Baker

Closing art party will celebrate the FLOAT Galleries 2nd year anniversary

DJ BONSCOTT of WaxONWaxOff productions will be spinning funk, hip hop, and jungle
Saturday 5/17, From 6-9pm

Last chance to see the amazing work of Liz Mamorsky and Paul Baker in the gallery, with free floats & amazing wine by Mel Knox Barrel Broker



Check out what the local press have to say about this show:

East Bay Express...
Piedmont Post...

Many thanks for all your support!
Allison & Fil

FLOAT, Flotation Center - Art Gallery
1091 Calcot Place #116
Oakland
510-535-1702
Directions

This is a free event, please feel free to forward this invitation.

Coming to Jingletown in June!

(click poster to enlarge)

Jingletown Art Opening!

Art of the Cotton Mill Studios
Paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media by:
Keiko Nelson, Bill Stoneham, Elizabeth Tennant and Susan Tuttle
Show runs 5/19-7/12
Opening party 5/31, Closing party 7/12 6-9pm
Performing at the opening party will be DJ Daniel Berkman

Driving down the 880 freeway in Oakland, you’ve probably seen a gorgeous brick warehouse towering over the freeway. Local history buffs will know this building as the Cotton Mill, one of the area’s oldest living landmarks. Originally a 1900’s manufacturing plant, the Cotton Mill Studios was renovated into work live lofts that house many diverse eclectic artists and businesses. It is a creative nexus that is fast becoming a hub of the surrounding Jingletown district.

On display at the artist owned and operated FLOAT Gallery will be hand-picked group of Cotton Mill artists who live and work in the building: Keiko Nelson, internationally accomplished sculptor. Bill Stoneham, painter, sculptor and animator, Elizabeth Tennant, painter and Susan Tuttle photographer and mixed media artist.

About the Artists:

Keiko Nelson is an international artist, who has exhibited her works and lectured about her art in the United States, Japan, Germany, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Egypt, Thai, China and Mexico. She was an artist in residence at the University of Chiapas in Mexico for the International Sculpture Symposium, and given a grant for a one –person exhibition by the Ministry of Culture in Egypt. She was given in the Artistic Achievement Award by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York in 2002, among her interests range from sculpture through fine art, design and textiles. Her works feature the subtle flow of natural force. Her work has been described by the Curator Emeritus of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco as “a unique fusion of the East and West, the retrospective and the progressive and delicate and the dynamic.” www.keikonelson.com

Bill Stoneham's professional art career began in 1972 at Feingarten Galleries in Beverly Hills, CA. Feingarten bought Stoneham's paintings for two years and hosted a one-man show that was reviewed with statements like "...at their best when at their weirdest" and "The best works here deserve the attention of collectors". In 1992 Stoneham started working at ILM, sculpting in the creature shop, building feature film sets. When art went digital, Stoneham followed, mastering digital 3D modeling and cinematic production. During his career, Stoneham created inspiring digital and fine art for many entertainment companies including Lucas Arts Entertainment, Cyan Worlds, and Crystal Dynamics.

Today Stoneham is painting and creating digital art and animations - all in surrealist style - exploring figurative and textural concepts influenced by the urban environment and the social/political forces at work in our world. www.stonehamstudios.com

Susan Tuttle moved from the East Coast to San Francisco in 1978. She is the Director of Montclair Gallery in Oakland, which she founded in 2003 with East Bay glass artist Janet Thompson. Susan is a photographer and jewelry designer, and her jewelry designs are on permanent display at Montclair Gallery. She graduated from Ithaca College in 1976 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and a minor degree in Art History. She studied graphic design at the Academy of Art College beginning in 1982 and was involved in the profession for 20 years. She participates in the annual East Bay Open Studios, San Francisco Open Studios, well as other juried and non-juried exhibits in the San Francisco/Bay Area. From 1999 until 2004, she was involved with San Francisco’s ArtSpan, proofreading the annual San Francisco Open Studios Guide. In addition, she is an associate director at San Francisco SOMA’s new GarageGallery, where she has also exhibited her photography and jewelry designs.

Elizabeth Tennant is a native California artist with a BA in studio art. Working in oils exclusively, she is committed to magical realism and the craft of painting. Her lifelong interests in psychology and mythology give her a perverse, fantastical visual language that conveys deep emotion. Her works can be found in collections throughout California and on the East Coast.

About the music:

Daniel Berkman is a San Francisco-based multi-instrumentalist who has played with artists ranging from Essence to the San Francisco Ballet. Well
known for his inspired West African kora playing, he will be flexing his electronic muscle as Colfax, releasing his debut electronic album later this year.

About FLOAT:
FLOAT, Floatation Center – Art Gallery is the only floatation center & art gallery in the San Francisco Bay Area, floatation therapy is a unique and powerful tool that allows you to shut out the world, and drift into the deepest possible level of physical and mental relaxation. FLOAT an urban art spa offers new, public exhibits of local artists to stimulate and challenge your senses.

FLOAT, Floatation Center – Art Gallery 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116 (located in a store front loft of the historic cotton mill studios) Oakland, CA 94606

Float Galleries closing art party!

Oakland – April 19th, 2008 Contact: Allison Walton

Phone: 510-535-1702

Beneath The Surface
Visionary Paintings & Works on Paper by Liz Mamorsky

Interactive Assemblage Sculpture by Paul Baker

Closing art party will celebrate the FLOAT Galleries 2^nd year anniversary

DJ BONSCOTT of WaxONWaxOff productions will be spinning funk, hip hop, and jungle during the event on Saturday 5/17, from 6-9pm

The capabilities of the human mind like the creative process, is nothing short of astonishing. Beneath the Surface gives us a taste of that brilliance, telling stories from deep within. During this two month show we challenge the audience to experience their own path through paintings, works on paper and assemblage sculpture that utilizes found objects to stir memories.

Our closing party will mark Float’s 2^nd year anniversary in business and participants will have the ability to win a free floatation session every ½ hour during the event.

Liz Mamorsky

An artist all her life Liz Mamorsky was a child star back in New York and currently does voice work for radio, television and games, including Sims 2, Sam & Max, and AVampyre Story. She is also the narrator for the recent PBS documentary, The Remarkable Red Hat Society. Since graduating from Bennington College, Mamorsky has exhibited her unique recycled-materials sculpture, studio furniture, and visionary paintings and drawings nationally and internationally. Her work resides in numerous public and private collections including: The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; The Spertus Museum, Chicago; The Oakland Museum of California, Sony Corporation, Nektar Therapeutics, First National Bank of Arizona, Santa Clara Medical Center and Paramount Pictures for the set of Star Trek:Voyager. You can find her hard at work in her amazing LizLand Studio in San Francisco.

Paul Baker

Paul Baker is an assemblage artist who creates interactive sculptures. His ongoing series: Machines for Living are built intentionally to help us examine our lives and evoke memories, though insight and humor.

A native of Boston, Baker moved to San Francisco ten years ago. He has been producing art in different mediums for the past 15 years; in 1991 he settled on assemblage sculpture, perhaps latently influenced by a boyhood passion for collecting shelf after shelf of what his mother called "junk".

His background includes exhibit design at the Cleveland Museum of Art; art instructor; bird house entrepreneur; and a stint as a sales clerk in a large department store. His education includes extensive travel abroad and a Masters degree in Medieval Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England. Baker works as an advertising copywriter by day. www.Paulbakersculpture.com

About FLOAT:

FLOAT, Floatation Center – Art Gallery is the only floatation center & art gallery in the San Francisco Bay Area, floatation therapy is a unique and powerful tool that allows you to shut out the world, and drift into the deepest possible level of physical and mental relaxation. FLOAT an urban art spa offers new, public exhibits of local artists to stimulate and challenge your senses.

FLOAT, Floatation Center – Art Gallery 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116 (located in a store front loft of the historic cotton mill studios) Oakland, CA 94606

Jingletown Junction featured on KQED Forum Radio

Jingletown Junction will be featured on KQED's live call-in program:

Thu, Apr 10, 2008 -10 AM. Oakland's Jingletown Junction is hosting an exhibit showcasing neighborhood artists. The program will talk about the history behind this colorful name, as well as speak with some of the artists. Host: with Michael Krasny Call In 866-SF-FORUM (866-733-6786)

Ignacio De La Fuente's 2008 Campaign Kick Off!

Dear Friend - I hope you can join me for this important event.

District 5

For De La Fuente

Join Ignacio for the

2008 Campaign Kick Off

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Rally at 10:00 AM

Volunteers Needed from 10 AM to 2 PM

3411 E.12th Street, Suite 90

in the Fruitvale BART Transit Village

Bring your friends and family!

Lunch will be Provided

To RSVP or volunteer call (510) 535-2008

www.delafuente2008.com

OPENING AT THE FLOAT GALLERY

Material Evidence

Mixed media work of Peter Boyer, and Master Plasma sculptor Ed Kirshner

Closing Party March 15th 2008, 6-9pm
with live music by Cornelius Boots

Two architects collide with the 4th state of matter, a not to be missed event!

Enter a world were materials come alive in an inspiring array of elements, both elegant and serene these masters of design transform materials designed for constructing buildings, into creations that seem to take on a life of their own. Set to live improvised ambient music by Cornelius Boots.

Included in the display are the compilation plasma jellyfish sculptures by Ed Kirshner and Bernd Weinmayer, a master flame worker from Austria. www.weinmayer.at

Peter Boyer

Boyer's art deals with physical and material elements. He builds paintings by successive applications and deletions of various materials: canvas, muslin, linen, paint, gesso, charcoal and graphite. His is a process of working and reworking the surface by tearing off and reapplying his materials until the work attains what he has described as "presence".

Peter Boyer was born in New York in 1948, moving to the West Coast with his family in 1960. He studied art in California and Oregon, receiving his BA from San Francisco State University in 1977. He also studied architecture at The Southern California Institute of Architecture. Boyer operated a small design/build business in the 1970's, which acquainted him with the materials and techniques of building construction. Much of this knowledge has been applied to the process he follows in creating his mixed media works. www.peterboyer.com

Ed Kirshner

Artist statement:

Like Dr. Frankenstein in his lab, I hover over my glass and gas plasma work, spending many hours mixing, balancing and fine-tuning. Still, the plasma light behaves in a way that I can never completely control. I can change or direct its behavior by varying the pressure and mix of gases, or the frequency and the voltage of the power, but I can never fully predict the detailed effects any of my actions will have. Though frustrating at times, this unpredictability is at the very heart of my work. This is the personality, the mystery, the life that I try to create in my sculpture.

Ed Kirshner of Oakland, California was born in New York City in 1940. He studied architecture and sculpture at Cornell University, the University of California at Berkeley and the Oskar Kokoschka School of Vision in Austria. After thirty years of developing and financing affordable housing, he returned to study art at the California College of the Arts in Oakland as well as at Pilchuck and Corning glass schools and Northlands Creative Glass in Scotland. His glass and gas plasma sculptures have been exhibited throughout the U.S. as well as in Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Austria, France and Turkey. His work, “Cone of Chaos”, was a Corning Glass selection in 2000 and is included in Corning's recent book "25 Years of New Glass Review." His piece, "Java High," was a recent acquisition of the di Rosa Fine Arts Preserve in Napa, California. Ed has taught glass and gas plasma workshops in the U.S. as well as in Asia and Europe and is on the faculty of The Crucible Fire Arts School in Oakland and the Glass Furnace in Turkey. He is also a Trustee and the Treasurer of the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Los Angeles. www.aurorasculpture.com

Cornelius Boots

Closing night will showcase a live performance by Oakland reed renegade Cornelius Boots. A progressive rock composer, bass clarinet performance specialist, wu wei woodwind instructor and Zen flutist. Founder of Edmund Welles. Boots is currently undertaking more large-scale, primordial, avant-orchestral compositions. Recent pieces include a commission by Chamber Music America and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The live performance for Material Evidence will reflect the elements of earthiness, experimentalism, and unpredictability found in the artwork. A primarily improvised ambient set which will combine the usage of the robot bass clarinet—an amplified, effected, mutated bass clarinet—and the sounds of the mendicant bamboo flute-playingcharacter "Shunyata Wu-xi" (wizard of the void), utilizing shakuhachi and staff flutes in addition to tape loops, and voice to create minimalist industrial-new age and existential blues. www.corneliusboots.com, www.edmundwelles.com

FLOAT, Floatation Center – Art Gallery 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116 (located in a store front loft of the historic cotton mill studios) Oakland, CA 94606

510.535.1702

www.thefloatcenter.com

Jingletown Junction Exhibition

Ten JABC artists' experience of working and living in an artists' neighborhood.

Jingletown Junction

Dates: March 18 - April 25, 2008

Reception: Thursday, March 20, 6-8 pm

Artists' Talk: Saturday, April 5, 1-3pm

PRO ARTS GALLERY - 550 Second Street, Oakland, CA.

ALISON MCLENNAN - Furniture

FERNANDO REYES - Painting

JILL MCLENNAN - Painting, Encaustic, Oil

HEATHER WHITEHEAD - Painting, Printmaking, Mixed Media

RUSS OSTERWEIL - Photography

JAN WATTEN - Photography

JON ZAX - Photography

KATHY CRONIN - Photography

BILL SILVEIRA - Sculpture, Painting

LAUREL TRUE - Mixed Media

Music during reception provided by Cathi Walkup's Double Trio

Jingletown

(Postcard design by Kim Larson)