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31/10/2003

Spiritual Surface

Absolute Art Gallery, San Marino, CA

New Works by Selected Gallery Artists: Shelley Herman, Nancy Kay Turner

San Marino, CA -- Absolute Art Gallery, a new contemporary art gallery, is very pleased to announce its second exhibition, 'Spiritual Surface,' featuring two artists, Shelley Herman, Nancy Kay Turner. With a strong passion for art, Absolute Art gallery will present a variety of excellent contemporary artists working in many different styles and media. The gallery will act as go-between classical and modern, human and natural, historical and realistic, and stimulate conversation of such issues in order to provide a window of communication for art enjoyment and appreciation, and to increase dynamic cultural activities for our families, friends, and the community. The exhibition opens November 1, 2003 and runs through November 29.

'Spiritual Surface' brings together the vibrant, color-filled paintings of Shelley Herman and the dark, mystical, mixed-media works on paper by Nancy Kay Turner.

Shelley Herman's lush large-scale and multi-paneled stained canvases evoke both the macro- and the micro-worlds of inner and outer space. Her gem-like acrylic paintings suggest aerial views from space and, paradoxically, the microscopic views of cells and decaying materials. In the grand tradition of Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler, Herman manipulates liquid and spray paint onto unprimed canvas on the floor. She then crops the work, like a photographer working from the outside border to the inside.

Herman has exhibited widely in California and New York and has been the recipient of several grants from the New York foundation for the arts. Piri Halasz, in an article for the NY Arts magazine entitled 'Alternative Los Angeles '(July/August 2002) writes 'the only Los Angeles art that I ¦considered truly contemporary and alternative was in the studio of Shelley Herman'. Herman says 'my painting has always been primarily about color'. 'I'm very committed to making beautiful objects because there is so much in contemporary culture that is not beautiful'. Herman graduated from Bennington College, and Bucknell University and was a scholarship student at the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine.

Nancy Kay Turner is an artist, critic and educator whose powerful mixed-media work on paper and foam uses both industrial materials, such as tar and asphaltum, in combination with urban detritus, vintage photographs and gold leaf to create mysterious narratives, which range from the humorous to the poignant. Dark and brooding, Turner's work is filled with references to memory, forgetting, chaos and identity. Her soulful multi-panel works (which include images and text) like pages of a book invite contemplation and encourage the viewer to participate in the construction of a personal narrative.

Turner's rich and dense work also references alchemy, and she uses the black tar and gold leaf to evoke transformation. Her interest in religious icons -- Russian, Greek, and Christian as well as the concepts of Jewish mysticism -- inform her work. Turner has said that 'all art is transformation: artists everywhere are seeking to take the immaterial and make it material'. Most recently, her works have been exhibited at the University of Judaism Borstein Gallery and at the Jose Drudis-Biada Art Gallery at Mount St. Mary's College. Turner's large-scale works on canvas are also currently showing at a solo exhibit at Transport Gallery, Los Angeles. Her work is in private and public collections and has been exhibited widely. Turner was educated at Queens College, and The University of California, Berkeley and also was a scholarship student at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where she first met Shelley Herman.

The opening reception will be held from 6-9 PM on Saturday, November 1, 2003 and will be open to the public.

Absolute Art Gallery is located at 2326 Huntington Drive, between San Marino Avenue and Del Mar Avenue, 100 feet east of San Marino City Hall, south of Huntington Library in San Marino.

For more information about Absolute Art Gallery, including images, please contact: 626.285.8585

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 1, 6-9 PM

Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-6pm, and by appointment

Absolute Art Gallery
2326 Huntington Drive, San Marino, CA 91108
Tel: 626.285.8585, Fax: 626.285.8808

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