Sono Osato presents new paintings, echoing historic layers of ancient texts and shifting geographical strata. Hadi Tabatabai's work is an elegant combination of drawing, painting and sculpture that explores ideas of meditation and perception.
Sono Osato
"Babylon: The Buried Language Series"
Sono Osato opens an exhibition of new paintings, Babylon: The Buried
Language Series, at Brian Gross Fine Art on March 5, with a reception
for the artist from 5:30-7:30 pm. Osato's work embodies ideas
connecting language, archaeology and geology. A combination of
encaustic, oil painting, drawing and assemblage, the visual elements
create rhythms of movement and texture. The exhibition will be on view
through April 25, 2009.
Echoing historic layers of ancient texts and shifting geographical
strata with thick layers of paint, Osato's previously heavily painted
surfaces give way to a more open approach. In Niniveh, a large
triptych measuring 64 by 143 inches, hundreds of small, reclaimed
objects attached to panel create a visual polyphony, like remnant
hieroglyphics. Mining parts from vintage typewriters and computer
parts, Osato recontextualizes the metal hardware into compositions as
though archaelogical detritus. Merging and emerging from the real
objects, silhouettes of drawn objects vie for space, perfectly
integrating and creating a greater depth of surface. The painting has
a powerful, physical presence with a vertical rhythm to the elements,
revealing layers of the past marching to a hidden order.
Sono Osato was born in Baden Baden, Germany, in 1960. She received
her BFA from Arizona State University, Tempe, and her MFA from the
California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland. Osato’s work has been
featured in exhibitions throughout the Bay Area including San Jose
Institute for Contemporary Art; The Oakland Museum; Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts, San Francisco; and di Rosa Preserve, Napa, California,
among others. She has been a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner
Foundation grant in 2008, 1999 and 1989. She currently lives and works
in New York City.
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Hadi Tabatabai
"The Space of a line"
Bay Area artist, Hadi Tabatabai , opens an exhibition of new work,
"The Space of a line," at Brian Gross Fine Art on March 5, with a
reception for the artist from 5:30-7:30 pm. Tabatabai's work is an
elegant combination of drawing, painting and sculpture that explores
ideas of meditation and perception. The meticulous crafsmanship of
these intimate, enigmatic works invite self-reflection. On view
through April 25, 2009.
For his first solo exhibit with Brian Gross, Tabatabai continues his
exploration of the line as a physical space. Working with a variety
of materials, in addition to paint, Tabatabai creates "paintings" with
a sculptural, three-dimensional quality. The works, which range in
size from 5 x 4 inches to 30 x 24 inches, are intricate constructs
made out of basswood, thread, styrene, beeswax, and grout. He creates
subtle shifts within the surface plane, delineating lines by slightly
raised or lowered edges to create grids. Through the use of light and
shadow, depth of field, and other optical obfuscations, the positive
and negative space in the grid becomes indeterminate. The resulting
work evokes the relationship between what is imagined on the surface
and what is actually rendered- questioning the perception of what is
seen.
Hadi Tabadabai was born in Mashhad, Iran, in 1964 and immigrated to
the United States in 1977. He received a B.S. in Industrial Technology
from Fresno State University (1985) and a B.F.A. in Painting from the
San Francisco Art Institute (1995). His work has been shown widely in
London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia and can
be found in the collections of The Achenbach Foundation at the Fine
Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Progressive Corporation, Cleveland,
Ohio, and Werner Kramarsky, New York City, among others. Tabatabai
recently received a Pollock-Krasner Grant (2008) and has been an
artist in residence at the Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
(2007), as well as an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the
Arts, Sausalito, California (2006-2007).
Image: Sono Osato
Brian Gross Fine Art
49 Geary Street - San Francisco
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Friday 10:30-5:30, Saturday 11-
Free admission