By Lauren Brocato By Lauren Brocato | June 8, 2021 | Lifestyle, Feature,
A captivating new exhibition at DZINE Gallery unites three California-based artists this summer.
Karyn Gabriel, One of Many, 2020, ceramic and blackened wire, 42” x 24”
Debuting June 18, "One of Many" comprises new works by contemporary artists Karyn Gabriel, Tanya Hollis and Liza Riddle. The group created artworks that reflect each artist's observations of natural phenomena while pushing the boundaries of materiality. To do so, they use of a range of materials, such as unglazed porcelain, ceramic, clay and plaster, which combine with elemental compounds in each of the ceramic sculptures and wall-mounted works of art.
Gabriel uses a primary medium of clay in her works that, upon first glance, compel viewers to take a closer look. In the wall-mounted scultputre Burnt, numerous irregularly shaped ceramic tiles link by blackened steel wire that, through joining of tiles, translates a metaphor for larger ideas of self and community. In essence, the whole is stronger when linked together than each piece is on its own.
Tanya Hollis, Untitled (from PARCH), 2021, acrylic paint, plaster, carbon pigment, salt and rust on wood panel, 60” x 30”
Likewise, Tanya Hollis invites viewers to witness environmental collapse through her works. Relief panels from her PARCH series were completed in one day then left to dry for an extended period of time, allowing fissures and cracks to naturally complete the panels' transformation. The result, inspired by the California landscapes devastated by the drought, is a visual articulation, for both herself and the viewer, of the personal response to climate change.
In Liza Riddle's Tracing Time series of geometric ceramic sculptures, she replicates the cracking and transformation she's observed in nature while relying on her background in art and science to inform the work. The process of covering internal forms in clay resulted in naturally formed cracks and patterns composed of tiles as they dry. For coloration of surfaces, she uses her own mixtures of water-soluble metals.
Liza Riddle, Tracing Time LR.720, LR.721, LR.725, 2021, handbuilt unglazed porcelain, black underglaze, 16.25” x 6” x 4” | 21” x 7” x 5.25” | 24.25” x 8” x 6.5”
While inherently different, each work in the exhibit is unified through a common goal of using materials to mirror systems, structures, patterns and natural processes while the materials become a metaphor for time and transformation, human identity, one's place within a larger community, and for being a witness to changes in the world. A can't-miss, this show will quickly become a catalyst for much-needed conversations on the themes drawn upon in "One of Many." June 18 through August 20, 128 Utah St., San Francisco, dzinegallery.com
Photography by: Header photo: Liza Riddle, "Tracing Time" LR.697, LR.698, 2021, handbuilt unglazed porcelain, black underglaze, 14.25” x 11.5” x 4.25” | 10.75” x 8.25” x 3.5”
Photos courtesy of DZINE Gallery