Captain and Commander | Oct 2008

A show featuring works by two established Bay Area talents. A provocative collection of new works.

Curated by Gabe Scott
Oct 2 – Nov 1

FEATURED ARTISTS

Keli Reule
Ms. Reule is a North Carolina born San Francisco resident who will be participating in her first major exhibit @ 111 Minna Gallery. Recently accepted to the St. Martin’s College MFA painting program in London, Reule will be teaming up with studio mate Henry Lewis for “Captain and Commander.”

With this body of work, Reule has chosen to focus on her relationship with the sea and how it relates to internal emotional losses and maintenance of one’s passionate energy. She has set herself adrift into deep, dark water in order to contemplate the effects death, emotional defeats, personal loss and the re-generation of self.  Reule’s sparse palette has been further reduced in order to aid in the alienation of a didactic representation, giving way to a slowness depicted in her blurred imagery.

The artist has long seen herself as a vehicle for narrative memory or as an emulsified canvas for the lapse of time and space. The viewer may feel as if on a train, watching cities pass by with lost monuments or
encountering individuals with displaced physical characteristics.

Henry Lewis
Subtle epiphanies and chance encounters are some of the factors and themes examined by Henry Lewis in his most recent body of work, currently on exhibition with studio mate Keli Reule.

This presentation provides a new angle for Lewis’ long running study of his view of the human condition. A sensitive and impressionable individual, Lewis’ ability to draw strength, an existential purpose and inspiration from his love for the meaningful, random experience is on full display within this exhibit. A slew of street encounters with cab drivers and other urban prophets has provided a significant and positive counterbalance to a dependency on familiarity for guidance. Lewis recently made a difficult decision to leave mentor Mike Davis and Everlasting Tattoo for Skull and Sword; a move geared toward personal evolution both as a tattoo and fine artist. Davis has been a key figure in Lewis’ mastery of oil painting and development of his highly unique baroque characteristics.