3rd Annual Art of Painting in the 21st Century Conference 2012

February 29th, 2012 – April 26, 2012 Exhibition Events

Conference: March 9, 10am-5pm

Student exhibitions: March 10, 10am-5pm

Prices:  follow the registration link for prices.

The Art of Painting in the 21st Century is an annual conference geared towards nurturing dialog on contemporary painting and the shared ideas that define current trends in the field. Many painters work alone, an isolated process that deprives the artist of thriving debate until the work is shown. The conference provides a unique venue for artists to participate in panel discussions, breakout groups and attend lectures by some of the most exciting visionaries in the field, including Glenn Brill, Enrique Chagoya, Guy Diehl, Bruce Everett, Gay Powers, Sharon Wolpoff, Dr. Jeffrey Ruda, Kara Maria, and Richard Whitten. Five downtown Davis student exhibitions, curated by the instructors of Northern California universities and colleges, are meant to encourage youth participation and community involvement.

“If you are an instructor at a college or university in California, and would like an exhibition space to promote your school, please contact us at : art[at]natsoulas[dot]com. Limited space available. There will be free exhibition space provided within walking distance from the conference headquarters.

The exhibitions begin the afternoon of Friday, March 9, 2012, with one opening reception at the John Natsoulas Gallery and the student reception at the Hallmark Inn in the evening. The majority of the educational events will take place Saturday, March 10, from 10 to 5pm, and both days are filled with panel discussions, lectures and breakout groups intended for all conferees.

The conference’s goal is to gather artists from varying communities, allowing for open interaction between young students and professionals in the field, fostering the strong tradition of painting and culture in the Northern California region.

Participating Panelists and Lecturers

 

Glenn Brill

With over 30 years of experience, Glenn Brill has a reputation of finding the essence of the creative vision within all paradigms of the art world. An accomplished artist, renowned educator, art material specialist and Tamarind Master Printer, Glenn’s versatile expertise is in high demand throughout the U.S., Western Europe and Asia.

Enrique Chagoya

 

Enrique Chagoya is a Mexican-born painter and print-maker. His subject is the changing nature of culture. Enrique Chagoya makes paintings and prints about the changing nature of culture. “My artwork is a conceptual fusion of opposite cultural realities that I have experienced in my lifetime. I integrate diverse elements: from pre-Columbian mythology, western religious iconography and American popular culture.”

Guy Diehl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guy’s current work comes from a desire to pursue and explore the legacy of still life painting. He does this through the study of art history and the physical process of painting. The classical aspect of composition and the tradition of still life, infused with his own perspective, is his primary goal. Guy’s ideas of art-about-art have become the focus of his work. It is not a new concept as artists have been borrowing from other artists throughout history.

 

Bruce Everett

For over 40 years, Everett has captured the lush rural landscapes through small plein airs or large masterpieces. “For me the physical act of seeing, composing, and painting the landscape with its extraordinary clashing and melding of textures, polarities of light and dark, and variety of colors and shapes is both a formal and sensual activity.  The landscape itself engenders in us myriad emotions and thoughts–both primal and profound.  But the sublime grandeur of nature only obliterates my urge to paint it.

 

 

Kara Maria

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American, Born 1968, Binghamton, New York / Lives in San Francisco, California

Kara Maria’s work fuses abstraction and representation. A wide variety of issues – from environmental crisis to international politics and war – feed into her paintings and works on paper. She hopes the work communicates a sense of humor and playfulness as well as an engagement with the state of the world we live in today. Although many issues are referenced, the work itself remains non-linear, seeking to raise questions rather than to give answers.

After beginning college at a music conservatory on the East Coast, transferring through a few different schools, and spending a year studying and traveling in Europe, Kara Maria moved to San Francisco in 1990 to attend the University of California, Berkeley. There she earned a BA in Art Practice in 1993, followed by an MFA in 1998.

Maria’s work can be found in public collections including the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA; the di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA; the de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA among others. She has been the recipient of awards such as a Masterminds Grant from the SF Weekly, San Francisco, CA; a grant from Artadia, New York, NY; and an Eisner Prize from the University of California, Berkeley. Her prints have been published by presses including Gallery 16, San Francisco; Shark’s Ink, Lyons, CO; and Smith Andersen Editions, Palo Alto, CA. She is represented by the Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

 

Richard Whitten

Richard C. Whitten is a full time painting professor at Rhode Island College where he has been teaching for over ten years. In addition, he is an Instructor for the Rhode Island School of Design’s summer programs.

Whitten’s paintings combine concerns of contemporary painting with his love for history and classical architecture.  The paintings imply the existence of other places, “invisible cities,” which can only be glimpsed by passing through visual passageways, gateways and corridors of the works. “I want the viewer to feel that these spaces have a sense of history and place and meaning.”

 

Gay Powers

 Gay Powers is influenced by earlier traditions of ideal form and space, mostly from the harmonious forces of early Greeks to contemporary Anime cartoons. These art forms of diversity help her enjoy the picture making process. Ingres drawings, with instinctive definition of line, helped her analyze the model while doing Island Girl. Anime cartoons inspired me for Reading While Sleeping because of its innocence and simplicity of characters.