John Natsoulas Gallery

Exhibition Dates: March 28 - April 21, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 7, 7 - 9pm

D. A. Bishop's landscapes are eloquent narrative portraits where the urban and rural, the pastoral and metropolitan touch, commingle and extend the best and worst of their reciprocal natures. They are usually places neglected, overlooked, passed by: the odd building or encounter in a familiar location; the unpretentious structure or event found in a peculiar setting; the unassuming landscape weighted with dramatic light.

Bishop says there is often security in the unrevealed. Figures, as people for example, do not exist in his paintings. "People," he says, "would date the image. I want a timeless, placeless quality." Yet figures do populate Bishop's landscapes, as personalities formed by buildings, roads, cars, car parts and shapes accentuated by shadows. Of all elements in Bishop's work, the shadows tell us the most. They are obvious, manifesting new shapes, engendering atmosphere. They are ambiguous, serving as reality's temporary masks. They are paradoxical, investing dignity and mystery into the mundane light of day.

Phil Gross As a self-taught painter, Phil Gross credits French Impressionists, American painters George Inness, John Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper, and Sacramento Valley artists Wayne Thiebaud and Gregory Kondos as inspiration. Gross depicts landscapes that are reminiscent and nostalgic, vistas that epitomize the feel of an unchanging valley. The feeling of familiarity and of nativity are more than just elements in Gross' paintings. The scenes that he illustrates are everyday landscapes, however, they give the viewer a sense of possibility, with the roads and waterways rambling off into the distance or winding around a bend, which leaves the viewer wondering and wanting more.

Phil Gross received his B.S. in geology from UC Davis. Working as an exploration geologist in the late ‘70s and early '80s, allowed Gross to come into close contact with his native surroundings. For the last 15 years has been involved in video and film production.

Smokin'! Cigar Box Exhibition The cigar box has long been a source of inspiration and materials for inventive artists, from the creators of tramp art at the turn of the 20th century to today. The history of cigar box art goes back to 1830, when the banking firm H. Upmann began shipping cigars in cedar boxes. The invention of lithography led to the mass production of images and the development of a tradition of commercial art, which was pasted to the lids as advertisement. The Smokin'! Cigar Box exhibition features the work of Leslie Toms, Pat Mahony, Melissa Chandon, William Maul, Marie Pascal, Boyd Gavin, Deborah Hamon, Richard Shaw, Alejandro Rubio, Chella, Matt Bult, and more.