The work of several Stremmel artists can be viewed in Art Ltd.’s latest issue.
The rich red and gold of Charles Arnoldi’s large scale painting ‘Woods Shock’ immediately greets viewers of Stremmel’s current group exhibition, “Perspectives 2010”. Done in an identical pallet, ‘Every Penny’ (shown below) is depicted in an article by Art Ltd. entitled “Painters’ Painter”. As one of LA’s leading painters, the magazine asked Arnoldi to consider some of his major influences.
“The most inspiring thing to me is blank canvas. I work six days a week, sometimes seven, and I find the time in my studio to be the most fulfilling. I do go out and look at shows in museums and galleries and I always have the same response to other people’s art – I just want to get back to work. I like everything from Rauschenberg to Morandi, Picasso to Vermeer, Ryder, Mondrian and Brancusi. My tastes are all over the place and I find inspiration everywhere. It may be an ego thing but I tend to favor dead artists to living ones although I just saw a Carroll Dunham show that I liked alot. He’s a good artist. I also to go to the art supply store to buy paint. Paint and Brushes – that inspires me!” – Charles Arnoldi
Also appearing in “Perspectives 2010”, the nearly half a century long career of sculptor Stephen De Staebler is discussed by Peter Selz in “Stephen De Staebler: The Endurance of Vulnerability”. Selz delves into De Staebler’s first introduction to clay while at Berkeley in 1958 under the direction of Pete Voulkos, his impressive background in religious studies and the partial vertical figure as a reoccurring symbol of human incompleteness.
Three paintings by 88-year old Gaylen Hansen can also be seen at Stremmel. In addition, the artist’s work is up for the months of May and June at Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle, WA. Hansen confirmed that he is working at the “height of his powers and shows no signs of slowing down.” His work has been largely influenced by the abstract expressionist movement of the late 1940’s. It wasn’t until the 1970s that he reached his signature figurative-narrative style, using ecological, apocalyptic and ‘corny’ imagery often inspired by the Palouse region of Washington. His narratives, though never directly political, adapt social consciousness to a subjective vision of Old West storytelling, revealing both quizzical and sometimes alarming interactions between man and nature. Hansen will appear again at Stremmel in a two man show this coming Fall.
From May 8 – June 19, “Puppet Consumption” features new paintings and mixed media works by Michael Sarich at Sacramento’s Jay Jay gallery. Sarich has been an associate professor of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno since 1989. In January 2008, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno installed a mid-career traveling retrospective exhibition and catalogue of Sarich’s paintings, drawings, prints and ceramic sculptures. Much of the imagery in Sarich’s work involves religious iconography, double meaning and metaphor, as well as issues of passage and chance.
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