Group Shows in East Bay Display Talent, But the Question Still Remains: To What Benefit is the Survey Show?

Two survey/group exhibitions are currently up in the East Bay: the Pro Arts Juried Annual 2007 juried by Berin Golonu in the Jack London District of Oakland, and across town in North Oakland is the short running CCA Alumni Centennial Exhibition Number One juried exhibition at the Tecoah Bruce Gallery. Both exhibitions include artists either currently working in the Greater East Bay (as in Pro Arts which culled artists from its artist membership) or who are alumni from the California College of the Arts (and not all artists from this exhibition are residing in the Bay Area anymore, nor studied on the CCA Oakland campus). That said, these two exhibitions do well to survey raw talent, technically masterful artworks and some few in-between grand ideas…yet, there is something lacking from both shows, something close to—and I hate to say this—purpose.

Pro Arts Gallery View

On view at the Pro Arts Juried Annual 2007 (January 26th through March 11th, 2007) are roughly 50 works of art by 41 artists. This large selection of work includes drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and video, but the scale is greatly unbalanced towards drawing and painting. Nonetheless, the drawings and paintings on display are excellent, with many styles and genres for the viewer to choose from and appreciate. Figurative artwork dominates overall.

What is most interesting to this reviewer in regard to the juried work by Berin Golonu is the sense of cohesion within the show, although the exact parameters of the curator’s vision remain unknown to me. Maybe Golonu didn’t have any more than an educated hunch when selecting the work, which is strong enough in itself…or, it could be that the artwork itself is of a certain high quality and each piece retains its own presence even when amongst a crowded gallery. On that note, I do want to point out that the layout of the exhibition is deftly handled and the artwork—although quite close together throughout the gallery—and isn’t more than minimally distracting, since neighbor artworks linger at the edge of your vision as you contemplate any single piece.

Mark Martin

Anna Vaughan


Jerad Walker

There are few standouts: Mark Martin’s work titled Life Sized Self-portrait with Egg is a finely drawn ink-on-paper work of art. In this piece, Martin has taken the simplicity of medium and contrasted it with borderline insane detail, and the viewer is left to absorb an image that both speaks to the universe as well as the individual self, as in self-portrait. Or, the drawing asks: does the artist dream visions of the cosmos or does he sit in the astral plane? Ah, sweet contemplation. Another subtle, juicy work on paper is by Anna Vaughan who in a small watercolor and pencil drawing—inconspicuously hung in the gallery—that presents a bizarre horizon where a dance between a set of antlers and its shadow doth wage war. I can only imagine that this one work is a single view onto a much larger series, which I would once seen gladly let lure me deeper into this artist’s imagination. Lastly—but not excluding all the fine work in the exhibition—is the reduced monument to the power of wealth: All the Pretty Ways I Learned About Insanity, by Jared Walker. Simple as this piece is constructed—a backlit pile of miniature gold bars stacked in a lumbering pyramid—simple temptation abounds to grab a bar and run! Is the artist super-fixated on wealth, or the power of wealth…or maybe it is a comment about the power of art based on its economic/market value? Furthermore, this piece asks why we value things, for either their constructed/personal significance or from their shear beauty.


CCA Alumni at the Centennial Gallery View

The CCA Alumni at the Centennial exhibition (January 31st through February 16th) is a near mirror to the Juried Annual at Pro Arts. Again, there is a variety and range of mediums, style and size, but the exhibition is laid out with much more breathing room. The CCA Alumni show is a juried show as well where the guest curators sought to include works of art that speak to a certain technical finesse with material while realizing a presentation within set limits established by the size of the Tecoah Bruce Gallery on the CCA Oakland campus, as well as to include a group of artists that span previous decades of CCA (or should I say CCAC…) graduates.

Two things I immediately noticed are: one, more than fifty percent of the included artists are graduates from the last ten years; two, there were no “big name” artists in the show, such as Nathan Oliveira, Squeak Carnwath or Wayne Wang…but then again, alumni had to apply, and I’m sure this exhibition was under-the-radar of longtime established gallery artists. So, in many ways, a viewer of this exhibition should appreciate it for showing work by possibly emerging, undiscovered or underground CCA alumni artists…and mark their notebook to keep an eye out for a rise to recognition. Additionally, I also had to wonder whether there is a dramatic dive in active, professional artists after ten years out of school…hmm. And, I get a warm feeling from thinking about how an art school like CCA that charges $26,000 a year for tuition finally takes a direct hand at promoting its own, especially after reaping such large monetary amounts of money for education in one of the worst paying professions in existence…I hope this becomes a tend in CCA’s future exhibition schedule…but I digress.

Alison Petty

In the Alumni at the Centennial, there are some lovely standouts: Alison J. Petty, a 2004 MFA graduate, is represented by the work Congealed, a pedestal-incorporated sculpture of an interior lit pod remnant. It is hard to describe what it is, but the reference to a scientific-organic-micro-macro creature is hard to ignore. I wouldn’t call it cuddly. Stephanie Dean, A BFA graduate, is represented by a single photograph titled While Walking Dogs (from the Sleeping Men series). First, artwork that makes you chuckle, not to mention laugh out loud and/or smile for hours down the road, is difficult and often overlooked. This photograph was gladly received for its capture of a spontaneous moment, not to mention the ongoing question of whether the scene is “real” or was it posed? Tia Factor, a BFA graduate, is represented by two drawings from a series of work referencing places/spaces of West Oakland, possibly where the artist either lives and/or works. The spacey, super-collider controlled by acid-dozed technicians and video game explosions uber-combination is a prominent style seen around the Bay Area, but Factor manages to include the personal in the scale and attention to detail, and both aspects bring the work away from generalities and ground it in an certain seriousness. Playing is good, but balanced free-form/control is better.

Stephanie Dean


Tia Factor

This is a perfect place to segue back into the beginning statement about purpose after seeing both these concurrent exhibitions, and try and answer, just what are these survey shows good for, anyway? A general, critical comment is that both exhibitions only sit as a celebration of the art object, and the already known reality that artists are busy making images and objects. Granted, both exhibitions display masterfully drawn/painted/sculpted artwork. And, both exhibitions touch on medium-as-the-message as well as the message-is-the-medium. However, where is the clear evidence of the edge of the sword that great works of art are cut from? In what way could either of these exhibitions put spin on the consideration of modern life, recent events, historical significance or even post-modern deconstruction?!? Essentially, I am forced to ask: where is that chaotic, uncontrollable, risky substance that leaks outside the edge of the cleanly lit white box and seeps into our lives and our future actions? How does the properly lit and displayed artwork stand opposite the viewer and attempt to NOT give all the answers, but as itself, asks more questions than we were to expect? In that regard, the CCA Alumni at the Centennial was far too clean, and the Pro Arts show could have benefited from actually showing more iterations of refinement from what is on display.

In general, this is where survey shows have a tedency to fail…but each individual artist can always re-emerge through another theme or context in the future—a rebirth possibly situated on the tip of the edge…





J u r i e d A n n u a l 2 0 0 7 - Pro Arts Gallery
Selections by Berin Golonu of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,
San Francisco, CA

January 26 – March 11, 2007
Free Admission

Selected Artists include: Diane Abt, Steven Barich, Fern Barker, Julia Bradshaw, John Casey, Rita Coury, John Ferdico, James Gayles, Yana Goldfine, Miya Hannan, Emanuela Iuliana Harris-Sintamarian, John Hundt, Joel Isaacson, Toby Kahn, Rebecca Katz, Sahar Khoury, Mary Anne Kluth, Eric Larson, Stephen Linden, Caroline Lovell, Monica Lundy, Mark Martin, Bill Mattick, Jill McLennan, Dave Meeker, Eileen Starr Moderbacher, Tom Mueske, Steven Polacco, E. Marie Robertson, David Ryan, Jenny Sampson, Zachary Royer Scholz, Anna Morales Simson, Anna Vaughan, John Vias, Antonio Vigil, Jerad Walker, Judith White, Dona Wilson, Susan Wolf, Edmund Wyss.




Alumni at the Centennial
January 29–February 16

Oliver Art Center, Oakland campus
Reception: Jan. 31, 5:30–7:30 pm
Gallery hours: Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri., 8:30 am–noon and 1–4:30 pm; Wed., 1–4:30 pm; Sat., 10 am–4 pm

A juried exhibition of work by alumni from around the world, across disciplines, and spanning generations.

The exhibition will feature works by Maria Anasazi, Jennifer Banks, Garry Knox Bennett, Thomas Clayton, Deborah Corsini, Adele Crawford, Stephanie Dean, Patrick Dintino, Dana Driver, Tia Factor, Kathrin Feser, Gioia Fonda, Stephen Funk, Bryson Gill, Alisa Golden, Sarah Hinckley, Desiree Holman, Felicia Hoshino, Katrina Hude, Sarrita Hunn, Gary Hutton, Mongkolsri Janjarasskul, Corey Jones, Sarah Kennon, Tari Kerss, Kin Kwok, Jane Lackey, Eric Larson, Kristina Lewis, Sarah Mays-Salin, Eileen Starr Moderbacher, Benjamin P. Moore, Donna Mossholder, Rebecca Niederlander, Charles P. Overton, Miel-Margarita Paredes, Ahndraya Parlato, Nicholas Pavloff, Hilary Pecis, Alison J. Petty, Thomas Plagemann, Curtis Popp, Richard Posner, Florence Resnikoff, Christopher Russell, Jeremy Chase Sanders, Tara Tucker, Jan Watten, Ann Weber, and Christine Wong Yap.