Grunion
ARTISTS FROM AROUND STATE
Second City Members' Exhibit Very Diverse
By Rae Ann Robinett
Gazette Art Writer

   California artists from San Francisco to San Diego are represented in The Second City Council's "Members' Exhibition." The multimedia exhibition marks the gallery's one-year anniversary and features a Teen Photo Exhibit. The photo exhibit represents the fruitful results of Second City's first photography workshop series for young people.
   The Members' Exhibition presents artists working in a wide range of styles and diverse media - from textiles and painting to ceramics and ball-point pen. Juried by Lisa Me-landri, Deputy Director of Exhi-bitions and Programs at the San-ta Monica Museum of Art, the work selected for the show weaves together multiple threads of personal expression and experience.
   Tucked away on a small section of wall near the door to the patio is Joyce Wisdom's painting entitled "Red Cuts." Set against a stark white back-ground, numerous rows of vertical red marks have been ever so slightly ruptured.
   After the initial shock of these small acts of violence, you'll become lost in the nuances of each small tear.
   "Open Door," a color photograph by Janice Tieken, presents a mute chiaroscuro expanse of black and pink that invites the viewer to contemplate the limit-less possibilities that await us beyond any threshold we elect to move through. Metaphors of transformation and change visually surround us. Tieken's photograph reminds the viewer that these challenging moments can present themselves when we least expect them, and our actions will speak louder than our words.

   Raymond Casares' "Four Movement" is executed in simple ballpoint pen. Using only the plastic insert from the pen as his tool, Casares creates an intensely detailed historical iconography that tells the story of the confluence of culture and ensuing power struggle for the land that would come to be called Mexico. The narrative enfolds from the proud and simultane-ously regretful perspective of a survivor.
   The photographs in the Teen Photo Exhibit are the extraordinary results of The Second City's first six-hour-long workshop series for young people. Led by photographer Sonny Nash, the free photo workshop focuses on architecture as subject matter and no experience or background in art is required.
   The budding photographers were asked to look through their cameras, provided by the gallery, and scope out a location from the sweeping panorama of Second City's patio. Having selected a location, the group then headed out to shoot the spot up close.
   The location selected was the Long Beach Convention Center. With architecture as the subject matter, it was fascinating to wit-ness how many of these young "eyes" used architecture as an incidental, though necessary, intrusion onto scenes of serenity and repose.
   One of the most eloquent, visual observations from the workshop is the worm's eye view of the arena through blades of grass.
   Members' Exhibit and Teen Photo Exhibit are on view at The Second City Council, located at 110 W. Ocean Blvd., through Nov. 16.
   For more information call 901-0997.

 

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