Mercury Twenty Gallery

Welcome to the first pop-up podcast from Mercury 20 Gallery in Oakland, CA's arts district, hosted by Elizabeth Sher. Mercury 20 Gallery is a Bay Area artist-run gallery, for over 2 decades, with 21 members. Each podcast will feature a different topic with gallery artists and outside experts, curators, and influencers. The first podcast is called Finding a Name. The name of our podcast (that the 8 members came up with) is 2 close 2 the Sun, with the subtitle: art obsessions.... https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1801087.rss https://www.buzzsprout.com/1801087/8690940

One of the upcoming exhibitions at the Mercury 20 Gallery and new work by Christine Meuris in a show entitled Veiled, June 18- July 24, 2021, Opening reception: July 10, 4-6:30 PM Gallery hrs: Friday and Saturday: 12-6 PM Bay Area artist Christine Meuris focuses on translating traditional home-based arts executed in fabric and fiber into works on and of paper. Her inspirations come from quilting patterns, needlepoint patterns, and woven tapestry. She uses bookbinding cloth,... a stiff, loosely woven fabric, to secure paper seams. During the pandemic year while things felt simultaneously dangerous and vague, and social systems revealed themselves to be more fragile than previously imaginable, she began exposing more and more of this transparent scrim. In her show Veiled, at Mercury20 Gallery, Christine explores the idea of casting off self-protection and ignorance with these new semi-transparent works. The show’s title references the Veil of Illusion, the veil between the world of the living and the dead. But the inquiry behind these works is about who is protected by the veil by the not knowing and who suffers. What is the proper role of illusion? By creating a cloak that cannot actually cloak, a shroud large enough to function as a burial shroud but that shrouds nothing, and a veil that cannot conceal, Christine is thinking about the ways in which the pandemic year forced a reckoning. It laid bare the dishonesty of our national founding myths, the danger of unfettered globalization, and the unequal distribution of risk and death among the US population and now the world. Christine’s use of the alchemical symbol for the elements (the triangle) to create pattern -- especially in the Alchemy: Elements series -- suggests that a return to a deeper and more respectful relationship with nature is a key part of the way forward. Her work is a fervent prayer that, having seen the damage wrought by clinging to illusion, there will be no going back to normal and that going forward truthfully without obfuscation can be beautiful. Christine Meuris is an artist living and working in Berkeley, CA. She is a member of the artist-run Mercury20 Gallery in Oakland. She has shown her work in solo, and group shows locally, notably at the Berkeley Art Center, Mercury20 Gallery, and Hello Stitch Sewing and Quilting studio, and in group shows around the U.S. She was the inaugural Digital Artist in Residence at the Museum of Quilts and Textiles in San Jose, CA during the pandemic. She has work in the collections of the City of Berkeley, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, Kaiser Permanente and the Four Seasons Residences, as well as in several personal collections.

Slender Thread, a series of delicate sculptures by Andrea Brewster in our backroom gallery. All works in this series are $125 and include the cardboard shelf. Visit our gallery and Andrea's works on Friday and Saturday, 12-6 PM. Slender Thread: This body of work explores the nature of fragility and transience through the medium of paper thread and a variety of techniques ... including looping, knotting and weaving. These biomorphic forms were inspired by my reflection on the fragility of life and our individual vulnerability. By connecting threads in various ways, I seek to explore the tenderness and tension in human connections, as well as the transient yet enduring beauty of nature. These works also reference the terrible loss of reef ecosystems that is happening due to coral bleaching brought about by climate change. Coral are bright and colorful because of microscopic algae called zooxanthellae that live within them in a mutually beneficial relationship. But as the ocean temperature rises due to global warming the coral expels the algae. As the algae leaves, the coral fades, eventually turning completely white. If the water temperature remains high, then the coral won’t let the algae back, and the coral will die. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, between 2014 and 2017 around 75% of the world’s tropical coral reefs experienced heat-stress severe enough to trigger bleaching. For 30% of the world’s reefs, that heat-stress was enough to kill the coral. I am captivated by both the vulnerability of nature and its resilience, a story that embraces humans as well. As we were all reminded this past year, it takes only one pivotal moment/ event/ virus to shift the delicate balance, and that ultimately, our life hangs by just a slender thread. Slender Thread #5 (2021) paper thread, knotting 3.5L x 2W x 1H inches $125 Slender Thread #8 (2021) Paper Thread, weaving 4.5L x 3W x 4H inches $125 Slender Thread #15 (2021) Paper Thread, knotting 5L x 2.5W x 3.5H inches $125 Slender Thread #9 (2021) Paper Thread, wrapping 5L x 3W x 2.5H inches $125 Slender Thread #12 (2021) Paper Thread, knotting 4.5L x 3.5W x 3H inches $125

Congratulations to Kathleen King for her exhibition's review at SF/Arts! Her exhibition ends on June 12th. Here are our gallery hours: Fri & Sat. 12-6 PM First Friday: June 4 from 5-8pm https://www.sfarts.org//other-lives-kathleen-king-1dLKVYzL

Elizabeth Sher films, Legacy Film Festival, in Berkeleyside's article. Congrats Elizabeth! https://www.berkeleyside.org//film-festival-all-about-agin

ANDREA BREWSTER: FROZEN MOMENT OCTOBER 23 - NOVEMBER 28, 2020 Gallery open Friday & Saturday, 12-6, or by appointment 475 25th Street, Oakland, between Telegraph & Broadway, (510) 701-4620... Created out of wet formed vellum paper, Andrea Brewster’s new body of sculptural work entitled Frozen Moment explores the delicate, yet energetically dynamic processes of the natural world and the chaotically creased geography of crumpled paper. Brewster states, "If life is in unceasing movement, then perhaps art pauses and captures a single frame of that perpetual film. Life is stilled, frozen for a moment, thereby implying the possibility of a context, which is stable and unchangeable; where time and limitation have no meaning."

OCTOBER 23 - NOVEMBER 28, 2020 3 Solo exhibitions open tomorrow at Mercury 20 gallery! Please visit us and the works of three artists: ANDREA BREWSTER: FROZEN MOMENT Created out of wet formed vellum paper, Andrea Brewster’s new body of sculptural work entitled Frozen Moment explores the delicate, yet energetically dynamic processes of the natural world and the chaotically creased geography of crumpled paper. Brewster states, "If life is in unceasing movement, then perhaps a...rt pauses and captures a single frame of that perpetual film. Life is stilled, frozen for a moment, thereby implying the possibility of a context, which is stable and unchangeable; where time and limitation have no meaning." TARA ESPERANZA: I SEE YOU Tara Esperanza presents I See You, an exhibition of large-format paintings of succulent plants. Not long ago, the artist was commissioned to make a painting of particular succulents. She began paying closer attention to the popular plant on dog walks and runs through the neighborhood and the subject quickly became an obsession. Esperanza looks deeply at the plants’ details and paints them in large close-ups, bringing viewers into intimate contact. She portrays the diverse personalities, textures, colors, shapes and seasonal changes of succulents in soft layers of gradation and boldly beautiful palettes FERNANDO REYES: THIS LAND This Land will be Fernando Reyes’ final solo exhibition at Mercury 20 Gallery. The artist and his husband recently purchased a home they call Fair Oaks in Somerset, a quiet town in El Dorado county. The 10-acre property is home to countless lively oak trees, manzanitas and other natural wonders. In this exhibition, Reyes will show work in multiple media: paper cutouts of blooming irises from his garden, landscape paintings in oil, and a large-scale woodcut titled Winter Oak. Fernando's exhibition expresses the visual pleasures of the classic California landscape surrounding this sanctuary in the Sierra Foothills. Gallery open Friday & Saturday, 12-6, or by appointment 475 25th Street, Oakland, between Telegraph & Broadway, (510) 701-4620

UPCOMING Exhibitions: MERCURY 20 GALLERY IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE 3 CONCURRENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS OCTOBER 23 - NOVEMBER 28, 2020... GALLERY HOURS & INFO: - Friday & Saturday, 12-6, or by appointment - 475 25th Street, Oakland, between Telegraph & Broadway - (510) 701-4620 ANDREA BREWSTER: FROZEN MOMENT Andrea Brewster's work is often comprised of otherworldly, organic, abstractions, which reference biological life and natural processes. She is particularly intrigued by the mathematical order underlying growth patterns and often utilizes similar algorithmic systems of repetition. TARA ESPERANZA: I SEE YOU Mercury 20 is pleased to present Tara Esperanza's first solo show at the gallery, I SEE YOU, an exhibit of large paintings of succulents with a new perspective. FERNANDO REYES: THIS LAND "This Land" will be Fernando's final exhibition at Mercury Twenty Gallery. In his exhibition, Fernando will display the colors of spring from his garden in an array of blooming irises in paper cutouts, oil paintings depicting the beauty of the land, and a large scale woodcut titled Winter Oak. Fernando's exhibition brings forth his interpretation of the visual pleasures he sees every time he steps outside his home in the Sierra Foothills.

Pantea Karimi's recent news (our current artist, exhibiting at the Gallery through October 17th). http://mercurytwenty.com/pantea-karimi-to-exhibit-at-the-u/

Pantea Karimi is the recipient of Holding the Moment art award and group exhibition from the city of San Jose. The exhibition will happen at the Norman Y. Mineta Airport in SJ, Nov 2020-April 2021. California Healing, poster, 36x24 in. Healing plant: yellow yarrow. A version of this poster is available on Shop at Mercury20gallery. Link in the bio. @artistsofcasp @sfmomaartistsgallery @jayjayart @crockerart @mercury20gallery #posterdesign #california #midcenturyposter #californiatravel #posterart

Pantea Karimi's current solo exhibition's review. Visit the exhibition through Oct 17th at the Mercury 20 Gallery, hrs: Fri & Sat, 12-6 PM https://www.sfweekly.com//rediscover-visual-arts-at-these/ "Black & White Pantea Karimi’s exhibit at Oakland’s Mercury 20 Gallery, The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics, is a reconstruction of her school life in Iran during the late 1980s, when she struggled with the pressures of science education and struggled with the school admin...istration’s attempts to root out her growing, teenage interest in the music of Madonna and Michael Jackson. A clash was inevitable, and Karimi, who now lives in San Jose, tells visitors how it ended through a sequence of 10 mock blackboards with mathematical formulas that gradually get more cloudy with the final board almost completely shrouded in a chalky fog. Iran’s 1979 revolution ushered in strict religious standards, so the Persian wording for In the Name of God shouts from each of the 10 blackboards. The first blackboard features a copy of Isaac Newton’s mathematical handwriting alongside Karimi’s Persian handwriting, which she uses to express her concerns about studying math and taking exams. Halfway through the 10 blackboards, two clouded photos of Iran’s religious leaders oversee the blackboards and a trove of Karimi’s personal objects from that time, such as Reebok sneakers and cassette tapes of U.S. pop stars. The blackboards’ interplay of cloudy chalk, Persian lettering, and math formulas and their sequential morphing from clearly visible to almost nothingness is a kind of visual existentialism. This aspect of the work is underscored by the dark boards’ setting: a cavernous, white-walled space. More than a decade ago, Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel and accompanying film, Persepolis, made the world smile and cringe at her former life in Iran, including her student life. The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics produces a similar effect only this time, we’re asked to physically stand in a place that mirrors what Karimi felt three decades ago. The mirror gets fuzzy in places. But even hazy images produce meanings that are crystal clear. " The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics Free, Through Oct. 17 Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th St., Oakland mercurytwenty.com

Mary Curtis Ratcliff Portal, 2020, collage of digital inkjet prints and acrylic on Tyvek, 36 x 36 in. The direct link to the news item is: http://mercurytwenty.com/sheltering-in-the-studio-with-mar/... Mary Curtis Ratcliff is a long-standing member of M20, having joined the Gallery in 2008. Curtis has been hard at work in her studio preparing for her February 2021 exhibition. For many months, due to the quarantine, her usual working process was interrupted by the fact she was cut off from her collaborator, master printer Tony Molatore of Berkeley Giclée . She reports that she was left to scrounge in the back of her flat file drawers, where all the trimmings from previous digital inkjet prints of her photos had been saved. Indeed, these scraps proved so fertile that so far she she has made over 26 works in the series she has dubbed ScrapWorks. Oakland Art Murmur

The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics, solo exhibition by Pantea Karimi @mercury20gallery Sep12-Oct17, 2020

Blackboards 1-10, The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics, solo exhibition by Pantea Karimi @mercury20gallery Sep12-Oct17, 2020 The difficult story of coming-of-age in the late 80s in Iran was accompanied by the pressure placed on the youth for excelling in mathematics. Mathematical formulas, subversive thoughts, and anxiety about learning and taking exams, written in white chalk, gradually fade into white... @iraniandiasporastudies @sfmomaartistsgallery @amcaorg @ajammediacollective @iraniancontemporaryartists @thisiranianamericanlife @agakhanmuseum @artrouteoakland @mercury20gallery @artistsofcasp @kalaartinstitute

The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics, 2020 Solo Exhibition, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA Meeting with the artist, Pantea Karimi, in the Gallery: Sep 19, 12-6 PM, Oct. 3, 12-6 PM and Oct. 17, 3-6 PM. Wearing a mask is required. groups of 4-6 people. ... PANTEA KARIMI: The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics Since 2014, Pantea Karimi's work has been an exploration into the pages of medieval and early modern scientific manuscripts. Karimi's current project reflects on her intensive science training in high school with the aim of becoming a doctor; a goal that she abandoned to pursue an art career. This project revisits her interest in the topic through the lens of art. White and branded footwear, bright-colored socks, backpacks, polished nails, makeup kits, cassettes, and glossy posters of Western celebrities were the forbidden items that kept hundreds of teenage girlswho were otherwise sheathed in full hijabsat the schoolyard before attending their classes. The long lines and the frustrating process of searching for these items by the school authorities were to assure that everyone conformed to the rules of public life in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The story of coming-of-age in post-revolutionary Iran is accompanied by the pressure placed on the youth for excelling in mathematics, arguably the most esteemed subject of study. The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics is Pantea Karimi’s personal story of four years of science education in the late 80s under the Islamic Republic of Iran. For this solo exhibition at the Mercury 20 Gallery, Karimi has made a series of mock blackboards animated by chalk-written mathematical formulas topped with the phrase In the Name of God in Persian. The black thread formation and marked spots on the floor are reminders of the long lines in her schoolyard and the atmosphere she experienced every morning before class. Ironically these demarcations are also familiar during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coupled with a few forbidden objects mounted in the gallery, Karimi reconstructs her Iran’s science classroom of the 1980s. While a personal story, this exhibition connotes a restrictive educational system that did not leave much room for focused-learning or personal explorations. This poignant anxiety is captured through the gradual fading of the contents of the mock blackboards. Mathematics was, indeed, too abstract and aloof to stimulate the articulation of subversive thoughts, artistic sentiments, and socio-political views. Unbearably light for the heavy environment in which it was taught, mathematics is both the agonizing and the celebrated protagonist in this exhibition.

Pantea Karimi, The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics Solo Exhibition, Sep 11-Oct 17, 2020 Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA... Meeting with the artist, Pantea Karimi, in the Gallery: Sep 12, 3-6 PM, Sep 19, 12-6 PM, Oct. 3, 12-6 PM and Oct. 17, 3-6 PM. GALLERY HOURS & INFO: Friday & Saturday, 12-6 pm. Since 2014, Pantea Karimi's work has been an exploration into the pages of medieval and early modern scientific manuscripts. Karimi's current project reflects on her intensive science training in high-school with the aim of becoming a doctor; a goal that she abandoned to pursue an art career. This project revisits her interest in the topic through the lens of art. White and branded footwear, bright-colored socks, backpacks, polished nails, makeup kits, cassettes, and glossy posters of Western celebrities were the forbidden items that kept hundreds of teenage girls at the schoolyard before attending their classes. The long lines and the frustrating process of searching for these items by the school authorities were to assure that everyone conformed to the rules of public life in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Unbearable Lightness of Mathematics is Pantea Karimi’s personal story of four years of science education in the late 80s under the Islamic Republic of Iran. For this solo exhibition at the Mercury 20 Gallery, Karimi has made a series of mock blackboards animated by chalk-written mathematical formulas topped with the phrase In the Name of God in Persian. The black thread formation above the blackboards and marked spots on the floor are reminders of the long lines in her schoolyard and the atmosphere she experienced every morning before her class. Ironically these demarcations are also familiar during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coupled with a few forbidden objects mounted in the gallery, Karimi reconstructs her Iran's science classroom of the 1980s. #blackboardsign #chalkartproject #artcollection #iranianartist #iraniandiaspora #artinstallation #art

Solo exhibitions' video series at Mercury 20 Gallery. Here is a video of Christine Meuris and her works and inspiration. https://youtu.be/QDQXytX8uTo

Solo exhibitions' video series at Mercury 20 Gallery. Here is a video of Leah Virsiks' works and inspiration. https://youtu.be/xdC0D225AqY