| |
 |
Global Warning by Michelle Waters |
Environmental Surrealists
February 2nd — February 26th, 2007
Echoing concerns over greenhouse gases, industrial waste and over-consumption that depletes a once green world, artists Guy Colwell and Michelle Waters explore our unnatural relationships to nature.
Guy Colwell
By literally pulling subject matter out of a bag and puzzling pictures from these randomly selected elements, Guy Colwell paints unlikely encounters between wild animals and people within human environments such as subways and theaters.
While often leading to humorous reflections on alienation between humans and the natural world, Colwell’s “mammalian encounters” carry an undercurrent of environmental awareness as animals face with the challenge of ever growing human presence in their own environments.
Michelle Waters
Michelle Waters humorously places the power of change in the paws of animals by anthropomorphizing them and arming them with chainsaws, jackhammers and other emblems of environmental destruction. In this provocatively topsy-turvy world, animals take control the planet’s fate by physically reclaiming it from the human race.
Waters’ anthropomorphized animals include grizzly bears with jackhammers, hawks with chainsaws and a mountain lion with an acetylene torch deconstructing industrial objects such as dams, tractors and other man-made inventions.
In Waters’ painting, “Global Warning,” arctic wildlife destroy a Hummer dealership while in “The Undevelopment Agency,” animals tear down roadside billboards that promote housing developments.
An environmental activist, Waters draws inspiration from Hieronymous Bosch’s apocolyptic imagery and from the writings of Edward Abbey, a hero to many environmentalists and patron saint of monkeywrenchers.
This exhibit runs through February 26th, 2007.
Artists on exhibition
at the Esteban Sabar Gallery include Julie Alvarado, Sue Averell, Bethany Ayres, Rocky Baird, Nancy Ballard, Trish Booth, Mario Chiodo, Guy Colwell, Scott Courtenay-Smith, Patricia Gillespie, Liz Amini-Holmes, Mark Holmes, Albert Hwang, Wendell Jones, Feng Jin, Ben Johnston, Zack Jones, John Kinstler, Douglas Light, Donna Mendes, Marty McCorkle, Marvin McMillian, Kenney Mencher, Carol Paquet, Tim Phelan, Erik Rogers & Dana Porteos, Fernando Reyes, Diego Rios, Bernadette Sale, Kevin Slagle, and Daniel Wooddell.
See examples of each artist's work.
|
