Traction Art

Review: Envisioning Human Rights: The Next Generation Berkeley Art Museum

Today, art is socially interpreted in a variety of perspectives because it sometimes reflects social and political issues. To understand art objects, we need to have a firm foundation in history, culture, race and identity. The exhibition, “Envisioning Human Right: The Next Generation” is interpreted by different artists through genres such as printmaking, photography and painting. This exhibition explores the brutality of the war in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Through Mass Media, this city is introduced through prisoner’s torture and the abuse of the American army. All of the artworks in the exhibition express a painful moment of victims and the guilt of soldiers by capturing their facial expressions. In doing so, the exhibit encourages viewers to participate in the anguished memories of the violence in Abu Ghraib and its social construction between the public and the soldiers.

Among them, two series caught my eyes. For example, the series of “West Bank Protest,” “Bil’in Shooting,” and “Anata House Demolition,” which were created by Mateo Hoke in 2012, depict a serious circumstance. In the series, the camera zooms into a boy’s sad face, who looks like he is holding back tears, and a soldier’s complicated face. Besides, it shows a man with an injured and bloody arm, in serious pain. Another series, “Mother and Child,” and “Woman and Children” by Avini Nijhawan (2014) shows a woman and her children praying to God. They look down towards the ground as if they don’t have any hope for the future. Their depressed faces reveal they are hardly living in the reality. Both series focus on cruel situations, and the hopeless and painful faces of the people. Since these series are taken by cameras, viewers can truly imagine the brutal oppression in Middle-East Asia due to the war between Iraq and the U.S. At the same time, it is meant to represent a power relation in the countries.

In my opinion, this exhibition appears to inform a critical message about complete liberation from the war and the strong desire for basic human dignity. For that reason, it reminds us to think of the meaninglessness of the war and its brutality for everyone, either the soldiers or the ordinary people.

SPOTLIGHT ON: SCOTT WILLIAMS

Scott Williams is from Vero Beach, Florida. He moved to California in 2008. He worked as a web programmer in Basel, Switzerland from 2011-2012 where he was exposed to Jean Tinguely’s work and a multitude of other artists such as Max Ernst. He transferred from Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo as a philosophy major. He is now an art practice major and philosophy minor. His personal artist website is scottwilliamsart.com

What is your main medium?

My main medium is paint. I enjoy acrylic because of its fast drying time, but oil looks nicer at the end. I tend to use acrylic for the exploration of new ideas and oil for mastering ideas.

How has your work changed from when you first started making art to what it is currently?

My work has changed with me. There were moments where I wanted to be very technical and aesthetically pleasing, but that slowly became boring. So I wanted to create a painting that constantly changes and is able to grab you and become so many different images, shapes and forms, and brings new ideas. Clouds would be a good analogy that allows that inner searching to occur.

Now that the Spring semester is coming to a close do you have any summer projects for your art?

My summer project is to create a series of paintings called Feelings, where I use a technique called stamping to allow forms to develop as naturally as possible, and then glaze over the painting to put the final touches on it. Each piece is going to be monochromatic and the same size (79” x 56”). On the side I’m going to do research on mechanical/kinetic sculptures for the upcoming fall projects.

Where do you see yourself five years from now as an artist?

I hope to be in grad school for Art Practice or Art History and also develop and artist community which collaborates and supports eachother in their developement and expression of this world, also known as art.

What is the best advice you’ve received as an art student?

Craig Nagasawa saying “Now what else can you do?” when I sincerely thought I was finished, which pushed me into new territories that I never thought were possible.

What are some of your current influences in your work?

Currently I’m taking a metaphysics class which questions what is space and time, how objects persist through time and why our universe is the way it is, however the true influence that drives my creation of art is the desire for the experience of being completely in the present, releasing all conscious control and just going with the flow, which is scary but with practice can become very pleasurable. 

How would you improve the fucntion of the art practice department?

I would restructure the idea of critiques. I would create a more personal developmental style of critique where individual students are paired into groups that talk about eachother’s works every class after the frist two weeks of class for 15 to 20 minutes. Every class you’d have a new partner. That would push you to describe what you’re creating which can clarify what you’re doing and it helps the other person to see a new perspective. That way nobody feels left out and art become a communal dialogue. However, this does not mean changing the midterm and final critiques, this is simply a way to make individuals feel more comfortable to partipate in a group critique about a specific work.

Interview by Sofia Chavez Paz

Images (clockwise from top):  Feelings - Acrylic and Oil on Canvas - 78.5” x 56” A True Landscape - Acrylic on canvas - 48” x 36” Blindfold - Oil on canvas - 40” x 30”

Kathleen Yarnold Assumption I, Assumpton II, Assumtion III

Dominic Kavanagh

Fun Was Had #2, 2014

Facebook Photo Albums (Spring Break Bitches and Land of the free and home of the me!)

Fun Was Had #2 explores the notion of the photograph as a defense against social anxiety. Susan Sontag crystallized this idea of the photograph in her 1977 collection of essays, On Photography.

As an artist living abroad I am naturally drawn to the unfamiliar for creative potential. There are certain sights that act as draw cards, which, in the broader imagination, define a location. In the Bay Area these major assets are the Golden Gate Bridge, the Campanile, street cars, the Painted Ladies and so on. Due to the saturation of visual imagery that is a trademark of the information age, these sights come to define a location. If a traveller does not go and see the ‘sights’ then they are perceived to have somehow failed. Sontag’s erudite analysis is that photographs offer ‘indisputable evidence that the trip was made, the program carried out, that fun was had.’

Dominic Kavanagh 4.3 Million II Archival Inkjet Print

4.3 Million presents two incarnations of Andreas Gursky’s work Rhein II. On November 8, 2011, Gursky’s Rhein II was sold at auction for $4,338,500 USD, making it the most expensive photograph ever sold. 4.3 Million I sees his work projected onto a 4:3 format screen and photographed. This secondary image is then projected and photographed again. This process is performed nine times until the exhibited realization is achieved. 4.3 Million II employs the same process, however, Gursky’s work is realized on a 16:9 format plasma television. Both images stem from the same reproduction of Gursky’s work and both are captured by a Single Lens Reflex Camera using the settings: f/1.8, ISO 100 and shutter speed at 1/250th of a second.

The result is two distinctly different works, achieved from the same basis, but dramatically altered by modes of reproduction. In a globally connected online world, reproduction is incessant and ubiquitous. Reproducibility can be a democratizing force. Mimicking this effect causes the viewer to question the value and meaning of the original work. John Berger believes that images of art have become insubstantial, free; no longer carrying authority and can be used in the same way as a language. Berger believes that what matters most now is who uses that language and for what purpose. Susan Sontag picks up this theme in On Photography when she describes photographs as a narrowly selective transparency. Images do not carry any essentialist truth but are bent to the will of those who use them.

Cara Jaclyn M. home

Works by Alexandria Wald

From top:

Nebula: Neon Pink Oil on canvas 56” x 60”

Moth’s Wings  Oil on canvas 46" x 72" 

Jenna Ricci Cahn Untitled

36" x 36" Oil on canvas 2014

“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” An artist can freeze time by creating an illustration that becomes an illusion altered by the paintbrush. By doing so, you freeze time and create a new dimension in which time becomes something other than what its purpose fulfills and the picture is frozen forever. Unlike this universe, like Heraclitus said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man”, that is, unless you paint it. You can freeze that river so that the very current that flows can be held in space for the rest of Time and the memory remains the same as does the reality of it.

Divya Balakrishnan Continuum

Agueda Viveros Wong Just Pretend It’s Halloween

Alejandro Mercado The Three Boys Acrylic on wood panel 2013

Vessel Gallery is currently exhibiting Wave = Light + Shadow, a show comprised of the work of Keiko Nelson. Vessel Gallery is located in Oakland at 471 25th Street. The show opened on April 17 and will be closing on May 24.

Vessel Gallery is a small commercial gallery which opens directly onto the 25th Street sidewalk. The front of the gallery is made up of one large window and double glass doors. This allows all foot traffic to see directly into the gallery, opening up the space to be part of the broader arts community in this particular area of Oakland. One problem which plagues many commercial galleries, is their seemingly impenetrable exterior. The large window and glass doors at the front of Vessel make the space appear inviting and less intimidating. The interior space of the gallery is conventional; the floor is polished concrete and the walls are flat and white. Facing the viewer as you enter the gallery is a desk with chairs, which are occupied by attendants. Promotional materials for the work on display and for the broader arts community occupy the desk. This reiterates the message that Vessel is committed to being part of the wider community in this district. Although the gallery continues with other works by Nelson upstairs, this review will focus exclusively on the works exhibited downstairs as the gallery docent confirmed that only works on the lower floor were created for this exhibition while the upstairs space constitutes the gallery’s broader collection of works by Nelson.

Wave = Light + Shadow is made up of five distinct pieces which were all created in 2014 and are all titled Wave = Light + Shadow. Four of these works are denoted as mixed media on canvas, these works are hung on the walls of the gallery while the fifth piece is an installation made of clay, bronze and charcoal, this work occupies the central floor space of the gallery. All works use a palette of black and white with the installation piece adding gold as a third color. All canvas works use a square format with one exception, which is rectangular.

The canvas works in this exhibition create a tension between what the viewer perceives and the formal qualities of the work. Some unspecified media has been applied to the surface of these canvases in thick, structural formations. The way in which the material has been applied is unclear, however in some cases it appears as if a comb has been run across the surface of the canvas, creating even, ridge-like patterns. These ridge-like patterns mimic the trace form that would be left by the individual bristles of a painters brush. Extending this mimicry of form it appears as if Nelson is re-creating the thick, obvious facture of artists who relied on their idiosyncratic brush strokes as a signature style. Another artist who approached this material is Roy Lichtenstein who’s Brushstroke (1965) examined the facture of Abstract Expressionism. Lichtenstein sought to examine the ‘genius’ that was associated with the individual mark making of artists such as Jackson Pollock. Nelson is not referencing Abstract Expressionism, however she is certainly examining the nature of facture and its ability to challenge and deceive the viewer. This approach is more fully developed by the use of a monochromatic palette in the canvas works. Nelson uses the ridgelines developed by her medium as lines of delineation between areas of black and white color. This technique forces the viewer to question what it is they are looking at, it appears as though the structured medium is casting long shadows across the surface, while closer inspection reveals this is a trick of Nelson’s.

This effect is best achieved in one particular canvas. The exceptional canvas, which is rectangular in shape, does not actually share the gallery floor with the other works but is hung in the stairwell, visible from the gallery floor but removed. The stairs are wood chip and thus stand out from main gallery colors of white and concrete grey; this serves as another distinction between this work and the others on display. All works on the gallery floor are affected to some extent by the natural light which comes in through the window and doors, however the work is the stair well is at such a remove that the track lighting over powers the natural light in its influence. This lighting and the fore shortening created by looking up at this work from the gallery floor serve to enhance the surface of the canvas, comparatively, causing greater confusion in the mind of the viewer as to the true nature of the surface and reality of the work. Confusion is slowly and precisely unwound through the direct, forced engagement with the work as you ascend the staircase, this forced action nullifies the separation created by the staircase, viewer perception changes as you are brought level with the work, and the contingency of the material and palette are revealed through closer inspection. At a distant remove the surface appears to swell and fold with shadows rippling across the canvas, the closer the viewer comes to the work, it becomes obvious that Nelson has fooled the eye through technical expertise.

It is important to note the installation piece, which appears formally to be incredibly different to the canvases, however through reflection serves much the same technical purpose. Comprised of thirty-seven clay pieces, two bronze branches and an unnumbered amount of charcoal the installation divides the gallery floor. Six of the clay pieces are colored gold, which acts as the only counterpoint to the otherwise monochromatic coloration of the space. Formally, the installation is at odds with the canvas works in the exhibition, however they are closely tied by Nelson’s playful approach to materiality. The clay pieces are folded into shapes which resemble seed pods from a gigantic tree while the bronze pieces are cast into tree branches, creating an incredible degree of verisimilitude, this is aided by Nelson’s decision to color the branches black and include genuine pieces of charcoal in the work alongside the cast bronze branches. This illusion of reality is only dispelled by reading the room sheet, which reveals the materials used by the artist. This approach to materiality is reminiscent of the work by Yoshitomo Saito, a Japanese-American artist who worked for a long time in the Bay Area. The de Young Museum acquired his work Pacific Crossing (1998) in 2001. As another Japanese-American artist working in the Bay Area, Nelson was the Artist-in-Residence at the de Young Museum in 2009 and would undoubtedly have come across the work of Saito. Both works show a developed use of bronze which is cast in an organic form, in both instances wood. Nelson and Saito both want to draw the viewer into an engagement with the work predicated on it being in one form while then confounding our expectations by revealing the true nature of the work.

Nelson’s ability to draw viewers into an understanding of her art works, which is later confused by her technical prowess, speaks to a greater understanding of arts ability to transcend its formal qualities. Understanding this quality allows the viewer to come back to Nelson and Lichtenstein’s representation of facture and its supposed transcendence of formalism to create some form of truth in the mind of the Abstract Expressionists. Nelson, Saito and Lichtenstein are removing this Abstract Expressionist idea of an essentialist truth by creating works which are illusions and do not claim to be anything but.

While the motives behind Nelson’s works are interesting, I believe that the works are over-reaching. The repetitive expression of illusion through form is understood in the canvas works after viewing one work. The trick becomes somewhat unconvincing after the first experience. The installation work has perhaps the most potential but unfortunately is confused through Nelson’s decision to use too many forms, too many materials and the introduction of an unnecessary and distracting gold pigment. The illusory consequences of cast bronze branches juxtaposed with charcoal elements could be significant but are undermined by the interspersed golden pod like forms. Nelson appears most successful when she is at her most playful with both material and form, repetition seems to be an undermining and unnecessary trope of this exhibition.

Haines Gallery has recently closed its second solo exhibition of works by the Bay Area photographer John Chiara. Chiara’s de-tached ran from March 6 to April 26 at the 49 Geary Street gallery in San Francisco.

Haines Gallery was established in 1987 and maintains an impressive roster of artists. Ai Wei Wei and Andy Goldsworthy are two note-worthy artists currently represented by the gallery. The 49 Geary Street building is one of the most important and influential spaces in visual arts in the Bay Area. The galleries in the complex tend to be focused on the fourth and fifth floors of the building; the entrance to Haines is directly opposite the elevator on the fifth floor. As you step off the elevator, the double doors open invitingly and you are given a clear line of sight through to the back of the large gallery space. There is a small viewing room at the back of the gallery that housed work by David Maisel and Linda Connor along with other, earlier works by John Chiara. However, for the purpose of this review I will not be engaging with any of the Chiara works in this room. The main gallery room is divided into three sections. As you first enter the gallery there are large alcoves on both your left and right with works occupying all three walls. The space narrows in the center of the gallery as a long, high desk houses two work stations and copious marketing material for exhibitions and the gallery itself. The gallery finally widens out again creating a smaller version of the two alcoves, which greet you as you walk through the door. The white walls and ceiling are incredibly high and uninterrupted save for the covered glass skylight. The wooden floors of the gallery space give room an over-all warmth of color which is not apparent in galleries which have polished concrete floors.

There are twenty-three photographs on display in this exhibition. Perhaps the most visually striking component of these works is their apparently unorthodox mode of creation. This has been Chiara’s trademark during his professional career. He builds his own camera obscura, which is loaded onto a trailer and taken to the sites that he wishes to photograph. Chiara cuts his own colour positive paper and affixes it to the rear inside surface of the camera. This process is evidenced by the jagged, curved edges of the images and the tape, which has been used to secure the paper. The tape is not physically apparent, however because it was necessarily covering portions of the paper these areas have developed differently and the exposures retain these traces. Due to the human error inherent in handling large sheets of photographic paper there are areas of the surface which have folded and buckled; leaving traces of the human. The images themselves are defined by the machine that produced them. In many cases the subject is blurred, out of focus or over exposed. In conducting a formal analysis of these works it is clear at every turn that Chiara desired to imbue these images with traces of his production.

  In the press release for de-tached Chiara is quoted as saying that he wants his works to speak to ‘the blended character of memory’. His chosen subjects to evoke this theme are the facades of houses in the Excelsior and Sunset districts of San Francisco and urban landscapes throughout the city. There is a roughly even division between works that show the two subjects. However, throughout the show Chiara maintains an approximation of a square format in the photographs of houses and routinely shifts the formatting of the works, which depict urban landscapes. Perhaps he is literally employing landscape formats in a bid to emphasize the subject matter of these works but more likely he is reflecting the ever-changing nature of the urban landscape while commenting on the regularity of housing in his chosen districts.

The two subjects are erudite selections in the pursuit of identifying and categorizing the ‘blended character of memory’. Both the façade of the house and the urban landscape are liminal spaces. While these images are contingent on their indices in San Francisco they act as portals for the memories of the viewer. These houses could be in any city at any time and these transitional spaces of the urban landscape could be any point in any journey. Both subjects serve to activate the imagination and memory of the viewer. This sensibility is aided by the intentional imperfections in the image. Over exposure in these images has a leveling effect, which is also aided by the regularity in formatting between images that depict the facade of houses. Chiara’s rough handling of the paper creates a trace of the human in the photograph which refers to the crinkled, finger print stained images which are found in family draws and albums worldwide. Importantly there are no figures in these images; this allows the viewer to project their own experiences onto these works.

14th at Quintara (2013) is an important work in the landscape series. This image depicts a sun setting over the hand-railing of a set of stairs. It is impossible to know where the stairs lead, however the city stretches away into the distance and is eventually obliterated by the setting sun. The strength of the sun at this time has created an apparent lens flare across the image and turned the sky into an over-exposed area of undifferentiated whiteness. This is the most obvious example that Chiara produces in his effort to transcribe the city’s zones of transition. The viewer is able to identify their location only through its potential for access. The viewer is able to project their own memory onto this imperfect landscape.

  21st at Noriega, Mid-block (2013) is the most challenging of Chiara’s works that depict the facades of houses. On the back wall of the gallery there is one row of four photographs and below, one row of five photographs. These images are all of the facades of houses. The gap at the end of the top row appears to be just that - a gap - as if the artist did not produce the required work or an instance of the curator’s oversight. However, separated by a doorway, sits 21st at Noriega, Mid-block (2013), alone on a wall. The first response from the viewer is that the hanging of the exhibition would have been more harmonious if the curator had been able to move this work onto the back wall or one of the works on the back wall to accompany Noriega. Closer inspection reveals why the curator has made this decision. Noriega is the sharpest and most clearly exposed image in the entire show. The paper is cut evenly on two sides and is the closest approximation of a rectangle seen in the exhibition. Chiara is confounding the viewers’ expectation of his process of creation. Chiara is challenging the viewer to situate the work in the broader context of the exhibition. The only clue that Chiara gives to the viewer is in the top right of the image. The house, which otherwise appears carefully exposed begins to blur and curve out over the surface of the picture plane. The image is reaching out to the viewer and inviting engagement. Noriega is challenging but also a rewarding experience as the viewer is able to understand that memory, no matter how perfect it might seem is always blended and blurred by those remembering.

de-tached is a remarkably effective exhibition. The works divergent subject matter bonds to create a unified delivery of concept. Chiara relies heavily on his idiosyncratic processing to create this affect but it is duly rewarded. The processing provides the perfect platform for Chiara to explore the notions of memory and its fallibility in this work. The commercial nature of many galleries promotes the overstuffing of space with little room to enjoy the work. However, Haines Gallery has managed to avoid this common pitfall through savvy curating which places an emphasis on the work rather than the product.

Mark Lightfoot’s exhibition Of Things Past has closed after its month long showing at the Manna Gallery on 25th Street in downtown Oakland.

Mark Lightfoot is one of five artists shown by Manna Gallery. The gallery runs shows on a monthly basis and exhibits between one and five of its artists in each show. The gallery is a small single room that is part of a larger complex of galleries at 473 25th street. Entering the complex off 25th street there is a long corridor and gallery doors are dotted along the length. Manna Gallery is towards the rear of the corridor and a poster for the exhibition marks the entrance. The space is quite small and this is not aided by a large column directly in your path when you enter the gallery. Sitting at the base of the column is a small, black bench holding promotional materials about the gallery and the Lightfoot exhibition. The rear of the column is colored brown while the plane facing out is a convention white. Immediately to your left as you enter the gallery is a high white desk which was manned on the day by the artist himself. This provided a valuable experience in gaining insight into the works that were presented. The interior of the gallery space was conventional with a polished concrete floor and flat white walls, however there was the addition of a small brown carpet in the center of the gallery; its purpose was unclear but it may have been used to prevent reflections from the polished concrete bouncing onto the works and effecting their lighting. It may also have been used to complement the brown coloration of the rear of the column. The only other elements present in the gallery were the names of the gallery, artist and exhibition, the latter two rendered in papyrus typeface - often derided for its kitsch connotation.

There are thirteen works shown in Of Things Past. All works are two-dimensional paintings; five on canvas and eight on paper. There are a range of sizes, formats and media used in the production of these images. Many of the works use a muted and limited palette however Kimono uses a vibrant canvas full of reds and greens and both Salome I and Salome II use much brighter tones. In each of the works a form is located centrally and surrounded by a flat singular color, which acts as the background and aids the perception of spatial depth in the images. The forms in these works are abstract, however it is clear that each has been influenced by the human figure and traces are left in the shape of body parts; arms, legs, heads, torsos, chests and shoulders are all suggested. Creating figures, which do not take on a unified form or identity, asks questions of the viewer. You are forced to create your own narrative for these elements, piecing together separate works or extrapolating the information, which is provided by Lightfoot.

The opportunity to speak with an artist is always an illuminating experience to someone who is in the early stages of their art practice, however this experience was further enhanced by the ability to talk to Mark Lightfoot in his gallery in front of his own works. Being one of the principal artists in a commercial space would encourage the artist to engage a role as a salesperson. This is the nature of working in a commercial gallery as a professional practitioner. However another element of professionalism is the ability to transcend your role as gallerist and salesman and engage personally with your patrons. Lightfoot was a pleasure to talk to and provided a wealth of information about his works free from the paradigm of commercial engagement.

In the press release for the exhibition Lightfoot alludes to his past and current interest in archeology. This is in the pieces that are on display in this exhibition. The forms in these works appear as artifacts, which have been discovered by Lightfoot, broken pieces of a greater whole. Their muted palette implies the weight and confusion of distance and age, while the singular, unified colors of the backgrounds call to mind backdrops used for documentary purposes. This archeological reference point allowed Lightfoot to move into abstraction for the first time in his career. He believes that exploring the abstract has been liberating and in doing so he has been able to more fully explore the human figure in his art practice.

Perhaps the most effective and telling example of Lightfoot’s work in this exhibition is Salome I, which appears next to Salome II on the back wall of the gallery. Salome I has a sky blue background and central form which suggests a head, torso and waist comprised of reds, ochers, yellows and a gauzy, white over lay. The white layer of acrylic paint folds away from the central form, revealing more layers leading to a deep red core. The bodily connotations inherent in the form and the blood red core suggest a greater humanity to the form than many of the works in the exhibition. This humanity is necessarily injected by the viewer and posits the viewer as the inhabitant of these figurative forms. The peeling back of layers in Salome I only serves to enhance the access of the viewer. In creating a form that is unidentifiable by race, gender or era Lightfoot is hinting at a shared humanity in all viewers. In his own words, he was attempting to process some form of universal human truth. This is a grand claim to make for any artist, however it stems from a greater tradition of artists working with abstraction to inform and develop a universal human truth. Two other notable white, cis-gender, male artists sought this truth. Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock were the figureheads of Abstract Expressionism, a movement that sought to do away with traditional conventions of artistic practice in order to gain some greater insight into the human condition. Lightfoot is not disregarding the past; he acknowledges his ancient and archeological influences however the suggested purpose mirrors those great artists.

Significantly, Lightfoot appropriates the methodology of artists such as Pollock. While Pollock used a stick to spatter paint across the canvas, Lightfoot uses paper and cloth in the creation of a base pattern, both unorthodox tools. Both men allowed a pattern to emerge, then allowing this dominant pattern to dictate the direction of the final form of the work. This layering of pattern is evident in all of the works in this exhibition and as mentioned above it is critical in the delivery of Lightfoot’s work.

In some works in this exhibition, Lightfoot adheres too closely to the human figure. Although maintaining a formal abstraction the figurative elements in the work are distracting. This is most evident in a series of oil on gessoed paper works, which are named Ezekial, Isaiah, Joshua and Nehemiah; all names from the Hebrew Bible. This decision by Lightfoot to animate Biblical prophets has ushered him into an area of distinctive figuration, not as evident in other works. This literal interpretation of figures distances Lightfoot from his intention of creating a universal humanity, able to be occupied by any viewer. While other works in the exhibition reference Greek and Roman myth and legend I believe that the introduction of a currently practiced religion also serves to distance the works from their original intention.

Of Things Past is a thought-provoking exhibition. It is a pity the works were in such a small space, not allowing them adequate room to breathe or the viewer to contemplate. The basic principle of Lightfoot’s work is interesting and well-directed, however it is too great a vision and he does not achieve what he sets out to. Salome I is a stand out piece in the show and is indicative of the new direction that Lightfoot is taking his work. This is a promising direction if he continues to explore and develop his work.

Envisioning Human Rights: The Next Generation

April 23, 2014 - September 21, 2014

Location: BAM/PFA

Envisioning Human Rights: The Next Generation includes paintings, photographs, and prints by emerging artist/activists from across the state, addressing critical human rights issues. In conjunction with this juried exhibition, we are also presenting a selection of works from the Abu Ghraib series by world-renowned artist Fernando Botero that the artist generously donated to BAM/PFA in recognition of Berkeley’s historic role in the arena of human rights. Four paintings from the same series are also on view at Boalt Hall. A related invitational exhibition, featuring works by internationally acclaimed human rights photographers who have worked with the Human Rights Center over the past two decades, will be presented at the Boalt Law Gallery in fall 2014.