PRESS RELEASES for immediate release:
September 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, and October 7
Contact at media@galleryrouteone.org
Download PDF Press Release
PLEASE NOTE: GALLERY ROUTE ONE FOLLOWS CURRENTLY RECOMMENDED COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS.
GALLERY ROUTE ONE EXHIBITIONS:
Center Gallery: Zea Morvitz: Premonition
Project Space: Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback: In Deep Water –– Rising
Annex: Collaborations: Zea Morvitz with Tim Graveson and Joyce Majiski
On exhibit Saturday, October 8 to Sunday, November 13
In-Person Opening Reception: Saturday, October 8, 3-5 pm Artist talks begin at 3 pm.
Virtual Exhibition Walk-Through available at www.galleryrouteone.org
The gallery is open to visitors Thursday to Monday, 11 – 5 The exhibition will soon be viewable online: www.galleryrouteone.org
Project Space
Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback: In Deep Water – Rising
SUMMARY:
In Deep Water – Rising is a site-specific collaborative installation by papermaking artist Jane Ingram Allen and printmaking artist Jami Taback, who focus attention on rising waters and the increasing threat of climate change.
In Deep Water – Rising is a collaborative art installation focused on water and climate change, environmental threats that are affecting Northern California communities in particular. Two Northern California artists, papermaker Jane Ingram Allen and printmaker Jami Taback, have worked together on the project since August 2021, and even in this short time the climate crisis has measurably increased. This site-specific installation in Gallery Route One’s Project Space focuses on rising waters and the increasing danger of climate change; the artwork makes use of each artists’ area of expertise and takes advantage of unexpected happenings in this artistic dialogue.
While Northern California is suffering through a long period of extreme drought and horrific wildfires, climate change is also causing sea level rise along the Pacific Coast and around the world. Estimating sea level rise along California’s coasts is complicated, because Northern California coastal land is subsiding at the same time as the ocean is rising. Such changes are slower and less dramatic than drought, wildfires, melting glaciers and outright flooding, but the San Francisco Planning Commission nonetheless estimates that by the end of the century, sea levels around San Francisco Bay will rise 3 to 6 feet, leaving as much as four square miles of the City’s land underwater. A July 8, 2022, article in the San Francisco Examiner argues that sea level rise around the Bay is being grossly underestimated because the land is also sinking.
In Deep Water – Rising sounds the alarm about the rising waters and elevating temperatures that now characterize a world in crisis. In their own art practices, both Allen and Taback project hope for the future through the conscientious use of sustainable methods and materials.
Using earth-friendly processes as well as materials that are biodegradable and non-polluting, the collaborative artwork produced for this project incorporates non-toxic printmaking on handmade paper, created by the artists using natural plant fibers colored with indigo and non-toxic dyes. The papers are ripped and burned, then joined with natural thread to create a multi-part, modular, large-scale installation. Through this work, the two artists visually induce a visceral sense of imminent crisis, effectively warning us to quickly and dramatically change.
The artists will give a gallery talk at the opening on Saturday, October 8, at 5 pm, and answer questions while engaging in dialog with the audience about the climate crisis.
This project is funded in part by a grant to the artists from The Puffin Foundation, Ltd. (www.puffinfoundation.org).
www.janeingramallen.wordpress.com
www.jamitaback.com
Center Gallery
Zea Morvitz: Premonition
SUMMARY: Premonition is an exhibition of ink and mixed media drawings on Mitsumata paper by Zea Morvitz.
In her Gallery Route One exhibit Premonition, Zea Morvitz continues her investigation of mark-making. Morvitz uses graphite marks and a buildup of ink lines to structure space and define an image within the field, citing Chinese and Japanese brush paintings as a primary influence. While much of this work is abstract, some drawings suggest a classic Chinese landscape of rivers and mountains which evolve into a hybrid form between landscape and the purely abstract.
Morvitz writes, “At work in the studio I disappear inside the drawing, exploring the image that appears as I draw. I don’t know the final form the drawing will take but I experience a premonition about it. Something happens as the image takes shape on the paper that continues to invite the act of drawing into it. The image stays receptive of change until the defining marks crystallize the structure is complete. Discovering an unforeseen image is an important part of my practice.”
Morvitz began her current series in 2015 during a residency at the Ballinglen Art Foundation on the West Coast of Ireland. This rural area contains many unrestored ruins of stone structures and tombs (“monuments”) built during the Neolithic period. The artist sought a way to interact with these ancient stone artifacts lying untended in farmers’ fields, and made frottages using graphite on paper laid over the giant stones. Transmitted to large sheets of paper, the rough texture of the stones became the artist’s starting point. In the studio she began drawing into the graphite marks on the paper with ballpoint pen. The initial series of drawings did not exhaust Morvitz’ interest and she has continued her project, visiting granite outcroppings in the Sierra Nevada and working on stones found nearby in West Marin. “The act of frottage-making brings me in contact with natural rock surfaces. This process brings the paper to life in a way that encourages me to draw.”
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Morvitz received her BA in Philosophy from Wellesley College, studied at the Art Students League in New York before moving to San Francisco and enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a Masters Degree in Painting. After moving to Inverness in 1978, Morvitz became one of the 25 founding artists of Gallery Route One. She continues as an artist member and is also on the organization’s staff as Co-Director of the Visiting Artist Program, formerly the Project Space Program.
Morvitz has been working on paper, drawing with graphite and ink since 2000. She also makes hand bound artist books and altered books, and has an ongoing collaboration with Canadian artist, Joyce Majiski. Some of this work is included in her current exhibition.
About Gallery Route One:
A regional landmark since 1983, Gallery Route One is an arts organization located in the town of Point Reyes Station, adjacent to the entry for Marin County’s Point Reyes National Seashore. Besides offering rotating exhibits by member artists, GRO also maintains its outreach programs: the Latino Photography Project, the Artists in the Schools Program, the Artist Fellowship Program, as well as Visiting Artist Program exhibitions in the Project Space addressing environmental, immigration and social justice issues. For more information, please visit www.galleryrouteone.org.