PO Box 937 / 11101 Highway One / Point Reyes Station, CA 94956 / PH: 415.663.1347 / www.galleryrouteone.orgPress Release: For Immediate Release November 14, 2026
Contact: Patti Trimble patti@galleryrouteone.org (707) 360-8189
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Six Bay Area Artists Open Exhibitions at Gallery Route One
November 14 through December 27, 2026
Betsy Kellas and Ellen Vogel: Material Matters
Visiting artists Linda Bea Miller, Susan Friedman, and Na Omi Shintani: Listening to the Earth
Mary Ann Leff: In Relation: An Exploration of Connections
Gallery Hours 11-5pm, Thursday through Monday
Opening Reception Saturday, November 14, 3-5pm.
Artist Talks at 3pm
GRO Artists Betsy Kellas and Ellen Vogel present: Material Matters, a two-person collaboration celebrating the visual and tactile qualities of nontraditional materials. Both artists make mixed media pieces from materials they have collected for years. Kellas—leaning towards the surreal—uses repurposed cardboard, scraps of wood, books, rags, and bits of wire. Vogel—leaning towards the ineffable—takes apart and then reconstructs fragments of an old installation piece. For each artist, longtime artistic choices and formal sensibilities tell a personal story. Here are two autobiographies in materials that create a lively visual conversation.
Kellas writes: “These are temporary constructions in which various components are juxtaposed to disrupt our ideas about art and beauty. Only a few of the pieces in this show are meant to last. Most will be deconstructed when the show is taken down and the component materials returned to the studio to be used again in new compositions creating different meanings among the materials”
betsykellas.com | @betsykellas | More @ GRO
Vogel says: “These new pieces are made from fragments of a decades old installation honoring the “Elements.” I tore apart five layers of tissue; each layer had been worked with liquid acrylic, sprayed with water; salt, wax and oil added; then compressed; dried; hung; and lit from behind. I embellished the torn pieces with paint, charcoal, clay and cardboard. They have become physical fragments of sense memories; my emotional, physical, spiritual and psychological world archived into form.”
ellen-vogel.com I @ellenvogelart | More @ GRO
Listening to the Earth, is an exhibition that asks questions and imagines issues of climate change. Three artists draw from their lived experiences in local ecosystems—making urgency visible and holding space for a reciprocal relationship with the earth.
Susan Friedman’s A Loud Song presents paintings of forest fires —some made with charcoal from the flames—and other images related to climate-change, life, cycles of destruction, and the potential for renewal.
susanfriedmanphoto.com
Linda Bea Miller’s Inherited Threads bears witness to the environmental consequences of habitat destruction on endangered species. She honors a family tradition of needle work with a series of mixed media embroidered tapestries on old linens.
lindabea.com
Na Omi Shintani’s More Than a Delicacy, is a heartfelt tribute to her family’s oyster farm, seized during World War II, and to her grandmother’s Shinto beliefs. Through her art, Shintani connects her family’s history with this keystone bivalve. Oysters are more than delicious treasures to enjoy; they’re also eco-engineers that help filter and protect ocean ecosystems.
naomishintani.com
GRO Artist Mary Ann Leff shows paintings—In Relation: An Exploration of Connections—as an exploration of relationships. Dominated by a large diptych and showing in the small and intimate Annex gallery, the paintings, like people, enhance each other through closeness. With dark grounds and bold color, internal forms push and pull through space.
Leff writes, “I focus on how each mark, line, shape, and color relates to the others. It is as if the parts look at each other to determine their best match. What will dominate or recede? What will complement or be discordant? What element is needed to bind the piece together? What will fade and what will linger. And how will this painting relate to every other painting I have made, seen, or studied. Often, while I’m painting or have just finished a piece, a phrase that seems autobiographical comes to me and becomes the title. The largest piece is titled Some May Think She Had Lost Her Way. These phrases that seem to come from my unconscious tell me that each painting is really a self-portrait, and the final relationship may be between myself and the viewer.”
Gallery Route One is a nonprofit art organization. Our mission is to originate and present contemporary art exhibitions, educational programs, and community outreach, to inspire people to experience the world in new ways. The gallery was founded by 25 artists in 1983 and currently maintains a membership of 15 artists. Our Board of Directors is drawn from interested community members, including artists. The organization offers two exhibition programs: Artist Member exhibitions and Visiting Artist Program exhibitions, which feature guest artists. We also support Artists in the Schools, The Latino Photography Project, and a GRO Fellows Program.