W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery

"Tom Decker, Sandra Gallegos, Ann Isolde & Richard Osaka"

Curatorial Talk

Date: March 08, 2014
Time: 6:45pm to 8:00pm
Location: W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery
Installation view of "Tom Decker, Sandra Gallegos, Ann Isolde & Richard Osaka" exhibition from March 8 - April 19, 2014. Photo Credit: Bill Gunn, Wolverine Photography.
Installation view of "Tom Decker, Sandra Gallegos, Ann Isolde & Richard Osaka" exhibition from March 8 - April 19, 2014. Photo Credit: Bill Gunn, Wolverine Photography.
four squares showing different colorful abstract artworks. Text on each square shows the corresponding artist name: Ann Isolde, Tom Decker, Sandra Gallegos, Richard Osaka

About the Exhibition

This grouping of solo artists is all about color, form, and abstraction. Each artist works predominantly, but not exclusively with abstraction. All of them draw from various personal experiences and, in their own way, add to the continuum of recent art history. Unlike the past, when abstraction was about limitations, today, these artists demonstrate how abstraction is a diverse mode of operation, in which possibilities are endless and the emphasis on formal qualities does not negate the importance of the concept. 

Check out the Gallery Exhibition Below

"Tom Decker, Sandra Gallegos, Ann Isolde & Richard Osaka"

About the Artists

portrait of Tom Decker

Tom Decker

Tom Decker’s clay sculptures express the freedom of someone who has experienced both the cultural revolutions of his generation and the radical changes of the clay medium during the last half of the 20th century. His large-scale freestanding ceramic sculptures have a physical presence, both in color and form. He says, “When I see what I do standing on the ground, I feel connected not only with the work, but with the earth: the notion of a base...Earth is the base. Looking down at constructed forms makes one more aware of the scale of the earth. The sculptures are expressive of my relationship with others on the earth.”

portrait of Sandra Gallegos painting

Sandra Gallegos

Sandra Gallegos brings to her paintings a collector’s sensibility. Throughout her home and studio, objects from various cultures can be found, creating an eclectic curio shop from which the artist derives many of her compositions. Working in acrylic on canvases averaging four by five feet, Sandra Gallegos demonstrates her mastery of color and pattern, creating tantalizing images that harken back to the Pattern and Decoration Movement of the 1970s and the late works of Henri Matisse. Yet, in these paintings, Sandra Gallegos also builds open-ended narratives, suggesting stories in the many layers of carefully chosen shapes and colors.

portrait of Ann Isolde

Anne Isolde

Ann Isolde creates highly personal, meticulously composed paintings that reveal her interests in environmentalism, feminism, psychology, mythology, astrology, dreams, and the history of art. Each of her vibrant paintings is packed with visual information, ranging from symbolic abstraction to representations of specific subjects. Ann Isolde works primarily in acrylic, creating intricate paintings on an intimate scale. She has also produced more expansive, body-sized works, colored pencil drawings, casein paintings, and a remarkable handmade book. Ann Isolde has a longstanding practice of meditation. It is with this open, reverent state of mind that she gives life to her work and it is through quiet contemplation that we can best appreciate her incredible vision.

portrait of Richard Osaka

Richard Osaka

Richard Osaka often makes something out of almost nothing. His paintings and digital art benefit from years of effective work as a highly successful professional illustrator in advertising and publishing. He transforms visual motifs into daring compositions that are edgy and exciting. The most simple of ingredients—lines, colors, shapes—are manipulated and transformed into assertive images, often playfully delighting both our senses and our intellect. Most of the works are mixed media or acrylic on watercolor paper, which is then coated with a clear resin. As objects, these paintings are slick and desirable, like a new sports car.