Press Release - July Group Exhibition
Lauren D’amato
”The Kosmic Kolor”
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 60 inches
2022
info@part2gallery.com
pt.2 Gallery
a group exhibition
by
Erik Bender
Lauren D’Amato
Tracy Ren
yétúndé ọlágbajú
Opening Reception
Saturday, July 8th, 6-9 pm
Showing Through August 5th, 2022
pt. 2 Gallery is pleased to present a group show featuring work by Tracy Ren, yétúndé ọlágbajú, Lauren D’Amato and Erik Bender. Centering around themes of magic and mysticism, spiritual transformation and the passage of time–though disparate in scale and scope these Oakland based artists operate and intertwine with a humming collective energy.
Tracy Ren
”Through The Spirit Screen (&Back)”
Acrylic on wood panel
48 x 48 inches
2022
info@part2gallery.com
Within their installation Through the Spirit Screen (& Back), Tracy Ren weaves together a large scale intricately patterned painting on panel with a series of ceramic objects created by the artist and their peers, plants, fruits and other found objects all presented on twin benches. Inspired by altars seen upon walks through the artist’s Eastlake neighborhood in Oakland, these public shrines of beauty, intentionality and remembrance lit a spark within the artist to further their own spiritual practice while excavating a part of their ancestral culture they had previously never known. Ren describes this installation as an invitation, a portal, a meeting place, and an offering of respite for anyone struggling amidst the chaos of current times. Through the Spirit Screen (& Back) also serves as an important reminder of the power and spiritual sustenance carried through collective networks of artists and likeminded individuals sustained throughout the Bay Area and beyond.
yétúndé olagbaju
”protolith: i am the heat, i am the pressure”
Digital print
40 x 60 inches
40 x 30 inches each
Diptych framed in museum glass
2022
info@part2gallery.com
yétúndé ọlágbajú presents a series of large format self portraits, showing the artist amidst a verdant field, in one image hands spread in the sky and the next with hands placed on a rock formation that dwarfs the artist many times over, a shadow cast on the rock reaching back to the artist. Inspired by the idea of metamorphism–the very nature in which matter is composed or altered through the augmentation of heat, pressure or other natural agency, ọlágbajú within these photographs embraces the role of metamorphic force acting applying pressure against the seemingly immovable object in front of them. And while at first we’re struck with the apparent impossibility of altering an immovable object through our own bodily force, therein lies a deep belief and hopefulness in the universal truth that any obstacle can over time be worn down and forever altered through the application of time, energy and pressure.
Lauren D’amato
”Remember When (Glen Park Station)”
Acrylic on canvas
40 x 30 inches
2022
info@part2gallery.com
Lauren D’Amato presents a series of new paintings, employing the sign painter by trade’s deft hand as a means of speaking to the passage of time and the patina left in its passage. The large scale works veer between contrasts, foggy atmospheric passages cut through with the thinnest and most confident pinstripe boldly defining space, or punctuated by weathered passages of text that push the viewer in their interpretation. Pulling influence from vintage signs and classic car culture, the artist injects these often nostalgia ripe spaces with a moodiness and mystery that complicates and defies an easy read, instead confronting the viewer with a world that feels vaguely familiar yet simultaneously unmoored.
Erik Bender presents a series of new works in which the artist crafts low relief sculptural paintings from humble materials such as plaster, acrylic, pigment, oil and wax on canvas. Using a language of loose figuration carried with a confident hand, art historical references are present yet reframed with a loose abandon and brevity that connects as much to graffiti as it does to Guston, Morandi or de Chirico. Stars are a recurring theme, acting as protagonist throughout the works, highlighted in black or yellow against an offwhite plaster, scratched into the hardening surface before the substrate dries completely. Moons, architectural structures casting long shadows and the occasional hammer and sickle find their way into Bender’s symbolic language as well, all serving to lend a gravitas and open endedness through their repetition and elegant simplicity.