CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY

ESSENTIALLY US

SEPTEMBER 10 - OCTOBER 17, 2009

Essentially Us is a landmark exhibition for Cavin-Morris Gallery.  In 2010 we will be celebrating 25 years as an art gallery, having proudly presented the work of artists and artisans from Neolithic times to the present.  The Present is the theme of this exhibition.   The past is the history of the gallery, and the future is our continuing quest to discover and present artists and their works that push the envelope of the expected.

We will be showing new work by gallery artists as well as presenting some new self-taught and academically trained artists who have not shown with us before.

Our gallery artists include:  Timothy Wehrle, whose complex drawings have immediately found their way into public and private collections; Chris Hipkiss, on the eve of an extraordinary publication of his drawings titled To kick a Wind to; Lidia Syroka whose first solo exhibition will be held at Cavin-Morris Gallery this Fall; Keith Goodhart from a body of exciting new work; Kevin Sampson whose work is currently featured in the new exhibition at American Visionary Art Museum called Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, organized by Roger Manley; Gregory Van Maanen whose work is deliciously exhibited at John Michael Kohler Art Center in American Stories, organized by senior curator, Leslie Umberger; new large detailed drawings from Christine Sefolosha; and the ethereal art brut cloth constructions of Sandra Sheehy.

Contemporary artists new to the gallery are Yohei Nishimura, known for his conceptual installations of kiln-melted books, as well as his pioneering efforts in appreciating and encouraging the art of the mentally and physically disabled in Japan; Shihoko Fukumoto, whose stunningly beautiful indigo-dyed textiles have a wide following internationally; Roland Ricketts, who after studying indigo farming in Japan, developed the concept of noren, hanging textiles dyed with indigo in a minimalist style. We are also presenting for the first time the scraffiti-glazed ceramic platters of Karen Hausner.

We are particularly excited about presenting the Kabalistic drawings of David Chaim Smith whose work draws on deeply philosophical elements of the Zohar and alchemy.

We have the great pleasure of presenting the results of our recent explorations of Japanese Art Brut.  We returned with a body of work, mostly sculptural, whose like has never been seen outside of Japan, in addition to new drawings and eccentric textiles.  The work is not only new to the field of Art Brut but also in the overall world of studio artwork in clay.  The artists are Yukio Miyashita, Masayo Tamiguchi, Nahoko Ohara, Hiroko Kawabe, Kazumi Kamae, Masami Yamagiwa, and Hideaki Yoshikawa.