A GREAT INTAKE OF BREATH

Curated by Michael Wilson

Oct 15 – Nov 21

“A Great Intake of Breath” is an online exhibition featuring work in painting and video by Abbey Golden, Lisa Farry Jennings, Eric Lopresti, Randi Matushevitz, Alison Michaela, Erika Somogyi, and Cintra Wilson. Following a Zoom artists’ reception at 5:00pm PST on October 15, 2020. This viewing room will be accessible through November 19.

The artists in A Great Intake of Breath—the title is borrowed from a painting by Alison Michaela—reflect on the world’s current experience of enforced isolation and confinement,

and on the individual as a locus for both wider societal phenomena and an intensified experience of inner space. When external stimulus is lacking, how is individual creativity—and our perception of ourselves—affected? A Great Intake of Breath—a phrase that now resonates both with the last words of George Floyd and the calamitous spread of COVID-19—is an exploration of internal landscapes; it maps out a quasi-psychedelic vision of the unconscious mind. Read Full Press

Cintra Wilson
Julie 2020
Oil on linen 30 x 24″

Cintra Wilson
Comforts of Technology 2020
Oil on panel 20 x 16″

Lisa Farry Jennings
Drug Drawer 2020
Oil on canvas, 16 x 20″

Lisa Farry Jennings
Drawer 2 2020
Oil on canvas, 16 x 20″

Randi Matushevitz
Dystopian Lullaby Series Cluster 19 2020
Oil on Canvas, 30 x 24″

The artists in A Great Intake of Breath—the title is borrowed from a painting by Alison Michaela—reflect on the world’s current experience of enforced isolation and confinement, and on the individual as a locus for both wider societal phenomena and an intensified experience of inner space.

Randi Matushevitz
Dystopian Lullaby Series Cluster 13 2020
Oil on canvas, 30 x 24″

Randi Matushevitz
Dystopian Lullaby Series Cluster 2 2020
Oil on canvas, 30 x 24″

Abbey Golden
Unexpected Hero 2020
Oil on canvas, 30 x 30″

Alison Michaela
A Great Intake of Breath 2020
Oil on panel, 11.8 x 9.4″

Alison Michaela
Ornamental Light 2019
Tinted charcoal and acrylic primer on panel, 12.7 x 10.4″

Alison Michaela
Maestro Maelstrom 2019
Tinted charcoal and acrylic primer on panel, 21 x 17″

In a series of short videos titled Practice-Practice (2020), Eric Lopresti maps the diversity and functionality of solo physical and mental practices and adaptations pursued while maintaining awareness of other people

Erika Somogyi
The Mirror, the Hourglass, and the Prism 2008
Watercolor and gouache on paper, 30 x 42″

Erika Somogyi
Alpine Presence 2009
Watercolor on paper, 15 x 18″

Like the protagonist of Ken Russell’s over-the-top sci-fi movie Altered States (1980), the artists in A Great Intake of Breath journey into inner space, their public-private quests landing them and us in some otherwise unreachable places.

Erika Somogyi
Untitled (portrait) 2012
Watercolor on paper, 12 x 12″