geoffrey rene garza
monoliths and maniacs!

geoff garza
the truth

david ruth
sticks and stones

david ruth
erebus

geoffrey rené garza: monoliths and maniacs!
Exhibition Runs: July 5 - August 3, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 3, 5 - 8 pm

The Traver Gallery is proud to present Monoliths and Maniacs!, a solo exhibition showcasing a powerful new body of work by Seattle-based artist Geoffrey René Garza. Placing obscure imagery gleaned from his treasured collection of vintage printed materials in moody, atmospheric settings, the artist creates bizarre and often provocative personal narratives that resonate on a universal level.

Garza often points to his background in the theatre as being extremely influential in his work as a visual artist and describes the materials he uses to create his paintings as actors in a play he is directing. In his past work, his cast was more abstract: patterns, colors and geometric shapes were the stars of the show. With the addition of collaged figures to his new paintings, Garza takes his storytelling to the next level, creating a heightened sense of drama and intrigue.

The actions depicted in Garza’s scenes are purposefully ambiguous, and often absurd: In Moto Gusto Steve McQueen, dressed as a clown, is tempted by pin-up girls on a treacherous and undefined mountain path; in The Truth a man in an overcoat vehemently clutches a red cross near a pristine mountain lake; and in Audition a femme fatale tiptoes across a hill of roses in front of paint-spattered antique sheet music. “I wanted to create a dark - and sometimes comical - world in these paintings,” says Garza, “where heroes and villains vie for the leading role, where the character’s motives are unclear and not always benevolent, and where the path to salvation is rocky.”

As in any great drama, the stakes are high for Garza’s characters. Each of his subjects is in some way fighting for survival. Garza sees the struggle as being both literal and figurative, representing the unresolved nature of any given moment in life, as well as the ego’s fight to hold on to rigid or outdated self-definitions. And, while the story in each painting is highly individual, his colorful characters are archetypal, raising questions about the state of our society, our relationship to nature and the environment, war, sexuality and religion.

Another interesting development in Garza’s recent work is the inclusion of an audience within the pieces themselves. In Sheik, rows of stoic men in turbans watch as a lady in a hula skirt dances - or claws her way out of captivity; in Love Gun, a large bearded face which appears to be lit by the light of a television set, watches from the sky as fighter planes swoop around fast women and a heavily armed Steve McQueen. Garza’s “audiences” suggest that like actors in a play, the characters in his paintings are aware of the artificiality of their plight, but they also allow for the more disturbing possibility that the dramas are real; in a dark version of a reality TV show (or the nightly news) their demise is being watched, but no action is taken to help.

Throughout the past ten years, Geoff Garza has shown his work in galleries and museums in the Northwest. He will be featured in his first international exhibition in the Netherlands later this year. Garza’s work is included in numerous public and private collections, and was recently featured on the cover of the Stranger.

david ruth: sticks and stones
Exhibition Runs: July 5 - August 3, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 3, 5 - 8 pm

Also on display in July is Sticks and Stones, a solo exhibition featuring new work by Bay area glass artist David Ruth. Ruth’s enormous cast glass sculptures are portals to another world, with expressive, brilliantly colored designs suspended within them like strange sea creatures or distant nebulae.

The exhibition title Sticks and Stones refers to the new forms being introduced in the show, many of which are longer and more slender than those in previous series, and some of which are squatter with rounded edges. While the external shapes of Ruth’s new sculptures vary, all of them contain what he refers to as “alternative spaces” where traditional rules of existence don’t apply. “In my sculptures, the laws of gravity are suspended, a painting can be three-dimensional and objects frozen inside a solid block can project themselves into the space outside.”

Light whether it is reflected, concentrated, or diffused is integral to the experience of Ruth’s work. The appearance of the sculpture shifts dramatically depending on the source and angle of light as it is absorbed and transmitted by the pieces.

Ruth is renowned for his ability to execute impossibly large works in glass and he enjoys playing on the paradox inherent in the size work. His pieces are some of the largest glass sculptures in existence, yet their self-contained worlds inspire an intimate, meditative experience in the viewer.

David Ruth began his 30-year career in glass working in the California studio of Roger Darricarrere. After earning his MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1986, he relocated to France where he lived and world for three years before returning to the United States. Ruth has shown his work nationally and internationally and has completed major public art commissions on the west coast and in Japan. He recently received an Antarctica Travel Grant for Artists and Writers from the National Science Foundation, and is now working on a new series of work related to his experience there.

www.travergallery.com

Seattle
110 Union Street #200
Seattle, WA 98101
206.587.6501 phone
206.587.6502 fax
info@travergallery.com

Seattle gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday 10-6,
Saturday 10 - 5 and Sunday 12 - 5

Tacoma
1821 E Dock Street #100
Tacoma, WA 98402
253.383.3685 phone
253.383.3687 fax
tacoma@travergallery.com

Tacoma gallery hours are Tuesday 9 - 5,
Wednesday - Saturday 10 - 6 and
Sunday 12 - 5