Yoshi Aoki, Mixed media metal sculpture
Nikki Kress, Oil & charcoal on plaster & wood

January 2-January 27

Yoshi Aoki’s sculptures incorporate steel, hardwood, rocks and ceramic.  Using wire lines and mixed media objects, he captures the balance between the movement and stillness of forms.  Steel is manually bent by heating with a torch, then shaped and textured by means of welding. Color variations on the steel surface are created by adding patina with torch or grinding.  The main motivation of his art is to capture the essence of nature in abstract ways.  He incorporates the balance between the movement and stillness, and the simplicity and complexity of the core forms that Aoki finds inherent in nature.

Pictured Right: "Green Vine" steel & painted wood

Nikki Kress’s recent work employs traditional and innovative techniques to create refreshingly new paintings.  She uses a traditional technique of Fresco style of paint & plaster application, which is then outlined by soft dark charcoal on wood panels.  The charcoal and thin layers of oil colors penetrate plaster and become fixed as they dry.  Her painting surfaces intrigue.  There is more than paint, more than plaster: surprising texture combines with the softness of charcoal and paint application to create her unique paintings.  Her subject matter of organic curvilinear forms appears to be an organic, natural, aesthetically lush, elegant, and refined state.  The abstract work comments on something natural, referencing some mutation, natural or un-natural. 

 Pictured Left:  "Biomorphic" oil & charcoal on plaster & wood