Pocket Utopia Opens SESSION ONE Exhibition Today

Pocket Utopia is pleased to present "Session One," a re-grouped, group exhibition concocted after a mind-blowing, 4-hour lab session, featuring nine artists: Nathan Anspaugh, Danielle Dimston, Aimee Hertog, Bara Jichova, Laurel Lueders, Krista Svalbonas, Shaw Osha, Joey Parlett and Debra Ramsay, with a window installation by Sara Russell Dewey.

Special Program Dates:

Fri., Sept. 13, 6:30 pm - 8:30pm, Join Shaw Osha, for an artist's walk-though of the exhibit.

Sat., Sept. 28, 6:30 pm - 8:30pm, Debra Ramsay with Mark Golden of Golden Paint fame discuss color and paint.

Sun., Oct., 6, 6:30pm - 8:30pm,a private peep show studio visit with Bara Jichova, pre-registration required.

On August 4th, Sarah Schmerler and Austin Thomas conducted the first ("Session One" of "Pocket U-niverse-ity") of what will be several sessions of collaborative learning whereby "an art gallery serves as the hardware, the art market serves as the software, and the artists provide the content." - Sarah Schmerler

This is an exhibition of the nine artists that participated in the first lab-session and is filled with ideas in a very concentrated space. Close up; painter Debra Ramsayembarks on an entirely new phase in her ongoing investigation into the language of color, Nathan Anspaugh re-combines the real and imagined from our cities' billboardadvertising, Bara Jichova's sophisticated melodramatic films get reworked as photo-based collages, Danielle Dimston paints fluidly energetic stains and orbs and Laurel Lueders's photographs can be seen as a post apocalyptic tableau involving reflected lights from a mysteriously silent satellite.

Joey Parlett's "Concert Series," a drawing rendered with graphite, brings us down to earth, as do Shaw Osha's painted fond memories of "Soul Train" screen shots from YouTube. Krista Svalbonas uses pastel, drawn directly on the wall to convey theblocky architectural elements found in low-cost public housing and Aimee Hertog'sgrotesque and freakish sculptures and photographs employ tropes of the domestic.

The exhibition, "Session One," also includes an installation by Sara Russell Dewey, where 17 years worth of small scale works frame the window.