Radialvedic at Johansson Projects

The excellent Oakland gallery Johansson Projects, which I have covered here before, has just opened a new show, Radialvedic, featuring Ohio-based Jill Gallenstein and Bay Area-based Kristina Lewis and Kana Tanaka. I have been working with gallerist Kimberly Johansson since June to help bring this year-old gallery, with an exceptionally talented stable of emerging artists and a large, complex space with many intriguing sight lines, to a new level of reputation and success.

Jill Gallenstein, seeding the clouds detail, 2008

Jill Gallenstein is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Columbus, Ohio, who has for the past year been creating intensely detailed, intricate drawings in pen and ink on paper. These dense clusters of ornamentation mutate and propagate across the negative space of the page, evolving as they spread. Titles such as Chemlawn and Smoker's Cough reflect the toxic elegance of Jill's compositions, betraying the beauty of their surfaces. Jill was an artist in residence at Headlands Center for the Arts this past spring, where I had the pleasure of getting to know her and recommended her to Kimberly. I am hopeful that theirs will be a long and fruitful partnership.

Kristina Lewis, Nurse, 2008

Kristina Lewis' sculptures appropriate mass-produced plastic products as the building blocks of new, abstracted life. She works according to systems and processes, attempting to avoid a predicated outcome. In this way she approximates the natural recombinations of amino acids, molecules and cells, which create life according to process rather than plan.

Kana Tanaka, Glass Drop, 2008

Kana Tanaka's installations of hot-formed glass interact with light to create atmospheric conditions within the gallery. These objects, integrated with the architectural features of a site, extend their phenomenological space to encompass viewers' bodies and movements.

Radialvedic is on view through August 30, with an Oakland Art Murmur party on August 1 from 5-9 pm (which will also mark my return to the Bay Area after this lengthy East Coast jaunt). If you're in the neighborhood, come in and say hello to the lovely ladies of JoPro.

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