Garrigues & Glaubitz Opening Reception

Sat, Dec 10
7-11pm
free (21 + only, please)

Varnish Fine Art Ends 2005 with Two-Man Show

Painter Charles Glaubitz presents elusive and fractured pop visual
narratives, while Ron Garrigues examines and dramatizes sacrifice and
nature via abstract contours

Opening Night, Saturday December 10, 7-11pm


San Francisco, CA. November 2, 2005. For it's final show of 2005,
Varnish Fine Art is proud to showcase two very different artists:
Charles Glaubitz and Ron Garrigues. The show will run from December 6
through mid-January, 2006; opening night, Saturday December 10.

Living in Tijuana and teaching in San Diego, painter Charles Glaubitz
is comfortable toggling between two cultures, which gives his work
what he calls, "hybridity." This is not only reflected in his dual
live/work situation, but also in his parents. "My father is German/
American from Nebraska who became a karate champion in Mexico, while
my mother is from Sinaloa Los Mochis where she owned a pharmacy."

His influences-ranging from comic books, Hiayo Miyazake, Henry
Darger, the Clayton Brothers, Mexican Exvotos paintings, children's
art and Star Wars-can be detected in the vibrant palette of reds,
yellows and other eye-watering colors that inform his pop-infused
narratives. Libertad features Mexican wrestler masks, birds and
flowers ascending to the skies in a Darger-like rapture; Control on
the other hand sees a dominating zombie-eyed Disney mouse diligently
pulling levers in order to control an enormous floating vehicle/ship,
in the form of a sad-eyed little girl's head, in order to taunt a
horde of smaller mice below.

Charles' participation at Varnish is nestled between his recent mural/
installation at Museo Carillo Gil in Mexico City-"Yo soy tu lluvia en
tu desfile, la verdad en tu illusion (I am the rain in your parade, I
am the truth in your illusion")- and an upcoming all-Tijuana artist
show in May 2006 at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art,
entitled A Strange New World.

More information on Charles Glaubitz is available at
www.jenvaughnart.com or www.mrglaubitz.com

Sculptor Ron Garrigues' first group show was at the Oakland Art
Museum in 1959, followed by a solo exhibition in 1961 at the
California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Growing up in the Bay Area,
his career as a sculptor began at the age of 29, and it was this solo
show in 1961 that exposed audiences to the dramatic lyric purity of
form and line embodied in his wood carvings, Downgyre, Wheeling Bird
and Seed.

Ron's more recent work continues his fascination with form, in pieces
like The Spear of Longinus and Elephant-Ivory Sacrifice. These pieces
are a product of the sensibility of a reductionist, not a "modeler,"
with visual and social information paired together, and then pared
down to an absolute minimum in order to transmit his intentions.

The tapering dynamics and deep, almost dried blood color of The Spear
of Longinus I and II give us almost shockingly beautiful versions of
the mythical tools used to pierce the side of Christ, or as Joseph
Campbell might have it, inflict the wound of the quest hero.

Elephant-Ivory Sacrifice returns to a favored motif of the artist,
the skull. "There is beauty in the skull," says Ron, "but it implies
foreboding hellip the skull is a signpost on the road we travel."
Here the commercial and everyday tragic aspects of the black market
Ivory trade are distilled via a pair of truncated tusk stumps.
Attached to the graceful line of the elephant's skull, they have been
rendered to look as though they were designed with an Ikea-like "snap-
together-for-easy-assembly-and-removal" premeditation. But forget
Intelligent Design, this is about irony.

More information on Ron Garrigues is available at www.varnishfineart
and www.rongarrigues.com


About Varnish
The artists who own and run Varnish created a space for contemporary
art, wine, and social chemistry in downtown San Francisco because
they believe the gallery experience should be enjoyed not endured.
The art at Varnish is contemporary, vital, and provocative, while the
wine bar offers an array of varietals. It is a serious gallery that
is not stuffy or pretentious; where you can buy art late at night, or
engage an interesting glass of wine. The mezzanine gallery offers a
print art library as well as an online component at
www.varnishfineart.com. The gallery is open Tuesday thru Friday 11 am
- 11 pm and Saturday 1-5 or by appointment.

Venue:

Varnish Fine Art
77 Natoma St.
San Francisco
415.222.6131
www.varnishfineart.com

Additional Info: