Gary Berg
The Secret Life of Trophies

Junko Yamamoto
Shunyata Series.....Traveling.....

May 1 - June 1, 2008

Opening reception Thursday, May 1, 6 - 8pm

Seattle artist Gary Berg gives what is dead and disposed of a new life with his barbwire and trophy mount sculptures. His use of discarded trophy mounts accentuates the disposable nature of our society and man's obsession with death and destruction.

Berg grew up in eastern Montana. His father was a game Warden, though he himself has never hunted. His work is informed by the vastness of his birthplace and the intimacy of nature underfoot. Gary's previous work with concrete and mixed media sculpture shares the same combination of the natural and the man-made as his latest body of work does.

Gary received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from Ohio State University in 1980, and has work in several collections across the country.

Gary Burg
Tumble
Dear Head and Barbwire
25" diameter

Shunyata Series.....Travels..... by Junko Yamamoto is part of an ongoing series loosely organized through Yamamoto's meditations on the notion of Shunyata, the Sanskrit word for emptiness. "We can only imagine the emptiness expressed by shunyata in relation to an attendant conception of fullness or wholeness," says Junko, "an elementary in sight that serves as a starting point for me as I seek to puzzle through the boundaries of consciousness, knowledge, memory and our sense of delimited self-possession."

Her process involves vacillating between painting layers of color and shapes on canvas, then using rollers to create the imprecise vertical lines - suggestive of the "layering of our conscious experience." The forms that reappear in her work are drawn from Japanese popular culture, particularly comic books, that she was exposed to as a child.

Junko graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cornish College of the Arts in 1999, and has been reviewed in publications such as Seattle Weekly and Art Ltd. magazine.

Junko Yamamoto
Shunyata Series.....Traveling.....
Oil on Canvas
46 "x46" inches

Sandro Negri
venice

May 16 th - June 8 th , 2008

Opening Reception & Live Demonstration!

Friday May 16 th , 5:30 - 7:30 pm.

In conjunction with his show titled Secrets at Brian Marki Fine Art in Portland, OR. May 5 th - 31 st .

Gallery IMA is pleased to present an intimate showcase of paintings by Italian artist Sandro Negri. Sandro will be traveling from his villa in Mantova, Italy to attend the May 16 th reception, where he will also put on a live demonstration. This is a rare opportunity to see an artist of his ability and passion at work. The painting will be available for purchase following the show.

Sandro Negri was born in the village of Virgilio in Lombardy, Italy in 1940.   He grew up among several generations of peasants in an ancestral farmhouse observing and absorbing the age-old agricultural traditions and rituals.   His experiences in Italy's most fertile farm region, the Pianura Padana, provided the themes for his paintings such as the peasant figure draped in a dark "tabarro" in a winter scene, women gathering flowers in springtime, and fields of grain in summer. It is impossible not to be fascinated, transported, and bewitched by his astonishing paintings called by a French critic "joy found again in lost paradise".

Sandro began exhibiting primarily in Italy. His fame grew beyond the Italian border, and he was soon exhibiting throughout Europe, publishing his first monograph in 1976. By the mid-1990's he was also showing in the United States and Canada. Two drawings were purchased for the Vivian and Gordon Gilkey permanent collection at the Portland Art Museum in 1997. A thirty-year retrospective exhibit of Sandro's work was held at Casa del Mantegna in Italy in 2000 and the lush catalogue was produced to accompany that exhibit.

Sandro Negri's most important artistic device is his means to express the Italian culture through painting.   Negri's art reflects the memories of times almost forgotten in the small villages tucked away in the beautiful landscapes of Italy's past.   To him, all things possess a beauty, which he tries to bring out by looking at things as if seen though the innocent eyes of a child.   Negri emphasizes the little things about life -- the things that most people take for granted. He paints through the passion of memories, and although his memories come and go, his passion is here to stay.

Sandro Negri
Bagliori di Storia
Oil on canvas
20"x20" inches