Saturday, April 27, 2024

Afterburner has After Effects at Techne Art Center, Oceanside

by Patricia Frischer



Jason Clay Lewis

Chuck Thomas is like an artist magnet. He can be sitting on a beach in Mexico drinking a margarita, strolling down a side street in New York City, or throwing a barbeque with his partner Leslie Wang in their home in Rancho Santa Fe and artist seem to pop up in his path. He has the eye to choose the most extraordinary of those artists to showcase in their gallery in Oceanside, Techne Art Center. Nope the Techne has nothing to do with high tech, it is a Greek word for art making. And what Chuck is creating is a community.

As Jason Clay Lewis concludes in his introduction, we are bombarded by images and Ai makes everyman an image maker, but it is the decisions that professional artists make within the constraints of their chosen mediums that allows the artists in this show “to create a unique vision and more authentic voice for their distinctive styles.”

We highly recommend you see this exhibition which will have varied after effects as you bring your own personal view to the work on display.

Afterburner
Techne Art Center
From April 27 to July 20 
1609 Ord Way, Oceanside, CA 92056
Wed-Fri 1-6pm, Sat 1-5pm
Curated by Chuck Thomas More info:
chuckthomas@techneartcenter.com
917.972.1752

 Jason Clay Lewis is a curator and author (he wrote the intro to this show), but in this exhibition, he is being featured for his own art. The recent death of his father informs two of the works especially. The superman skeleton and the deer with ballon as road kill…both are covered with newspaper clipping like the ones Lewis senior would send to Lewis on all sorts of subject.  The jump to large color line composition is easier to understand when you realize Lewis was raised Baptist and the arches and central light created from the optical illusions come from years of sitting in vaulted church spaces. Do note the variations of grey where just hints of color are added, ending with the pastel version.

Jason Clay Lewis

Jason Clay Lewis

Jason Clay Lewis

Jason Clay Lewis

Jason Clay Lewis


Allison Renshaw gives us a more painterly use of fragments. You might have to search a bit to see all of her works on display as a multitude of the small (and affordable) items are on display in two halls ways. Upstairs are altered postcards and downstairs near the entrance are minis.
 
Allison Renshaw

Allison Renshaw

Allison Renshaw

Allison Renshaw

Allison Renshaw

Allison Renshaw


Mônica Lóss continues the high color theme, with rainbows of sewn and stuffed shapes that flow and erupt. Thomas found this Brazilian artist online and then discovered she now lives in San Diego. This work is from her series, Where does the hunger of the world go? and references the bright clothes of immigrant women. Some of the mini sculptures are highly embellished with jewels and beads.

Mônica Lóss

Mônica Lóss

Mônica Lóss

Mônica Lóss

Mônica Lóss

Mônica Lóss

Mônica Lóss

Mônica Lóss

Mônica Lóss




Mônica Lóss


Sasha Koozel Reibstein’s shiny, glitzy ceramic surfaces also take advantage of our attraction to other worldly environments of magic and mystery. A five headed snake can almost appear acceptable and some sort of new flowering species. 

Sasha Koozel Reibstein

Sasha Koozel Reibstein

Sasha Koozel Reibstein


Jon Elliott makes the leap almost to science fiction with patterning in his completely imagined worlds. There are so many clues to a real life that it makes it easy for us to imagine we are actually in the images.  Elliott’s work makes it easy for us to slide in Robin Kang’s tapestries where tech imagery meets warp and woof. Here we have weaving as meditation. The photos give you a glimpse of the two-story gallery space.
Robin Kang

Robin Kang

Robin Kang

Robin Kang

Jon Elliott

Jon Elliott

Jon Elliott

Jack Henry’s subtle embossed and hand colored works on paper are given concrete frames embedded with more of the detritus. They convey actual word messages like: no, one, left, behind. His cast epoxy resin pieces are carefully composed from molded real-life debris. Henry used to make large scale compositions using found objects from disused factories, which he left to return to whatever life had for them next. This glorification of the smallest weed or splinter is endearing. 

Jack Henry

Jack Henry

Jack Henry

Jack Henry

Jack Henry

Jack Henry


Honoring the artists’ visions by showing multiple works in more or less defined space is a hallmark of this gallery.  Like most of the artists, Tim Murdock is given his own space to shine. It is a varied and impressive installation including the burnt wood chunk spilling out of a small alcove. Some of those have gold leafed sides which make the pile glow like it is still burning. He glass half globes sit on metal shelves that appear as orbits.

Tim Murdoch

Tim Murdoch

Tim Murdoch


Tim Murdoch

Tim Murdoch

Tim Murdoch


Jessica McCambly’s almost impossibly delicate (also impossibly hard to photograph!) images on paper with their flowing outlined rings and gold pin points are reminiscent of The Three Body Problem. We can only protect what we have to the best of our ability.

Her partner John Oliver Lewis gives us sherbet colors that appear to be shredded playdough slabs. They are instead fired ceramics that have then been painted, or maybe more properly described as stained. These playful works are finely considered compositions.

Jessica McCambly

Jessica McCambly

John Oliver Lewis

John Oliver Lewis

John Oliver Lewis

John Oliver Lewis

Dave Kinsey, with his black-on-black constructions of wood layers with heavily troweled and rakes painted surfaced, like all the works in the show, bring out attention to the “object-ness” of art.  

Dave Kinsey

Dave Kinsey

Dave Kinsey
Afterburner
Techne Art Center
From April 27 to July 20 
1609 Ord Way, Oceanside, CA 92056
Wed-Fri 1-6pm, Sat 1-5pm
Curated by Chuck Thomas More info: 
chuckthomas@techneartcenter.com
 917.972.1752

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