At a Glance: Nancy Rubins
Who: UC Davis Alumna Nancy Rubins
What: Sculpture in the City, London
When: Through April 2020
Where: Square Mile, London
Printmaking in the region, and more alumni art
If your travels take you this summer, or through 2020, to London, check out Nancy Rubins: “Crocodylius Philodendrus” at London’s Sculpture in the City. Her piece “Crocodylius Philodendrus” is one of 19 sculptural pieces featured in the annual urban sculpture park that takes place in London’s Square Mile park. Rubins received her MFA from UC Davis in 1976.
As described on the Sculpture in the City website, “Crocodylius Philodendrus" is “... part of her series Diversifolia — which in the scientific names of plants indicates a single species possessed with a considerable variety of leaf.” The site describes Rubins’ sculptures as “... bouquet-like arrangements (composed of a) variety of animal forms that explode into space in all directions.”
Her sculptures are a balancing act, using “a structural property called ‘tensegrity,’ wherein individual parts are arranged in balanced compression and secured with tensile cables, that galvanizes the aluminum crocodiles, hogs and deer, cast iron tortoises, and bronze zebras into purely formal, abstract components as they propel into space due to their aggregate momentum.”
Rubins' sculpture will be on display through April 2020.
Rubins discusses her metallic sculptures, many of which are found objects, in this video.
https://www.sculptureinthecity.org.uk/visit/
Coming up:
What a Relief — Printmaking Workshops in Woodland and Sacramento
Aspiring Yolo County printmakers can take refuge from the summer heat and hone their artistic abilities. A two-day summer printmaking workshop offered by YoloArts and Myrtle Press gives participants the opportunity to create their own relief print blocks. The teachers, Myrtle Press printmakers Dixie Laws and Jess Gaines, will then guide students in making a collection of prints and greeting cards.
The first session (Wednesday, Aug. 7, 9 a.m. to noon) will be held at the Barn Gallery Woodland and the second session (Saturday, Aug. 10, 9 a.m. to noon) will be held at the Myrtle Press workshop in Sacramento. The workshop costs $80 ($70 for YoloArts members) and is open to all experience levels and all ages 12+. Prospective printmakers can purchase tickets to the workshop, which is limited to 15 participants.
Gallery 625 presents Light & Color
Light & Color features the oil paintings of Jerry DeCamp and mixed media works of Thelma Weatherford. The show opens Friday, Aug. 2 at YoloArts' Gallery 625 in Woodland.
Former studio partners and longtime friends, Weatherford and DeCamp are showing their work together for the second time. They both create landscapes using different techniques — Weatherford with wax encaustic; DeCamp with classic oil painting technique.
"Sometimes our paintings are very close to each other's (work), sometimes amazingly close, even when we have not seen what the other is doing," said DeCamp.
DeCamp began his study of painting at the Chicago Art Institute, later earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree at UC Davis (art history, art studio). His Regents fellowships allowed him to work in Italy, and with various artists, including UC Davis faculty, lecturers and alumni. Those notables include Roland Peterson, David Hollowell, Cornelia Schulz, Jeff Ruda and Seymour Howard. UC Davis Professor Emeritus Wayne Thiebaud has been "a great inspiration and support" for DeCamp. Currently DeCamp is a lecturer at the Olli Institute, UC Davis and the International House and will be showing his work at the Gallerie Etienne de Causans in Paris this fall. DeCamp is a member of the visual arts faculty at Pioneer High School in Woodland.
Weatherford is a long-time resident of northern California and started as a self-taught artist, and later studied at Sacramento City College in addition to studying art in art workshops and classes at local colleges and art centers on the west coast. According to her artist statement her work is "inspired by nature, the environment, and my observation of the world ... creative energy comes from trees, plants, autumn leaves, water, mountains, beaches, and cityscapes." Weatherford uses oil and cold wax and encaustics in processes that create interesting texture and mark-making.
"I asked Jerry to do this show with me because his work is creative and pushes the viewer to think beyond traditional landscape. This is something we have in common, and it makes for a very interesting show," Weatherford said in a recent statement.
The artists will be attending the opening reception, 5:30-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2, coinciding with the downtown Woodland First Friday Art Walk, and hosted by YoloArts board members, Debra Gonella and Julie Salley. The jazz duo of Tom Peron and Steve Homan will provide the music.
The upstairs gallery will feature art works of forty Pioneer High School Advanced Placement art students of Jerry DeCamp. The show will include acrylic paintings, mixed media and drawings.
Gallery 625 hosts new exhibitions and First Friday receptions every other month. Exhibitions open on the First Fridays of February, April, June, August, October and December.
Light & Color continues at Gallery 625 through Oct. 1.
Gallery 625 is located at 625 Court Street in Woodland, in Yolo County's Erwin Meier Administration building and is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment. For more information contact YoloArts at 530-309-6464.