Prrototype David Fought and Eileen Starr Moderbacher

Dates: April 10 to May 17
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 19, 1-4pm
First Friday: March 7, 5-8pm
770 West Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94612
Contact: [email protected]

Homepage

(510) 271-0822
Gallery Hours: Thursdays-Saturdays, 12-5 pm and First Fridays, 5-8 pm
Gearbox Gallery is proud to present Prototype, an exhibition of new work by guest artist David Fought and member artist Eileen Starr Moderbacher. Fought creates sculptures with metal rods and plaster that arise from his engagement with the physical world in a quest to uncover the authentic object. Starr Moderbacher’s acrylic and water stick paintings on paper affixed to panel are vibrant compositions that celebrate the emotive nature of color.

In the artists’ words: “In our individual art practices we reach for a unique small part, a sliver or a wisp of what is often un-articulable, or un-worded. Using aspects of color, hue, value, shape, line, mass, surface, etc. as if they are actual art materials, we (each of us) find meaning. The result of putting our work side by side invites a step even further. Our work merged here, in this room, is a unique piece of work unto itself. It is an only of its kind. It is a one-off. It is a PROTOTYPE.”

Inspired by the mass-produced infrastructure around us, like concrete rain gutters or steel girders that support a freeway, Fought’s sculptures are deep studies of surface and gesture. Fought creates forms that are at once unknown and familiar. In the artist’s words: “I study surfaces to divine what’s underneath, to understand what gives objects their presence.”

Starr Moderbacher creates sweeping paintings that organize complex marks and color families within an underlying sense of design. While presenting the viewer with un-named forms, her paintings draw from her deep knowledge of painting from life. Organic forms appear backlit in front of an otherworldly sky, and brushstrokes evoke a tactile sensation.

All are welcome to join us for the Opening Reception celebrating a decade of presenting contemporary art in Oakland. Stop in anytime Saturday, April 19th, 1-4pm to greet the artists and enjoy the light refreshments. Free street parking in the nearby neighborhood.
Quotes about the artists:

David Fought:

This exhibit brings to light the keenly thought, beautifully made abstract sculptures of San Francisco artist David Fought.
— Kenneth Baker (San Francisco Chronicle)

The formalism of yore, once considered mainstream, but now seen by some as woefully out of date, gets refreshed in the sculptures of David Fought. The works, with their rounded, looping forms, despite their just-the-facts titles (“Rounded Parallelogram, Rectangle 1”), are little miracles of craftsmanship and poetry, with 2D lines and 3D planes in constant oscillation.
— DeWitt Cheng ((East Bay Express)

Fought explores perception, time, and the brain’s form-creating proclivities with spare sculptures deriving from geometric abstraction and Minimalism. “5 Wire Objects” and “5 Crosswire Fills” are, respectively, wall-mounted and pedestal-mounted polygonal constructions of metal rod, plaster, paint and lighting that initially resemble half-assembled kites, tents, or butterfly chairs. Move around them, however, and they change shape. Shadows turn out to be drawn lines, and vice versa. Convex flips into concave, presence into absence. The spatial/optical play recalls Cubism and later works by Josef Albers, Al Held, and Richard Tuttle.
— DeWitt Cheng (East Bay Express)

There’s a pleasing little synaptic pop that occurs when you look at David Fought’s metal and plaster sculptures. Maybe it’s because they play with dimensions. The sharp geometric shapes often look as if they should be two-dimensional line drawings, inscribed directly on a white gallery wall, but then you step to one side and their mass becomes apparent. Nothing psychedelic here, just good clean optical illusion, or what Fought calls “inviting the subtle clues of objecthood in these works to come forward.”
— Tracy Vogel (San Francisco Weekly)

The sculptures by David Fought present an abstract architecture of form, volume, line, and surface. The planes we are asked to consider and examine swoop, converge, and coalesce into beautiful monochromatic fields interrupted at perfect intervals by the rudeness of a gorgeous bit of rust. The metal rods make lines that focus our attention on the armature and framework of the sculpture, at the same time lending support and definition to the plaster.
— Kolaj Magazine

Eileen Starr Moderbacher:

“In 2018 Eileen Starr Moderbacher began devoting her paintings to abstract imagery; she has found a home in abstraction. Moderbacher’s previous paintings made use of stylized tropes from traditional abstraction, but she has let go of overt representation, preferring the freedom she finds in metaphor. Colorful, whimsical rhythms and shapes dance across the surface, leading viewers into varying worlds of Moderbacher’s fancy.”
— Sally Elesby, Professor at California College of the Arts

“ Throughout her artistic career, the artwork of Eileen Starr Moderbacher has been in constant motion, luring viewers into her worlds with a blend of sublime beauty and bold choices partnered with an exciting allusion to the unknown. Her newest abstract works spring from their roots in her earlier representational pieces, carrying with them not only the vitality and beauty but a subtle narrative sensibility that intrigues and inspires.”
— Julie McCray, owner of SHOH GALLERY

770 West Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94612
Contact: [email protected]

Homepage

(510) 271-0822
Gallery Hours: Thursdays-Saturdays, 12-5 pm and First Fridays, 5-8 pm