CURIOSITY: Visual Art Source Review

I'm very excited to share with you critic DeWitt Cheng's thoughtful review in Visual Art Source in response to my exhibition Curiosity at Eleanor Harwood Gallery.

CURIOSITY | New Work by Francesca Pastine at Eleanor Harwood Gallery

Mel Prest, a Bay Area artist/curator made an impromptu video of me talking about two works: The Astronaut and Solaris after Tarkovsky, which are in my show, Curiosity, at Eleanor Harwood Gallery.
Please excuse the alarm that goes off at the beginning of the video.

CURIOSITY at Eleanor Harwood Gallery

C U R I O S I T Y 

Opens January 7 from 6 to 8pm

Eleanor Harwood Gallery
1275 Minnesota Street, Suite 206
San Francisco, CA 94107

Tuesday 1-5:00pm
Wednesday – Saturday 11am-5:00pm
& by appointment
*First Saturday of every month, open until 8pm

Please Join me at Eleanor Harwood Gallery Saturday for CURIOSITY

CURIOSITY

January 7 - February 25, 2017
 
Opening reception: Saturday,
January 7 from 6 - 8pm

Eleanor Harwood Gallery
1275 Minnesota Street, Suite 206
San Francisco, CA 94107

 

Francesca Pastine strives to evoke the Romantic notion of the artist as explorer navigating vast realms of possibility. Inspired by NASA’s Mars Rover, Curiosity, and its exploration of uncharted territory on Mars, her work offers a contemporary take on the notion of Sublime, a key theme in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American art. Pastine was drawn to the rover because it is named “Curiosity” and she believes that being curious is an essential element of being an artist. Like the Mars Rover, the artist as explorer seeks to go beyond her limits and to make visible the vast landscape of her imagination.

Pastine probes the potential of material and its transformation through chance and discovery. The unpredictability of the watercolor medium allows for inspired accidents; her sculpture is informed by unexpected juxtaposition and unique contradictions. The paintings appear as otherworldly landscapes and employ visual voids and veils to represent sites of artistic ferment, the imagination, and revelation. The sculptures represent vessels and, like the rover, are of a crudeness that belies the sophistication essential for the exploration of unmapped terrain.

I am happy to be included in cut Up/cut Out at the Bedford Gallery.  The exhibit opens Sunday, December 18 from 3 to 5pm

ARTFORUM MASK SERIES, Francesca Pastine

 

 

December 18 - March 5, 2017

Organized by the Bedford Gallery and will travel nationally. 

 

This winter the Bedford Gallery presents Cut Up/Cut Out, an exhibition of local, national, and international artists who explore the captivating methods of decorative piercing and cutting, using a wide range of media from paper and plastic to metal and rubber. The transformative nature of cutting into and through a surface provides endless possibilities for converting the material from opaque to transparent, from flat to sculptural, from rigid to delicate, and from ordinary to exquisite. The process and precision required for this method of art-making is laborious, technically demanding, and always astonishing. Organized by the Bedford Gallery, Cut Up/Cut Out will travel nationally through 2020.
The art of cutting paper dates back thousands of years, with early artworks coming from 6^th century China. Originally a decorative handcraft for women, Chinese paper-cutting eventually expanded into rural areas, becoming a staple at religious ceremonies and festivals. By the 14^th century, paper-cutting spread to the rest of the world bringing in a new wave of folk art traditions. Cut Up/Cut Out honors both innovation and tradition with a selection of over 50 artists representing diverse styles and techniques.

BEDFORD gallery Lesher Center for the Arts • 1601 Civic Dr. Walnut Creek, CA 94596 925/295-1417 •galleryinfo@bedfordgallery.or

PAPER PUSHERS AT TRESTLE GALLERY

PAPER PUSHERS
TRESTLE GALLERY IN BROOKLYN
Guest Curated by Rob de Oude & Mel Prest

Opening Reception: Friday, September 23, 7-9pm
On View through November 4th.TRESTLE GALLERY

Participating Artists:
Sarah Bednarek
Hedwig Brouckaert
Joan Grubin
Nils Karsten
Paul Loughney
Francesca Pastine
Zachary Royer Scholz
Viviane Rombaldi Seppey
Oriane Stender
Lawrence Swan

    
     Taking a two-pronged approach toward the use of paper, this exhibition brings together works that are composed of re-purposed materials, applied in a rhythmic and serial manner.  On one hand the works share the choice of materials and on the other hand introduces a shared esthetic. In transforming the properties of the material the artists are employing a sculptural and/or reductive approach to the possibilities of working with paper.
     By cutting, folding, weaving, bending, collage-ing and sewing these artists explore the diverse properties and applications of paper while moving away from utilizing it’s illusionistic aspects. The manifold possibilities of paper, combined with its humble nature, make it the preferred material for a democratic and direct approach as an artist medium.

TRESTLE GALLERY
168 7th Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Contact: [718] 858 9069
trestle@brooklynartspace.org
www.trestlegallery.org
M W F 1:30-6:30pm
& by appointment
Buzz 35 to enter building

Metamorphic: Collage in the Dada/Surrealist Tradition

Metamorphic: Collage in the Dada/Surrealist Tradition
curated by DeWitt Cheng

July 16 - September 16, 2016
Reception: August 4, from 4:30 to 7:00pm

STANFORD ART SPACES

Artists: Jenny Honnert Abell, John Hundt, Catie O’Leary, Sherry Parker, Francesca Pastine and Vanessa Woods

Please see our Facebook page for directions and parking locations.

 

Time and Money #11 (detail), Time and Money Series, 2016, wood, plexiglass, New York Times pages, Mylar, 22" x 11" x  2.5"