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.