60SIX presents a group exhibition “bit by bit” featuring diverse artists in a show of drawings, paintings and film.
The show highlights the film “ONFF”, a collaboration by Siivia Nonnenmacher and Jürgen Trautwein, observing our obsessions with technology and portraying our vulnerability in becoming willing addicts…as the artists write, “exploitable for perpetual digital harvest.” It is executed with a minimalist aesthetic, using simple pen and ink drawings on letter size paper. (The film is on view in the de Young open call 2023 exhibition.)
Works by Brent Willson, influenced by surrealist painters, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and Adolph Gottlieb, use childlike mark-making, pictographs, and symbols as a language of the subconscious mind. He says of his work, “My target in this ever changing landscape is an expression of individual diversity within social density.”
Leigh Barbier presents work from a series of surreal stylized narrative drawings and paintings which explore themes of transformation and healing. She says about her work: “For me, making drawings, paintings and sculpture is a simple and direct process of giving emotions form. This compulsion, along with my over-active imagination that perceives peril around every corner, drives my image making."
Toby Hill’s new series of paintings, "Where floating mountains and fog eaters meet" explores the spirit resonance of his surroundings in Anderson Valley, in minimal, exuberant washes on Japanese mulberry paper.
Isabelle Maynard’s canvases combine drawing and painting originating by her process drawing with her eyes closed, then working intuitively in the piece. This practice results in fresh marks, both bold and delicate, sometimes primitive, reflecting unbridled bodily movements.
Sally Smith presents drawings and mixed media paintings on linen and paper, created with charcoal she concocts by burning everyday things. The artist’s atypical process seems a sublimation of our political and cultural alchemical mess. In Smith’s hands the end product is a fine rhythmic order made with enigmatic materials.
Visual artist and composer Peter Whitehead presents new work from his series “Homage to homage to the square” utilizing harmonious sequences with the most elemental visual forms, layered grids of squares.
Justin Erwin presents small works on paper and wood, created with masses of tiny black dots of ink forming rich surfaces. On the raw wood the artist’s marks both respond to patterns inherent in the material and create new vibrating fields. Influences are Bruce Connor, heavy metal music and his work as a professional gardener.
