KALEID Gallery is proud to present two new feature exhibitions by resident artists Katie C. Gutierrez, and Gianfranco Paolozzi for the month of November 2018.

Please join us for these artists' receptions on first Friday November 2nd 7pm–11pm with music by Mark Camp.

The Regeneration Show by Katie C. Gutierrez

It is okay to re-work your work.

"The Regeneration Show" is about my way of growing as an artist through experimentation and risk and building upon lessons learned over time by reworking previously finished paintings. It has been liberating to let go of– and potentially destroy– pieces that seemed complete and precious at one time but later felt amateur, stagnant, and unremarkable to me. In their previous lives, most of them have hung in galleries, some have been part of large exhibitions, and a few were the result of testing a new technique or material and things just never went any farther than that (and I probably would have otherwise thrown away). Their evolution is the result of many years of learning what not to do while embracing what could actually be possible if I allow myself to experiment with different materials, meanings, marks, forms, and failures. It was important to me that hints of their former selves were still visible through the many translucent layers of wax not only because they would simply have more depth and be more visually interesting, but they would also remind me of my own personal and artistic progress.

Texture, depth, and color (or lack of) are very important aspects of my work, and my paintings and prints are typically created from a combination of encaustic paint and medium, paper, fabric, cold wax, ink, shellac, bronze powder, mica, watercolor, and acrylic. My experience has been a mix of learning how to do things properly while simultaneously experimenting in practices that would most likely result in epic failure – and as a huge fan of the “happy accident,” something I have learned not to worry about. I love the meditative and sensory experience of working with wax. It allows me to incorporate the “messy, yet graphic” feeling that I have always been attracted to in art that I like into the art that I make.

The Roundels That Become Journals new work by Gianfranco Paolozzi

I was looking in the recycle container full of paper from flexo printing presses.
That's when I felt the passion again; round surfaces screaming to be used.
I looked at them; changing on the floor of my studio.
I had to use my marks; my moments on the surfaces as a sign of me being there.
That's when the roundels were born.
These days I consider the Roundels “memory journals”....they evolve over time, just as our memories seem to.
The "finished" date of the Roundels are a date of abandonment rather than completion.

Gianfranco was born in a small Italian village in 1952, he was always an artist and musician. He remembers creating art and drawing pieces from as early as preschool, he got his prized accordion at the age of 9. As a young man in the 60s, he sold 2 oil on canvas paintings to pay for a vacation around Italy with friends and then he experimented with photographs. After his Italian military duty, he followed the love of his life to America in 1972, married her and had 3 children. The 80s was a full of shows around Silicon Valley. Also in the 80s was his first piece of the collagements series with photographs on plexiglass. The 90s brought solo shows. In the 2000s he really began to expand his presence in San Jose's illustrious art and music scene. Presently he has officially switched the title of all pieces of art, past and present, to "Journal" because they are forever evolving until they are sold. He formed the Paolozzi Tango Trio that plays all over Silicon Valley with Gianfranco on the Accordion and the composer, Nancy on the Piano, and Griff on the Violin and Viola.

Artists' reception: first Friday November 2nd 7pm–11pm with music by Mark Camp.
Part of the South FIRST FRIDAYS ArtWalkSJ

Exhibition dates: November 2–24, 2018

KALEID Gallery
88 S. 4th St.
downtown San Jose

Gallery hours: Tuesdays –Saturdays 12pm–7pm & first Fridays til 11pm.
Free admission.