International Encaustic Artists: MM Galleries

IEA's Here and Now: Encaustics and Time exhibit has been written up in an article at absolutearts at http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2007/07/23/34595.html

Here is the article:

"Here and Now - Encaustics and Time"
2007-07-21 until 2007-08-25
MMGalleries
San Francisco, CA, USA United States of America

MMGalleries in collaboration with the International Encaustic Artists presents: Here and Now - Encaustics and Time, July 21 to August 25, 2007, a juried art exhibit hosted by MMGalleries and organized in co-operation with International Encaustic Artists. Here and Now - Encaustics and Time is a group show featuring a breadth of contemporary encaustic works. Twenty artists from all over the United States have been selected for this show by a 3-person panel of judges. Their works range from abstract to figurative, and include some sculptural pieces as well. The show aims at illustrating the infinite versatility and the contemporary appeal of encaustics, an art form continually reinvented as artists explore their visual expression. The sensuous surfaces, richly applied materials, and dynamic colors in these works present updated takes on a millennium-old technique, and in several instances, synthesize the newest in design with a venerated traditional practice.

Textured, thick, shiny, translucent, colorful, subtle, engaging, encaustic is a cutting edge medium, yet millenniums old. Made of beeswax, tree resin, and pigments melted together on a heated palette, it is then applied in layers on a wooden panel. Each layer is then fused to the next. The process is time consuming, but provides infinite possibilities of expression. The earliest known examples of artifacts made of tempered beeswax and pigments, are a series of portraits from 350 BC, excavated from the Egyptian village of Fayum, that were meant to identify the people inside the sarcophagi. The Fayum portraits are now in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, their colors as vivid as if they had been created yesterday, because beeswax is an organic, preservative medium.

Artists included in the exhibition are: Natasia Chan (OR), Eileen Goldenberg (CA), Ruth Gooch (CA), Regina Herod (CA), Howard Hersh (CA), Nikkole Huss (IL), Lauren Lipinski Eisen (CO), Laura Moriarty (NY), Susan Najarian (WA), Carol Paxton Juliano (CA), David Price (WA), Susan Joan Schenk (NE), Patricia Seggebruch (WA), Adele Shaw (CA), Gail Steinberg (CA), Sheary C. Suiter (AK), Rodney Thompson (CA), Tina Vietmeier (CA), Gary Voss (CO), Daniella Woolf (WA).

International Encaustic Artists is a non-profit organization of 100 artists. Their mission includes introducing the myriad varieties of contemporary encaustic work to the public.

Here are notes and photos submitted by IEA Board Member, Eileen Goldenberg:

The Opening for the show at MM Galleries, "Here and Now: Encaustics and Time" was great! Lots of interested people showed up as well as many of the artists and members of IEA. There was diversity in technique, everything from figurative work (Regina Herod), to bright color (Eileen P. Goldenberg), to sculptural pieces (Laura Moriarty). The Gallery is a big space, and it looked wonderful. There were a few sales, and we all talked to lots of people.

IEA President Gail Steinberg led a general meeting afterwards and a few people talked about the benefits of membership, and a couple of people wrote checks to renew right there!

Please stop by to see the show and bring friends..MM Galleries, 101 Townsend St. #207, San Francisco, CA. The exhibit runs from July 21, 2007 through August 25, 2007.