Bellevue Art Museum presents recent work of West Coast painter Darren Waterston, as well as an exploration of his relationship with legendary ceramicist and mentor Beatrice Wood. These two exhibitions, Darren Waterston: Scapes and Darren Waterston and Beatrice Wood: A personal Alchemy will open on January 14 and run through April 20, 2002. Bellvue Art Museum Curator Ginger Gregg Duggan has organized these exhibitions.
Darren Waterston: Scapes
This exhibition will examine Waterston’s recent work in terms of his reliance on a system of visual mapping resulting in otherworldly scapes referencing the body, architecture, and even urban design. Focusing on his more abstract work created since 2001, and featuring his most recent explorations, the installation will highlight the multiple layers of these non-traditional landscapes—from the sensory richness of the background surface, to the miniaturist detail of the portal/orb/cell forms and every layer of glazing in between.
Darren Waterston and Beatrice Wood: A Personal Alchemy
As an extension to Scapes, Darren Waterston explores his mentorship/relationship with Beatrice Wood in a unique and intimate manner in this exhibition. In a personal attempt to examine the ways in which his experiences with the late “Mama of Dada” influenced his life and work, Waterston will created a site-specific installation for Bellevue Art Museum. In Wood’s vessels. His work in oil paint can be likened to Wood’s ceramic glazes and the shapes and symbols addition to this wall work, a selection of early paintings has been paired with the artist’s personal collection of found in Waterston’s compositions can be compared to Wood’s amorphous figures and shapes. The work of both Waterston and Wood share a mutual love of experimentation.
“The most profound impact that Beatrice had on my life was spiritual in nature. She introduced me to many of the world’s great mystical traditions and teachings . . . The insights that I began to have revealed to me the potential for art to be used as a transcendent medium, for the maker and consequently for the viewer. Paint was now infused with new possibility,” states Waterston.
Support for Darren Waterston: Scapes and Darren Waterston and Beatrice Wood: A Personal Alchemy has been generously given by USbank.
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