For Immediate
Release
Piercing the Mundane
- New Works by Steven
Dobbin
What the Birds Saw -
Drawings by Melissa
Murray
Opening at Causey
Contemporary this
April
Brooklyn, NY - Causey
Contemporary is pleased to announce the opening of Piercing the
Mundane, Steven Dobbin's fourth solo exhibition with the gallery on April
15, 2011. On the same day, the gallery will also introduce the drawings of
Melissa Murray in her first exhibition at the gallery , What the Birds
Saw. Mr. Dobbin's exhibition will feature his mixed media
paintings and sculpture created from found objects while Ms. Murray's show
will focus on her realistic drawings in graphite, colored pencil and gouache.
Both exhibitions will open with an artist's reception on April 15 from 6
- 9 p.m. The public is invited to attend. Additionally, the exhibitions
may be viewed until May 15th during normal gallery hours: Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m - 7
p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. And Mon. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Piercing the Mundane,
the title of Steven Dobbin's upcoming exhibition at Causey Contemporary comes
from a Bill Moyers quotation, "creativity is piercing the mundane to find
the marvelous." Mr. Dobbin believes that the most mundane of objects:
nails, old paint cans and their lids, old buckets etc have the inherent ability
to be given new life by the person who can see them and indeed use them in a new
way. He thus explores such objects use in his sculpture and in his
paintings recombining these objects with other materials to create something
new. This latest series continues on from his previous "Reclamation"
series of the past two years in the use of old paint cans and their lids.
Additionally, this series also re- approaches Steven's previous investigations
of self
identity.
Steven Dobbin is a sculptor
working in lead, copper, and steel with plaster and pigment. He has received his
degrees from Indiana University, The University of Southern California, and
George Washington University in Fine Arts, Ceramics, and Education. He resides
in Western Maryland. Since 2006, he has taught at the Frederick High School in
Frederick, Maryland where he started a program to teach life skills to
intellectually disabled students and was named special educator of the year in
Frederick County. Prior to this he taught at the Phillips School for
Contemporary Education where he developed an arts program for severely
emotionally disturbed children.
His conceptually based creations have
appeared in group exhibitions at the Monmouth Museum in Linton , NJ, The
University Art Gallery of Catholic University in Washington, D.C., Goucher
College in Baltimore, MD, Rockville, Maryland, The Bridge Art Fairs in Chicago,
New York and London, at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center, the Artist's Gallery
/ Blue Elephant Studios in Frederick, Maryland, the Artist's Museum in
Washington DC, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Occidental College, and
the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, at the Pasadena Armory
Center for the Arts in California, the Heritage Museum, and the Meyers/ Bloom
Gallery in Santa Monica,
CA.
His solo exhibition
credits include Causey Contemporary (formerly Ch'i), the Artist's Gallery and
Blue Elephant Studios in Frederick, MD, Millennium Art Center in Washington DC,
Meyers / Bloom Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, the Helen Lindhurst Gallery at USC,
Los Angeles, CA, and the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center where his show received
the Meredith Springer award for exceptional artists who have contributed to the
arts community in Frederick, Maryland. In 2009, he won the
Individual Artist Award for Excellence in Sculpture from the Maryland State
Council of the Arts.
Steven Dobbin's permanent installation,
"Labyrinth of Remembrance" on the grounds of the Phillips School in Laurel, MD,
was published in the Baltimore Sun, on WBLA TV, the NBC Affiliate Channel 25 in
Maryland, and Tolerance.org, a project of the southern poverty law center. In
addition, Steven Dobbin has been published in the Arlington Connection,
Washington Post, The Frederick Gazette, Channel 51, and the Los Angeles Times.
Steven Dobbin's sculptures are in collections throughout the United States and
the UK.
What the Birds Saw by Melissa Murray marking the
artist's first solo exhibition with Causey Contemporary features Ms. Murray's
realistically rendered drawings in graphite, colored pencil and occasionally
gouache. In this body of work, Melissa is exploring the realm of
subconsciousness in both dreaming and waking life, tapping into primal, raw
emotions and the visual associations that follow. Animals appear in the
drawings as the players on the stage. Worlds in black and white or color,
and shifting perspectives create different planes within the drawings which
Melissa' hopes will express different thoughts in time. She borrows her
imagery from everyday experiences of love, suffering, tragedy and hope.
Melissa Murray's work has previously appeared in group exhibitions
at the Arc Gallery at MOSI Museum in Tampa, Fl., ArtPrize 2011 in Grand Rapids,
MI., the Target Gallery in Alexandria, VA., at Fuse Gallery, Headquarters and
Chashama in New York, NY and at Causey Contemporary, AdHoc Art and 3rd
Ward in Brooklyn, NY. Her first solo exhibition was at Zahra's in Beacon,
NY. Ms. Murray's work has also been published and or reviewed in Juxtapoz
Magazine, Beautiful Decay Magazine, Art Czar and the NY Arts Magazine.
Melissa Murray's What the Birds Saw and Steven Dobbin's Piercing
the Mundane will open with artists' receptions on April 15 from 6 - 9 p.m.
The Public is invited. Both exhibitions will then run through May 15,
2011 with viewing during normal gallery hours. For more information on
these exhibitions or either artist contact Causey Contemporary at 718 218 8939
or via email at
info@causeycontemporary.com
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