Sanchez Art Center is pleased to present three new exhibitions that will run July 16–August 15, 2021.

There will be a reception on opening night, Friday, July 16, 7–9 pm, with music by Jamey “The Breeze” Brzezinski.

In the Main Gallery, Gregory Farrar Scott will exhibit work from his mixed media Urban Mask series, as well as other works. Titled Welcome To My World, Scott’s show is curated by Susan Hillhouse Leask.

In the East Gallery, the California Society of Printmakers (CSP) will share work on the theme of Extraction: Response to the Changing World Environment, from their continuing participation in the global art project, Extraction: Art at the Edge of the Abyss.

In West Gallery, the Art Guild of Pacifica will present a group show on the theme Restructured.

Throughout these exhibitions, community members may share their thoughts in The Climate Ribbon, a global storytelling ritual for hope and healing.

Sculptor Gregory Farrar Scott has the gift of bringing unrelated things together in new creations. In his artist’s vision, he sees how disparate things could fit together and become something entirely new, and once they have become this new thing, the viewer says, “Oh, of course!” and wouldn’t want to see the component parts separated, but only together, because the fit is so perfect and the new thing is so charming and so entirely its own being. As the artist tells it, he has always done this, combined things in unusual ways. An early example—as a three-year-old, he covered the white exterior of his family’s refrigerator with chocolate sauce. It must have just seemed right.

Later on, in art school he left some used bike helmets hanging on the wall, realized they looked like faces, and the mask project was born. Scott now has a collection of over 100 masks. Some became animal faces, some became odd techie visages, possible sci-fi characters, or sly references to how we live—remember hoarding toilet paper in the first weeks of the pandemic? A junior slinky becomes, of course, a baby elephant’s trunk. Simplicity is key. Scott’s work is undeniably fun, but there is serious inquiry as well, into questions of identity, self-knowledge, and self-presentation. As the artist says: “A mask can be anything and anything can be a mask.”

Curator Susan Hillhouse Leask says she was drawn to Scott’s artwork for several reasons, including “his sophisticated understanding of contemporary art and art history, and his passion for excellence.” Leask also appreciates that he thinks of our fragile environment in considering his materials, so that discarded items that would likely have ended up in a landfill instead become fine art.

After receiving a BFA from Kent State University in 1977, Scott began his art career as an illustrator and graphic designer, specializing in logo and T-shirt designs. In 2008, with a view to focusing more on his personal artwork, he returned to school and earned an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His work now includes sculpture, drawing, photography, experimental video, and as he says, “the ever-expanding genre known as works-on-paper.” This includes the wonderful potato and sweet potato printed paper works in this exhibit. Scott has exhibited at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History; SOMArts, San Francisco; Fibre Arts Gallery, Palo Alto; Arc Gallery, San Francisco; and Projects Gallery in Philadelphia, as well as in New York City, Grand Rapids, and Houston. He first showed work at Sanchez Art Center in 2010, when his entry in the juried show Arts on Fire XIV earned him a Juror’s Award of Merit from guest juror Philip E. Linhares, then Chief Art Curator at the Oakland Museum of California.

Join Gregory Scott Farrar and curator Susan Hillhouse Leask for a free Artist/Curator Talk on Sunday, August 15 at 3:30 pm, to be held in the Main Gallery.

The California Society of Printmakers (CSP) has taken on the task of commenting artistically on the environmental disasters stemming from the way humans have extracted various ores and metals from the earth. CSP hopes to make a difference in how we collectively view this destruction and participate in it. This is difficult, even tricky territory to explore, but then artists have always been at the forefront of necessary change, and CSP’s exhibit in East Gallery, titled Extraction: Response to the Changing World Environment, proves that these artists are up to the challenge of serving as messengers with purpose as they continue to explore new directions in contemporary print methods. Etching, monoprint, monotype, encaustic monotype, photopolymer, reduction woodcut—these are just some of the media used. The content of these works is incredibly moving, often expressing our collective grief at all the losses. Summer Ventis used oil-based ink flocked with ash from the California wildfires. Sylvia Solochek Walters mourns with us the loss of whole species in her woodcut Vince’s Horn. Vince was a white rhino, shot and killed for his horn in a private Parisian game reserve. Donna Day Westerman’s Log Pile, another reduction woodcut, captures layers of loss in a single telling image.

This show is part of CSP’s ongoing participation in a global art phenomenon titled Extraction: Art at the Edge of the Abyss, a worldwide endeavor with hopes of “raising a ruckus” and instigating change in humanity’s relationship with the earth. As SAC Executive Director Cindy Abbott stated, “Sanchez Art Center is thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with CSP on this exhibition, which emphasizes the escalating need for the community to address the impacts of our changing climate, stemming from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, including sea level rise.”

Showing concurrently In West Gallery, the Art Guild of Pacifica’s group show explores the theme of Restructured. The exhibition may include many interpretations of this theme, such as changing the way something is organized, imagining a new structure, or creating an innovative plan. New ideas and fresh perspectives will abound!

Throughout these exhibitions, community members may add their thoughts to The Climate Ribbon, a global storytelling ritual for hope and healing. What will you miss due to the climate crisis and environmental degradation? Share your thoughts in this community project that helps us move from climate grief to climate action. Visit TheClimateRibbon.org for more information.

Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd in Pacifica, about a mile east of Highway 1. Our safety protocol aligns with the State and San Mateo County, welcoming fully vaccinated guests without masks and respecting all who continue to feel more comfortable wearing one.
Drop in during regular gallery hours, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm, or make a free appointment to visit Thursday afternoons, 1–5 pm, at SanchezArtCenter.10to8.com. For more information: SanchezArtCenter.org, info@sanchezartcenter.org, 650-355-1894.