Directed by Delene Hessinger
Curated by Brennan Adair Afana

Featuring a selection of works by Jonah Ward & Barry Peterson

Artist Jonah Ward creates works of art that, in their most literal form, are compellingly aesthetic; in their most metaphorical, they are a testament to our always relevant interaction with the natural world.

Jonah’s works are as much a product of his education as his background—born on Foster Mountain in Willits, California, raised on a historic homestead at the end of red dirt roads, and educated in a one-room schoolhouse. Through his art he continues to cultivate his dialogue with nature. While requiring sustained physical interaction with natural materials, Jonah’s works are also paradoxically devoid of his literal touch or imprint. He acts more as a facilitator—harnessing natural processes and phenomena, while also according them their proper respect for their capacity for both incommensurable beauty and destruction.

Artist Barry Peterson has attended a long list of universities in the Midwest and on the West Coast, where he studied Art of various media along with Physics, Botany, Marine Biology and Architecture. Despite all this, he pretty much considers himself a self-taught artist, as he claims most of his learning has occurred in his own practice. 
 
For his current series of aerial photography Barry states: “I have never had the urge to photograph things I find visually appealing--it always seems an odd homage and a poor recording of what is usually a spatial and dynamic experience. Photography by nature is graphic and frozen. So much of the actual visual experience is lost in its conversion to pixels or paper. And yet some things are heightened by this conversion."

Click here to see additional artwork from this exhibition

Photography by Alyson Goulden