Gray Loft Gallery ~ Abstractions! Closing Reception

Celebrate Oakland Art Month with us!

&

Join us Saturday for the closing of Abstractions!

Paintings by Simone Simon, sculpture by Peter Dreyfuss

Join us for the Closing Reception for
Abstractions - new work by five artists
Simone Simon, Peter Dreyfuss, Jennifer LaPierre,
Irene Imfeld and Andrea Wedell

Closing reception: Saturday, May 18, 4:00 – 6:30 pm

We hope you will join us in this celebration on Saturday when we close Abstractions, a stellar group exhibit of new work by five Bay Area artists which includes painting, photography and sculpture.

 DeWitt Cheng wrote about the show in his East Bay Express Staff Pick article:

"Abstraction with references to nature and life is back with the powerful New York exhibition of Hilma af Klint’s pioneering spiritual paintings. Abstractions at Gray Loft Gallery features five local artists — painters Jennifer LaPierre, Simone Simon, and Andrea Wedell; photographer Irene Imfeld; and sculptor Peter Dreyfuss — who use abstraction to distill visual, physical, and maybe metaphysical sensations into color and form, without the stumbling blocks of identifiable objects. LaPierre and Wedell find their poetically allusive landscape/skyscape images through painting, giving sway to instinct and imagination. Simon combines a monochromatic Chinese-painting palette with the brushless freedom of post-painterly abstraction in her poured-pigment canvases. Imfeld superimposes floral photographic motifs to create scaleless, infinite fields of energy. Dreyfuss creates steel sculptures with the mass, energy, and organic form of Abstract Expressionist paintings, along with elegantly geometric, machined-looking works."

We hope you will join us on Saturday!

Sculpture by Peter Dreyfuss

Painting by Simone Simon

Painting by Jennifer LaPierre

Photograph by Irene Imfeld

Painting by Andrea Wedell

Thanks to all the art lovers who joined us for our first annual Art Route Oakland!
It was a blast, and we met so many enthusiastic people who came by to not only see our show, but  to check out many great galleries Oakland has to offer.
Prizes will be chosen soon.
Check out our Facebook page, and the Art Route Oakland  website for updates.
Hope you will join us next year!

 
Celebrate Oakland Art Month!  Celebrate ART!

In the news! 

Read DeWitt Cheng's East Bay Express Staff Pick review of the show here.
Read an article in BARTABLE about Jingletown here.
Click here to read Mary Corbin's article "Is Oakland Really Still an Artist’s City?"
And last, check out #22 in  Best 25 Things to do in Oakland in VacationIdea.com!

ABOUT  GRAY  LOFT  GALLERY

Gray Loft Gallery - voted "Best Art Gallery"  two years in a row - 2016  & 2017 - in the Oakland Magazine Readers' Choice Award - has promoted the rich art culture of Jingletown and the greater Bay Area for 7 years. The gallery has been referred to as a hidden gem in Jingletown, and noted by Kenneth Baker, former SF Chronicle Art Critic, in his Visual Arts Don’t Miss Column as “…A space gaining prominence in the Bay Area…”   The mission of the gallery is to provide exhibition opportunities for artists in a setting that is an alternative to the traditional gallery model. We hope to inspire, engage and celebrate artists in our community and beyond.  We acknowledge the achievements of emerging, mid-career and established artists – with an emphasis on those who live and work in the Bay Area – in a non-traditional art space. A number of artists began their art career at Gray Loft Gallery.
 
“I have always enjoyed this gallery, superb atmosphere and lighting. The polished and worn hardwood floors creek slightly in places as you climb to the third floor, providing a granular and unique, organic aesthetic. This is a do-not-miss venue in the East Bay.”  –  Facebook Review

      

   

          

GRAY LOFT GALLERY
is a proud member of the Oakland Art Murmur, Jingletown Arts and Business Association,  Oakland Grown and the San Francisco Art Dealers Association

(if you are interested in work that we have in our collection, please email us to set up a time to stop by. Please see website for available works.)

Our mailing address is:
Gray Loft Gallery

2889 Ford Street, third floor

Oakand, CA 94601

DIRECTIONS Thank you to our supporters!

Celebrate Oakland Art Month with us!

 FIRST ANNUAL
ART ROUTE OAKLAND!

This is the last weekend of Art Route Oakland!

This event is a free, art filled activity for all ages held during Oakland Art Month. Follow the official Art Route Map and explore galleries and art venues throughout Oakland. Collect stamps along your way and enter to win fabulous prizes from $250 to $1,500 good toward original artwork, a hotel get-away, fine dining and more!
 
HOW  TO  PLAY: 
Pick up your official Art Route Oakland Map at any of more than 30 participating venues starting Friday May 3rd. Bring your map with you as you visit venues around the city, receiving a stamp for each venue along your route.  Continue to get your map stamped and submit it to a participating Art Route Oakland venue by 5pm on Saturday, May 11th.
 
Visit Gray Loft Gallery and others in our area these dates:
 
Second Friday
May 10th, 6-9pm 
 
Last day to play! Saturday Stroll
May 11th, noon-5pm!
 
Please check the Art Route Oakland website for participating galleries and schedules.
Click here for prize details. 
Click here for full contest rules.  
We hope you come out to visit the awesome galleries
we have in Oakland, play ARO, and win!
Celebrate Oakland Art Month!  Celebrate ART!

Paintings by Simone Simon, sculpture by Peter Dreyfuss

Join us for the 2nd Friday Jingletown Reception for
Abstractions - new work by five artists
Simone Simon, Peter Dreyfuss, Jennifer LaPierre,
Irene Imfeld and Andrea Wedell

2nd Friday Jingletown Reception, May 10, 6 – 9 pm
Closing reception: Saturday, May 18, 4:00 – 6:30 pm

Our current exhibit is Abstractions - on view only until May 18th - is an exhibit of new work by five Bay Area artists which includes painting, photography and sculpture.
May is Oakland Art Month!
We hope you will come by and help us support local artists! 

In the news! 
Read DeWitt Cheng's East Bay Express Staff Pick review of the show here.
Read a great article in BARTABLE about Jingletown here.
Click here to read Mary Corbin's article about  the Oakland Art Scene and gentrification.
And last, check out #25 in  Best 25 Things to do in Oakland in VacationIdea.com!

Simone Simon
The paintings become arenas where light and gesture are gathered and stored. As the poured paint drives across the canvas, the currents imprint some places, and wash others away. Accidental opticals occur, revealing surprises. The ephemeral becomes an informant. Light delivers information, and the luminosity brings attention to other dimensional aspects, making the unseen, seen.  Simon studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she worked under her mentor, Hassel Smith. She completed her BFA and MFA at SFAI.    

Peter Dreyfuss
Working primarily with steel, Dreyfuss creates sculpture inspired by echoes of Bauhaus, cubism, and abstract expressionism.  He has been a steel sculptor for 18 years, primarily self-taught. His art, both in steel and paint, is abstract and non-representational. Beginning with a concept, he allows the materials and processes to lead him, with gestural and hand-drawn shapes emerging to produce a balance between intention and imagination.

     

Jennifer LaPierre
Her art is continually evolving and created without narrative but a response to the process, finding a grace in the fluid nature of these recent works.  Deconstructing the traditional figure, transitional and contemporary form, she is enamored with the boundaries of cohesion and tension.  Rooted in a graphic design background with a love of typography and calligraphy, expression of line influences her.  Receiving an atmospheric and intrinsic reaction, these pieces are reflective of our land healing from our recent fires with regrowth and a new compassion and memory. This body of work celebrates resilience.          

Irene Imfeld
By abstracting depictions of nature, Imfeld allows her images freedom of reference and interpretation without dwelling on what is shown and where it is. Composed in camera and later adjusted in Photoshop, her images retain much of their original natural form. Her process causes a reduction of recognition but not of complexity. By altering the tonal values and sometimes combining multiple exposures, the subject is shown in a way that is true but different from what we usually observe.     

Andrea Wedell
Wedell seeks out rich experience above all other life pursuits; the impulse to uncover internalized moments, and to revisit them, stimulates her impulse to paint.  By juxtaposing layer after layer of a rich color and allowing it to shift as the light and mood changes enhances the theatricality of her work.  She thin layers, opaque ones, scribbled pencil lines, bold strokes, soft ones, and value changes, often destroying the work, then starting over. she draws on a variety of painting techniques including brushed gestures, cold wax applied with brayers, and paint spread with her hands, building on a changing sense of harmony, evolving her visual vocabulary, all in search of a deeper meaning that will connect her to something larger.       

ABOUT  GRAY  LOFT  GALLERY

Gray Loft Gallery - voted "Best Art Gallery"  two years in a row - 2016  & 2017 - in the Oakland Magazine Readers' Choice Award - has promoted the rich art culture of Jingletown and the greater Bay Area for 7 years. The gallery has been referred to as a hidden gem in Jingletown, and noted by Kenneth Baker, former SF Chronicle Art Critic, in his Visual Arts Don’t Miss Column as “…A space gaining prominence in the Bay Area…”   The mission of the gallery is to provide exhibition opportunities for artists in a setting that is an alternative to the traditional gallery model. We hope to inspire, engage and celebrate artists in our community and beyond.  We acknowledge the achievements of emerging, mid-career and established artists – with an emphasis on those who live and work in the Bay Area – in a non-traditional art space. A number of artists began their art career at Gray Loft Gallery.

“I have always enjoyed this gallery, superb atmosphere and lighting. The polished and worn hardwood floors creek slightly in places as you climb to the third floor, providing a granular and unique, organic aesthetic. This is a do-not-miss venue in the East Bay.”  –  Facebook Review
 

   

           

GRAY LOFT GALLERY
is a proud member of the Oakland Art Murmur, Jingletown Arts and Business Association,  Oakland Grown and the San Francisco Art Dealers Association
Hours:  closed until February 16th
(However, if you are interested in work that we have in our collection, please email us to set up a time to stop by. Please see website for available works.)
2889 Ford Street, third floor, Oakland CA 94601

DIRECTIONS Thank you to our supporters!

Our mailing address is: Gray Loft Gallery

2889 Ford Street, third floor

Oakland, CA 94601

Art Route Oakland!

Celebrate Oakland Art Month with us!

 FIRST ANNUAL
ART ROUTE OAKLAND!

You are invited to join other art lovers like you at the first annual Art Route Oakland!   This event is a free, art filled activity for all ages held during Oakland Art Month. Follow the official Art Route Map and explore galleries and art venues throughout Oakland. Collect stamps along your way and enter to win fabulous prizes from $250 to $1,500 good toward original artwork, a hotel get-away, fine dining and more!

HOW  TO  PLAY: 
Pick up your official Art Route Oakland Map at any of more than 30 participating venues starting Friday May 3rd. Bring your map with you as you visit venues around the city, receiving a stamp for each venue along your route.  Continue to get your map stamped and submit it to a participating Art Route Oakland venue by 5pm on Saturday, May 11th.

Visit Gray Loft Gallery and others in our area these dates:

Saturday Stroll
May 4th, noon-5pm

Second Friday
May 10th, 6-9pm 

Last day to play! Saturday Stroll
May 11th, noon-5pm!

Please check the Art Route Oakland website for participating galleries and schedules.
Click here for prize details.
Click here for full contest rules.  

We hope you come out to visit the awesome galleries
we have in Oakland, play ARO, and win!
Celebrate Art!  Celebrate Oakland!

Photo by Irene Imfeld

On view in the gallery until May 18:
Abstractions - new work by five artists
Simone Simon, Peter Dreyfuss, Jennifer LaPierre,
Irene Imfeld and Andrea Wedell

2nd Friday Jingletown Reception, May 10, 6 – 9 pm
Closing reception: Saturday, May 18, 4:00 – 6:30 pm

Our current exhibit is Abstractions, an exhibit of new work by five Bay Area artists which includes painting, photography and sculpture.  This celebration of abstract art will also be part of Art Route Oakland highlighting the arts in Oakland in May. 

In the news!  Read DeWitt Cheng's East Bay Express review of the show here.

Simone Simon
The paintings become arenas where light and gesture are gathered and stored. As the poured paint drives across the canvas, the currents imprint some places, and wash others away. Accidental opticals occur, revealing surprises. The ephemeral becomes an informant. Light delivers information, and the luminosity brings attention to other dimensional aspects, making the unseen, seen.  Simon studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she worked under her mentor, Hassel Smith. She completed her BFA and MFA at SFAI.

Peter Dreyfuss
Working primarily with steel, Dreyfuss creates sculpture inspired by echoes of Bauhaus, cubism, and abstract expressionism.  He has been a steel sculptor for 18 years, primarily self-taught. His art, both in steel and paint, is abstract and non-representational. Beginning with a concept, he allows the materials and processes to lead him, with gestural and hand-drawn shapes emerging to produce a balance between intention and imagination.

Jennifer LaPierre
Her art is continually evolving and created without narrative but a response to the process, finding a grace in the fluid nature of these recent works.  Deconstructing the traditional figure, transitional and contemporary form, she is enamored with the boundaries of cohesion and tension.  Rooted in a graphic design background with a love of typography and calligraphy, expression of line influences her.  Receiving an atmospheric and intrinsic reaction, these pieces are reflective of our land healing from our recent fires with regrowth and a new compassion and memory. This body of work celebrates resilience

Irene Imfeld
By abstracting depictions of nature, Imfeld allows her images freedom of reference and interpretation without dwelling on what is shown and where it is. Composed in camera and later adjusted in Photoshop, her images retain much of their original natural form. Her process causes a reduction of recognition but not of complexity. By altering the tonal values and sometimes combining multiple exposures, the subject is shown in a way that is true but different from what we usually observe.

Andrea Wedell
Wedell seeks out rich experience above all other life pursuits; the impulse to uncover internalized moments, and to revisit them, stimulates her impulse to paint.  By juxtaposing layer after layer of a rich color and allowing it to shift as the light and mood changes enhances the theatricality of her work.  She thin layers, opaque ones, scribbled pencil lines, bold strokes, soft ones, and value changes, often destroying the work, then starting over. she draws on a variety of painting techniques including brushed gestures, cold wax applied with brayers, and paint spread with her hands, building on a changing sense of harmony, evolving her visual vocabulary, all in search of a deeper meaning that will connect her to something larger.

ABOUT  GRAY  LOFT  GALLERY

Gray Loft Gallery - voted "Best Art Gallery"  two years in a row - 2016  & 2017 - in the Oakland Magazine Readers' Choice Award - has promoted the rich art culture of Jingletown and the greater Bay Area for 7 years. The gallery has been referred to as a hidden gem in Jingletown, and noted by Kenneth Baker, former SF Chronicle Art Critic, in his Visual Arts Don’t Miss Column as “…A space gaining prominence in the Bay Area…”   The mission of the gallery is to provide exhibition opportunities for artists in a setting that is an alternative to the traditional gallery model. We hope to inspire, engage and celebrate artists in our community and beyond.  We acknowledge the achievements of emerging, mid-career and established artists – with an emphasis on those who live and work in the Bay Area – in a non-traditional art space. A number of artists began their art career at Gray Loft Gallery.

“I have always enjoyed this gallery, superb atmosphere and lighting. The polished and worn hardwood floors creek slightly in places as you climb to the third floor, providing a granular and unique, organic aesthetic. This is a do-not-miss venue in the East Bay.”  –  Facebook Review

  

           

GRAY LOFT GALLERY
is a proud member of the Oakland Art Murmur, Jingletown Arts and Business Association,  Oakland Grown and the San Francisco Art Dealers Association
Hours:  closed until February 16th
(However, if you are interested in work that we have in our collection, please email us to set up a time to stop by. Please see website for available works.)
2889 Ford Street, third floor, Oakland CA 94601

DIRECTIONS

Our mailing address is:
Gray Loft Gallery

2889 Ford Street, third floor

Oakand, CA 94601