Non Stop Art and Tracing Passages!

Join us in Jingletown soon! 

There are only three more opportunities to see Tracing Passages!

Photo by Styrous

Oakland Style Week was a hit!

We had an amazing time last Saturday participating in Oakland Style Week with a fashion show featuring unique creations by Carol Lee Shanks and soundscape by Styrous!  Oakland Art Murmur, in collaboration with Visit Oakland, offered an arts and culture event across the city of Oakland as part of this year's Oakland Style Week.  And it was fabulous!

The fashion show was followed by tastings of Tessier Winery wine and artisan chocolates by Bisou Chocolates.

Carol Lee Shanks designs and handcrafts unique and wearable clothing. She has a great reverence for cloth, allowing it to be the foundation of her inspiration. Carol strives to make beautiful, simple, unstructured garments that feel good on the body, function well and are easy to care for. Her layered silhouettes of unencumbered cloth flatter the body and capture the eye with a hint of mysterious delight.  The surfaces of these garments are lively due to the piecing and patching that happens while she assembles the small bits into a larger piece of cloth.  Ultimately, she creates layered silhouettes of unstructured garment shapes that become moving sculptures once they are on the body.

Below are photos of the event and information about the artists in our exhibit Tracing Passages exhibit.

Fashion show photos below by Alex Starfield, Styrous® and Jan Watten

  

  

  

  

  

  

TRACING PASSAGES
This exhibit is not to be missed!

On view for only three more weeks! Tracing Passages is a captivating exhibit that showcases unique perspectives of three Bay Area artists. Featuring a large-scale installation by Ruth Boerefyn, large ceramic vessels by Cuong Ta and mixed media paintings by Tom White.  The exhibit offers an immersive experience that delves into the realms of beauty, fragility, and impermanence through their distinct artistic mediums and visions.

We hope you will stop by the gallery to see the show!

Show dates:  September 23 - November 11
Closing Reception:  Saturday, November 11, 5:00 - 7:30 pm
Gallery hours:  Saturdays 1:00 - 5:00 pm and by appointment

  Ruth Boerefyn presents a mesmerizing installation "tin can symphony" that draws viewers into a world of intricate connections and hidden narratives. Her work invites contemplation of the delicate balance between life's fleeting moments and the enduring traces they leave behind.  The colored paper is cut from her own drawings from nature, imprinted with other narratives and perception, through which she punches holes as a way of forging through them to get to the act of new expression. Her vocabulary of materials comes alive in conversation with the objects and lived-in spaces around them.

Cuong Ta has always been fascinated by the play of positive and negative spaces in his work. The balance of glazed and unglazed areas on the surface takes on an organic impression although he takes deliberate care in the design and execution of the pieces. Over the course of his career, he has developed a vocabulary of lines and shapes that he returns to - each repetition is a recitation of a memorized passage, each new piece a variation of the play between boundary and flow.

 
Tom White's mixed media pieces push the boundaries of conventional artistic expression. His creations blend various materials and techniques to craft thought-provoking compositions that explore the interplay of form and context. Through his work, White prompts viewers to reconsider the relationship between the tangible and the intangible.

Please visit our Instagram page for more photos of the exhibit.

PRETTY  IN  PINK!
Our next juried photo show is open for entries!
Jurors:  Ann Jastrab, executive director of the Center for Photographic Art
and Jan Watten, photographer and curator.
Show dates:  January 13 - February 10
Click here for the prospectus.

Lumen photo by Jacqueline Walters

IN THE NEWS
We were delighted to be featured in a KTVU Channel 2 feature story about Jingletown.
Please click here to view the story about Gray Loft Gallery and the artists and history of Jingletown.

ABOUT  GRAY  LOFT  GALLERY

  Gray Loft Gallery has promoted the rich art culture of Jingletown and the greater Bay Area for 11 years. The gallery has been referred to as a hidden gem in Jingletown, and noted by the late 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 has received "Best Art Gallery" in the Oakland Magazine's Readers Choice Award in 2016, 2017, 2021 and voted one of five top art galleries in 2022 and 2023.

  

GRAY LOFT GALLERY
is a proud member of the Oakland Art Murmur and
Jingletown Arts and Business Association

Hours: After September 29: Saturdays 1:00 - 5:00 pm and by appointment

2889 Ford Street, third floor, Oakland CA 94601
Not wheelchair accessible.