Cheryl Coon, Moth, n.d., encaustic on canvas

Patricia Hulin, Atchafalaya, 2007, steel, bronze, and zinc aluminum

Figure painting has long been a primary form of artistic expression, but when the artist places the figure against or in an actual setting the message of the painting takes on a narrative element that encourages the viewer to join the artist on a visual journey. Artists have long studied the figure as a means of exploring form, and indeed, the very existence of humanity, but with the added element of narration the artist opens new worlds to the viewer and we are to identify with those worlds in our attempt to understand the artist and ultimately, our relation and affinities to those diverse settings. Through the figure we identify with the subject as a fellow member of humanity ...through the added element of narration we understand that identification as one common to all of us. Even though the settings may be foreign to the viewer, we can imagine ourselves in the commonality of the subject's experiences, not so very far from our own.

Narrative Realities features works by four noted Bay Area figurative artists: Warren Chang, Stanley Goldstein, Katherine Levin-Lau, and Ming Jing (Mike) Wang. Each of these artists explore the nature of our existence through a diverse array of narrations. Warren Chang enobles field workers as providers for a society and thus equates them to Madonna's, both secular and metaphorical, or he takes us into his studio to share the experience of creation, a working process we can all understand. Stanley Goldstein focuses on the domestic, settings of family and home. We may not know the individuals portrayed, but we know their roles and we can relate to them. Katherine Levin-Lau's figures occupy settings strange to us -- figures behind brightly colored trees, or a child perched on a branch with arms echoing the pages of a book which is in turn echoing a bird. These are not narrations we immediately perceive as relating to ourselves, but it is the suggestion of otherworldliness in her work that transports the viewer to the realm of metaphor and the realization that these could be scenes of everywhere and nowhere, a transcendent world accessible to us all. Ming Jing (Mike) Wang shares with the viewer worlds truly away from our everyday experiences in scenes from Tibet, but it is in the individualistic expressions on the lined and thoughtful faces that we come to understand that, though separated by a world of geography, their concerns, emotions, and hopes are ours, and we are no longer so far removed.

Wonders is an exhibition honoring the 2008 Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Fellowship recipients at the Triton Museum of Art. Three visual artists will be showcased: Therese May, Flo Oy Wong, and Kathy Aoki.

Information on the Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Fellowship Awards is available by contacting the Arts Council at 408/988-2787 or at www.artscouncil.org

Adam Forfang, Under Attack, 2007, oil on canvas on panel

For centuries (millennia) artists have included still lifes in their repertoire. At times they were exercises in demonstrating the mastery of technique. At their best, still lifes became metaphors for something far greater than the subject matter, as in the great essays on humanity and mortality painted by the 17th Century Dutch still life masters. “Contemporary Still Lifes” at the Triton Museum will feature the works of nearly twenty still life artists, each of whom bring their own style, technique, and metaphor to this time-honored tradition.

Artists in this exhibition include: James Aponovich, John Arbuckle, Richard Bolingbroke, Michael Brennan, Noah Buchanan, Pam Carroll, Guy Diehl, Carl Dobsky, Adam Forfang, Carin Gerard, B. Nicole Klassen, Dean Larson, Burt Levitsky, David Ligare, Robert K. Semans, Randall Sexton, and Pat Suggs.