Who: The Preston Contemporary Art Center
What: 2010 Winter Exhibition 
When: January 15, 2010
Where: The Preston Contemporary Art Center
Contact: (575) 523-8713

2010 Winter Exhibition Opening Friday, Jan 15 at Preston Contemporary Art Center, Mesilla

Preston Contemporary Art Center will showcase five artists of various mediums in the gallery’s 2010 Exhibition opening on Friday, Jan 15 with a reception for the artists from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.  The show, which has a definite international flavor, will run through Sunday, March 28.

The exhibition includes works by Malaika Zbesheski Charbonneau, mixed media on canvas; Dan Davidson, painting and drawing; Amy M. Lam Wai Man, mixed media; Alan Weinstein, painting; and Peter Zelle, glass sculpture.

People and places visited have become an inspiration for the abstract mixed media paintings of Malaika Zbesheski Charbonneau, who will exhibit works from two series, “Cities” and “Conversations.”  Both are directly influenced by empirical knowledge, but what she paints cannot be strictly measured.  Charbonneau says that she paints memories of cities in which she has lived or found as destinations of travel. Frequently employing physical maps as an underpainting, she embellishes, pronouncing and accentuating the areas that to her are most influential, and thereby romanticizing the dynamics of the environment.  Born in El Paso, TX, Charbonneau now resides in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
 
The structure of the I Ching, the Chinese “Classic Book of Change,” encompasses both the positive energy of “yang” and the negative energy of “yin.” Since 2004, Dan Davidson has used the ancient oracle as both the content of his artwork and a guide to “a better approach to painting, without theory or isms.” Working with graphite, ink, chalk and watercolor on paper, Davidson presents works that fit into three groups, depending on their functions related to the I Ching’s 64 hexagrams.  Some pieces visualize the hexagrams and their geometric components; a second group of paintings associates pictorial symbols to the hexagrams or their combinations.  In the third group, Davidson’s imagery reflects the history of art to offer a fresh perspective of current trends.  A world traveler, he currently resides in Las Cruces, NM.

The human body, encompassing the mind and its relationship with its physical entity, is the point of inquiry for Amy M. Lam Wai Man’s mixed media works.  Man’s artworks communicate the human experience as a reflection of her own extensive experiential base. Some pieces pay tribute to her heritage as a Chinese American, born in Hong Kong, raised in Los Angeles and residing in Las Cruces, NM since 1996.  She suggests that her use of human images, text and format present her “very Westernized comprehension” of her own place in the world.  An accomplished writer, poet, and performance artist, Man also brings literary components to her creative process. Her wall pieces and hanging banners present conceptual views of the human body, both inner and outer selves, and reflect another strong influence, the medical establishment, both as friend and adversary.

Alan Weinstein’s landscape pieces in the Preston exhibition are among his most recent paintings, continuing a body of work initiated a decade ago.  He explains the manner in which these landscapes have expanded for him.  “Works grew by joining canvases. The calligraphic vocabulary began to embrace the figures of my drawings and earlier paintings. I explored frieze-like ideas with their lateral movement and absence of central focus. Then, for a time, my obsession shifted to the expansion of the image itself, the awareness of peripheral vision, the balance between complexity of sight and the clarity of color.” His new works find impact by integrating cut-canvas elements into simplified saturated fields. Their vibrant colors draw viewers into bright abstract landscapes of fields and forests. Born in Toronto, Canada, Weinstein works and resides in both Iowa City, IA and on woodland acreage outside of Toronto.

Minneapolis, MN sculptor Peter Zelle has worked with glass, clay and steel for 30 years.  He approaches his work intuitively, responding to the way materials react with each other in space. Recently, Zelle has combined glass and steel to create a series of small houses. He says, “As I moved around the pieces, I was intrigued by the shadows created by the steel and the depth and reflections within the glass.” Other new works are life-size abstract figures of welded steel and cast glass, partially inspired by a board game he plays with his kids, in which various characters move across a landscape. Each character has a unique profile, specifying his individual powers and possible moves. What interests Zelle is this notion of uniqueness and the individual way each piece activates space. As he adds and removes materials, he encounters the fine line between sculpture and ornamentation, defining the abstract as opposed to the decorative.

Artists’ Dialogue Saturday, Jan 16

An Artists’ Dialogue presentation featuring Maiaika Zbesheski Charbonneau, Alan Weinstein and Peter Zelle will be held at the gallery on Saturday, Jan 16 beginning a 1 pm.  The free event invites audience members to join the artists in conversation about their works in the 2010 Winter Exhibition.

The Preston Contemporary Art Center is located at 1755 Avenida de Mercado (at the end of Calle de Mercado), Mesilla, NM.  Visit the website www.prestoncontemporaryart.com <http://www.prestoncontemporaryart.com> or call 575-523-8713.  Hours of operation are Wednesday – Sunday, 1 – 5pm; galleries are closed on Monday and Tuesday, except by appointment.

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