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SANCHEZ ART center

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Pacifica, CA 94044

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MAIN GALLERY

June 5 – July 11, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday, June 5, 7 – 9 pm


Joshua Greenberg: A Selective Survey

Curated by Phil Linhares




Josh Greenberg is an artist with a unique vision and approach to making art. Oakland Museum's Chief Curator of Art Phil Linhares calls him "adventuresome, eccentric, unique." In the 1980s, Greenberg began making large, low-relief wall-hanging constructions from thousands of small pieces of balsa wood that he cut, sometimes adding touches of red and black. According to Linhares, who curated this exhibition, these works almost had the feeling of very curious and intricate roadmaps.

Greenberg's more recent works are again unique constructions, this time made with plywood and pigment-enhanced bondo, the resinized clay used to repair dents in automobiles. The artist was inspired by the pietre dure stone-carving technique used in sixteenth-century Renaissance tabletops. Greenberg describes it as "the technique of inlaying small, exquisitely cut and fitted, highly-polished semi-precious colored stones into paintings, tabletops, and other prized objects." He began working to approximate these mosaic-like inlays using materials other than stone, and eventually found that bondo cut into plywood was the perfect combination to create the inlay appearance he was looking for.

Greenberg's subject matter comes from his life, from family events, and from art and other things he sees around him. He transforms these into large plywood-and-bondo "paintings" with repeating elements and patterns that are reminiscent of friezes one might see in Pompeii or Crete. The effect of repeating patterns is to put viewers into a reflective state. Greenberg's work is sometimes colored with a dark humor, as in The Family Plot, and is sometimes more somber and elegiac, as in the compelling Operation. He is currently working on a series with images and evocations of coral, sponges, and other oceanic life. Come hear about Greenberg talk about his work on Saturday, July 11 at 4 p.m.