Beautiful reviewd by DeWitt Cheng of the Esat Bay Express

Beautiful 

When: Through Sept. 9

Truth is no longer beauty; nowadays, honest art must be subversive, ironic, and detached -- or must it? John Neary's sculptures and Sally Ann Rodriguez's paintings may not be traditionally beautiful, but both artists aim at powerful emotion and push the figurative/anatomical envelope (though not always successfully). Both also look back to Romantic and Expressionist precursors: Rodriguez writes, "The artist never gets away from being a servant, an excavator, a janitor, a builder, a seeker," and she alternates between life studies, imaginary portraits, and abstracted landscapes. "Yellowstone," "In the Hills," and "Hand Like a Foot with a Fish in my Pocket" are her strongest works here. Neary sculpts Rodinesque or Wagnerian figures who struggle from their organic matrices ("Ashes," "Breathing Room," "Powder"); despite their modest size, "Return" and "Power" are monumental, their tragic heroes imbued with superhuman (or subhuman) intensity. Beautiful runs through Sept. 9 at Float Gallery (1091 Calcot Pl. #116, Oakland). 510-535-1702 or TheFloatCenter.com

— DeWitt Cheng

Next 2 amazing exhibits in the gallery for 2011

Coming to the Gallery in September... Transient Spaces Paintings by Rozita Fogelman & mixed-media conceptual sculpture Leah Markos  Opening Party September 17th 6 to 9pm Show runs September 11th through October 29th, 2011 Transient Spaces explores symbiotic dualities: impermanence by its nature implies a stay of some length, and likewise, where there is weightlessness there must be solidity, and where there is change, there must be stability. Nature is our ultimate model of "ever" "changing"-yet-always-there. So our own human natures are elemental yet kinetic. Transient Spaces includes textural abstract paintings by Rozita Fogelman and mixed-media conceptual sculpture by Leah Markos. Rozita Fogelman - Mixed media painter   Rozita Fogelman is a multi-disciplinary media artist originally from Tbilisi, Georgia. In the past twenty years, my artwork grew out of a need to tell stories of vulnerability and compassion. My recent work: Body, Land and Water is my attempt to create a metaphor addressing the need to reconnect these core elements of water and earth. In Hebrew, Body, Land and Water: אדם, דם, אדמה-all elements are coexists in balance as one collective living consciousness.  rozita.posterous.com Leah Markos - Sculptor/Installation Artist  "Our egos, relationships, and consumerist lifestyles combine in ever shifting combinations that pervade and shape thought and feeling. In my sculptural works, simple evocative forms adorned with multiple stylized teats toy with the wavering line between comfort and coldness. A related sense of thwarted promise is made solid in some works, as seen in blunt, heavy shapes to be carried as burdens, but embedded with cores of more complex or beautiful materials. These pieces both lament and celebrate. Other works simply illustrate obstacle or difficulty, with an occasional underlying call to notice what we use, discard, create and ruin."  --Leah Markos

The FLOAT Gallery is Proud to present... Nina Glaser Mosaics, With Plasma Sculpture by Michael Pargett Opening Party Saturday November 5th, 6pm - 9pm Show runs October 31st through December 31st New work.. Defunct Gallery   FLOAT Gallery is proud to present the return of Nina Glaser. Exhibiting her Glass Mosaics illuminated by Michael Pargett's Plasma Sculpture.   International photographer Nina Glaser's photography career included teaching at the Academy of Art University, and the publication of two monograms: "Outside of Time" and "Recomposed". Nine years ago, Glaser decided she had completed the body of work she felt she was destined to do. Glaser's photography is both haunting and extraordinarily powerful. Her creative energy then shifted to creating her now thriving hypnotherapy business. Nina Glaser Hypnotherapy. After a 9 year absence from the art world, Glaser is back taking her next step into the tactile world of glass mosaics; many contain imbedded images of her extraordinary black and white photography.                                 Past work.. Metal Ring "I was a fine-arts photographer for 18 years. Black & White images, painted nude figures, stark and timeless. I left photography when I felt that I had used the medium enough to express and explore the themes that mattered to me. In my break from photography, I taught fine-arts photography at a local university and printed for other photographers. Even though my current day-time work is highly creative in thought and language, I missed the tactile experience of art. I have always loved glass, and have wanted to paint. Making glass mosaics lets me enjoy both. I use bright, colorful stained glass and apply it as if it were paint. My current body of work is narrative in nature; each image tells a story, while also inviting the viewer to participate and interpret." -Nina Glaser About The Sculptor:   Michael Pargett enjoys the paradox between the high energy that creates the illumination, and the slow, sensual movement of the gas mixtures that can be achieved to present a visual experience that is as compelling as it is hard to describe. His expressions are at times humorous and at others inspired by a desire to honor the basic elements of the gasses themselves. During the filling portion of the creative process, he attempts to allow the gases themselves to express how they would like to manifest within the glass. "They feel as though they have something to say, if I only knew how to listen consistently" - Michael Pargett  Theartelectrique.com