Allston Skirt Gallery is pleased
to announce the opening of “Forward Back”, an exhibition of new work by Meg Alexander. In her first solo exhibition at the gallery, Alexander explores the metaphors associated with arrows, the shooting of arrows, and the flight path of arrows. For Alexander, the act of shooting an arrow is a metaphor for the state of perfect coordination attained (or desired, at any rate), in any type of accurate execution. The arrow -- this beautiful object with a potentially lethal application -- becomes emblematic of this coordination of patience and skill. Alexander’s work is meticulously constructed from India ink brushed on wooden panels that have been painstakingly prepared: first, coated with ten to twelve layers of home-made gesso, then sanded and buffed. As Alexander describes it: “Layering is an important aspect of my work. In my drawings, each image is built up from layers and layers of diluted India ink applied stroke by stroke with a tiny brush. Gradually, over time, the image achieves a sense of permanence and inevitability. Meanwhile, whatever original intention I may have had for making the drawing goes through the opposite process. From a fixed, focused idea the final conception becomes, for me, jumbled layers of meaning and metaphor - like pebbles of varying size tossed into a pond at the same time, each set of ripples moving steadily out, then overtaking or being consumed by another set, combining and recombining, building up, canceling and being canceled out.”
In the Mini Skirt this month, Bay Area artist Ben Peterson presents a new series of drawings titled Bedroom Community. These drawings examine the idea of a commute that, rather than taking the prescribed route, veers off, engaging various barriers, both man-made and natural. Freeways, walls, and fences are drawn in fragmented states, continuing Peterson’s ongoing scrutiny of manufactured spaces. Peterson was recently included in Phantom Arch at White Columns (New York City), Our Hospitality at Adobe Bookstore (San Francisco), and in Taqueria Cancun at Allston Skirt Gallery. He will receive his BFA in Painting from the California College of the Arts (San Francisco) in 2004.