Pia Stern at 455 Market Lobby Gallery

This isn't the best venue for Pia Stern's delicate and introspective art work but at least she's getting a show. Unfortunately, the Lobby Gallery is a busy, noisy place where her sensitive and thoughtful pieces are lost in the hurrying throngs and loud cell phone chatter. She's been with a local gallery for years but has only had one show with them (to the best of my knowledge). I think that's a shame because her work has a meditative beauty which reveals deeper meanings on repeated viewings.

Her works often contain cryptic images - ladders, crosses, animals, boats, bicycles - which draw the viewer in and encourage you, as viewer, to make up your own stories. Stern states, “I view painting as a disciplined activity akin to meditation or prayer.It is something that I must do on a regular basis so as to feel fully engaged with life on a spiritual level.The work depicts a kind of dialogue with myself -a process that reflects a search.Ultimately, I view my paintings as visual interpretations of psychological and philosophical dilemmas that confront me.”

The 455 Market Lobby Gallery is open weekdays; the show will be up through September 5th.