'Introductions' at Creativity Explored, 'West of Center' at Mills College Art Center

 Marcus McClure, Watermarks. 

"Introductions" at Creativity Explored presents recent work by four young studio artists who represent a range of artistic styles, perspectives and subject matter in its new summer exhibition.

Kate Thompson, 24, expresses her vision in exquisitely detailed scenes using pen and ink on paper, one of which is licensed to the contemporary home furnishings store CB2 for an upcoming pillow design.

Marcus McClure, 29, creates exuberant layered abstracts in mixed media using predominantly circular and other geometric forms; CB2 also selected two of McClure’s works as the basis for past rug designs. 

Steven Liu. Cyclists.

With black marker on canvas, Steven Liu, 24, fluidly renders intricate scenes with people– all elaborately detailed and in a state of motion, reflecting his own active physical nature.

Keenan Dietiker, 23, specializes in abstract landscapes using mixed media on paper.

The four artists have all attended Creativity Explored for at least one year, and are still evolving in their practice.  “Each of these young artists incorporates a unique vision, approach and technique,” says Gallery Manager Amy Auerbach, co-curator of the exhibit. “We felt their combined pieces offer an intriguing spectrum of work, from very abstract to intricately rendered,” adds Gallery Assistant and co-curator, Janessa Post.

Since its inception 30 years ago, Creativity Explored’s innovative and respected programs, structure, and culture have served as an organizational model worldwide in the field of art and disability. Creativity Explored provides artists with developmental disabilities the means to create, exhibit, and sell their art in their studios and gallery, and around the world.

Through August 7.  3245 Sixteenth Street (at Guerrero), San Francisco, CA 94103, http://www.creativityexplored.org/

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists living in the American West produced an incredible amount of beautiful, innovative, and far-out artwork. Now, Oakland’s Mills College Art Museum is hosting a retrospective of art from that place and era. Dubbed "West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977, " the exhibition features drawings, videos, and photographs from that time period’s counter cultural movement, with artists like the Ant Farm Collective, Anna Halprin, and Single Wing Turquoise Bird.

"West of Center" illuminates the unique works of these individuals through videos, photographs, drawings, ephemera, and other original and re-created objects and environments.

through September 1, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard. http://mcam.mills.edu/

http://www.examiner.com/list/introductions-at-creativity-explored-west-of-center-at-mills