A Holiday Celebration of Form and Color
Event Dates: 12/11/2009 - 12/13/2009
Reception: 12/11/2009 6 pm to 9 pm
Location: 712 Sansome Street, second floor
For more information, visit:
http://artspace712.com/
"Morning Bath"
Ursula O'Farrell
oil on canvas
2007
60 x 48 inches
courtesy of Toomey Tourell Fine Art
New Images of Man and Woman
Event Dates: 12/4/2009 - 1/30/2010
Reception: 12/4/2009 6 pm to 9 pm
Location: Alphonse Berber Gallery
Faith in Affirmation: The Work of Ursula O'Farrell
Anthony Torres (San Francisco, 2009)
Ursula O’Farrell’s paintings have often been identified as contemporary heirs to a history associated with Bay Area Figurative Art and its concerns with conflating representational subject matter — still life, portraits, landscapes, and here, the female figure — and Abstract Expressionism’s formal concerns, which emphasized process, handling of paint, and addressing the essentials of medium.
However, while O’Farrell’s painting may foreground expressionistic representation of the human form in abstract painterly space, in contradistinction to Bay Area Figurative artists who focused on the world around them, her work qualitatively differs in its immersion in what might be best described as a realm of personal spirituality anchored in the materiality of painterly color and artistic expression.
Faith in the transformative power of creative self-determination is affirmed in her work, and this serves as a vehicle for evoking and fusing memories, thoughts, and emotions — past and present — which speaks to a condensed personal history and subjectivity that is constantly shifting, fluid, and ever evolving.
Her work should perhaps be characterized as representing psychic excavations — conscious and unconscious — that bring to the surface traces of life passages through creative processes that construct and reveal private spaces. These exploratory adventures are anchored in painterly articulation and an abundant application of color, here rendering fragmented figures and forms.
If the spectral images that emerge speak to personal associations and stories through formal strategies congealed in the work, they do so in a manner that is very open to multiple interpretations, with a language that resonates from art historically derived discourses associated with Bay Area Figurative art and its concern with the conflation of the figure with formal strategies inherited from abstraction.
Indeed, these issues and concerns are reflected in Ursula O’Farrell’s passionate treatment of surface textures and loose application of paint, which she uses to conjure generalized figures in nebulous pictorial spaces for very private and personal reasons, and presents as a vehicle to elicit a visual dialogue and visceral response in her viewers.
An Abstract Approach to Figure Painting
Event Dates: 11/14/2009 - 11/15/2009
Location: Santa Cruz Art League
I will be teaching a two-day workshop through the Santa Cruz Art League on November 14 and 15, 2009. Non-member's rate is $280 (includes model's fees). Call the Art League for more information or to reserve your space. Limited to 12. 831-426-5787
"The Constant is Change" solo show with paintings by Ursula O'Farrell
Event Dates: 10/9/2009 - 10/9/2009
Reception: 10/9/2009 5 pm - 8 pm
Location: Bryant Street Gallery
Join us for an evening of art and conversation. Ursula O'Farrell will offer an artist's talk from 5 pm - 6pm on Friday, October 9, 2009 followed by a public reception from 6 pm to 8 pm at Bryant Street Gallery in downtown Palo Alto, California. Call the gallery for more information.
The Constant is Change; New Works by Ursula O'Farrell
Event Dates: 10/1/2009 - 10/31/2009
Reception: 10/9/2009 5 pm to 8 pm
Location: 532 Bryant Street
"Day at the Museum"
oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, 2009
So you think you can paint a portrait? Bay Area Figurative Art juried show
Event Dates: 9/25/2009 - 10/1/2009
Reception: 9/25/2009 evening
Location: 712 Sansome Street
exhibiting a range of art works from around the globe, including
Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, with a focus on local and
international contemporary and tribal art. We are currently
inviting artists to participate in our juried competition entitled “I’ll Bet You Can’t Paint a Portrait: The Genesis of Bay Area Figurative Art Now.”
The exhibition idea and title are taken from a story related by Theophilus Brown — at lunch with his friends and project collaborators Matt Gonzalez, Bill Gilmartin, and Anthony Torres — recalling David Park’s challenge to Richard Diebenkorn to paint a portrait, with the rhetorical dare: “I’ll bet you can’t paint a portrait.” In the 1950s, this challenge facilitated painterly excursions that evolved into what is now known as Bay Area Figurative art.“I’ll Bet You Can’t Paint a Portrait: The Genesis of Bay Area Figurative Art Now” honors this history by inviting artists to submit paintings that can be considered translations of this legacy through contemporary portraiture in an effort to create a dialogue centered around a particular set of aesthetic issues and ideas.
The exhibition, which runs from September 25 through October 1, 2009 at 712 Sansome Street in San Francisco, will be juried by Theophilus Brown.
New Work by Ursula O'Farrell
Event Dates: 9/12/2009 - 10/10/2009
Reception: 9/12/2009 5 pm - 8 pm
Location: Craighead-Green Gallery
Summer Painting Workshop
Event Dates: 7/31/2009 - 8/1/2009
Location: 804 Estates Drive
Summer Painting Workshop
Event Dates: 7/17/2009 - 7/18/2009
Location: 804 Estates Drive, Aptos
Summer Painting Workshop
Event Dates: 6/26/2009 - 6/27/2009
Location: 804 Estates Drive, Aptos
