Featuring New Works By East Bay Artists Ginny Parsons & Lisa Levine
Amidst reports that San Francisco just had its first-ever rain-free January and as California’s three-year drought continues, Rhythmix K Gallery presents WATER, a two-person exhibition featuring new works by environmental painter Ginny Parsons and fine art photographer Lisa Levine.
Both artists reside in the “Island City” of Alameda, and each investigates our complicated relationship to water from distinct vantage points. Parsons draws inspiration from the natural environment to create abstracted landscapes that incorporate household materials such as Borax and house paint. Levine weaves together individual photographs of figures in swimming pools into large, shimmering constructed waterscapes.
Parsons, a self-taught artist who has been painting for over 30 years, works out of her Alameda studio. “I live two blocks from San Leandro Bay and often walk along the shoreline,” she says. “These paintings are in response to that walk: the birds covered in mysterious goo, the sparkle of the water, the solace of the sand, and the question of how far the water will continue to rise as the climate changes.”
Parsons teaches an art camp for children and is represented by Gray Loft Gallery. Her website is www.ginnyparsons.net.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Levine has worked out of her Oakland studio for more than 25 years. “My work delights in the vernacular dance and choreography inherent in the everyday experience of swimming,” she says. “Each swimmer responds to the weightless freedom of the water in a unique choreographic way. I compose the swimmers by looking for patterns of movements that speak to how the subjects—my ‘dancers’—relate to each other in the overall choreography of the scene.”
Levine’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally and she is represented by the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Danielle Wohl Fine Art, and the Kala Art Institute Gallery. She teaches photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Her website is www.lisalevinephoto.com.
Gallery hours: 6pm-9pm Wednesdays and by appointment.