Exhibition Dates: July 13th–September 1st
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 21, 4:00-6:30 pm
Where: K Gallery at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda
Gallery Hours: Wed 6 pm–9 pm, during events, and by appointment

Rhythmix Cultural Works and K Gallery present WAYSIDE, an exhibit of works by Najib Joe Hakim and Ginny Parsons. Opening Reception on Saturday, July 21st from 4:00-6:30pm. Exhibition Dates: July 13th–September 1st.

Following in the footsteps of 19th century artists who sought the out-of-doors for leisure, renewal and expression, WAYSIDE artists explore this idyllic notion in the framework of our modern society. Hakim’s blurry and beautiful landscapes, shot from a moving car, resonate with questions of progress, while Parsons’s charcoal gestures capture the essence of Monet’s pastoral scenes, glimpsed through the anxious lens of the Trump #MeToo era.

For Hakim, sharply focused details can be false gods, often obfuscating a true, “real” nature of things – like “missing the forest for the trees”. By emphasizing atmosphere, color, light, and movement over detail and form, these images make the viewer feel it is not so much time that is passing, but they themselves speeding by the wayside.

About the Artists

Ginny Parsons is a painter and environmental artist, using common household materials and leftovers like bacon grease and charcoal briquettes found in Lincoln Park. Projects have included trash balls salvaged from the bay and beeswax applied to washed up pieces of wood. In this recent series, “Luncheon on the Grass with Harvey Weinstein”, Ginny uses our current political and social environments as tools to re-imagine Monet’s pastoral 19th century picnic.

Najib Joe Hakim works as a documentary photographer and photojournalist by day. During the night shift, he turns toward other-worldly imagery not so much as an act of capture or even creation, but as an alternative attempt at seeing. Hakim recently exhibited Home Away from Home: Little Palestine by the Bay at the Alameda Free Library, a multi-media project juxtaposing recorded oral histories and portraits from the SF Bay Area Palestinian community.