5 picks for ArtHop: A digital offering from Gallery 25, plus ‘Nudes in November’ at Chris Sorensen Gallery
Ever since the pandemic, Gallery 25 – one of the oldest cooperative galleries in the United States and for decades a mainstay of ArtHop crowds – no longer has a brick-and-mortar location.
But it still has a robust digital presence.
The latest exhibition, titled “Remembering Jerrie Peters,” is timed to coincide with November’s ArtHop, the monthly open house of galleries and studios in the downtown and Tower District neighborhoods. For galleries that have physical locations, most of them are open 5-8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2. For a complete and updated list of venues, go to the Fresno Arts Council website.
The digital exhibition celebrates Peters, who was a member of Gallery 25 from 1977 through September 2021, when she passed.
“Jerrie was a treasured and creative member of Gallery 25,” says Rebecca Barnes, publicity chair for the gallery.
She was also a founding member of the Fresno Fiber Arts Guild.
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Born in Oklahoma City, she moved to California in 1954 with her husband, Dr. Robert Peters, and in 1965 she and her family moved to Fresno. She received her master’s degree in art from Fresno State.
Peters worked in mixed media. Her favorite way of representing a picture was cutting it up in puzzle form and reducing it to a simple series of shapes.
All are welcome to “attend” the digital exhibition, which comes in the form of a nearly three-minute narrated video. It’s a great way to experience Peters’ sense of color, shape and form. You can see the technical precision. (As the exhibition notes, “Her mixed media pieces can be viewed with a microscope, and the edges of her puzzle pieces are razor clean.”)
You can watch it here.
Other ArtHop picks:
Ofrendas at Arte
Arte Americas is the place to be in November as the community celebrates the season of Dia de los Muertos. You can check out the impressive exhibition “José Montoya’s Resonant Valley” along with ofrendas by artists Sal Garcia, Florentina “Tina” Favela, Mike Adame, Richard Montoya, Eden Santos, Paulina Rodriguez Ruiz, Karlo Muro, Vicente Velazquez, the League of Mexican American Women & Sunset Elementary School.
To watch a special CMAC video tour of “Resonant Valley”:
Speaking of ofrendas, I want to give a shout-out to the student journalists at the Fresno State Collegian, who offer a distinctive artistic take on the holiday. Managing Editor Jiselle Cardenas and art director Wyatt Bible have put together a wonderful digital flipbook featuring eight ofrendas from Fresno State readers. (Cardenas also has a touching tribute to a Kerman friend who died far too soon.)
I love how a traditional cultural practice gets a contemporary twist.
Larry Hill at Fresno Pacific
Abstract expressionist painter Larry Hill has been shown at the Martin Janis Gallery in Los Angeles and the famed Sidney Janis gallery in New York, along with Franz Kline, Willem DeKooning and Jackson Pollock. Hill was one of 25 California artists from California who participated in the Linz International Visual Art Exchange.
His latest body of work is featured in “A Piece of The Action,” a new exhibition at Fresno Pacific University’s new Warkentine Culture and Arts Center, 4838 E Butler Ave. The reception runs from 5-8 p.m.
Garcia at Downtown Artist Gallery
Michael Garcia’s new exhibition, “Memento Mori,” is featured at the Downtown Artist Gallery, 644 Van Ness Ave. The title means “Remember we must die.”
Read my 2022 story about Garcia’s major impact on the Fresno arts scene.
There are only two opportunities to see the show: during ArtHop itself (5-8 p.m. Thursday) and at a reception noon-5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4.
Nudes! Nudes! Nudes!
If it’s November, it must mean it’s time for the ever-popular themed exhibition at Chris Sorensen Studio: “Nudes in November.”
Just when you thought you needed a jacket in Fresno, this annual event pops around.
