Leo Bersamina / Benji Whalen December 4 - December 28, 2022 Leo Bersamina Gallery Paule Anglim is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Leo Bersamina. Leo Bersamina will present mixed media works that make unique use of painting and photography. Using cut pieces or strips of photos, the artist collages, weaves, sews and combines them with paint to create images of the sea and of himself. Some of these radiant blue works have layered shiny surfaces, emphasizing sculptural qualities of the sea. A native San Franciscan artist, Bersamina was educated at San Francisco State University and Yale University. A surfer since childhood, he captures images of the sea with his camera, often out in the water. A fluid sense of movement is bought to the artist's final image through weaving and combining irregular strips of several photos. Bersamina toys with cultural identity politics through references in technique and materials to his mixed (Filipino, Mexican, Italian and Anglo) heritage: weaving, bamboo, and sewing are playfully incorporated. A reception for the artist will be held Thursday, December 5th from 5:30- 7:30 p.m. at Gallery Paule Anglim. Benji Whalen Gallery Paule Anglim is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Benji Whalen. Benji Whalen will show new paintings and painted works on paper in Gallery II, his third presentation at Gallery Paule Anglim. Focusing on drapery and the human form, the artist examines the subject from unusual vantagepoints. The works on paper are painted magazine pages from erotic magazines. Whalen has painted printed flannel nightgowns over the bodies, serving not only to cover nudity (and perceived eroticism), but also to pull our attention in the direction of body language, facial expression and the formal qualities of draped cloth. At play are elements of painting, advertising, libido and irony-things characteristically found in the artist's work to date. Accompanying the painted pin-ups are oil on canvas paintings. Nearly abstract, these have draped fabric as their subject. The eye vacillates between reading the 3-dimensional shapes implied by the fabric (seen as covering something-- a body?) and reading the flat pattern of the painting. Benji Whalen is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute and maintains a studio in San Francisco. He is one of this year's recipients of the Art Council Award and was presented in 1999 with the Bay Area Award in the Visual Arts from New Langton Arts. A reception for the artist will be held Thursday, December 5th from 5:30- 7:30 p.m. at Gallery Paule Anglim.