Katherine Sherwood New Work Melissa Pokorny Panoplied May 5 - June 5, 2023 Gallery Paule Anglim is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Katherine Sherwood. The artist will exhibit recent paintings in her signature style and technique, vivid compositions of calligraphic swirls of thick paint over a thickly textured ground incorporating collaged circles of printed rice paper. Her painting addresses two philosophies of confronting the unknown. The graphic shapes made by large gestures of dripping paint are based on medieval luck talismans. Over the 20-plus years of her painting career, Sherwood's symbols have grown from precisely rendered, literal motifs to powerfully spontaneous expressions of the desire to intuit one's fate. Within the painted surface of the canvas, Sherwood layers circles of rice paper with images of the blood vessels of the brains. These angiograms belong to an expanding visual language that fascinates the artist. Defined by new technology, the angiograms are part of the bank of imagery based in scientific pursuit, things that cannot really be seen with our unassisted eyes. Sherwood's paintings beautifully play with our striving to know more, to control our future. The artist has exhibited her work broadly, including the Whitney Biennial (1998) and two recent solo shows in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and has been the recipient of numerous Awards, including the Adeline Kent Award from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently a Professor at the School of Art Practice at the University of California in Berkeley. Image above: Katherine Sherwood,Chink-in-Full,2003, Mixed media on canvas, 30" x 24" Gallery Paule Anglim is pleased to announce an exhibition of new sculptural work by Melissa Pokorny. Her exhibition Panoplied in Gallery II will be the artist's fourth solo exhibition at Gallery Paule Anglim since her public introduction in 1991. Constantly examining mass-produced materials and their significance in daily life, Pokorny creates sculptures from objects and building supplies chosen for their intended purposes and inherent ironic associations. In the works of Panoplied the artist employs shapes and materials that help define dichotomies of boundaries versus communication or divisions versus connectedness. In this group of wall sculptures and freestanding floor pieces Pokorny has constructed forms from MDF board with veneers of fake flagstone, brick or wood- grain. Small animal forms (birds and pedigree dogs cast in resin) are attached, enlivening the works with an ersatz version of nature. Sewn, brightly colored polar fleece elements complete the compositions. Melissa Pokorny now teaches at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. After completing her Master of Fine Arts degree from University of California in Davis she participated in controversial shows at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (Fabricators: New Bay Area Sculpture 1995, and Bay Area Now 1997). Her sculptures are represented in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum and the Orange County Museum of Art. A reception for the artists will be held on Thursday, May 6th from 5:30 to 7:30pm.