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Cautionary Tales Reconsidered, art exhibit by sculptor Elisabeth Higgins O'Connor and painter Livia C. Stein




Sanchez Art Center is proud to
present the sculptures of Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor and the paintings of Livia
C. Stein in “Cautionary Tales Reconsidered,” opening Friday, January 10 with a
reception from 7 to 9 pm. It is a “reconsideration” of their joint exhibit at
The Transmission Gallery that was titled “Cautionary Tales,” December 7, 2012–January
19, 2013. Cameron Brian and Ruth Santee, owners/directors of The Transmission
Gallery in Oakland, are curating the Sanchez Art Center exhibition as well. Their
“reconsideration” of the same theme promises to be thought-provoking,
inspiring, and possibly unsettling—in a good way. The curators will join artist
Livia Stein to give a talk about the exhibit at 4 pm on Sunday, February 9.



Elisabeth
Higgins O’Connor uses discarded materials, including bed sheets and blankets
from thrift stores, old boxes, and all kinds of connecting substances and
hardware, including, for instance, glue, paint, and drywall screws, to create
large figures that manage to be both endearing and troubling. The artist says
she is fascinated with “the undernoticed yet overwhelming, the marginal yet
monumental.” Her larger-than-life-sized figures reach into your heart with
their kind of pitiful, ragged appearance, while at the same time making you
feel slightly threatened by their size and unpredictability.



O’Connor
earned her MFA from University
of California at Davis and currently teaches at Sierra College in Rocklin,
California. She has exhibited at the Armory Center for the Arts in
Pasadena, the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, the Torrance Art Museum,
the de Saisset Museum in Santa Clara, and the Kohler Company Space in Kohler,
Wisconsin. Her work has been reviewed in numerous publications including
Artforum, LA Weekly, ArtWeek, Artillery, and Beautiful Decay.

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Painter Livia C. Stein’s artworks
are a perfect complement to O’Connor’s mixed-media sculptures. Stein works with
oils as well as painting with ink, does pastel and charcoal drawing,
printmaking (monotypes), and uses mixed media, and clay. In “Cautionary Tales
Reconsidered,” brilliant colors predominate in her paintings and drawings, yet there
is also a delicacy of line that adds nuance and texture. Stein’s oil painting “Orange
Crocodile Interacts with Man’s Nose” brings in the animal element often found
in cautionary tales, and a sense of confrontation and not knowing what will
happen next. Stein says of her process that it’s “like jumping off a cliff but
gradually knowing one has the skills to land softly and surely. The experience
of jumping and doing the work is what matters.”



Stein received her MA from San Francisco State in an
innovative experimental art program, founded by Jock Reynolds, now director of
the Yale University Art Gallery. She currently is a faculty member at Dominican
University, San Rafael, California. Her work has been exhibited internationally
and is in many public and private collections, such as the Achenbach Foundation
for Graphic Arts, Oakland Museum of California, Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco, and the University of Iowa Art Museum.

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Together, the works of O’Connor
and Stein tug gently at any habitual presumptions of righteous innocence we may
have, and show us that there is always more going on under the surface of life,
whether we like it or not.



Running concurrently, in the West
Gallery, the Art Guild of Pacifica presents a group show entitled “Wishes Are
Dreams.” Members (and non-members) may enter any works that connect, however
loosely, to the theme of wishes and dreams. This theme includes anything from
simple daydreaming to the archetypal images that occur in “big dreams.”



The East Gallery honors the award
winners from the 2013 Fog Fest Photography Contest, which was run again this
year by the Sanchez Art Center and judged by previous award winners Alan
Grinberg and Edwin Hacking. This year there was no specific theme, but of
course you will see some gorgeous ocean and sky, surfing, and all the people
and animals that are drawn to the ocean, as well as other subjects. One of my
favorites is the amazing shot taken by Marianne Hale of a long-tailed weasel
standing straight up in the high grasses near Rockaway Beach, looking like he
was as curious about her as she was about him.



All three exhibits open
Friday, January 10, with a reception for the artists from 7 to 9 pm. Thereafter
the galleries are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1 to 5 pm, through the
exhibits’ closing day, February 9. Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda
Mar Blvd., Pacifica, California, about 1.5 miles east of Highway 1 and the
Pacific Ocean. For more information, call 650-355-1894 or visit www.sanchezartcenter.org.

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