← Exhibitions

Residency Projects Part I

Kala Fellowships are awarded annually to eight innovative artists working in printmaking, photography, book arts, installation, video and digital media. Recipient artists receive a financial award and up to six-months residency at Kala’s studio facility followed by an exhibition of their new work. The Kala Gallery is proud to present the first of our two-part exhibition series, Residency Projects, featuring work by our 2008-2009 Fellowship artists. The artists were selected by the Kala Directors in association with juror René de Guzman, Senior Curator at the Oakland Museum.

Pawel Kruk’s work frequently involves combinations of performance and video in which he takes on the guise of cultural icons. Recent works have focused on legendary athletes such as basketball superstar Michael Jordan and Olympic swimmer Dana Torres. In this exhibition, Kruk focuses his attention on Bruce Lee as he presents himself in the role of the martial arts messiah in a reenacted television interview originally seen in 1971. Kruk’s reenactments and media fabrications call into question issues of authenticity and question our culture’s obsession with sports, entertainment and stardom. Kruk recently relocated to the Bay Area from Warsaw, Poland.

Samantha Lautman presents a series of large-scale narrative drawings that depict densely populated, semi-urban landscapes. Each scene is filled with androgynous individuals, wearing similar clothing, all simultaneously engaged in a variety of ambiguous activities. Lautman’s straightforward black and white drawings serve as an allegory for a utopian world in which national, ethnic and religious differences have been solved. Her depiction of this new world order can be variously interpreted as naïve, optimistic or downright cynical. Lautman lives in Oakland and is a graduate of California College of the Arts.

Chris Turbuck presents a series of narrative drawings that comprise two thirds of a nearly completed graphic novel titled Fruitless. Turbuck’s tragic-comic autobiographical works explore his unsuccessful attempts to secure a position as a college art instructor. His powerful yet quirky style of drawing is perfectly suited to this selection of self-contained visual anecdotes that depict life’s daily struggles. Fruitless will be published later this year. Canadian-born Turbuck recently received his MFA from Montana State University. We hope he finds employment after his departure from Kala.

Lindsey White’s recent video and photographic projects also revel in a deadpan, yet quirky humor that explores daily life. White’s works share her wonderment over the humor found in random moments of everyday life. Through the use of simple objects such as books, flashlights and the involvement of a few friends, White creates simple situations that capture the inexplicable magic of life that can easily be overlooked. White lives in San Francisco and recently received a MFA from California College of the Arts.

Residency Projects Part II will open on August 27 with new works by Kala Fellows Nichole Maury, Ali Richards, Robert Snowden and Onishi Yusuaki.

New Kala Gallery location:
2990 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702
510-841-7000

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Friday, Noon – 5:30pm; Saturday, Noon – 4:30pm

Exhibitions are free and open to the public.

Kala gratefully acknowledges support from Alameda County Arts Commission, Alliance of Artists Communities, Berkeley Civic Arts Commission, California Arts Council, CEC ArtsLink, City of Emeryville, Crescent Porter Hale Foundation, Francis Collins & Dream Builders, City of Emeryville, Emery Ed Fund, Emery Unified School District, The Walter and Elise Haas Fund, The James Irvine Foundation, LEF Foundation, The Thomas J. Long Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Nichols Foundation, Open Circle Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The PSB Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, The Sato Foundation, Seth Sprague Foundation, Van Loben Sels/RembeRock Foundation, Mercy and Roger Smullen Fund, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Wareham Development, West Berkeley Foundation, The Bernard E. and Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and the Friends of Kala Art Institute