(SUNDANCE, UT) December, 2004….Sundance and The Joyce Gordon Gallery of Oakland, Calif., present the works of three artists from the Bay Area as part of the Sundance Exhibition Series during the 2005 Sundance Film Festival at the Sundance Village. Each of the artists, Sibylle Szaggars, Pauletta M. Chanco, and Hugo McCloud, present abstract works that reflect their personal perspective and impressions on ancient and modern culture and tradition. The Exhibition will run from January 20th, the opening day of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, through April 1, 2005. A artists’ reception, by invitation only, will be held on January 19th, 2005 at 5 pm in the Sundance Screening Room Gallery.
The Joyce Gordon Gallery is dedicated to the creative pursuit of the individual and seeks to make such work accessible to a broad audience. The Gallery provides a forum for creative and cultural exchanges, celebrating the unique creativity of one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country.
“We are proud to represent and exhibit inspirational and gifted artists who
challenge us all to grow, think, and be free,” commented gallery owner, Joyce
Gordon.
Sibylle Szaggars mystical paintings reflect a feeling of culture, history and environment; Pauletta M. Chanco’s work merges the sacred and the profane, and Hugo McCloud, creates phenomenal, urban designs incorporating metal, water, and found objects.
“As an artist, I join the many others who see the joy of moving beyond borders to the unknown and unexplored – the eternal world of space, color, light and texture,” said artist, Sibylle Szaggars.
Szaggars work grew out of a love of the depth and mystery of older cultures and traditions that she discovered as a youth through travels with her family throughout Europe, Morocco and Malaysia.
In the early 1980s, she moved to London, where she observed and studied many modern and abstract artists and eventually began developing and exhibiting her own work in group showings in Germany and London.
Her interest in ancient cultures eventually led her to the United States and
an exploration of the mysteries of Native American culture. The spiritual connection
of the Hopi people particularly interested Szaggars, who was drawn to how the
Hopi people incorporated their spirituality into all aspects of their life,
art and connection to the land. This influence can be seen in a series of paintings
that reflect this spiritual resonance.
In the early 1990’s, she made Sundance her home, where her concerns for the future influenced her work. During the period of 1994 through 1996, she created a number of large canvases that represented her commitment to protecting the environment and camouflaged danger of denial.
Ms. Szaggars returned to Morocco in the year 2000, where she was struck and inspired by the “…dignity of the human presence set against an ancient time of history and tradition.” Just after the 9/11 tragedy, Ms. Szaggars presented her 2001 San Francisco exhibition of painted oil sketches and photographs influenced by her Moroccan experience.
The tumultuous and devastating period that followed the events of September 11, inspired Ms. Szaggars to reexamine and explore the effects of an act of peace and poetry in the midst of destruction. As a result, a new series of paintings emerged that explored this idea through the fragility of flowers with the vase as its only protection, suggesting that even that which protects is also fragile.
Ms. Szaggars has exhibited her work internationally in Germany, England, Peru, Japan, and throughout the United States. In addition to the Joyce Gordon Gallery, she is also represented by the Ernesto Mayans Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Linda Fairchild Contemporary Art, San Francisco, California.
Pauletta Chanco’s work has been said to reflect “the sacred in the profane.” Ms. Chanco’s work is about moving within a liminal space or bardo, meaning a transitional space between two levels of life, puberty into adulthood, youth into marriage, and aging into dying. Bardo is a Buddhist term to express this liminal space.
“Since I have been working with this idea for the past five years, and simultaneously being spiritually influenced by the Buddhist concepts of impermanence (which is certainly all our experience in the profane) and emptiness (which is necessary in both the sacred and the profane but must be assimilated in the sacred first), I have been struck by how many levels spirituality is such an essential element in the creative process and in the life of an artist,” she commented.
We experience the sacred and the profane in such experiences as leaving the noise and confusion of an urban city to contemplate nature in its serenity. The effect takes place on many levels psychological, emotional, mental and physical. Ms. Chanco expresses this type of experience in her work through metaphor, which includes a transparent layering technique, which allows prior layers of form and color to come through slightly into subsequent topmost layers.
She achieves both in the use of beeswax in the encaustic medium on wood panel or in the thin layers of acrylic washes on linen canvas. Each layer represents the human experience on psychological, emotional, physiological and mental transformation in the process of leaving one space for another.
Hugo McCloud’s gift of transforming the mundane into the extraordinary grew out of a love of nature. Mr. McCloud works with all types of metal, copper, brass, bronze, aluminum, stainless steel, zinc, and other materials, such as wood, ceramics, concrete, epoxies, resins and glass.
“My inspiration comes from the everyday things I see in common places. They are the basis for my creative innovation,” said Mr. McCloud.
He describes the style of his work as “simplicity, progression and minimalism.”
“My work deals with a wide open spectrum, therefore I do not want to limit
the imagination by using titles.”
A former marketing business major at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, McCloud decided to focus his energies into creating inspirational pieces of art. The result has been the creation of exquisite pieces from a wide range of materials.
Channeling the inspiration from his extensive travels throughout Spain and various African countries, McCloud’s newest works incorporate a collage of mixed media that provides an opportunity to freely experience and interpret his fluid concepts without social, cultural or creative restrictions.
The exhibition is free and open to the public. The Screening Room Gallery will generally be accessible Monday through Saturday 10 to 8 p.m., and Sundays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For tickets and information, please call the Sundance Activities Desk at 801-223-4567.
Nestled at the base of 12,000-foot Mt. Timpanogos, Sundance is a 6,000-acre community preserve dedicated to maintaining the balance of art, nature and community. Sundance offers diverse mountain recreation experiences and encourages the cultivation of art and self-expression, as well as the preservation of the land. Created by Robert Redford, Sundance is a haven for discovery and inspiration. The Sundance family of companies includes the Sundance Village, Sundance Institute, Sundance Channel and Sundance Catalog. For more information on Sundance, call 801-225-4107 or visit our website, www.sundanceresort.com.