Martin Webb:

I first made paintings that included boats several years ago after visiting the coast of Senegal where I was struck by how close people’s relationship was to the water. More recently I’ve revisited the boat motif, this time thinking about boats as symbolizing exploration, transformation, danger and safety, and as a precarious edge between us land-based humans and the natural world. There’s an appealing universality to them – every culture with water has boats and their symbolism is consistent.  In spite of being largely abstract, Arch Rock depicts a boat either heading towards or emerging from a dark portal. A large flat and ambiguous red shape contrasts with the very textured background, and also suggests an arch of some sort.  Whilst this could be a little ominous, the overall feel of the painting is made quite upbeat and playful by the flags, seaweed-like form, and the boat’s circular yellow marking that looks almost like a fish-eye. - Martin Webb

Nga Trinh:

Windows Into Childhood Fantasyland explores children's fairy tale role playing such as princess, prince, wizard and more.  It also shows children's love for animals such as dogs, rabbits, dinosaurs, horses, butterflies and so on.

Red and Blue Tiles/Girls' Power displays ordinary looking girls/women who don't need to wear capes, masks or carry weapons and acquire an extraordinary non-human power to be formidable - smartness, righteousness and fairness is all they need to fight all the evil forces in the world. Nga Trinh came to the US as a refugee at the end of April 1975 from Sai Gon, Viet Nam.  She graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Nga is an origami artist who uses only recycled paper for her folds.  Her works have been bought by private collectors, Roundtree Visual Company in Emeryville, The Alameda County of Arts Commission, City of Mountain View's Visual Arts Commission and the City of Hayward's Library. - Nga Trinh

Ann Weber:

Ann Weber makes monumental sculpture out of found cardboard boxes.  Her interest is in expanding the possibilities of making beauty from a common and mundane material.  After Ellsworth is part of a series in which she pays homage to the great abstract painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly while making her own statement about relationships, form and color.  Weber’s sculptures have a mystery or double meaning to them.  Neither entirely representational nor abstract, but somewhere in between, she wants the viewers to bring their own associations to the artwork.  Ann Weber was born in Jackson, Michigan in 1950.  She received her BA in Art History from Purdue University and an MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts studying under Viola Frey, whose large-scale sculptures greatly influenced Weber’s work. 

Jeff Hantman:

These are 5 of 14 monoprints completed in 2017 at at Interbang Press in Cerrillos, NM.  The project was a diversion from my studio in Oakland which is full of woodworking tools and scraps of found plywood. The project forced me to slow my process down as each layer of ink had to be thoughtfully and purposefully applied. I used a combination of paper stencils, Xerox transfers, ink and paint applied directly to a plate which was then run through the press transferring the marks to the paper. The monoprints are a complementary addition to my freestanding sculptures, wall reliefs and mixed media works on paper. - Jeff Hantman