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Engineered Constructs: A Minimalist Space
February 7 - March 4, 2006

Three bay area artists consider the urban as landscape, as material and as inspiration. Sparky Campanella, Susan Spies and Miya Ando Stanoff’s use of tonality, texture and color all share a minimalist sensibility. with abstraction as their bridge, these three artists use photography, painting and metal work to construct contemplative environments. Sparky’s large-format photographs speak to the urban dweller’s romantic quest for the horizon and desire for new potential. Susan uses oils and charcoal to explore the spaces where man and nature intersect. Miya’s steel canvases yield introspective visions. Together their work distills conflicting urban visions down to form, line and surface.

This self-curated 3-person juried show was exhibited at Works\San Jose, in downtown San Jose, CA during the winter of 2006. We were lucky to exhibit in the large, light-filled gallery as WORKS has since moved to a new location in downtown San Jose.

As a part of the exhibition, we also led a show walk through and outreach program with children from a local middle school. After viewing the show we had a discussion about the work. I was really impressed with the observations and insightful questions from the kids. After that, the kids created collages from cut-out magazine pictures that created environments of their own.

www.workssanjose.org