Above picture: Ross Simonini , St Francis and Coyotee Gubbio, 2009
wax crayon on paper, “30 X "22
On view February 5th – 28th
Opening performance Feb 5th 6:00 – 9:00 (Art Murmur)
Mua (Restaurant, Bar, Gallery)
2442a Webster St Oakland, CA 94612 (510) 238-1100
William Saroyan, the celebrated Armenian-American writer was also a prolific, though mostly unknown painter. He produced hundreds of works (paintings and drawings) in his life, a dozen of which will be on view in Mua’s gallery in February. His vein of abstract expressionism came not from New York but from Fresno, his home, and contained an intensity of ferocious markings and firework colors, often quickly scrawled on butcher paper. As a writer, he received Pulitzer for "The Time of Your Life," but turned it down, and was given an Oscar for his screenplay, "The Human Comedy," but sold it to a pawnshop. Like Steinback, he wrote extensively about central California, though Saroyan was widely known for his work about San Francisco.
Ross Simonini, interviews editor for the Believer magazine and a member of the San Francisco band, NewVillager, is also a visual artist, working with installation and drawing. A dozen of his new collages and drawings, done with pencil, melted crayon and nontraditional mediums (rubbed grass, tea, makeup, coffee) will be on view beside Saroyan’s. Simonini’s work ranges in size from 6 X 4 feet to 8” X 11.” It often includes manipulated photography and exhibits a sculptural interest in materials (sand paper, roofing tiles, found objects). Come to the opening for music and live drawing.
