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the Main Gallery Sanchez Art Center presents Marmalade, an exhibition
of works by Robert Ortbal, a mid-career sculptor respected by his
peers as highly innovative and imaginative in the use of common
and nontraditional art materials. Organized by guest curator Philip
E. Linhares, Marmalade will include a survey of Ortbal's sculptures
of various scale created from materials such as plastic plumbing
pipe, paper and cardboard, wire, styrofoam and flocking, many with
unconventional mounts and placements. Curator Linhares describes
Ortbal's work as "wonderful—very unpredictable, fresh, humorous
in some cases and challenging in others."
In addition to the
artist's organic and geometric abstract sculptures, Marmalade will
present a collection of new work that, according to Ortbal, "summons
many things simultaneously but rarely fixes on any one thing, thus
forcing the viewer to deliberate on both its familiarity and its
strangeness." These new works explore emptiness and ambiguity,
so expect the unexpected. Ortbal asks viewers to experience themselves
in relation to these new light-weight sculptural forms, some of
which one can physically get inside of, altering the way one sees
and is seen. In this way, he says, the pieces "are similar
to costumes, or more like a pair of spectacles." And why the
title Marmalade? The artist explains: "Like any good preserve
this Marmalade takes the juice and the peel—boils it with sugar
and water—to look after that most ineffable place—the mind."
Robert Ortbal studied at San Francisco State University and earned his MFA at University of California, Davis. Since 2005, he has been Professor of Sculpture at California State University, Sacramento. Since 1994, Ortbal has had 14 solo exhibitions, created 14 site-specific installations, and participated in many regional and national group exhibitions. He has also completed commissions for the City of Emeryville, the Oakland International Airport, and the UC Davis Medical Center. Ortbal has received five fellowships, including the Eureka Fellowship sponsored by the Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco; Sculpture Space, Utica, New York; and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He maintains studios in Emeryville and Sacramento.
The public is invited to hear Robert Ortbal talk about his work at a free Artist/Curator Talk on Sunday, March 22, at 3:30 pm.
Sanchez Art Center
is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd in Pacifica, about a mile east
of Highway 1. Following opening night, galleries are open Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm, and by appointment, through Mar 22.
For more information, call 650.355.1894 or email info@sanchezartcenter.org.
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