Natural History
Creativity Explored artists transform the gallery into a miniature science museum
September 15 – October 26, 2016
Opening reception: Thursday, September 15, 7 – 9 PM
Creativity Explored Gallery
3245 Sixteenth Street, San Francisco
Gallery hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 AM – 3 PM;
Thursday 10 AM – 7 PM; Saturday and Sunday, 12 – 5 PM
San Francisco, Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - Creativity Explored, the premier
nonprofit visual art gallery and studio for artists with developmental disabilities,
presents Natural History, a group exhibition that transforms the gallery into a
miniature museum complete with bone sculptures and diorama. In this multimedia exhibition, Creativity Explored artists explore astronomy, geology,
prehistoric science, and flora and fauna using a range of art practices including
painting, sculpture, drawing, and installation. Curators and Visual Arts Instructors Andrew Gilson and Glenn Peckman mirror
the environment of a natural history museum by dedicating different areas of the
gallery to various fields of study. Insect paintings on wood are displayed pinned
to the wall while pedestals showcase sculptures of taxidermy animals and
fossils. A gallery alcove will transform into an aquarium complete with colorful
acrylic and wood cutouts. From the street, passers will see the large windows
evolve into a mock- diorama and bone sculpture excavation site. To complete
the museum experience, there will be a gift shop featuring small artworks like
Doris Yen’s ink and watercolor on paper dinosaur studies as well as small works
by Peter DeLira, Kaocrew “Yah” Kakabutra, Lien Nguyen, Sara O’Sullivan,
Richard Wright, and others. Artists from both studios collaborated with Artist-in-Residence, Mary Button
Durrell to create a series of popular bone sculptures. Working primarily with
tracing paper and wheat paste, Durrell creates organic shapes and forms that
explore the nuances of light and paper. Using Durrell’s technique, artists
collaborated to make mandibles, femurs, and skull sculptures, reinforcing the
idea that Natural History is an experiential and research-focused exhibition.
Other featured artworks include artworks inspired by Audubon prints by Emma
Reyes and Jason Monzon, Sara O’Sullivan’s series of pencil and ink drawings
under distorted glass, resembling objects seen through a microscope (8.5 x 6.5
inches each). Peter DeLira’s Fish School is a vibrant array of acrylic on wood
fish in all shapes and sizes. Taking a sculptural approach, Makeya Kaiser’s
Snake Nest is a colorful mixed-media interpretation while Ann Yamasaki brings a
hummingbird to life in her multi-media sculpture, Hummingbird, 16 inches high.
In clay, Joseph “JD” Green and Gerald Wiggins create a series fossilized
dinosaur bones while Miyuki Tsurukawa sculpts dinosaur eggs showing the
dinosaur inside.
Drawing on inspiration from their love of classic natural history museums —
specifically, the old Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA (pre-renovation)
and the Museum of Natural History in New York, NY, curators Gilson and
Peckman create a broad overview of different areas of a museum: fossils,
dioramas, taxonomy, astronomy, and more.
About Creativity Explored
Creativity Explored is a dynamic nonprofit art center and gallery where artists
with developmental disabilities have been creating, exhibiting and selling their
art for over 33 years. Located in the vibrant cultural and dining corridor that
transverses San Francisco’s Mission District, Creativity Explored provides a
supportive studio environment, including individualized instruction from
mentoring artists, quality supplies, and professional opportunities to exhibit and
sell their art, the organization establishes these artists’ work as an emerging and
increasingly important contribution to the contemporary art world.
Founded by Florence and Elias Katz in 1983, Creativity Explored has expanded
to two locations: the main gallery and studio on 16th Street in San Francisco’s
Mission District, and a second studio in nearby Potrero Hill. Gallery
programming now includes six exhibitions per year, with more than 15,000
people visiting the gallery and studio annually. This year’s remaining calendar of
exhibitions include Trading Spaces: Creativity Explored Staff Exhibition, a group
exhibition of work by over two dozen Creativity Explored staff members; and,
the Annual Holiday Art Sale, in which Creativity Explored’s studio and gallery will
be filled with original art prints, paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, and
textiles by over 135 artists.
Over the years, the organization’s innovative and respected programs, structure
and culture have been recognized as a model worldwide in the field of art and
disability. In addition to the studios, exhibitions and gallery sales, Creativity
Explored has developed a licensing division, working with the likes of Google,
affordable modern furnishing company CB2, and fashion house COMMES de
GARÇONS; and providing art services for several properties, including BRIDGE
Housing (affordable housing), and Avalon Mission Bay (upscale apartment
community).
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Access Images Online for Ripe: Images for Natural History may be
downloaded from the Press Room at the Creativity Explored website:
https://www.creativityexplored.org/press-room/3373/natural-history
For more information: 415-863-2108; www.creativityexplored.org
Media Contacts:
Charlotte Russell, 415-863-2108; [email protected]
Ann Kappes, 415-863-2108; [email protected]
Amy Auerbach, 415-863-2108; [email protected]