Cal Lutheran art exhibit explores dark side
Reception for group show set for Halloween night
"Emily," an oil painting by Mark Gleason, is one of the artworks featured in "Running with Scissors."
(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Sept. 22, 2014) California Lutheran University will exhibit artwork with a dark side and celebrate the show with a Halloween night reception.
“Running with Scissors” will open Saturday, Oct. 11, and continue through Saturday, Nov. 22, in the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture on the Thousand Oaks campus. The reception will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31.
Featured artists Mark Gleason, Steven Kenny, Alexandra Manukyan, Teresa Oaxaca and Pamela Wilson show how contemporary paintings and drawings can be tense, dramatic and sometimes frightening.
Gleason's work is reminiscent of the horror stories of Edgar Allen Poe, featuring black ravens and victims of frightening attacks. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio arts and a master’s degree in art education. He has shown his oil paintings in galleries across the country and teaches art in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Kenny’s contemporary surrealist work turns dark and foreboding, with the artist imagining himself as the devil. His award-winning paintings are exhibited in galleries across the United States and Europe. The Florida resident received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and studied in Rome during his senior year.
Combining traditional oil painting techniques with surrealist symbolism, Manukyan explores masks, wounds and an emotional landscape of pain, betrayal and loss. Born in Armenia, she immigrated to the U.S. and worked as a designer and graphic artist in the fashion and entertainment industries. She now teaches and paints in Glendale.
Oaxaca's seductive dolls and marionettes have creepy elements that sneak into her paintings like an infection. The Washington, D.C., resident studied at the Florence Academy of Art and apprenticed with painter Odd Nerdrum in Norway. Her honors include second place in the Portrait Society of America’s Competition in Atlanta.
Wilson is known for paintings of theatrical, sexy and gothic characters that let the imagination loose to mad narratives of vampires and blood. A mentor faculty member at Laguna College of Art & Design, she has had 18 solo exhibitions in cities including New York, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and Santa Fe.
The exhibit and reception are free.
The Kwan Fong Gallery is located in Soiland Humanities Center at 120 Memorial Parkway. It is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call curator Michael Pearce at 805-444-7716 or visit CalLutheran.edu/kwan_fong.