Structure and Light Opening Reception

STRUCTURE & LIGHT
Photographs by Hedi B. Desuyo
Monotypes by Linda Grebmeier
May 15- July 17, 2010

Opening Reception, May 23 3:00-6:00 PM

Gallery Family Day, hands-on art activities: Saturday, May 22, 2 - 4 pm

Artists' Talk and Tour of Yuba Artifacts, Saturday June 12, 3 pm

Arts Benicia is proud to present Structure and Light, an exhibit of artwork created as a response to the passing of a piece of local history, the Yuba Manufacturing Complex in the lower Benicia Arsenal. In the final weeks before being torn down in 2006, artists Hedi B. Desuyo and Linda Grebmeier were provided a rare opportunity to capture images of these classic industrial buildings. Through photographs and monotype prints, the exhibit provides an eloquent visual testimony for a place that could not be preserved, and articulates the important role that visual memory plays in history, in our community, and in our personal lives.

Since moving to the Benicia Arsenal 16 years ago, Linda Grebmeier has interpreted the industrial buildings and cargo ships surrounding her studio in striking paintings and prints suffused with golden light and deep shadows, profoundly expressive of her connection with the area. Her use of unexpected vantage points results in atmospheric, light-filled images bordering on abstraction, particularly in her multiple-drop monotypes, the technique she has used in this project. Hedi B. Desuyo is an artist interested in places layered with the effects of time: she is uniquely suited to capture the forsaken beauty at the abandoned old factory. A native of Germany who immigrated to the United States in 1962 and moved to Benicia in 1980, she travels extensively and observes her daily surroundings acutely: her photographs present the viewer with a rich emotive experience, lending mystery and significance to humble workaday objects and places.

In conjunction with Structure and Light, exhibition curator Kathryn Weller Renfrow has worked with the Benicia Historical Museum to create collaborative programming at the Museum, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The Museum is home to many industrial artifacts from the Yuba Factory site, and these as well as historical photographs of the area will be the gathered and installed in a special exhibit at the Museum from June 12 until August 8, 2010. On June 12 at 3 pm, the Artists' Talk, featuring Desuyo and Grebmeier at Arts Benicia, will be followed at 4:30 by a talk at the Benicia Historical Museum about the Yuba Factory's history by BHM Curator Beverly Phelan, and will include a free tour of the museum's industrial artifacts, documents, and photographs.
On June 22nd from 2 to 4 pm, Arts Benicia will host Family Art Day, featuring hands-on art activities inspired by Structure and Light. The activities, suitable for parents and children alike, are designed and organized by Elisabeth Gulick, long-time children's art coordinator, teacher, and docent for the organization.

The exhibit Structure and Light is supported in part by a Fleishhacker Foundation grant awarded in 2008 to commission the artwork. As well as generous donations from Olson Realty, Inc.