Gold Bug 12 Year Anniversary Celebration
Friday, October 11
6pm-9pm
We would be honored if you attended our 12 year anniversary party on Friday, October 11th from 6pm-9pm. We have invited all of our favorite people and look forward to an evening full of wine, good company and engaging conversation.
PLUS! This particular evening will be extra special because we are hosting opening receptions for work by artists new to the gallery, Kelley Benes and Michael Campbell, which will remain up through the holiday gift-giving season.
Hope to see you there!
About Michael Campbell:
From an early age, Midwest born artist Michael Campbell has made a connection between handcrafted objects and the divine. Using the mushroom as his talisman, Campbell explores the roles they play as natural 'decomposers' of dead, organic matter as well as symbols of fairytales and altered states of consciousness. The bold red and white spotted caps of the immediately identifiable amanita muscaria are the iconic symbols of both vintage Christmas gnomes and of Siberian Shamans engaged in vision quests. Campbell references the depiction of these mushrooms here as the forbidden fruit in the Christian fresco found in the Plaincouroualt Abbey.
Campbell's sculpture speaks in a visual language unique to the 1970's through bright colors and painted plaster casts reminiscent of chalkware banks of that era. They suggest hand painted, mass-produced tchotchkes of divine sacraments, mushroom saints, and forest spirits.
About Kelley Benes:
Beans of John, also known as Kelley [KT] Benes [Beans], is an artist based out of Los Angeles. Her work has always been deeply inspired by her love of nature. During her travels over the years, she has amassed a collection of peculiar trinkets and artifacts which now serve as inspiration for her work. Combining her fascination with strange objects from another time and her desire to create pieces inspired by science and nature led to the body of work, Beans of John. On top of making unsettling objects made up of teeth, shells, eggs, eyes, and human hair, Kelley is also a practicing illustrator, mixed media artist, and taxidermist.