1275 Minnesota St /
Casemore Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 6, 5:00–7:00 pm
Casemore Gallery is pleased to present Mane ‘n Tail, an exhibition featuring large-scale painting, sculpture, film, and photography by Bay-Area artists Devynn Barnes, Susannah Israel, Lizzy Montana Myers, and Charles Lee, who also curated the exhibition.
In these works, the artists explore the complex dynamics and eccentricities of relationships between horses and humans—relationships of nobility and confidence, mystery and familiarity, and labor and whimsy.
As curator Charles Lee says, "Horses are massive, strong animals. And yet, we don’t fear them as we do other creatures their size. We revere them, trust them, confide in them and have depended on them for centuries. Their being tugs at the delicate threads of our adult facades and reveals our curious inner-child."
In Devynn Barnes' paintings, including Alchemy of Thee, human and horse are presented as synchronized dancers, entwined in performances of both power and grace. In Susannah Israel's sculptures, mythos manifests when water and earth meet to create beautiful clay forms of the two species in joyful, kinetic connection, as in her sculpture Soaring Horse and Rider. For Charles Lee, this spirit is expressed and embodied in photographs that show human and horse in moments of repose, rest, play, care and curiosity. In his picture It's All About Trust III, we see just a portion of a horse in closeup, a human hand reaching out to caress the horse's neck.
As a part of the community-based element of his practice, Lee, as curator, has chosen to share the platform with his artist friends working on similar themes. The exhibition extends into the adjacent film room, featuring experimental films by Barnes, Lee, and Lizzy Montana Myers, as well as an array of elegantly curated photographs, drawings and painting.
Lee cites The Horse, by poet Ronald Duncan to summarize his intent:
“Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride,
friendship without envy, or beauty without vanity?
Here where grace is laced with muscle and strength by gentleness confined.”