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The Lisa Coscino Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of its new exhibitions. The MAIN GALLERY will feature the photography of BOBBI BENNETT in an exhibition entitled "Larger Than Life". The FRONT GALLERY will feature the watercolors of LAURIE WYMAN-HERON in an exhibition entitled "Still Life, Still Life". The exhibitions will open on Friday, August 9th and will continue through September 14th, 2002. There will be a RECEPTION on Friday, August 9th from 6-8pm. Both artists will be present. The Gallery is located at 171 Central Avenue in Pacific Grove.

Already, 2002 has proven to be a good year for Santa Barbara photographer Bobbi Bennett. In February, she had a solo show at Fototeka in Los Angeles which was reviewed by the LA Times. LACMA has expressed interest in acquiring her work for their permanent Collection (she is already in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art). This exhibition will focus on her most recent work, the "Monster" series, which examines childhood fear and trauma and also include work from her earlier "Super Hero" series.

Bennett's large scale (30 x 40") saturated color prints focus on facets of the self. Bennett's work is primarily comprised of self-portraits which explore various aspects of the unconscious self; the images range across a spectrum from gruesome to sublime. The Super Hero series focuses on the role of pop-culture super heroes in the formulation of identity. Recent forays into darker subjects left Bennett with the desire to reconnect with icons from her youth; thus, ruminations on Wonder Woman, Cat Woman and the Silver Surfer became various impressions of "power, sexuality and invincibility."

In her more recent body of work, the "Monster Series", Bennett uses color and abstraction as a means for eliciting emotion. While these photographs are self portraits, Bennett is nearly impossible to detect in any of them. She uses disguise, masks, elaborate sets and lighting to create an image that is less about what it is than about how it makes one feel. In these pieces Bennett explores such childhood rooted emotions as fear, stagnation and stress.

The artistic quality of Bennett's imagery presides over the scenes she depicts with the composition, lighting, and the wavering focus all informing the subject in a "painterly" way. In this sense, Bennett's technique evokes elements of pictorialism, the nineteenth century movement aimed at bolstering the status of photography as a "fine art" form. Bennett's work also echoes that of contemporary photographers Cindy Sherman and Sandy Skoglund. Like Sherman, Bennett disguises herself as the premier subject of the photograph and like Skoglund, she creates elaborate sets and lavish installations.

San Francisco painter Laurie Wyman-Heron creates beautifully mastered watercolor paintings of still lifes from life with the deftness and subtly of hand of Georgio Morandi. Wyman-Heron composes delicate, minimalist scenes of fruit, vegetables and leaves on platters and plates, some with tablecloths, some without, and then sets about painting them almost as a lesson in meditation. The colors and restraint of these very subtle paintings, their light and shadow, combine to create a zen-like atmosphere on the paper.

Drawn to watercolor because of it's subtlety and luminosity, this will be Wyman-Heron's first show on the Peninsula since 1999.

Gallery Hours are:
Tuesday - Saturday: 11-5:30
and by appointment.

previous exhibitions...