SLATE Contemporary Gallery is thrilled to announce an offsite pop-up exhibition in a penthouse at the luxurious new VESPR residences in Oakland, February 3 through March 30. For the show we are launching at VESPR, we have curated a colorful group of abstract paintings to illustrate the breadth of our collection. 

For the show we are launching at VESPR, we have curated a colorful group of abstract paintings to illustrate the breadth of our collection. The presentation includes work by five Oakland artists, ranging from the graphic symbolism of Chaves Smith and Kaya Fortune, through the gestural expressionism of Jimi Evins, and landing eventually on the more geometric approaches of Maya Kabat and Eric Bohr. Another East-bay favorite is Lola, who makes unique art by pouring liquid resin onto wood panels.

Several of the other artists whose art is on view work from studios in San Francisco. While Holly Wong and Anastasia Faiella take a more improvisational approach to produce work with a lot of open energy, Silvia Poloto and Lisa Kairos play in the space between accident and control, creating work that belies its process but still feels composed and pulled together.

Kate Zimmer and Maria Burtis, both working from Sausalito, take inspiration from the Bay Area landscape while still giving themselves free-reign to create large immersive works emanating with gesture and color.

We also love introducing local audiences to artists from out the Bay Area, such as Mikey Kelly (Napa) Barbara Kolo (Los Angeles) and Juan Alonzo-Rodriguez, who just relocated from Seattle to Florida. Their paintings especially embody painting as a meditative practice, applying their materials in an edited approach, with intention and attention to detail.