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San Diego, CA – Oolong Gallery is thrilled to announce its upcoming exhibition, The Room of Orpheus, on view from November 1 to December 11, 2024. This is the second show in Oolong's new permanent Rancho Santa Fe gallery space featuring work by four Southern California based artists: Jasmine Little, Derek Simons, Stan Kaplan, Bianca Juarez, who collectively explore themes of mythology, memory, and material in the form of ceramic sculptures and paintings.
Inspired by the mediterranean origins and mythology of Orpheus and the poignant Orphic trilogy by Jean Cocteau, alongside Philip Glass’s powerful score, The Room of Orpheus invites viewers into a new contemporary art space set in the Spanish Colonial town of Rancho Santa Fe, CA. In relation to artists, the myth of Orpheus serves as a powerful metaphor for the creative process. Just as Orpheus's music evokes deep emotions and connects with universal themes of love, loss, and longing, artists use their mediums to explore and express the complexities of the human experience.
Jasmine Little presents intricate carvings which engage themes of femininity, identity, and mythology, as her ceramic sculptures prove to be a powerful focal point, echoing the richness of the natural world around her studio and home. Using a formula of hand-mixed California clay that incorporates naturally occurring foreign substances, each vessel’s surface is distinct in texture and tone. While the engravings preserve the figurations of nature’s creatures, the material preserves, as if in amber, a composite sample of nature itself.
Derek Simons utilizes coarse mixed material paintings made of limestone, plaster, sand, and acrylic. His work reveals patterns that loosely reference medieval woodcuts, ancient manuscripts, even hinting at Greco-Roman reliefs. Simons delves into the relationship between art and knowledge through self-taught techniques. Through a blend of etching, scratchboard, and painting, the artist conjures an atmosphere inviting viewers to reflect on the role of philosophers, alchemists, and painters in an ever-evolving new technological world.
Stan Kaplan utilizes floral motifs to transcend traditional painting, employing bold colors and assertive brushwork that evoke deep emotional responses. His abstract interpretations of flowers serve as a vehicle for exploring universal themes of beauty, hope, and heartbreak that are timeless and date back to the dawn of civilization and remain prescient, meditative, and a steady constant to the eye. Each work radiates its own unique tone, inviting contemplation and revealing layers of meaning over time, while sometimes incorporating ceramic visage with oil paintings.
Bianca Juarez harnesses the power of ceramics to express her subconscious and emotional life. Juarez makes sculptural vessels that reference personal narratives and ancient rituals, even medieval devices. Some of her work references Pre-Columbian pottery from Colima, Nayarit, and Jalisco. The artist evokes a sense of shared human experience in her studio practice. Her innovative hand-building techniques and fascination with nature's organizing principles imbue her pieces with a timeless quality, prompting viewers to engage deeply with their forms and histories.
The Room of Orpheus at Oolong Gallery (Nov 1 — Dec 11) promises to be a masterclass in materials, aesthetic pleasure and narrative, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the interplay of myth, memory, and contemporary art. Join us for the opening reception on November 1, from 6 to 8 pm, to engage with the extraordinary works.
For more information, please visit www.oolongallery.com or contact us at info@oolongallery.com
Oolong Gallery is located at 6030 La Flecha, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067 and is open Tuesday to Sunday 11—5pm and by appointment which is always recommended. Follow us on Instagram @oolongallery for updates and more information about exhibitions and events.
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