Joe Brubaker: Origins at Seager Gray Gallery

J o e B ru b a k e r : Origins

J o e B ru b a k e r : Origins

Joe Brubaker: Origins

Exhibition: December 7, 2019 - January 10, 2019 Reception for the Artist: Satuday, December 14, 5:30 - 7:30 pm Front Cover: Gregory, 2019 (detail), Alaskan cedar, acrylic, prismacolor, found wood and object, 51.5 x 8 x 8 in Back Cover: Yin Yang, 2019, yellow cedar with matte glaze, 48 x 48 in Photo Credit: Chan Yau-Man, Seawood Photos Catalog Design: Donna Seager, Seager Gray Gallery Direct all inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 108 Throckmorton Ave. Mill Valley, CA 94941

Art and Archetypes: Joe Brubaker’s Origins Joe Brubaker is fascinated with human beings - how they think, how they feel and how they move. He is interested in their physical characteristics as well as their stories, their strengths and their vulnerabilities. The earliest inspiration for his work began in his 20s when he visited El Museo de las Momias (The Museum of the Mummies) on a trip to Guanajuato in central Mexico. The preserved bodies of victims of an 1833 cholera epidemic are on display there and Brubaker was struck with their beauty and physicality, but also with their power to tap into more metaphysical contemplations about life and death.

These and the many powerful wooden carvings of saints (santos) inspired the artist and led to his lifelong exploration of what it is to be human in his 30 years of creating wood figurative sculpture.

“Now what I realize is that all along there was an archetypal impulse there,” says the artist. “The work was teaching me. I started following consciously what was happening unconsciously.” The title of the show, Origins, refers both to the original archetypes that inspired them, but also to the inclusion of earlier works he has released from his own collection illuminating his process and the journey he has taken.

Erik, for instance is a sculpture Brubaker created around 1999. “He is definitely a shaman/magician,” says Joe smiling, “but he is a reluctant one.” Created in the artist’s earlier naturalistic folk art style with glass eyes, Erik is made of douglas fir and cedar. He stands gazing downward in striped pants and a sleeveless black shirt. Another work from this period is Carmen (2000). Her archetype is the lover with her red bathing suit and curvaceous shape. They are a shout out to one of his inspirations, Katsura Funakoshi whose figures, like Joe’s, are totems representing the bond between mind and body.

Erik, 1999 (left) douglas fir, Alaskan cedar, acrylic, glass eyes 32 x 8 x 8 in

Gregory, 2019 found wood, Alaskan cedar, acrylic, prismacolor found object 51.5 x 8 x 8 in

Gregory (priest, wise king) is created from an aged found piece of wood that Brubaker had been saving for a long time. It had so much character that he decided to leave it in its natural state. “Sometimes,” he said, “it is better to let the materials speak for themselves.” Gregory, along with Ophelia (priestess, magician), Terrance (wise king) and Joseph (saint, magician) are monolithic works that transition upward from raw material to refinement. Their frontal gaze and exaggerated height are reminiscent of early Egyptian and Roman sculpture created to deify emperors and kings.

Brubaker works in a style referred to as bricolage, creating work from any number of available found and used objects. “I am a 3D collagist,” he says.

People bring him all kinds of found objects, car parts, old jewelry and pieces of burned out buildings. A great example of this method is Isabel, whose skirt is metal found by his scavenger friends in a creek. Her bodice and hair, piled neatly on her beautifully carved head, are encrusted with small jewels and bric a brac.

In Brubaker’s last exhibition with the gallery, Between Worlds (2017), he began to integrate purely abstract works with the standing sculpture, some in homage to Louise Nevelson. He has included more of the same in this year’s show, most notably, Yin Yang, an amazing yellow cedar work that undulates in and out from the wall. “I see Yin Yang as ebb and flow, male and female,” he says. “It is an evocation of ripples, active ripples on the surface of a river.”

With his interest in people, it is not surprising that Brubaker loves to collaborate with his artist friends and the exhibition contains works with master wooden boat builder and sculptor Holden Crane, painter Teri Froelich, Marka Hansen (Brubaker’s wife) and artist Deepa Jayanth. Crane, Froelich and Jayanth are all a part of Brubaker’s Exquisite Gardeners Collaborative, which has created installations for the past decade in locations that include The Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco, the Oceanside Museum, in Oceanside,

California, the Jackson Hole Land Trust in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and several more beginning with their 2009 installation at what was then Donna Seager Gallery in San Rafael.

Deepa Jayanth, a native from India now living in Marin County, was presented with a large (68 inches tall) male wood torso in a dark graphite color she referred to as “Big Guy.” She created time-lapse videos a la William Kentridge of a woman interacting with the sculpture. Making drawings of the frames and then creating larger ones to match the scale of “Big Guy”, she collaged them onto the sculpture like a caress. “There’s nothing like it,” Brubaker remarked, “It is as though she is dancing around and entwining herself with the sculpture.

It is a still-life animation.” The work is as poetic as its title, Sayujya, a Sanskrit work that refers to a merger with God. What is remarkable about Joe Brubaker is his ability to remain continually curious and open, borrowing from and adapting whatever materials and inspirations come his way. He is creating something new at every turn. He can transition from the delicately articulated Caroline with her thin arms and refined features to the brutish Leopold – a Noh theater kind of character done in collaboration with Holden Crane, his expression and gestures fierce and exaggerated.

“I see them as actors, as having a life of their own,” Brubaker says. “Sometimes I have an intention when I begin, but they emerge and tell their own story.”

- Donna Seager, November, 2019

with Deepa Jayanth

Sayujya, 2016 - 2019 Alaskan cedar, acrylic, graphite, paper, charcoal, ink wash 68 x 21 x 18 in

Carmen, 2000 (right) yellow cedar, acrylic, glass eyes 29 x 21 x 10 in

Isabel, 2015 - 2019 Alaskan cedar, acrylic, found metal, plaster 51 x 11 x 8 in

Caroline, 2019 basswood, acrylic, woodburning, found object 14 x 4 x 4 in

Annie, 2019 Alaskan cedar, acrylic, woodburning, found object 19 x 5 x 5 in

Julio, 2019 found wood, douglas fir, acrylic, basswood, pencil, found objects 39 x 11 5 in

Joseph, 2019 found wood, Alaskan cedar, found object, plaster, milk paint, enamel, acrylic 54 x 9 x 9 in

Marcus, 2019 found wood, basswood, acrylic, found object 57 x 15 x 11 in

Ophelia, 2019 found wood, basswood, acrylic, prismacolor, found object 57 x 13 x 9 in

Terrance, 2019 basswood, found wood, plaster, acrylic glaze, enamel paint, found object 54 x 9 x 9 in

Rafael, 2000 - 2019 Alaskan cedar, found metal, semi-precious stone, steel 64 x 8 x 28 in

Celeste, 2019 basswood, acrylic, woodburning, found objects 19 x 9 x 7 in

Tina, 2019 basswood, red cedar, acrylic, found object 10 x 8 x 3 in

Francis, 2019 basswood, pepperwood, milk paint, plaster, glass, found objects 55 x 14 x 10 in

Hank, 2015 Alaska Cedar, acrylic 50 x 8 x 8 in

Henry, 2019 basswood, red cedar, acrylic, found objects 8.5 x 7 x 3 in

Samuel, 2000 bronze, acrylic wash, found metal 11.5 x 8 x 8 in

with Holden Crane Humunculus, 2019

carved cedar, acrylic wash, found objects 66 x 11 x 6 in

with Holden Crane

Leopold, 2019

douglas fir, redwood, acrylic 20 x 12 x 10 in

Norma, 2019 found wood, basswood, acrylic, prismacolor, found object 18 x 15 x 3 in

Nora, 2019 basswood, found wood, acrylic, woodburning, , found object 15 x 7.5 x 4 in

with Holden Crane

Upright, 2015 - 2019 cedar, acrylic glaze, found objects 23.5 x 10 x 6.5 in

Apollo, 2019 found wood and metal 29 x 21 x 10 in

Yin Yang, 2019 yello cedar with matte glaze 48 x 48 in

with Marka Hansen Mallorca, 2019

acrylic, carved panels, oil stick, pencil 47 x 53 in

with Terri Froelich Origins, 2019

found wood and objects, collage, acrylic, pencil, carved wood 48 x 48 in

Joe Brubaker Education

BFA Sacramento State University 1976 MFA : UCLA 1980 Solo Exhibitions

2019 Seager Gray Gallery, Origins, Mill Valley, CA

2017 Seager Gray Gallery, Betweem Worlds, Mill Valley, CA 2015 Seager Gray Gallery, Lost and Found, Mill Valley, CA Sue Greenwood Fine Arts, Laguna Beach, CA

2014 - Seager Gray Gallery, The Long Voyage, Mill Valley, CA 2012 - Sue Greenwood Fine Arts, Laguna Beach, CA

2012 - Seager Gray Gallery, Everyday Saints, Mill Valley, CA. 2010 - Sue Greenwood Fine Arts, Laguna Beach, CA. 2009 -Sue Greenwood Fine Arts, Laguna Beach, CA

2009- Palo Alto Art Center, Retrospective Exhibition, Palo Alto, CA 2008- Sue Greenwood Fine Arts Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA 2008- Donna Seager Gallery,San Rafael, CA

2007 - Sue Greenwood Fine Arts Gallery, Laguna Beach CA 2007 - Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael CA

2006 - Grover-Thurston Gallery, Seattle WA

2005 - Greenwood-Chebithes Gallery, Laguna Beach CA

2006 - Sue Greenwood Fine Arts Gallery, Laguna Beach CA 2005 - Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston MA

2004 - Greenwood-Chebithes Gallery, Laguna Beach CA 2003 - Greenwood-Chebithes Gallery, Laguna Beach CA 2002 - Grover-Thurston Gallery, Seattle WA

2002 - Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe NM

2001 - Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley CA 2000 - Grover-Thurston Gallery, Seattle WA

1999 - Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley CA 1998 - Marin Open Studios, San Anselmo CA

1997 - Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley CA 1997 - Marin Open Studios, San Anselmo CA 1996 - Marin Open Studios, San Anselmo CA 1995 - Marin Open Studios, San Anselmo CA

2013 - Context Art Miami, Seager Gray Gallery, Miami, FL

2012 – Sue Greenwood, Joe Brubaker, Maurice Gray, Chris Gwaltney

2012 – Seager Gray Gallery, Summer Salon: Materials, Mill Valley, CA 2006 - Inaugural Exhibition, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael CA 2005 - M.A.C. Exhibit, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael CA

2003 - M.A.C. Exhibit, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael CA

2003 - “Mind Over Metal”, Art Works Downtown, San Rafael CA 1998 - Biennial Crocker-Kingsley Exhibition, Crocker Museum, Sacramento CA

1998 - Grantees Awards Exhibition, Marin Arts Council, Falkirk 1998 - “Outside in, Inside out”, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael CA

1998 - “In Human Form”, Maude Kerns Art Center, Eugene Oregon 1997 - Marin Arts Council Members show, Corte Madera CA 1997 - Annual jury show, Fairfield Arts Center, Fairfield CA

1997 - “Small Works” show, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley CA

1997 “Introductions” show, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley CA 1996 - Marin Arts Council Members show, Corte Madera CA

1995 - Marin Arts Council Members show, Corte Madera CA 1995 - Italian Street Painting Festival, San Rafael CA

1995 - Group show, Coffee Roastery, San Anselmo CA 1995 - Annual jury show, Gallery 825, Los Angeles CA

1995 - “Seen/Unseen” juried show, University of New Mexico 1995 - “Masks” Marin Shakespeare Company, San Rafael CA

1995 - “All Saints All Souls” show, Falkirk Center, San Rafael CA 1994 - Marin Council Members show, Corte Madera CA

Arts

1978 - Group show, Wight Gallery, U.C.L.A., Los Angeles CA 1975 - Group show, Sacramento State, Sacramento CA Exquisite Garden Collaborative Installations:

Joe Brubaker has assembled a team of collaborators who go into museum and art center

spaces with a load of found and assembled materials and transform the space together using what they have brought.

1976 - Upstairs Gallery, Sacramento CA

2014 - Museum of Craft and Design, Visible Transparency, Brubaker Retrospective

(in collaboration with the Jackson Hole Land Trust Foundation.)

Group Exhibitions

and Exquisite Garden Installation, San Francisco, CA

2014 - artMRKT, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2012 - Cannon Art Center, The Exquisite Garden Project, Carlsbad, CA.

Aqua Art Miami, Seager Gray Gallery, Miami, FL

1996 - “3 Artists” Vallejo Arts Center, Vallejo CA

2015 - Foundspace, Exquisite Garden Collaborative, Jackson Hole Wyoming

2015 - artMRKT, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Center, San Rafael CA

1995 - Academy of Art Bush St. Gallery, San Francisco CA

1980 - U.C.L.A. Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles CA

2013 - The Nest Project, 55 Linden, Oakland CA

2011 - Campovida, Outdoor Installation,Hopland,CA.