I am Here: Marianne Kolb

Marianne Kolb:I Am Here

I Am Here Paintings by Marianne Kolb

I Am Here Exhibition: October 2 - October 31, 2018 Reception for the Artist, Saturday, October 6, 5:30 - 7:30 Front Cover: Marianne Kolb, Amal, 2018, mixed media on panel, (detail), Back Cover: Marianne Kolb, T h e W h i t e P a i n t i n g s N o . 1 , mixed media on panel, 15.75 x 14.75 in

Photo Credit: Dana Davis Essay by Donna Seager, August, 2018 All rights reserved.

Direct all inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 108 Throckmorton Ave. Mill Valley, CA 94941

I want to work in revelations‌ I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down everyone will understand because they are the same as me that far down.

Jack Kerouac

Amal mixed media on panel 44 x 30 in

There is no mistaking a painting by Marianne Kolb. Her singular female figures stand in glorious imperfection against backgrounds of pure unsaturated color. One of the paintings, Amal portrays a woman standing against a field of pure royal blue. Her face is mottled, with mere suggestions of features still managing to convey character. Worn proudly, her dress, with it’s gorgeous yellow cream band and white lace collar is at times translucent, uneven.

To look at these paintings of wraith-like women, with names like Carmen, Nadia, Fumiko and Serena, is to be struck by their humanity, their pride and their shame, their beauty and their scars.

“I focus on the forces beneath the surface -- the dread, the frenzy, isolation, fear, separation, love, intimacy, hope, humor, whimsy,” the artist explains. “I want the viewer to feel something very deep and yet common -- that each one of us is uniquely different while we’re part of the greater whole.”

The critical tension in the paintings comes from Kolb’s uncanny ability to convey vulnerability and defiance at the same time. Peter Selz, art historian and former curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, wrote that Kolb’s paintings “affirm the comic tragedy of human existence.”

Kolb grew up in an isolated farming village near Bern, Switzerland, where the atmosphere was patriarchal, regimented and disciplined, with little interest in nurturing the creative spirit.

The expectation was that Kolb would follow tradition, get married, have children and take care of a husband.

“Most of the time I felt I didn’t fit in,” she says. “It was suffocating.”

The painfulness of her situation and the internal struggle within fueled a sensitivity to the courageous women who struggle and endure in spite of difficulty and even abuse.

Stella mixed media on panel 47.5 x 38.5 in

She is drawn to those who don’t have it easy, whether from sickness, depression, poverty or catastrophe. The paintings in the exhibition are intentionally all women in response to the “Me Too” movement.

“I feel we are all a little crazy, deficient, damaged goods to some degree or another and yet we have the capacity to feel and show empathy, compassion and innocence,” she says. “We are imperfect, having adapted to whatever circumstances mark our lives and yet we endure, stripped to our essence and valiant in the determination to meet every challenge.”

Kolb’s paintings are done in one sitting. With an attitude she refers to as “detached involvement,” meaning totally present yet completely detached from the outcome, she doesn’t approach the canvas with a particular image in mind. Mixing her colors directly on the canvas without a pallet, she paints intuitively, letting the figure and background emerge and crystallize into a unified whole.

“I go to it with pigment in my hands and do something to that piece of material in front of me, then work almost at random until the image begins to assert itself,” she explains.

In addition to the eleven larger works, this exhibition includes the “The White Series,” a series of eleven smaller paintings that began as abstractions created with sumi ink, rust and gesso on ghostly white backgrounds. In the abstractions, Kolb discovers the beginnings of a figure - eyes, face, form. The result is a group of mysterious and engaging works with surfaces enticingly smooth and utterly satisfying.

Both series give tribute to the beauty and depth of human struggle and provide her subjects with an imaginary opportunity to be seen as they are – the courageous heroes of their own lives - to assert themselves and say “See me. I am here.”

Carmen,

mixed media on panel, 61 x 48 in

Chris Gwaltney Extravagant, 2018 oil on linen 55 x 44 in

Fumiko,

mixed media on panel, 44 x 30 in

Kate,

mixed media on panel, 47.5 x 38.5 in

Hope,

mixed media on panel, 44 x 30 in

Nadia,

mixed media on panel, 61 x 48 in

Olivia,

mixed media on panel, 44 x 30 in

Serena,

mixed media on panel, 47.5 x 38.5 in

Stella,

mixed media on panel, 47.5 x 38.5 in

Portrait No. 16,

mixed media on panel, 16 x 12 in

Sophie,

mixed media on panel, 14 x 11 in

The White Album

The White Paintings No. 1,

mixed media on panel, 15.75 x 14.75 in

The White Paintings No. 2,

mixed media on panel, 24 x 19 in

The White Paintings No. 3,

mixed media on panel, 24 x 19 in

The White Paintings No. 4,

mixed media on panel, 23 x 17.25 in

The White Paintings No. 5,

mixed media on panel, 25 x 20 in

The White Paintings No. 6,

mixed media on panel, 25 x 20 in

The White Paintings No. 7,

mixed media on panel, 25 x 20 in

The White Paintings No. 8,

mixed media on panel, 25 x 20 in

The White Paintings No. 9,

mixed media on panel, 25 x 20 in

The White Paintings No. 10,

mixed media on panel, 25 x 20 in

The White Paintings No. 11,

mixed media on panel, 25 x 20 in

MARIANNE KOLB Born: Bern, Switzerland Solo Exhibitions 2018 Seager/Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA. I Am Here.

Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA. Singularities.

2017 Blue Gallery, Kansas City, MO Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA

2002 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Stewart Gallery, Boise, ID. 2001 Richmond Art Center Richmond, CA. 2000 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Debra Owen Gallery, San Diego, CA. Galeria Dos Damas Dos, Palm Springs, CA.

2016 Obsolete, Culver City, CA

1998 Mixx, San Diego, CA. Debra Owen Gallery, San Diego, CA.

2015 Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1997 1996 1993

2014 Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA

Group Exhibitions

2013 Art Space Gallery, Fresno City College, Fresno CA 2012 Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA 2011 Obsolete, Venice, CA. 2010 Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA 2009 Consulate General of Switzerland, San Francisco, CA. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003

Julie Baker Fine Art, Nevada City, CA. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Stewart Gallery, Boise, ID. Hang Gallery, San Francisco,CA. Hang Gallery, San Francisco,CA.

Bisco’s, Emeryville, CA. 1078 Gallery, Chico, CA. North Berkeley Gallery, Berkeley, CA.

2018 Blue Gallery, Kansas City, MO. Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA. Seager/Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA. THE EAST CUT Art Fair, San Francisco, CA 2017 Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA. Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA. Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA. S Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA. 2016 Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA. Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA. Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA. Misho Gallery, San Francisco, CA. artMRKT San Francisco.

Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2015 Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA. Art Silicon Valley San Francisco.

Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Misho Gallery, San Francisco, CA. artMRKT San Francisco. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco,

2014 Art Silicon Valley San Francisco. Hespe Gallery artMRKT San Francisco. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA 2013 Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA artMRKT San Francisco. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco.

Bigelow + Silver, San Francisco, CA Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA 2012 Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Misho Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. artMRKT San Francisco. Hespe Gallery Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2011 Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA. apex, New York, NY. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. artMRKT San Francisco. Hespe Gallery, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA. Art Chicago, Chicago, IL. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA. Los Angeles Art Show, Sue Greenwood Fine Art 2010 SF Fine Art Fair, San Francisco. Hespe Gallery, SF Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA Art Chicago, Chicago, IL. Hespe Gallery Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Los Angeles Art Show, Sue Greenwood Fine Art. 2009 Alphonse Berber Gallery, Berkeley, CA. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Millennium Tower Showcase, San Francisco, CA. SGFA & The Pacific Art Foundation, Newport Beach, CA Grand Theater Center for the Arts, Tracy, CA. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Boise Art Museum, ID. Stewart Gallery, Boise, ID. Art Chicago, Chicago, IL. Hespe Gallery, San Francisco

Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA Los Angeles Art Show, Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, 2008 SGFA & The Pacific Art Foundation, Newport Beach, J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA The Art Foundry, Sacramento, CA Bridge Art Fair, New York, NY Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA Los Angeles Art Show, Baker Hangar, Santa Monica J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY. Julie Baker Fine Art, Nevada City, CA J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY. 2007

Michael Rosenthal Contemporary Art, CA Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA Red Dot Art Fair, Miami Beach, FL J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY Art Now Miami, FL. Stewart Gallery, Boise, ID. Toronto International Art Fair, West Vancouver, BC J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY USArtists, American Fine Art Show, Philadelphia, PA. J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA Barbara Anderson Gallery, Berkeley, CA Art Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM. J. Cacciola Gallery, NY Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA. J Julie Baker Fine Art, Nevada City, CA. Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery, Pasadena, CA

Education Independent studies with: Leigh Hyams, U.C. Berkeley, San Francisco.

Fred Reichman, U.C. Berkeley, San Francisco.

Bill Hunt, Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico