Common Ground: Works by Jerry Gates
November 3 - December 31, 2007
"Third Thursday" Artist Reception on November 15 from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
At Gallery Fifty, we are really excited and proud to present a comprehensive showing of Jerry Gates' work. The show consists of both framed representational and abstract mixed media paintings. Over seventy-five pieces will by on display and available for viewing on-line at www.galleryfifty.com.
Jerry has been an experimental artist for many years because of his fascination with light and color, surface and texture, subject matter and form. His deep belief in the Jungian premise of a "collective consciousness" has inspired him to create content that will be inwardly understood. His aim has been to take the viewer past the obvious to discover that which lies beyond the surface, with an intangible, but deep understanding of his or her own personal aesthetics.
Jerry holds a Master of Fine Arts degree. He has been an Assistant Professor of Art at Central Michigan University and is currently Adjunct Professor of Art, Northwestern Michigan College.
Artist Statement:
My work, I suspect, is a product of Jungian psychology and familiarity with things past and present. Not unlike the Romantics of the 18th Century, I have attempted to capture both the beautiful and the sublime, something fleeting but still in stasis, something inwardly understood in a universal sense. It is this collective consciousness that I try to tap, a soul tweeking, if you will; this "I think I have been there before" or experienced "this" before.
Someone once said "Art is a lie that enables us to see the truth." When one unearths what is beneath their own aesthetic, they become enlightened to the infinite possibilities of the creative endeavor.
It has been my goal to represent this philosophy by testing my curiosity in different media and subject matter. This has helped me to codify my own existence as silent observer, participant and explorer.
