https://www.joshuanissenking.com/
First Friday Opening of Nissen King’s solo show entitled “Rainbow Serpent”
OAKLAND, CA: “Rainbow Serpent” is a new body of work that interrogates the perception of color. We perceive color as it is because of the refraction of light. Pigment is created by introducing the compounds necessary to refract that specific spectrum back at the viewer. A plant is only green because the plant cannot absorb the green spectrum of light. Extend this chromatic fact to humans, and we realize we are all reflections of light seeing reflections of each other.
The interplay of presence, absence and interdependence of light and matter will guide King’s installation. 3D glasses with prisms for lenses will enhance and extend this perception exercise into another dimension. Viewers can trace a rainbow serpent flowing quixotically through each piece, complicating the hard duality of dark and light to reveal the subtle paradoxes of giving importance to a color without considering its context. Rainbow Serpent is a reminder of the reflection and refraction that shapes our optical experience, as well as the interconnectedness of the entities we meet on our journey through the visible world.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Joshua Nissen King is a Bay Area painter. King studied Fine Art painting, drawing, and printmaking, with an emphasis in education at California State University, San Francisco. In exploring the detritus of our artificial world in relation to nature, his new work abandons figurative or realist formalities in favor of free mark-making alongside shapes and colors to create abstract tangles that retain a connection to familiar objects. Working primarily with oil paint, aerosol, masking techniques and acrylic underpainting, King approaches the substrate without sketching, with gestural underpainting and a free-form accumulation of marks. King has participated in programs such as the California Summer School of the Arts, and Oxbow, Napa Valley and has received such awards as the Martin Wong scholarship of the arts and the Mondavi Foundation Grant.
ABOUT THE VENUE: Classic Cars West is a boutique vintage car showroom and contemporary art gallery located in the heart of Oakland’s thriving Uptown arts neighborhood, focusing on local and emerging artists working in a range of mediums.
www.classiccarswestbeergarden.com
Hours: Wed-Thurs 12-9, Sat 11-10, Sun 11-3
