Renée Gertler
Matt Gil
Paul Wackers
Through July 25 - Split Focus at Eleanor Harwood Gallery. As I was visiting this group show on Saturday a young boy walking by with his mom stuck his head into the gallery and declared, "Wooooooow!" My thoughts exactly. Each of the three artists in the exhibition plays with color and form in fresh, eye-opening ways, referencing classic themes in abstraction but also creating work firmly placed in the now. Renée Gertler's powder-coated aluminum and resin sculptures balance the rigidity of geometry with the inherent imperfections of her materials, while Matt Gil constructs sensual shapes out of cast aluminum and addes splashes of vivid color here and there. The Paul Wackers paintings on display nearby could be inventories of the other two artists' work, showing as they do orderly shelves of artworks drawn from his own brain. Don't miss the accompanying work by the trio in the back gallery either, especially Gertler's pieces in which she magically recreates Bay Area lightscapes inside of paper bags. Wow, again.
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