This large two venue retrospective exhibition, shown both at the Modesto Junior College Art Gallery and the Mistlin Gallery simultaneously during the month of January 2016 presents the painting, drawings and prints of Modesto Junior College art professor Richard David Serros. On exhibit will be a selection of his major works produced over the past forty years and culminates with his sabbatical production from June 2014 to the present.
The works range is styles from the realist to abstract to the non-objective. The show will also feature the works of two of his MJC students; Leo Bratenus and Katinka van Dyk, who have been working in his studio over the past two years under his guidance. The shows run at the MJC Art Gallery from January 5 to February 4 (open Monday through Thursday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM) and at the Mistlin Gallery from January 5 to 29 (open 11:00 to 5:00 PM). Receptions for the MJC venue will be January 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM while that at the Mistlin will be part of the Third Thursday Art Walk January 21 from 5:30 to 9:00 PM. Refreshments will be served at both events and many works will be for sale.
Artist’s Biography
Primarily an artist with a specialty in painting and drawing, Richard has been dedicated to these arts for over forty years but has rarely shown his work to the public, except locally. After receiving an AA degree in Studio Art from Modesto Junior College (1975) he turned to the study of Art History with a specialty in the drawing, painting and sculpture of the Italian Renaissance, ca. 1400 to ca. 1600 (B.A. in 1981 and PhD in 1999 from the University of California at Santa Barbara), focusing on the works of Andrea del Verrocchio and his studio [Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi etc.]. He has traveled abroad extensively to over 20 countries, and has taken coursework in figure drawing at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1987) and at the Florence Academy in Italy (1997).
I have been a professor in the Art Department at Modesto Junior College since 1987 where I teach Art History, Basic Drawing, Life Drawing (27 years each) and Oil Painting (7 years). I am a member of the Central California Art Association, vice president of the Mistlin Gallery Board of Directors, the advisor for the MJC Visual Arts Club, was curator of the MJC Art Gallery from the fall of 2012 to May 2014, and now back to teaching after a sabbatical for the 2014/15 academic year with a focus on art production and international travel for the year.
Artist’s Statement
My works of the past thirty years have developed from my study of mythologies, ancient cultures and popular science on evolution, astronomy, string theory and quantum evolution. I am something of a Late Futurist Symbolist working simultaneously in a classical style of figuration, in abstractions and in non-objective styles. One of the key elements in my work is the idea that light reflects aspects of both a point and a wave, that physicists ponder dimensions billions of times smaller than atomic structures, that physiology operates at a sub-atomic level, that the matter of the cosmos arose from a vacuum and that space is a function of time. These ideas have led me to return to the Futurist works of the Italian artist Umberto Boccioni. His view of matter as energy expressed as radiant light depicted through discrete brush strokes has always fascinated me. I first ventured in this direction in the large painting Satyr’s Dance of 1999, which mixed classical forms with a Symbolist message and a Futurist technique. The push/pull of cool verses warm colors led me to attempt to maximize the space through subtle gradations of tone. In the last fifteen years I have explored this potential in a series of paintings based on the idea of the discrete stroke as the artistic equivalent of Max Plank’s concept of ‘quantum’. Quantum mechanics suggests behaviors that contradict logic and order, introducing randomness and chaos as agents of creation. Matter fuses with space and energy is released. Energy transforms inert matter and life arises. Life evolves consciousness. Ideas transform inert minds and art arise.
Richard Serros’s solo show at the Mistlin Gallery opens on January 5 and runs through January 29, 2016.
For more information visit our website www.ccartassn.org
Admission to the Gallery, which is located at 1015 J Street in downtown Modesto, is free. Don’t forget to visit our Gift Shop where hand crafted jewelry, ceramics, and small format paintings are available.
