The Palo Alto Art Center Presents

Fall Exhibitions September 28- December 21 2008

The Miniature Worlds of Bruce Metcalf
and

In the Bigger Picture: Richard Misrach

Public Preview: September 28, 3 - 5 p.m.

preceded by a

Bruce Metcalf Lecture:"Chapters in a Life of the Imagination" 2 -3 p.m.

The engaging and spirited work of art jeweler, Bruce Metcalf, debuts in a first major exhibition of his work, coupled with an exhibition of photographs by San Francisco Bay Area-based photographer, Richard Misrach.

Join us for a Bruce Metcalf slide lecture at 2 p.m. on September 28 followed by a public preview of both exhibitions.Admission is free. In addition, docent-led tours, "Art Dialogues," will be offered on most Saturdays at 2 pm. Please call 650-329-2366 for more information.

"The Miniature Worlds of Bruce Metcalf" is the first major exhibition and catalogue focused solely on his engaging and spirited work. Born in 1949, Metcalf is revered as a leading art jeweler, curator, essayist and critic of contemporary craft. He earned a B.F.A. degree in 1972 at Syracuse University and an M.F.A. at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1977. Metcalf taught at Kent State University in Ohio from 1981 to 1991. His work has been featured in major exhibitions including the American Craft Museum, New York; Akron Art Museum, Ohio; Dayton Art Institute, Ohio; Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia; and the Galeria Universiteria Artistos, Mexico City. Equally adept as a curator and a critic of contemporary craft, his essays have appeared in such publications as "American Craft," "Metalsmith," "Studio Potter," "Crafts Australia," and the Korean publication "Design." Currently, he is co-authoring "Makers: 20th Century American Studio Craft" with Janet Koplos, Senior Editor, Art in America, to be published by the University of North Carolina Press in late Spring, 2009.

The exhibition is a first stop in a United States tour slated for multiple venues through 2011, including the Mint Museum of Craft+Design in Charlotte, North Carolina; Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, Washington; Fresno Art Museum in Fresno, California; Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts; Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, Arkansas; and Racine Art Museum in Racine, Wisconsin. A 120 page full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

"In the Bigger Picture: Richard Misrach," provides an overview of Misrach's almost 30-year career as a master of large format photography. The exhibition includes images from his well-known thematic segments in "Desert Cantos," including "The Terrain," "The Flood," "The Fires," "The War (Bravo 20)," "The Visitors," and events that include military testing in the desert.

For nearly thirty years, the internationally-acclaimed photographer Richard Misrach has documented the great sweep of the American desert in a sublime light. A mercurial Salton Sea, a conflagration on dry land, slaked earth strewn with skeletal fish, and an incandescent red sky are among images that in the larger picture chronicle the terrible beauty that has been born following man’s interventions in nature. While Misrach has generally used straight photo-documentation, he is a master in photographing moments of time, in which serene color and grand views seem a continuation of the majestic interpretations of landscape in the history of painting. He is equally adept in scaling content. Man’s presence, if seen, is rightfully quite small, while natural vistas loom large to magnify the intensity of the desolation or serenity in the desert, or the luminous, crystalline expanse of the bodies of water, as exemplified in his "Swimmers, Pyramid Lake Indiana Reservation," 1987-1993.

Photographs in the exhibition have been loaned by the Bank of America Corporate Art Program, Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago, IL, private lenders and the San Jose Museum of Art.

The Palo Alto Art Center (founded 1971) is a nationally acclaimed, regional visual art center whose exhibition program focuses on documenting – and celebrating – the art and artists of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Center's mission is to foster creative process and thought by forging a greater appreciation and understanding of the visual arts through exhibitions, studio experiences and related educational programs. The Palo Alto Art Center, Division of Arts and Culture, City of Palo Alto, is funded in part by support from the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation and the Arts Council Silicon Valley, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council.

The Center is open to the public without charge from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. Sunday; and 7:00 -10:00 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday. The Center is located at 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303. For further information: Phone: 650-329-2366 / E-mail: artcenter@cityofpaloalto.org