By KEN STEWART
The Sunnyvale Creative Arts Center Gallery, in cooperation with the Euphrat Museum of Art, has put together an innovative, introspective art exhibit that combines the abstract art of two artists: sculptor Thai Bui and painter/printmaker Terry Acebo Davis.
"It's a different media [abstract art]. It's more challenging, visually challenging.... Because it's abstract, not representational, you have to look at the pieces more to find the meaning. It's not decorative. You have to think about it," said Kristin Hartman, the city's cultural arts assistant.
Terry Acebo Davis' series of abstract, oil-on-paper paintings use a letter of the alphabet as a focal point. The letter corresponds to the first letter of people and/or objects portrayed in the painting. More than one image is contained in each painting, but all images are centered around the specific letter.
"I often integrate... draw or paper collage objects. These image symbols: crosses, script, portraits, envelopes and numbers, serve to engage my viewer in the 'familiar,' " Davis explained in an artist's statement.
Portrait of T, a 50-inch-by-30-inch oil-on-paper work, uses a page of old, beige tinted book text placed in the center to portray "T" images. The area surrounding the letter "T" is painted bright red. The texture and paint strokes of the red paint resemble finger painting. A transparent cover smashes it in place. At the bottom is a horizontal band of dark-pink paint.
Davis' 30-inch-by-88-inch lithograph titled WRITHING uses six white boards joined together to form a single piece. It is aptly named as the glossy black ink of the lithograph reminds one of something twisting, squirming and contorting itself, in great emotional distress.
Cockfight on Sunday, a 40-inch-by-50-inch piece, depicts a cockfight with people yelling and cheering. Short phrases are painted in like a cartoon strip: "Sa Bulik! Pula! Sa Pula! Bulik!" Viewers observe the cockfight from behind the backs of three men sitting down watching it. One of the men wears a bandanna and a shirt with beige dots, another wears a T-shirt that says "LoLo Tasyo" on the back, and the last wears a T-shirt that says "Kardo" on the back.
Thai Bui's sculpture combines music and visual art to form unique art pieces resembling musical instruments. His musical interests include Vietnamese folk songs and New Age music.
"He... takes found objects and turns them into instruments," Hartman said.
Musical Instrument #2 uses wood painted red and joined together in a rectangular shape to depict a musical instrument. Enclosed in a boxed end covered with wire mesh are rusted, decayed, deformed iron bolts and iron fragments. The sculpture hangs from a flat, rusty steel cross screwed into the gallery wall.
Musical Instrument #3 is secured to the gallery wall with a metal heart-shaped hanger. A square wood plate with an engraving fastens to the bottom of the spoon-shaped structure with wires placed through holes around the perimeter of the plate. The structure is constructed of a wood-like substance that looks like rusted metal tubing. A doughnut-shaped, translucent green hardened gel substance is molded onto the shaft of the "spoon."
The cello-like Musical Instrument #8 is composed of glazed wood and brown metal hangers molded into a basketball-size cement object. A pink jewel-like material, surrounded by burnt wood secured with thick silver wire, is embedded in the middle.
"The pace of my work is rapid and intense. Sometimes my work is planned, and I work from sketches to develop ideas. Often my work is a process of problem solving and incorporating accidents in a spontaneous way, working from the subconscious," Bui said in a press release.
The exhibit is sponsored by the city of Sunnyvale, Department of Parks and Recreation, Cultural Arts Division, in collaboration with the Euphrat Museum of Art at De Anza College. The Creative Arts Center Gallery is located at 550 E. Remington Drive, Sunnyvale. Gallery hours are: Tuesday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon. The exhibit will be on display until Dec. 21.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, Wed., December 6, 1995.
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