BARRY EBNER

Artist Statement 

I embrace spontaneity, improvisation and chance in my creative life to surprise myself in my work. When making my monoprints, I seek a series of different paths all leading to a possible image. The challenge and reason for returning to the press are all the possible outcomes created by a decision. Whenever possible, I choose to work with other artists to create a visual dialogue that finds an interesting intersection. Often I work from a starting point generated from the poetry of Sharon Coleman, a Californian poet. 

Monoprint is a process I find allows me the freedom to be expressive because of the range of marks possible and the aspect of chance in the printing. 

Artist Biography 

Growing up in Detroit, Michigan, Barry had the opportunity to see Diego Rivera’s mural at the Detroit Institute of Art numerous times. He is able to pinpoint that as the seed that started him creating. He graduated with a Studio Art degree from the University of Texas and moved to San Diego, with a stop in San Luis Obispo before progressing up the coast to Berkeley, California where he studied at the California College of Arts & Crafts earning an MFA in Printmaking. 

He has had over 20 solo exhibitions as well as group exhibitions in Chile, Cuba, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States. He has taught classes and workshops in printmaking and photography at the Art Institute of California in San Francisco, the Academy of Art University, California College of Arts & Crafts and Taller 99 in Santiago, Chile along with workshops at his studio “The Studio of Nothing Else” located in Berkeley, California.

While his speciality is monotype, he is also a plein air painter traveling all over the coast of California painting waves and rocks, seeking inspiration from the energy of the ocean.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Teravana, Cazadero, CA 2024
Taller 99, Santiago, Chile 2021
Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA 2016
FM Gallery, Oakland, CA 2014
Peter Steynberg Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA 2007
Law’s Central, San Luis Obispo, CA 2007
Paul Sunderholm Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004-05
Fan Allbrittons, Berkeley, CA 2003
August Editions, San Luis Obispo, CA 2000/02
Long and Pollack Gallery, CCAC, San Francisco, CA 2001
Cambria Fine Arts, Cambria, CA 1999
Galerie Cujas, San Diego, CA 1996/98
Jet Gallery, Cambria, CA 1998
Freisen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID 1996
San Luis Obispo Art Center, San Luis Obispo, CA 1996
Artisans Gallery, Hanford, CA 1996
Linneas, San Luis Obispo, CA 1994
Fountainhead Gallery, Houston, TX 1991
California School of Psychology, San Diego, CA 1991
Linda Moore Gallery, San Diego, CA 1990
Options Gallery, San Diego, CA 1990

Selected Group Exhibitions

Taller 99, To Be Determined I, Santiago, Chile 2022
Casaplan, To Be Determined II, Valparaiso, Chile 2022
Atelier Mondial, Learning to Whisper, Basel, Switzerland 2021
Lynn House Gallery, Bay Area Invitational, Antioch, CA 2020
Vessel Gallery, Art is Essential, Oakland, CA 2018/20
FIDM, Faculty show, San Francisco, CA 2019
Codex, Richmond, CA 2019
Big Medium, The Contemporary Print, Austin, TX 2019|
Kala Art Institute, Artist Annual, Berkeley, CA 2019
Vessel Satellite, At the Alice Collective, Oakland, CA 2019
El Taller Experimental De Grafica, Havana, Cuba 2017
Havana Galerie, Printed in Cuba, Zurich, Switzerland 2017
Kasko, Printed in Cuba, Basel, Switzerland 2017
The Atelier, AAU, San Francisco, CA 2017
Art for Aids, San Francisco, CA 2018
ACCI Gallery, Paleographic, Berkeley, CA 2016
A.muse Gallery, Monumental, San Francisco, CA 2015
Landing, Mo+CA Projects, Inaugural Exhibit, Taiwan 2015
Quangzhou Academy of Art, Quangzhou, China 2014
SGCI, San Francisco, CA 2014
Gary Francis Gallery, Urban Grit, Alameda, CA 2014
Hunter’s Point Shipyard, San Francisco, CA 2013
Gary Francis Fine Art, Alameda, CA 2013
Triton Museum, San Jose, CA 2011
Paul Sunderholm Gallery, Monotypes, San Francisco, CA 2004
Arts Benicia, Printmaking and Process, Benicia, CA 2004
Jewish Museum of San Francisco, CA 2007
CCAC, MFA Exhibition, San Francisco, CA 2001
August Editions, San Luis Obispo, CA 2001
CCAC, Yozo Hamaguchi Printmaking, Oakland, CA 2001
Rizzoli Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1999
SLOMA, Printmakers Exhibit, San Luis Obispo, CA 1999
Galerie Ruetz, Augsborg, Germany 1997
SLOMA, Glib and Oily, San Luis Obispo, CA 1997
Freisen Gallery, Seattle, WA 1996
Sushi Gallery, San Diego, CA 1995
The Paladion, Collectors Choice, San Diego, CA 1995
Anton Gallery, Washington D.C. 1992
Yokohama Cultural Center, Yokohama, Japan 1992
Artbeat Gallery, Houston, TX 1990

Education

CCAC, MFA in Printmaking, San Francisco, CA 2001
University of Texas, BA in Studio Art, Austin, TX 1985

Residencies

Taller 99, To Be Determined, Santiago, Chile 2022
Edition Basel, Basel, Switzerland 2021
Edition Basel, Printed in Cuba, Havana Cuba 2017
Italart Workshop, Florence, Italy 1986

Public Collections

San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
University of California, San Diego, CA
The Forum, San Luis Obispo, CA
San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, San Luis Obispo, CA
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA

SHARON COLEMAN

Artist Statement 

My creative work in poetry and dance begins from somatic impulse and improvisation that links the senses to both inner and outer worlds. Whether a phrase is poetic or physical, it traces the multiplicity of meanings in the meetings of these worlds. As different as these two arts are—dance existing in the moment and poetry written for the future—I find the phrasing of my writing propelled by the kinetics of dance, and the quality of my movements and gestures infused with poetic resonances. 

Artist Biography 

A fifth generation Northern Californian with a penchant for languages and their entangled word roots, she has translated poetry from Yiddish, the language of her mother’s family and has studied the Portuguese of her father’s. She grew up deeply in tuned to seasons, growing cycles, so much of the natural world. Her poetry and prose appear in Your Impossible Voice, Faultline, The Ana, Dream Pop Press, White Stag, Rivet, Berkeley Poetry Review. She curates the reading series Lyrics & Dirges, and co-directs the Berkeley Poetry Festival. Her books include Paris Blinks, micro-fiction by Paper Press and Half Circle, poetry by Finishing Line Press.

She received the Maverick Award for her poetry from the Ruth Weiss Foundation, a Luso-American Fellowship for the Disquiet Literary Conference in Lisbon, the Brereton Scholarship for the Napa Valley Writers Conference and was a finalist for the Jane Underwood Poetry Prize. To know more about her and her work, see www.sharoncolemanpoetry.com