IN THE STUDIO
JUNE 1–JULY 28
GALLERY HOURS
FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS
11 AM–4 PM
Human—Nature
A critical balance in the environment is being upset by human activity. The work of Annette Goodfriend, Ruth Tabancay, and Esther Traugot addresses the fragile interplay between the natural world, science, and humans.
Annette Goodfriend uses epoxy, steel, and rubber for her sculpture, playing with surreal narratives of the challenged oceanic world, where starfish grow fingers to claw their way out of warming waters, human parts become inextricably linked to dying aquatic flora and fauna, and an ambulatory kelp forest strides through the gallery.
Ruth Tabancay focuses on environmental issues and ecological systems. Using materials as varied as tea bags, thread, yarn, beeswax, and sugar, she weaves and stitches microorganisms digesting plastic, bleaching of coral reefs, and observes the bacteria that is on us and in us.
Esther Traugot explores the fragility of nature. Stitching with her own hand-dyed golden threads, she crochets wrappings in and around found natural objects—bees, trees, urchins—nurturing, protecting, and making them whole again.
Each of the three artists’ work examines the changes to our natural world and the need for humans to better care for the planet’s creatures.
Esther Traugot’s installations include crocheted wrappings in and around found natural objects with hand-dyed golden yarns, eliciting both a vibrant warmth and intimacy with her objects, bringing attention to their fragility and implying an intrinsic value. Touching on narratives both personal and universal, she investigates a personal relationship with the natural world. Her experiences growing up very close to nature in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970’s amidst an idealistic farming community influence her interest in the dichotomies in seeing oneself as an intrinsic part of nature and living in the modern world.
Since receiving her BFA from the University of California Berkeley in 2005, and her MFA from Mills College in 2009, she has shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad. Her work has been exhibited in the Bay Area, in L.A., New York, Paris, and Columbia, at venues such as the Berkeley Art Center, Bedford Gallery, Palo Alto Art Center, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Brea Art Center, the El Paso Museum of Art, the Samek Gallery in PA, Kathryn Markell in Chelsea, NY, and overseas in the Paris Art Fair, and Floriligio in Bogota. She has been commissioned for the permanent collections of Neiman Marcus in Walnut Creek and Beverly Hills, and for private clients as well.
Traugot has been featured in Mills quarterly magazine, and her work has been the subject of inspiration for poet Randall Potts’ “Fable” in his book Trickster. This poem became the inspiration for “Gilded Tree”, a solo flute performance based her crocheted creations, by musical composer John Liberatore at the University of Notre Dame and Grammy Award winning flutist Molly Barth at the Blair School of Music.
Esther Traugot is represented by Muriel Guepin Gallery in NY, and Chandra Cerrito Art Advisors in the Bay Area, CA, and currently lives and works in Northern California.
Annette Goodfriend was born and raised in Northern California. She completed her undergraduate degree at U.C. Berkeley, where she studied Genetics and Art, and she received her M.F.A. at the California College of the Arts in Oakland. Goodfriend is a winner of the International Art Competition Premio O.R.A. Italia, the Malamegi Lab 15 International Art Prize, and is one of 18 artists from 15 countries whose work was chosen for the YICCA International Art Prize. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Discovered Award, a grant and exhibition funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Creative Sonoma, and was honored with residencies at the Morris Graves Foundation and the Headlands Center for the Arts.
Her sculpture has been exhibited in solo and group shows locally, nationally, and internationally, including the Museum of Sonoma County, Kellogg University Art Gallery, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, HDLU Pavilion in Zagreb, Croatia, and 3)5 Arte Contemporanea, a contemporary art gallery in Viterbo, Italy, among many others. Her work has been featured in exhibition catalogues, newspapers, and reviews, and is published in the books Artists of the Bay Area, Embodied Forest, and Entanglements(2).
Goodfriend lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, son, and menagerie.
Ruth Tabancay’s passion for science led her to study microbiology in college. Following a stint as a hospital laboratory technologist, she went on to medical school. After 11 years in private practice, she left medicine to study art. Her bodies of work include those based on microscopy and magnification, geometry (both Euclidean and non-Euclidean), and ecological systems. Her techniques include embroidery, stitching, crochet, assemblage, rotary knitting, Jacquard weaving, felting, cast sugar, and installation. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley; University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco; and California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited regionally and nationally, including The Textile Museum, Washington, D. C.; Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; World Financial Center, New York City; and San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. She lives in Berkeley, California.
