Kara Maria and Packard Jennings at Catharine Clark Gallery February 9, 2008

Catharine Clark Gallery announces the upcoming concurrent solo exhibitions of new work by Packard Jennings and new paintings by Kara Maria. Exhibition: 19 January-1 March 2008. Reception: Saturday, 19 January, 4-6pm. Panel Discussion, moderated by Ray Beldner and produced in collaboration with Bernal Bubbles: Saturday, 9 February, 2pm.

In "The Pitch of Dissent," Oakland-based Packard Jennings continues to undermine corporate interests by engaging the public in subversive activities. Through his "Creative Dissent Workstation" and website centennialsociety.com--where one can download templates for projects like fabricating headlines to distribute in newspaper machines--visitors can participate in these acts and are encouraged to document their engagement and include it in the exhibition. Also featured is "Anarchist Action Figure," an animated video series in the Video Room, and original illustrations and prints. His collaboration with Steve Lambert, "Wish You Were Here! Postcards from Our Awesome Future," commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission, is visible on Market St. kiosks in downtown San Francisco.

San Francisco-based artist Kara Maria pushes the limits of sensational imagery in "Dystopia." In this new body of paintings, Maria meticulously renders figures engaged in combat intermingling with figures engaged in explicit sexual activities. Along with impasto paint and tessellated graphics, hallmarks of the current political climate--burqa-clad figures and gas-guzzling vehicles--fill the compositions. In the painting "Hot and Bothered" a number of transnational militant figures stand armed, the muzzles of their weapons visual puns for the central element, a dildo penetrating a disembodied orifice. Through this juxtaposition of politically charged imagery, Maria challenges the viewer to consider the ways in which the psychology of combat is obfuscated by sexual energy, evidenced most recently by the torture tactics at Abu Ghraib Prison.

Free.

Official Website: http://www.cclarkgallery.com