Rise of the Yōkai

The 20/20 Projectis an exciting collaboration group show featuring some of our favorite contemporary artists working with a fellow artist to create one unique vision.Collaboration—or joint production by two artists—is a common style among musicians and performance artists. It has not been as popular in the world of art, and especially in modern art. But the strong sense of individualism long possessed by artists of fine art is being set aside for this dynamic project.

 "My childhood was spent in southern and northern California, bouncing around place to place, briefly residing in Vermont and Washington.
Finally, after some 16 different schools, K - 12, I finished school in western New York State. Overall, the experience was both difficult and exciting. After graduating high school in 1989, I enrolled in commercial design classes for a year at a privately owned art school. My training there launched me into the competitive environment of graphic design where I worked for 6 years. At that point, I felt increasingly driven to live a life with more meaning and purpose, and so decided to leap in a new direction, starting a career as a licensed massage therapist. Massage enriched my life.
More than that, it increased my knowledge of the human anatomy and healing. After 8 satisfying years as an LMT, my husband took a job out of state and we re-located. The move spurred another change in direction for me, During the past 4 years, I have redirected my attention to the fine arts. In the past, when I had pursued fine art, my work involved incorporating natural objects. It’s since evolved from depiction of the natural and external world to exploration of the internal landscapes of memory, dream, fantasy. Now I exhibit widely, both nationally and internationally and enjoy a growing fan base, while I continue deepening my skills, developing my style and exploring my favorite mythic themes." ~Lara Dann

John Wentz is a contemporary painter whose process resides in an area between rigid technicality and honest expression. Working within the classical idiom of the human figure, his goal is to reduce and simplify the image to it’s core fundamentals: composition, color, and paint application. Paint application and brush strokes are broad and simplified as a means to connect and convey these ideas to the viewer in a way that only painting can.

John was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. His interest in art began at the age of 6 when he first discovered Batman and Spiderman comic books. After years of copying comics panel by panel he worked in the commercial arts as a muralist, billboard creator and freelance illustrator. After learning to paint by doing airbrushed billboards, he decided to pursue Fine Art and work in oils. Since then, he has had 3 solo exhibitions in San Francisco and numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. His works have appeared in many publications and have won multiple awards. John now paints full time in his studio in Alameda, CA.