March 13–April 2, 2021
Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco
Modern Eden Gallery is pleased to announce a group exhibition featuring new works by Sandra Yagi, Hugo D. Villa, John Walker, and Michael Campbell. Metamorphosis highlights four dynamic artists whose work is imbibed with imaginative and allegorical narratives. Such work exists at the forefront of history and culture, and these artists explore the “edges” with the tools of metaphor and dreams, through the interpretive language of symbol and form. What is brought back from the edge, and recorded with paint or with clay, maps new geographies from which to more accurately triangulate our view of self and environment. Metamorphosis explores these concepts at the intersection of magic and realism, and celebrates the transformative nature of nature itself.
San Francisco, CA
Sandra Yagi was raised in suburban Denver Colorado, the oldest of a typical suburban middle class family. From an early age, she loved science, especially biology, and drawing. Yagi cites the following artists and providing inspiration and influence: Titian, Vesalius, Albinus, Caravaggio, Delacroix, Goya, Jerome Witkin, Bill Viola, Walton Ford, Masami Teraoka and William Kentridge. She has participated in several group shows at the gallery, and most notably a solo exhibition ‘Primal Renderings’ in 2011. She currently lives in San Francisco and her studio is located at the Pacific Felt Factory in the city’s Mission district.
Guadalajara, JA
Hugo D. Villa lives and works in Guadalajara. He graduated with a degree in Visual Arts with an orientation in painting from the University of Guadalajara, at the University Center for Art, Architecture and Design (CUAAD). With his work, mostly on easel, he has participated in various group and individual exhibitions in various states of the Mexican Republic, USA, Germany and Australia. His work is situated in the fluid between the figurative and the abstract, representing characters and figures in transformation, as if they were in a process of decomposition or emotional catharsis. They lead the viewer to make an analogy between the richness of mysticism and the energy of the psyche; and in turn, to the paradox between the exquisiteness of reality and its repulsion.
Chicago, IL
John Walker has been working as a professional artist for over thirty years. After graduating from The American Academy of Art he began a career in illustration, creating a wide array of artwork for clients nationwide, including McDonalds, Random House and National Geographic. Acrylics became his media of choice during this time and he has become fluent in their application. His focus has now shifted to painting and exhibiting personal work centered around imagined narratives and faux antiquities from an invented culture.
San Rafael, CA
Michael Campbell lives and works in the San Francisco Bay-Area. He grew up in the Midwest in the 1970's amid the handicraft movement with a home full of macramé, decoupage, and paper-mâché. 1,600 miles away from Haight-Ashbury, he made God's eyes in Cub Scouts and glued macaroni onto wooden crosses in Sunday School. From an early age, handcrafted objects and the divine were connected.