SoLA Gallery is pleased to exhibit a selection of paintings, including some that will be on display for the first time, by San Pedro artist Michael Stearns. This exhibition runs concurrently with “Index: Paintings,” our show in the main gallery curated by Ron Linden.

Curator: Peggy Sivert Zask, Director, South Bay Contemporary – SoLA Gallery
Artist: Michael Stearns
On View: April 13 – May 11, 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 13, 2019, 4-7pm
Artist Talk & Closing Reception: Saturday, May 11, 2019, 2-4pm

Stearns’ paintings, curated by SoLA Gallery’s director Peggy Sivert Zask, are primarily taken from a couple of series of work in which Stearns contemplates the origins of humanity and how its existence and meaning are reflected in the cosmos to even the tiniest raindrop.

In one of his series of paintings, called “Primal Pond,” Stearns explores the direct connection to the life force contained in prehistoric ponds and through art brings those ideas to our contemporary landscape. “I strive to know myself as well as the primordial soup from which we emerged 3.5 billion years ago,” explains Stearns.

The second series of paintings by Stearns that his show at SoLA Gallery is pulled from is a brand new series, entitled “Love & Chaos.” It is a follow-up series to “Primal Pond” that is based on the idea of where humanity sits now, versus where it came from, and encourages viewers with its bright and juxtaposing colors to consider how it must feel as organisms to live in today’s world. “My work is extremely sensitive to colors and to the edges of color. The threshold is where change occurs, it’s where life is tested and provides a window to the natural cycles.”