Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, presents Embodiment, an exhibition of eight figurative artists including Claire Burbridge, Melinda Cootsona, Chris Gwaltney, Dennis Hare, Devorah Jacoby, Gretchen Jane Mentzer, Waldemar Mitrowski and Nancy Nelson.  

The human figure in art whether it is a stick figure or a fully articulated portrait evokes in the viewer a more physical relationship to the work simply because we ourselves are figures.  If the figure is long and lean like a Giacometti, we feel that stretch in our bodies.  If it is dense and heavy like a Botero or a Henry Moore, the weight is as much felt as it is seen.  If there is a patch of yellow light on a shoulder or face, as in works by Elmer Bischoff or Diebenkorn, we relate to it not just visually, but in our own experience.  When the figure is abstracted or positioned in an undefined space it has the power to touch on more metaphysical concerns – loneliness, entrapment, freedom, solitude, mortality. . .  The works in this exhibition engage us in both the rich language of abstraction and in the mysteries of the human condition.

A full color catalog of the exhibition is available through the gallery.