SF Open Studios at Melting Point Gallery

Five Must-See Artists bring Vision and Authenticity for One Week Only

for immediate release

Melting Point Gallery, Artspan, and 5 Mined Fields Studio are pleased to present the paintings, books, and sculptures of MARK BAUGH-SASAKI, JOSHUA HAGLER, KIMBERLY LAI, MIKE RITCH, and KIM WEINBERG during Artspan's Open Studios in San Francisco's Potrero Hill district. Work will be on view for Open Studios' fourth weekend, October 27 and 28 from 11-6pm each day, and will include an art reception with refreshments and live music from respected singer/songwriter Goh Nakamura on Friday, October 26 from 7-10pm. Melting Point Gallery will be open to the public from 12-6pm Monday through Friday, October 22-26, as a special lead-up to Open Studios weekend.

The five artists, united in their authenticity of expression and thoughtful interpretation of contemporary issues, have enjoyed critical success and wide recognition both within the Bay Area and internationally.

Art critic Jacki Spicer for the East Bay Express has described MARK BAUGH SASAKI'S sculptures as, "inspired. . .elegant in their homage to the fumbling of man's attempts to force nature into use." A mainstay in the Bay Area art scene and a regular favorite in Kearny Street Workshop's annual APAture Festival, Baugh-Sasaki uses a combination of natural and industrial materials to address his concern for the human relationship to our natural environment. "In this attempt to control organic objects and the land, we often destroy aspects of the landscape. These elements are discarded as waste with only the potential to decay. It is not destroyed but more transformed." www.markbaugh-sasaki.com

If Baugh-Sasaki relates our concern with the natural environment, then JOSHUA HAGLER, a 2007 Headland's Tournesol Award Finalist, responds to the cultural influence of belief in the supernatural in his expressionistic figurative paintings. UK Guardian art critic Jonathon Jones, citing Hagler as his favorite of last year's Saatchi Gallery international competition winners in London, wrote, "[Hagler's work is] nutty and grotesque. . .an anthropological window onto America's Religious Right." In addition to his paintings, Hagler will offer original art from his serialized graphic novel, The Boy Who Made Silence, a winner of the 2006 Xeric Grant for cartoonists. www.5minedfields.com, www.joshuahagler.com

A graduate from Stanford University, KIMBERLY LAI has been painting in San Francisco for the past two years after emigrating from North Carolina. Kimberly was involved in the construction of several notable murals that can be seen around campus at Stanford. Her brightly colored work is infused with narrative and youthful imagination, borrowing heavily from her experiences traveling around the world. The paintings themselves bring to mind the whimsical quality of children's books along with an appreciation for traditional landscape painting. www.kimberlylai.com

Since traveling through Africa, painter MIKE RITCH has been exploring the similarities between humanity and the animal world in his raw and aggressively worked paintings. His paintings force us to confront our own animal nature and perhaps that is where his work most deeply fascinates. In addition to graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute where he was awarded a coveted Merit Scholarship, Ritch received extensive classical training at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Showing extensively throughout popular Bay Area venues, Ritch's work brings to mind the Bay Area Figurative Movement with its direct and intuitive methodology. www.mikeritch.com

Another recipient of a San Francisco Art Institute Merit Scholarship, KIM WEINBERG'S semi-representational paintings are raw and personal in their conception, while powerfully elegant in their execution. "In an effort to address the body, my work is a departure from the figure as a form. In its absence, the presence of body is realized." Weinberg's work has displayed throughout the Western United States including CBS Marketwatch, the Bijan Bahar Gallery in Scottsdale and, at the age of twenty, was awarded the Art Director of the Year Award for her volunteer work with the charity organization Muracles, engaging with hospitalized children to create murals in Tucson hospitals. www.kimberlyweinberg.com

Work is on display in partnership with Artspan's annual SF Open Studios, and is presented in the "Weekend Four" section of the Open Studios Guide available throughout the city.

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Key Facts:
San Francisco Open Studios
Melting Point Gallery
1340 Bryant Street at Division St., San Francisco, CA
October 22-28 2007

Artist's Reception: 10.26.07, 7-10pm
Open Studios Preview hours: 10.22-26, 12-6pm
Open Studios Weekend hours: 10.27,28, 11-6pm

5minedfields@gmail.com / 510.666.9985

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