CΔCHING OUT @ SECOND SATURDAY, SACRAMENTO



What Second Saturday can and cannot do - it is a night of showcase, performance, wine, hors d’ouevres, and a guaranteed time to have access to galleries aside from their odd hours (unless of course you were 1810 Gallery this month, then you were closed and we were disappointed because we wanted to see the “Deep Web” show by John Horton). It is also challenging to prioritize receptions, even if you have it mapped out and coordinated with help from our events page (http://sactocache.blogspot.com/p/events.html). We tend to have advantageous expectations to see it all, but visually that can be overwhelming and challenging to achieve because galleries are not centralized. Luckily, Sacramento offers First Fridays as well, you just must plan for that too. Even while art is popping up all around town, your engagement is what breathes life into the community to support the local art scene. What does it mean for you? How do we approach one or two nights a month of active art engagement?

Not all months are overwhelming of course, the holidays were quite uninspiring with shows focused on selling lower priced artwork for gifts (albeit, we understand a gallery must function with sales and artists deserve to be compensated for their production), but the new year abounds with continued programming throughout the region, and two new galleries downtown! The Creative Edge initiative set forth last year is infusing Sacramento with new possibilities for this year and years to come, Wide Open Walls has adorned our streets with placed and permanent works, and now the opening of new galleries is showing a sure sign of emergence and collaboration.

Michelle Murtaugh live painting at CK Gallery
Groundswell Gallery and CK Gallery are our newest spots for regional art on the grid, and they are located on the same block of J St. and 25th St. We would like to highlight these locations which were on our list from Second Saturday this month. CK opened at the end of last year, and it has been a packed house, brimming with artwork during both receptions we’ve attended. The work is of high quality, with lighting and labels both supporting a standard for representation. The owner, Catherine Kleckner, serves her community well with her passion for the arts and support especially for artist from Northern California. Upon our first visit, we were astonished by the figural paintings by Michelle Murtaugh which effortlessly attract attention for their lustrous color and feminine content. For the February reception of “Uncorked,” which wittingly included a sumptuous amount of wine tones, Murtaugh was also present for a live painting with a model for a new work. Another artist, Jonah Ward, caught our attention for his process and media. His work with imprints and patterns had a different, organic quality than the rest of the show, working on wood with glass burnings and creating textured paintings by arranging hornets’ nests on canvas. Aside from these two artists, there is too much on display at the moment, although it does reveal, from the perfect corner lot window location, that CK is actively on the scene. 

Michelle Murtaugh, "Spill the Wine," CK Gallery.

Jonah Ward at CK Gallery

The new Groundswell Gallery is two doors down from CK, and run by Sacramento-based artist Micah Crandall-Bear and Seattle-based artist and musician, John Johnson. For their opening exhibit, they featured the work of Oakland-based painter, Ryan Bucko. Choosing a solo show for an opening was a bold move, and places heavy emphasis for turn out on one individual. The gray-scale of the works, with the use of thread to create shapes did lend for great discussion about the contemporary picture plan, perspective, and shapes in space which are actually created, in this case, on top of the canvas. Some works had a contrasting pop of color, but the abstracted, geometric paintings of Bucko ultimately were too flat, and lent the place to an overly contemporary and placid feel. We look forward to seeing where Groundswell goes from here, but it must be said that the layout of this space and quality of the work were very different than anything else we saw in Sacramento this month.
 

Ryan Bucko at Groundswell Gallery


For more information on these new galleries, visit their websites: 

https://ckartgallery.wordpress.com/

http://groundswellart.com/

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