press release june 2011
(< Return to Press Releases)CSMA's Mohr Gallery Presents Paintings by Alexis Grant
Opening reception with artist of Cars, Gates and Landscapes on Friday, June 17, 6-8 pm
The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) at Finn Center in Mountain View presents Cars, Gates, and Landscapes, oil paintings by Alexis Grant. The exhibition will be in CSMA’s Mohr Gallery from June 17-July 31, with an opening reception with the artist on Fri, June 17, 6-8 pm.
The exhibition features 11 works that address the artist’s curiosity and fascination with the landscape around her, specifically Bay Area city spaces. The “car” and the “gate” are specific iconography that Grant uses in many of her works about the landscape.
“I think about my relationship to a specific place: my neighborhood of Bernal Heights, the industrial landscape of the Dogpatch neighborhood, the business storefronts of the Mission,” said Grant. “Through painting I get to know each place better while simultaneously reinventing my own version.” With San Francisco’s cityscape composed of so many houses stacked up right against each other, there are “so many different stories” to tell.
Alexis Grant has an MFA in drawing and painting from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco. She also holds a BS in art education and BA in art from Pennsylvania State University and has studied abroad at The University of Sevilla, Spain. Her work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in galleries and other venues in California, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Alexis Grant is a CSMA faculty member teaching in the Art4Schools program, after-school art clubs, and vacation camps. She also teaches special needs students (grades 1-12) at Star Academy, San Rafael. Grant’s other professional experience includes having taught art to adults at the University of California, Berkeley.
The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) at Finn Center is committed to providing Arts for All, regardless of age, level, background or economic means. The non-profit, founded in 1968, reaches 40,000+ people annually providing classes, lessons, camps, in-school programs (Art4Schools, Music4Schools), concerts, exhibitions, lectures and free community events. In Jan 2004, CSMA opened Finn Center, Silicon Valley’s first-ever center for music and arts education and the school’s first permanent home since its founding in 1968. CSMA is among the top 10 schools of its kind in the US and the largest non-profit provider of arts education in the region.
CSMA’s Mohr Gallery is located at Finn Center, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, and is open Mon-Fri, 9 am-7 pm and Sat, 9 am-3 pm. The Fri, June 17 exhibition opening reception (6-8 pm) with artist Alexis Grant is free and open to the public. Info: see www.arts4all.org or call 650-917-6800, ext. 306.