Artist: Martine Jardel, solo exhibition

Dates: April 6 to May 31, 2007

Opening Reception: April 6 from 5 to 8 pm

"We are pleased to introduce these beautiful new paintings by Martine Jardel.  I believe they represent a significant evolution in her oeuvre," comments the gallery's Director, Micaela Van Zwoll.

In this series, Jardel continues exploration of imaginary spaces as a means of delving into memory and making sense of the present moment.  For Jardel, the effect of the transparency of the paint and the dominant color of a painting imply a mood or mental state, as a result, her use of color and form are intimately personal and expressive (of her  mood or mental state at the time of painting), not commonly hidden abstract visual signals.  Jardel's allusion to physical form is meant to be suggestive rather than specific, (for example, a line across the canvas or patch of blue color - easily read as a horizon or landscape), and is made without intention of conveying any specific visual message.

Jardel's paintings reveal the impossibility of defining monolithic identities or meanings.  Color and abstraction are foremost, as she intuitively arranges color and shapes her work, and develops an immediately beautiful abstract and luminous environment.  Her skilled use of color and space demonstrates purpose, defining each canvas with appreciative worth.  Approximately twenty pieces, many of which have never been publicly viewed, will be on exhibition.

Born in Paris, France, Martine Jardel travelled the world and lived in Asia, Europe, and Latin America before making San Francisco her new home.  Her considerable travels and work with diplomatic missions nourished the artist's visual creativity and contributed to her deep understanding of and fascination with spatial relationships. Ms. Jardel graduated with a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA in painting from San Francisco State University. She has had many successful exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States.

Micaela also carries abstract expressionist paintings by William Gambini; original drawings by London artist Laurie Lipton; hyperrealist oil paintings by Anna Efanova; big-eye girl paintings by Bethany Marchman; paintings and lithographs by Funk Art original David Gilhooly; glass sculptures by Ned Cantrell, Lee Miltier, Pamina Traylor, Wiebke Vogt and James Walker; beautifully rendered paintings by East Coast-based artist, Christo Braun, and large scale ethereal landscape oil paintings by Douglass Freed, among others.