50mm Los Angeles

Signs + Symbols

The Brand Library Art Galleries is pleased to present Signs + Symbols:
Artwork by Shannon Fincke, C. Martino, and Stephanie Han Windham.

On view: March 3 â€“ April 20, 2007
Reception: Saturday, March 3, 4-7 pm

The three artists featured in this exhibition have in common a love of surface
pattern and color. Each in their own way utilizes layers of media, creating
surfaces representative of equally complex and layered meanings. They also
concern themselves with signs and symbols; their symbolic iconography
sometimes conveys a message from the artistâ€™s imagination, sometimes a
message about the contemporary culture we all have in common, and
sometimes a serendipitous message that is completely unique and the result
of the interaction between viewer and art object.

Shannon Fincke earned her master of arts in painting and art education from
New York University. She has exhibited her work throughout the United
States and is currently an art educator with the Los Angeles Unified School
District. In 2006 she had a prestigious solo show curated by Marshall Astor
at the Angels Gate Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Finckeâ€™s work is
expressive and painterly, articulating ideas in a two-dimensional visual
language. Using a single symbol or icon throughout a series of paintings, she
works and reworks the surface of her canvas with acrylic paints and paper
collage until tension resonates between the dynamic background and the
repetitive static symbols. Her two most recent bodies of work, the Chairs and
Planes series, showcase paintings ranging in scale from intimate to all-
encompassing multi-panel pieces.

C. Martino has been creating and exhibiting his artwork in Los Angeles and
San Diego for the last decade, most recently showing at the Art Institute of
California and Basile Gallery in San Diego. A self-taught artist, he has a
masterâ€™s degree from San Diego State University. Martinoâ€™s recent work is
characterized by layered imagery and a copius vocabulary of repetitive
symbols and icons that express the psychological and spiritual turmoil of the
urban environment. His colorful and highly graphic works draw upon the
motifs of pop and graffiti culture to create a complex but cohesive whole. The
array of media and techniques Martino employsâ€”including copper, tin,
stencil, masonite, acrylic paint, recycled vinyl, and paperâ€”are reminiscent of
the materials and textures of which the city itself is comprised.

Stephanie Han Windham earned a masterâ€™s degree in fine arts from the
School of Visual Arts in New York City. Windham has exhibited widely in the
Los Angeles area and is also a successful graphic artist whose illustrations
have appeared in Communication Arts Illustration Annual and Step by Step
Graphics. The lotus flower, the dahlia, the passionflower; all feature in
Windhamâ€™s current body of work. Many of the flowers Windham depicts have
religious or folkloric symbolic significance. The lotus flower, for example, has
a symbolic history over 5000 years old and its image is used around the
world to communicate a variety of messages. At the same time flowers can
be imbued with significance that is singular to the person viewing the image.
Windhamâ€™s striking canvases with their richly colored backgrounds and
energetic calligraphic lines are instruments capable of conveying a wealth of
meaning.

Brand Library Art Galleries

Glendale Public Library
1601 West Mountain Street
Glendale, CA 91201
Telephone: 818-548-2051 / Fax: 818-548-5079
www.brandlibrary.org
Media Contact: Cathy Billings, Gallery Manager, 818-548-2713

Brand Library Art Galleries is located in northwest Glendale, easily accessed
via the Golden State (5) or Ventura (134) freeways. Hours are Tuesday and
Thursday, 1-9 pm; Wednesday, 1-6 pm; and Friday and Saturday, 1-5 pm.
Admission to all events is free and open to the public unless otherwise
stated. There is ample free parking. Call 818-548-2051 for additional
information.