What the Triton Means to Me | Marie Cameron Studio

David Middlebrook is one of five artists, whose careers have been greatly influenced by their association with The Triton Museum of Art in the currently running exhibition, What the Triton Means to Me.

Los Gatos sculptor David Middlebrook, represented by The McLoughlin Gallery, has lived and worked all over the word. I love his playful approach to substantial ideas, by using scale, drama, incongruity and enticing finishes Middlebrook engages viewers immediately, with the puzzle of their meaning unfolding under further inspection.

In Haywire a packing crate seems to hover overhead while strapping dangles limply to the ground, There’s a floating rock entangled in one of the ends and another is trapped in the recesses of the crate like an escaped balloon.

The viewer can appreciate this work on a purely aesthetic level, the harmonious finishes, the towering form in space, the curvilinear elements in juxtaposition to the linear, mass versus weightlessness. This is an enjoyable and impactful experience on its own but when combined with the artist’s explanation of his inspiration it reaches a higher level. When I asked David Middlebrook about the piece he said, “We’ve messed up everything else on this planet. I thought, what would it look like if we messed up gravity too?” Love it! – an inviting window into a sharp social commentary to be appreciated on many levels.

Queen of Time, Cast Bronze, Resin, Wood and Paper, presents an egg pierced with holes held up by the curved branches of a birch log, perched on a stand of oversized bent combs…..I wish I’d asked what combs represent in Middlebrook’s sculptural lexicon! I get a sense of thwarted but persistent growth.

Congress (right) Cast Bronze and Basalt, is a highly polished piece of two overscale pipes, fixed end to end in a lovely sinuous union. It’s our congress blowing smoke at each other in a deadlocked, deadbeat embrace.

Incidental Incubator, the giant egg in the nest of garbage cans, may be speaking to our relationship to carbon, both as the building block of life on our planet and our ever growing carbon footprint.

Chief Curator Preston Metcalf and David Middlebrook in front of Haywire.

The show runs until January 3, 2016 and also features the work of Patricia Bengston-Jones, Leroy Parker, Nabeela Sajjad and George Rivera.

The Triton Museum of Art has a new exhibition up, What the Triton Means to Me, which features the work of five artists, Patricia Bengston-Jones, David Middlebrook, Leroy Parker, Nabeela Sajjad and George Rivera. The careers of each of these artist have been substantially enhanced by their relationship with the museum in different ways, which the artists write about. The show runs until January 3, 2016.

George Rivera was the Executive Director and Senior Curator at the Triton for many years, he’s an Associate Faculty Instructor of Art at Mission College in Santa Clara, he has juried some 400 exhibitions and competitions and has mentored and counseled countless artists (myself included) all in addition to making his strikingly beautiful and deeply introspective art (I mean, while not riding his motorcycle or playing his guitar)!

Having touched the careers of so many in the artistic community with his warm generosity and sage advice it was no wonder that the there was a huge turnout of artists, curators, friends and family for his opening reception!

OK, here’s what his oil painting triptych, The Precipice, looks like without all the people flocking about.

Rivera’s paintings have such a bold, commanding presence, there is a strong dramatic flair but also a quiet introspection, they can all across a room but also draw you in with these lovely, symbolic details like the bird and the flame. FYI – those are my hands in the photograph taken by Ron Dell’Aquila – not in the painting.

To see more of Rivera’s work (after you visit the Triton) you can visit Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco where he is represented.