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| Melissa Chandon LA Building with Palms on Left, 2006 Oil on canvas 36 x 48″ John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA |
SOFA exhibitor John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA presents an exhibition by Melissa Chandon and John Weber, January 3 – 27. Chandon’s Landmark paintings feature Americana icons such as roadside diners and gas stations from the 50s and 60s, old lifeguard shacks, rusty farm equipment, and aging VW Bugs.
The reality of the changing American landscape hit home for Chandon when she returned to a small Utah town last year to re-photograph a 1950s-era drive-in restaurant she had just painted. The Snow King was gone, demolished, the locals told her. Chandon was stunned; she determined the Snow King would be the first in a series of paintings recording remaining icons of mid-century American life.
With art training at several institutions, most notably under painter Wayne Thiebeaud at the University of California/Davis, Chandon approaches the canvas with a bold, graphic style. Her subjects are removed from the environment and painted in pop art-like isolation on a strongly hued background, suggesting their enduring status as memory objects. “When we look around, these buildings have been on our visual horizon since childhood,” Chandon said. “I want to draw attention to the things in our culture that are part of who we are, that brought us to where we are today.”
Exhibiting alongside Chandon is newcomer John Weber’s pastel and oil paintings of the Sacramento Valley–its ever-changing light, trees, waterways and rich fields. Weber’s exhibition includes figurative work as well as landscapes.
John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First Street, Davis, CA . Contact: Sonja Burgal, 530.756.3938, Sonja@natsoulas.com ; www.natsoulas.com
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