May the Rainbow Always Touch Your Shoulder: Ricky Armendariz, Helen Gerritzen, and Meredith Jack

Nicole Longnecker Gallery presents May the Rainbow Always Touch Your Shoulder, featuring the work of Ricky Armendariz, Helen Gerritzen, and Meredith Jack, July 11 – August 1, 2015. The opening reception is Saturday, July 11 from 5pm – 8pm preceded by an opening day gallery stroll from 11am – 5pm.

“May the Rainbow Always Touch Your Shoulder,” Nicole Longnecker Gallery features the work of Ricky Armendariz, Helen Gerritzen, and Meredith Jack. In most cultures, folklore and the spirit world are deeply connected. Art is often used to find a reason for our existence or illustrate the profound formal and spiritual connection between contemporary works of art and a culture’s beliefs.

The three artists in â€œMay the Rainbow Always Touch Your Shoulder” each illustrate this connection. Ricky Armendariz explores Native American and Mexican cultures in his painted woodcuts and large-scale prints. Helen Gerritzen uses staged elements in her sparse ghostly etchings depicting the effect of urbanization on the native treescape and the sensitive balance of man and nature. Meredith Jack’s hanging sculptural pieces reside in the fringe of the natural world that borders the supernatural adding structure to what normally remains on the periphery of our focus.

Pictured: Ricky Armendariz “Saturn and His Children (remix)” – oil on carved plywood, 48″ x 72″ (detail above, full image below).