Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Cañada College Art Gallery Presents Claude Ferguson Art Exhibition



Cañada College Art Gallery Presents Claude 
Ferguson Art Exhibition
 



Claude Ferguson – Recent Paintings
Cañada College Art Gallery
February 13 – March 30

The Cañada College Art Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of multimedia paintings by the Bay Area artist Claude Ferguson. The exhibit opened Monday, February 13 and runs through Thursday, March 30.

Claude Ferguson holds a BFA from North Carolina Central University, and an MFA from San Jose State University. Claude has worked as an arts educator youth and teens since 1984. He has taught with many Bay Area programs and institutions including the California Arts Council, Santa Clara’s Arts Connect, the San Jose Museum of Art, and The Community School of Music & Arts. Claude was also the cofounder of the Genesis Sanctuary for the Arts in San Jose. . He is also an Afro Jazz musician with the Inner Peace Orchestra.

This exhibit of recent work consists of 11 multimedia paintings, rich in color and imposing in their energy and physicality. Claude has written of his work:

I created this body of work as an attempt to reconnect with my childhood experiences while growing up in the south in Freedman, North Carolina. Freedman is a predominately black neighborhood set in the middle of the white community that is so racist that most of the stores and restaurants had two ways to enter, and they were labeled white only and coloreds. Situations such as these have always fueled my interest in social justice and fragments of those memories occur in some of these works, but the most important aspect of my work deals with the metaphysical or spiritual world…Images of my older brother and mother also appear in several works. They were constantly shielding me from the harsh realities produced by Jim Crow racism that most black folks faced in the early sixties. Since they have both moved on I realize more than ever that they have always been and continue to be my personal spirit guides. As I move through my senior years and memory becomes vague and somewhat cloudy, it is these images that are still most profound. What I enjoy most about the act of painting is that it allows me to fully experience my dream states while being awake. I also like painting on discarded surfaces, they seem to have a vitality and history that adds meaning to the works.”

The gallery hours of operation for this show are Monday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30-11 a.m. and 12:30 – 2 p.m.



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