PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 24, 2017

Press Contact: Christopher Broughton (805) 601-7530

FOUR FRIENDS GALLERY

Opens New Photography Exhibition

Opening night September 7^th 2017 6-9 PM

Exhibit: L’optique Féminine

THOUSAND OAKS, CA – The Four Friends Gallery will hold a Public Opening Reception on September 7, 2017 from 6-9 pm of its latest exhibition L’optique Féminine. The Four Friends Gallery in collaboration with the California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks presents Femmes Photo Fest featuring female artists working in photography. Complimentary light snacks and drinks will be served. Four Friends Gallery is located at 1414 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Suite 111, Thousand Oaks, CA 91362.

The exhibition L’optique Féminine opening will be September 7th, 2017 from 6-9 pm and the show will run through November 9, 2017.  Gallery viewings are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm and by appointment.  The show will feature the photographic work of Joyce Wilson, Michelle Magdalena Maddox, Nancy Lehrer, Makenzie Goodman, and Lindsey Ross.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: Joyce Wilson

Thetis

An ongoing theme in my personal work is a celebration of the female, the exquisite beauty of nature and the unique connection of the human form within this context. The challenge for me as an artist is to balance the realities of life with the fantasies of my imagination to create a moment of surprise and mystery. I’m passionate about alternative processes, and blend old world and contemporary technology to enhance and alter the photographic image to a subtler art form.

Early in my career a colleague made a statement I’ve never forgotten…”the only constant is change”. My work is a journey with both subject and technique that is a continuation of my curiosity and life experiences, and I hope the viewer will relate and find their own stories.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: Michelle Magdalena Maddox

The suppression of the divine feminine is Unknown to much of the modern world; though the personification of this spirit is on the rise through consciousness and value of key traits of wisdom, compassion and intuition. My work aims to communicate these traits and tells the stories of the energies. God is in all, both genders balanced, in harmony, in peaceful power; that is where god is alive.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: Nancy Lehrer

Many people living in the greater Los Angeles area may have traveled the world but have never visited the unique and vibrant neighborhoods of their own home town, Los Angeles.

Founded in 1781 as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles” , The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels, downtown Los Angeles now presents a mix of historic landmarks, city government, arts and culture, up-scale lofts, and people going through hard times. Divided into districts, each area presents a unique focus – the theatre district, clothing district, jewelry district, flower district, financial district. Theatres and businesses once representing the height of wealth and fashion have been recycled for new uses: theatres turned into churches and department stores into Quinceañera dress shops and condominium-lofts. Businesses in the area that were once owned by the early 20th century immigrants from Europe, are now run by a new set of first-generation immigrant entrepreneurs.

In this exhibit, I present to you my casual observations of the life and life-styles of the vibrant and ever-changing world in the heart of Los Angeles, our City of Angels.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: Makenzie Goodman

There are roses and light, sometimes a holy one but mostly many fluorescent lights. A market of wholesale flower sellers over 100 years old, started by 1st generation Japanese immigrants and Europeans, now run mostly by Hispanics, takes up 6 blocks of downtown Los Angeles. The Virgin Mary, or Guadalupe, I mean Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (I am still learning), she is everywhere in this place. In shrines, paintings, figurines, a maternal figure amidst the dying flowers whose dead petals are plucked off early each morning. A rebirth, a second chance for the unsold flower. The light inside is harsh and artificial; outside the southern sun is unrelenting. In the market I am a foreigner, with noises and smells and an economy all it’s own. I live in a studio three floors above but I am displaced at street level among wafting tea rose and urine odors under the ever-watchful eye of the Virgin. She sits up high and seems to go unnoticed, like the aging mother she has become. But the light and the miraculous Lazarus flowers bind her to the market, inexplicably. I don’t pretend to understand. It is a place of reverence and history, a place where hot dog trucks take up three parking spaces, where the homeless from Skid Row and party planners from Beverly Hills filter through narrow sidewalks. These contradictions and the filthy, blessed residue of the place bring me back a stranger again and again.

Makenzie Goodman (b. 1986) was raised in western Pennsylvania. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and her MFA from Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. Her work explores human’s ties to geographic spaces and the resultant folklore and myth of American place. She utilizes medium and large format film photography practices. Goodman’s work has been exhibited and published throughout the United States and internationally.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: Lindsey Ross

Lindsey Ross has early memories of making poster-sized silver-gelatin prints in the basement darkroom with her father. After earning a BA Religion at Denison University, Ross moved to the West. After working on a cattle ranch in British Columbia, Ross moved to California to pursue an MFA Photography. She started working with wet plate collodion process in 2011. This has become the ideal format for Ross, who seeks autonomy and at the same time a sense of connection. The slow pace of collodion requires a presence and intimacy that connects her to both the physical and spiritual world.

For information, please visit the gallery website:  www.fourfriendsgallery.com and the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Four-Friends-Gallery-455275737841255 and Email  info@fourfriendsgallery.com or call them at  805-601-7530.

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DETAILS FOR CALENDAR LISTINGS

FOUR FRIENDS GALLERY

WHAT:  Four Friends Gallery premieres its latest exhibition L’optique Féminine featuring the works of Joyce Wilson, Michelle Magdalena Maddox, Nancy Lehrer, Makenzie Goodman, and Lindsey Ross.

WHEN:  Public Opening Reception on September 7^th, 2017 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.

Show runs now through November 9th, 2017.

Gallery hours for this show are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:30PM to 5:30 PM and by appointment.

WHERE:  Four Friends Gallery

1414 East Thousand Oaks Blvd.  Suite 111

Thousand Oaks, CA 91362

HOW:  805-601-7530, www.fourfriendsgallery.com, email info@fourfriendsgallery.com and on Facebook.

TICKETS:

Free Admission

OTHER:

Free parking is always available.

MORE 2017 DATES: 

Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 8:00 pm Brogden Bay Presents and Four Friends Gallery happily announce the return to the Gallery of Blues Hall of Fame legend Corky Siegel. On this tour, Corky is accompanied by two-time Grammy nominee Matthew Santos, the voice of the platinum selling hit “Superstar.” Corky appeared here last year with James Lee Stanley and Jimmy Vivino. Marcella Detroit sat in with him on a few songs and the evening was a highlight of the year. You won’t want to miss this show!

Corky is considered to be among the top harmonica virtuosos internationally, as well as a superb jazz pianist. He is the only bluesman to record two releases on prestigious classical label Deutsche Grammophon which were blockbusters in sales, and likewise his chamber ensemble, Chamber Blues, is the only classical group on Blues giant Alligator Records. The new Chamber Blues CD, Different Voices, which features Santos, received Downbeat Magazine’s Editors’ Pick.

Matthew Santos, whose meteoric career was launched as the voice on the certified platinum selling hit, Superstar with Lupe Fiasco, joins Corky on this tour. If you are a fan of great artists like John Legend, Jeff Buckley and Bon Iver you are going to love discovering Matthew Santos.

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For information, please visit the gallery website:  www.fourfriendsgallery.com and the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Four-Friends-Gallery-455275737841255 and Email  info@fourfriendsgallery.com or call them at  805-601-7530.

MORE‑MORE‑MORE

 DETAILS FOR CALENDAR LISTINGS

FOUR FRIENDS GALLERY