Showing: April 3 – April 29

Reception: Saturday, April 14, 5–7 pm

“Hand to Mouth, Nauman,” 2018, Pamela Blotner, Felted wool and mixed media.

Refuge—and the shelter and protection that it implies—are very much part of the current public consciousness.  Every day we are bombarded with disturbing images of displaced people fleeing or driven from their homes because of ethnic cleansing, poverty, and climate change. But what does “refuge” mean? Refuge from whom, and from what?  If a haven is found, is it truly safe and can it last? Can lives be rebuilt? And dreams pursued, if refuge is denied or taken away? This body of sculpture and paintings explores the meanings – from the ideal to the reality – inherent in the idea of “refuge,” not only for  human beings but wildlife as well, and begins to imagine a new world, perhaps even an imaginary one, without barriers or borders.

Artist Biography

Pamela Blotner is an artist, educator and curator who divides her time between Berkeley and Pt. Reyes. In her Berkeley studio, she creates sculptures and drawings that reflect on humankind’s relationship to nature, animals, science, calamity and healing. Her early experiences as a Sculptor/Illustrator for the Houston Zoo, in Houston, Texas, and her later work with Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center, Art for Conservation and the Leatherback Trust set her professional course and continue to influence her aesthetic and practice.

Blotner’s sculpture and drawings have been exhibited in Europe, Asia, Africa and throughout the United States. She has taught at a number of universities and colleges, including the University of Chicago, the University of Maryland, Tufts University, the University of San Francisco, California College of Art, San Francisco Art Institute and St. Marys College. From 1997 – 2012, she taught sculpture at Pixar University of Pixar Animation Studios.

Her work with Artists Beyond Boundaries, an ongoing exhibition, workshop and collaboration project that Blotner co-founded with Mie Preckler, explores the ways in which Myanmar artists have responded to the cultural and political changes that have transpired in Myanmar over the past decade.