exhibitions

for immediate release


“FOREIGN & FAMILIAR”
May 14th - June 18th, 2005

Works by: S.E. Barnet, Margi Scharff
Opening reception: Saturday, May 14th, 2005; 7 - 11PM

OVERTONES is pleased to present "Foreign & Familiar," an exhibition featuring work by artists S.E. Barnet and Margi Scharff.

At a time when the United States is becoming increasingly isolationist, two Los Angeles artists-S.E. Barnet and Margi Scharff, present work that invites audiences to fall in love with traveling all over again and consider the importance of the journey rather than the destination.

"Foreign & Familiar" is an exhibition that takes the viewer on a visual spin around the Globe-whether it's flying over the dikes of the Netherlands, walking the roads of Thailand or Nepal, or exchanging experiences with other travelers along the way. While Barnet's images explore a macroscopic view, Scharff's collages are small and intimate in nature. Barnet and Scharff's roads meet not in a geographical place, but rather in creating their works on a long-term project basis, accepting the challenges of the process and being open to unpredictability and chance.

S.E. Barnet's work has been exhibited at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The American Academy in Rome, Galerie Christine Koenig in Vienna, in de een minuten as part of the Sandberg Instituut and Nederlands Instituut voor MediaKunst Montevideo, and the Gazon Rouge Gallery in Athens. Recently her work was on view in the Czech Republic as part of Certain Traces: Dialogue Los Angeles/Prague 2004. "Foreign & Familiar" will include a series of aerial photographs and a video installation, both a part of Barnet's "The Displaced Studios" project.

Margi Scharff began her "Raw Material" project while living in Mexico, making her collages from whatever the roads she traveled provided her with. After a two-month trip across Mexico, she set off to Asia, traveling for two years on a ten-dollars-a-day budget and creating and exhibiting over 200 collages assembled from found materials in China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Along with her collages, Scharff will also exhibit a bronze cast of her hiking boots, specifically completed for "Foreign & Familiar."

OVERTONES is a Los Angeles art venue that supports and promotes creative endeavors in all artistic disciplines, with emphasis on emerging and mid-career artists, international collaboration and social responsibility. OVERTONES is dedicated to searching outside the confines of established art institutions and presenting work that has the potential to engage a wide range of audiences.

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