Matthew Harkleroad
August 1 – 31, 2019
First Thursday: August, 1, 5 – 8pm

My work is about materials, shapes, edges, colors and textures. It is meant to be experienced and enjoyed in a very direct, visceral way, because this is how I make it. My intention is to reveal more than invent, to feel more than think, to allow more than force. I choose media, techniques and marks that feel honest and natural, building surfaces that appeal to my love of patina, accidents and the aesthetics of layered histories. My joy is in the act of responding– What is needed here? What would make this image hum? Sometimes personal or narrative associations arise from this process. But usually the experience is more like smelling a fragrant rose, with a depth of experience that is valuable enough on its own, free of association. Either way is fine.

In this current body of work, I explore a recurring shape that could insinuate a pared down, abstracted figure. I am intrigued by this intuitively created stencil shape, as it allows for a somewhat familiar structure to attach any meaning that arises, while still being conceptually unencumbered, allowing the space in which to feel for that hum.

-Matthew Harkleroad

August 1 – 31, 2019
First Thursday: August 1, 5 – 8pm
Artists’ Reception: August 24, 3 – 5pm

Gallery 110, an independent artist-run gallery, has been part of the Pioneer Square art community since 2002. During the last 17 years the gallery has featured over 400 exhibitions by local, national and international artists. This exhibition brings together a few of the artists who were there at the very beginning of the gallery and who are still a part of the art community in the Seattle area and beyond.

A Kind of Reunion will feature work by:

Nicholas Pimentel
August 1 – 31, 2019
First Thursday: August 1, 5 – 8pm

I am perishing already—I am failing—I am passing away. In a little while you will be alone in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes without friend or comrade forever—for you will remain a thought, the only existent thought, and by your nature inextinguishable, indestructible. But I, your poor servant, have revealed you to yourself and set you free. Dream other dreams, and better!
-The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain

This quote, taken from an unfinished story, The Mysterious Stranger, gives insight into the morbid, existential mindset of Mark Twain’s final years. The foreboding tone of his language also encapsulates my personal thoughts and feelings during a tumultuous year of my life; a year of contemplating mortality, meaning, and dealing with constant isolation. Using ideas such as: Surrealism, Expressionism and Artificial Realism help construct narrative scenes that give the viewer a glimpse into specific moments or feelings otherwise inexplicable through words.