Jason Tannen + Tiera May
Remnants + Rituals
October 29–November 21, 2021
Reception: Friday October 29, 6–8pm
Gallery Guide / Price List
 "Palm" (archival pigment print)
Jason Tannen is an artist, photographer, gallery curator and educator. Tannen has exhibited his works widely, in the United States and internationally. He has recently exhibited work in Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco and Budapest. From 1998 to 2014, he directed the University Art Gallery at California State University, Chico, where he also taught Gallery Production, Film Studies, and the History of Photography.
Artist's statement For over thirty years, I’ve photographed the urban environment. I’m particularly interested in the urban landscape of signs, symbols and graphic representation, along with curious or eccentric juxtapositions. Focusing on images without people or street action allows the images to be free-floating, without reference to a particular period or era. Close framing and shallow depth helps describe a world that exists within the four corners of the picture. Prior to this series, I printed mainly in black and white. I started working in color to explore the visual and material erosion that comes with time, the elements, or human intervention: colors that have bleached or are reduced to blues and reds, surfaces that have cracked, are peeling, or have been vandalized. Although I’m fully engaged in digital modes of presentation and communication, for me the physical photographic print is essential in conveying an image’s content, meaning and surface properties.  The Magician
Tiera May is a visual artist, musician, and graphic designer. She lives and works in Nevada County, California, where she studied painting and applied art & design at Sierra College. May attended one semester at CSU Chico to continue her formal education in fine art before ceasing her academic studies, returning to the Sierra Foothills and dedicating her time and energy solely to music and other creative projects. May’s work has previously been featured at the Nevada City Film Festival, the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, Blue Line Art Gallery, The Museum of Northern California Art, and B-So Space.
Artist's statement My work explores allegory, folklore and the occult through imagery. Using a range of mixed media methods and varying degrees of abstraction, my approach involves deconstructing and reassembling a language of recognized and invented archetypes and symbols to develop a visual narrative. Rituals features the 22 major arcana cards of the tarot: The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, and The World. Each individual piece is constructed using analogue collage methods exclusively. This series is largely informed and inspired by the work of Pamela Coleman Smith and Lady Frieda Harris, the artists who created the iconic imagery for the Rider Waite Tarot and The Crowley Thoth Tarot. |