Roberta Gentry is a Los Angeles based artist whose work is inspired by the natural world and the balance of order and chaos that exists within it. Using her painting, she explores the connections and conflicts that occur between architecture and biology, and questions the divide between natural and artificial. She earned an MFA from The State University of New York, Albany, New York, and a BFA from University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
Born in 1957 in Lima, Peru, Javier Tapia grew up in a tumultuous period as guerrilla warfare dominated political and social movements throughout the country. He moved to the United States in the 1980s, having witnessed the many binaries of humanity: good and evil, intellectual and primal, connection and detachment. His work explores how these opposites manifest in life; abstract shapes and broad strokes become metaphors for chaos and control, or structure and disorder. Much like traditional Peruvian weaving, Tapia overlaps, subtracts, and reworks layers of watercolor, creating dynamic compositions which emanate physicality. We recognize the work as energetic, on the brink of chaos, yet ordered within the constraints of the paper.
Tapia earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin (1984, 1987). He has exhibited at the Embassy of Peru Art Gallery, Washington, DC; Museo de Osma, Barranco, Peru; Bloom Gallery, Milan, Italy; Hunt Gallery at Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA; 1708 Gallery, and the Anderson Gallery, both, Richmond, VA. He is a recipient of the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts (2010). He currently lives in Richmond, VA and works in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Painting and Printmaking, where he has taught since 1988.
Scheer catalogs the wonder of nature through scan print media, video, and web based projects. His work plays off the intrinsic human need to explore and discover the natural world; biophilia, or the innate attachment human beings have to other living things, Scheer says, this is a theme central to his art. However Scheer’s work is not only representational, it is also scientific, as he explains his artwork as a dialog with the natural sciences. Scheer specifically chooses subjects, such as moths, that are interesting, diverse, and often little known. He uses digital scanning technology to create high resolution images that reveal exquisite details indiscernible to the naked eye. Scheer expresses the intent behind his hyper-real focus in a recent statement: “There is an incredible reality that we are now able to see that reveals the beauty along with the monstrosity of moths with all their preposterous hair and scales. Their beauty becomes a totally different kind – a sort of repulsive, disquieting beauty. These images may be of insects half a centimeter long that become 3′ by 4′ when enlarged and printed.” In addition to digital scanning, Scheer is skilled in other printmaking techniques such as woodcut. His cactus woodcuts series utilizes light and shadow, making the plants appear almost three dimensional as they emerge from desert landscapes.
Barry Purcell is a fourth-generation painter and photographer born in Virginia Beach, VA in 1973. He received his Bachelor of Science from James Madison University in 1996, Juris Doctorate and Master of Business from the University of Richmond in 2000. He currently resides in Richmond, VA and Virginia Beach.
