June 18, 2008

Painting & Photography to close Exhibition Season at the Grand

Painting by Ronald Walker / Photograph by Dan Younger Images Courtesy of the Artists – All Rights Reserved

Tracy, CA – The City of Tracy Cultural Arts Division announces the final two exhibitions of the 2007-08 Season, Suburban Primitive: Paintings by Ronald Walker and Travel Places: Photographs by Dan Younger at the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts, 715 Central Avenue in historic downtown Tracy, California. The exhibitions are on display from July 12th through August 9th, 2008 in the North, Souza, and Matthews Galleries. The Opening Reception is scheduled for Saturday, July 12th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm and is free and open to the public. A special guest performance by jazz trio, Tres Hot will be offered and refreshments will be served.

Suburban Primitive offers small-format gouache paintings by Northern California artist, Ronald Walker. The playful and colorful paintings are influenced by both the Dadaist and Symbolist art movements. While using combinations of child-like imagery to create nonsensical narratives and fantasy, the work is full of keen design and composition. Mr. Walker states, “These works serve as a type of metaphorical roadmap of my life which explores the inner aspects of my habitation in, and movement through, the suburban experience. I am fascinated by the question, ‘Why do people make art?’”

Travel Places explores our traditions and obsessions with taking vacation photos. These larger-than-life snap-shots capture the moments in-between the anticipated highlights of the
vacation, and allows us to look at our efforts introspectively, questioning our memory of the event. Mr. Younger notes, “Starting in 1975, I attempted to make some professional use of my travels, I try to consciously create pictures that I could use in a gallery settings. For every vacation snapshot I made, I purposely made another image of the same spot. The images present some facts, but allow the viewer to figure out some mystery.”

Ronald Walker is a painter and arts educator from Orangevale, California. Mr. Walker
received a M.A. from Central Missouri State University (Warrensburg, MO) and a M.F.A. from
the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS). He has exhibited professionally across America
since 1983 and has been represented by galleries in California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Dan Younger is a photographer and arts educator from St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Younger
holds a B.F.A. from the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), M.A.Ed. and M.A. and M.F.A.
from the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IW). He is currently a Professor at the University of
Missouri – St. Louis and has worked as an arts educator since 1978. Mr. Younger has
exhibited professionally since 1988 and has works in several public collections across the
nation.

Special guest performers to the Opening Reception are Tres Hot. The Tres Hot Jazz Band
features traditional jazz vocalist Wendi Maxwell, along with University of the Pacific pianist
Stephen Coss. Tres Hot plays up-tempo jazz and swing from the turn of the last century
through the 1930s, bringing the pleasure and exuberance of earlier times to today's happy
occasions.

The 2008-09 Exhibition Season will open in September with the exhibition, Salute To
Surrealism, featuring the works of contemporary artists with surrealist master works.