Shooting Gallery Project Space Presents: Cellar Door, A Solo Show by Meryl Pataky

Shooting Gallery Project Space is pleased to present Cellar Door, by SF-based silversmith, welder and neon artist Meryl Pataky. Join us for the opening reception Saturday, July 6, from 7-11pm. The exhibit will be free and open to the public for viewing through August 10, 2013.

A multidisciplinary artist, Pataky is inspired by materials which are either elemental or organic and are specifically chosen to represent organic life and its building blocks – the elements created in the universe. For Cellar Door, the artist recreates the elemental symbol of the noble gases helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr) and xenon (Xe) pumping the glass tubes with the material they represent. Every piece for the show is bent by the artist herself; based on a hand-drawn pattern, each bend of the glass is heated separately in a fire from a specialty burner. In reaction to a current, the noble gases create light that emanates from within the tube.

Pataky also explores the luminosity that can be achieved with unexpected sources, filling a piece which spells “Give Love” phonetically (playfully titled “The Birds and the Bees”) with honey. With two other pieces of phonetically-sounded signage placed against live roses and a beautifully-crafted, large scale piece, “Inspired by…,” mounted on a living wall in collaboration with David Brenner of Habitat Horticulture, the artist states, “I’ve always had the desire to juxtapose neon with the outdoors. I wanted to take neon out of its normal environment. The character of neon is subconsciously viewed as an everlasting fixture of our cities’ nightlife. In nature, it becomes vulnerable and ephemeral.”

A 20 x 24 inch print of “Inspired by…” set amidst Sutro Forest will accompany the piece as the first in what will be a series of neon works in the outdoors for print and in the form of street art in San Francisco.

Meryl Pataky lives and works in San Francisco. The artist’s work relies heavily on the concept of universal connection and  cyclical patterns. Pataky regularly works with an extensive variety of materials, each one a member of the periodic table- silver, copper, iron, carbon, neon and all of the noble gases.

Media Opportunities:

Interview with artist Meryl Pataky

Interview with owner/founder/curator Justin Giarla

High-resolution images available upon request

Event Information:

Cellar Door, a solo show by Meryl Pataky

Opening Reception – July 6, 2013, 7-11 pm

On View Through August 10, 2013

@ Shooting Gallery Project Space

886 Geary Street

San Francisco, CA