Dazed Opening Reception at Heron Arts (SF)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Heron Arts is pleased to announce Dazed, a group exhibition celebrating geometry via movement, pattern, and waves with artworks by Alexis Arnold, Casey Gray, Daniel Chen, Gianluca Franzese, and an installation by Sophie Baker. The opening reception for Dazed is Saturday, March 22nd, 2025 from 6-9pm. It is free and open to the public. The exhibition will be on view to the public until April 26th, by appointment only.

Dazed explores trippy movement and organized delirium found within undulating grids, verdant still lifes, geometric abstraction and striking landscapes. Selected works subvert the interplay of perspective and flatness while highlighting adept color finesse. Dazed presents the juxtaposition of soft gradients with hard lines in a pristine yet disorientating fashion.

ARTIST BIOS

Alexis Arnold is a mixed media visual artist in Oakland, CA. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Aspen Art Museum, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Napa Valley Museum, Whatcom Museum, Beaux-Arts Mons (Belgium), Atlanta Airport, Bergdorf Goodman, di Rosa, The New York Hall of Science, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. Alexis’ work is included in the collections of SFMOMA, Meta/Facebook, the University of Pittsburgh, Virginia Commonwealth University, MediaMath, Costa Cruises and more, and has received review in Hi-Fructose, Art Practical, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, boingboing, designboom, Colossal, Fast Company, and Beautiful/Decay, among other publications. She holds an MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute, as well as BA in art from Kenyon College in Ohio.

Casey Gray is an esteemed artist based in San Francisco known for his distinctive painting style that blends classical painting traditions with modern day materials and methods. First and foremost a still life painter but often delving into other subject matter, Gray’s visually striking compositions use the language of symbolism to explore themes of leisure, connection, shared experience and the search for balance. His work celebrates the dignity and reality of the everyday, referencing historical painting tropes as a point of departure. His process employs acrylic spray paint as his primary medium coupled with meticulous hand-cut masking techniques resulting in boldly colorful, energetic and elegant artworks that mimic the paradoxical blend of analog and digital influences of his youth. Born and raised in the Bay Area of the United States, Gray earned a BA from San Diego State University in 2006 before completing his MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2010. His work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally in numerous exhibitions and art fairs.

Daniel Chen is a painter based in San Francisco, California. He split his time growing up between the SF Bay Area and Taiwan. After college, he decided not to attend law School, but rather pursue his first passion. He has degrees from the Academy of Art University and California College of the Arts.

Gianluca Franzese’s art is a luminous fusion of classical craftsmanship, geometric exploration, and environmental storytelling. Guided by an intention to create balance and harmony, his work delves into the heart of pressing issues like climate change, sparking meaningful dialogue and introspection. Born in Italy and raised in New York, Franzese grew up immersed in the world of precision craftsmanship, with a jeweler father who introduced him to the art of metal leafing at an early age. His artistic journey began at the prestigious Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, where he developed a strong foundation in fine art. Later, he followed his roots back to Italy to study the traditional methods of the old masters at the Florence Academy of Art. There, he spent four years mastering techniques like sight size, sculpture, and paint mixing, which continue to influence his work today. Inspired by his classical training, Franzese fuses the glimmering allure of Gustav Klimt’s gold leaf work, the structural ingenuity of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the intricate patterns of William Morris. This diverse range of influences is evident in his dynamic, geometric compositions, which are built layer by layer with hand-applied metal leaf and unique glazes.

Now based in San Francisco, Franzese’s studio operates as both a creative sanctuary and a laboratory for experimentation. It is here that he pushes the boundaries of traditional techniques, forging new paths in his exploration of geometry, luminosity, and storytelling. His work highlights humanity’s intertwined relationship with nature, using bold patterns and reflective surfaces to emphasize the urgency of climate action. Franzese’s evolving focus on climate change has transformed his art into a medium of environmental activism. Through his geometric designs and innovative use of materials, he invites viewers to engage with the challenges and beauty of our changing world. Each piece is a call to reflect on the delicate balance of our planet and our responsibility to preserve it.

Sophie Baker is a San Francisco based artist that creates surreal, digital-hybrid works using digital imaging, animation, and live video manipulation. She has always been drawn to the balance between the organic and inorganic; the feeling of seeing something that appears alien but simultaneously feels familiar. Textures found in the natural world are mimicked by digital mistakes, which is explored by a series of digital experiments in graphic art and video. Sophie’s early works in abstract painting inform her newer pieces, similarly layering colors and textures that leave a trail of instinctive decisions and create an abstract world of its own.

Artist Statements

Alexis Arnold

My sculpture, installation, and two-dimensional artwork explores the subjective perception and experience of light, space, color, pattern, and material. I use and transform a variety of analog materials and processes to create stationary works that alter optically, appear kinetic through the movement of light or viewers, or seem digitally produced. I provide moments of optical interaction that play with and address ways of processing visual information. The changing perceptions also prompt interactions and dialogue between viewers. I aim to transform the recognizable, recontextualize the commonplace, and highlight the aesthetic possibilities of the material, techniques, and processes I use in my work. Media I use includes paper pulp, mesh and other fabric, paint, cyanotypes, and more. Recent work uses the grid and pattern as devices to explore perception, color, light and space across several media. Repeated and altered surface marks create rippling, undulating, and vibrating wavelike patterns. I am drawn to grids and patterns as methods to organize space and play with the viewer’s perceptive cortices. I enjoy that grids and patterns are repetitive while also offering endless options, and abstract while remaining organized. These series exemplify my experimental, process-driven, hands-on way of working with a range of materials, as well as my goal to provide optical experiences for viewers that help them think about visual perception, the potential of material, and how optical effects exist in daily life.

Casey Gray

I first started making my ongoing wavy series of symbol based works in 2014, first exhibiting a handful with Guerrero Gallery and then culminating in a solo show at Park Life titled Wave Pool in 2015 where I showcased a large wall of about 40 works. Since then, the wavy optical motif has embedded itself into my visual language, popping up in works throughout my oeuvre with only a sparse few new images every couple of years. Ten years later and I’ve finally found some time and opportunity to explore pushing the idea further and have begun to develop a new set of paintings based on symbols you might find from my more classical still life pieces. The new works are more complex, some are larger in scale and scope and some combine multiple symbols into a singular piece creating an actual wavy still life rather than a singular symbol. Initially my thought behind them was to explore a singular idea as a symbol, that I could make quickly, rather than elaborate still life works that took weeks or longer. When viewed side by side they kind of take on the language of emoji but that was never my initial intention, sort of a happy accident. I always thought the wave form imbued a sense of uncertainty or skepticism into the idea, but it seems that to the general public they read more optimistic than that. Makes no real difference to me as long as they’re enjoyed.

Daniel Chen

I make paintings of memories. Memories are oftentimes fragmented and fuzzy. I think we see memories as a whole, but the edges are blurred and the details are frayed. Sometimes we change details to protect our own egos or to completely mask other parts of ourselves that we want to forget. These little details might not be complete, but when we step back and see things as a whole, the picture comes together. As technology becomes more integrated with modern life. Our ability to recall visual memory has been hindered by the ubiquitous phone in our pockets. It is much easier to take a quick snapshot of an event and store it away. As life becomes more interminably entrenched with technology, what becomes of our memories and visual acuity. Using pixelated and fragmented planes, I “filter” my paintings through this visual lens. Up close, the paintings make no sense, the details are blown out. As we rely more on technology to capture our memories, our ability to imprint our own becomes frayed.

Gianluca Franzese

My work explores the intricate balance between humanity and nature, using geometry, metal leaf, and vibrant glazes to illuminate the urgent challenges of our changing climate. Each piece is a fusion of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary environmental storytelling, inviting viewers to reflect on the interconnectedness of our actions and the planet’s fragility.

Guided by intuition and process, I layer hand-applied metal leaf and glazes to create compositions that bend light, evoke depth, and immerse the viewer in a dialogue between beauty and crisis. These patterns and luminous surfaces serve as metaphors for the delicate equilibrium we must maintain to ensure a sustainable future. My art aims not only to captivate visually but also to spark meaningful conversations about climate change, urging us to reconsider our relationship with the world and our shared responsibility to protect it.

Sophie Baker

These pieces explore abstracted digital video that resemble the fluidity of liquid; finding the congruence between distorted electronics and natural aquatic forms. The warped images on an old, semi-broken television feel oddly similar to the hypnotic motion of ocean waves: breathing in and out, creating rhythmic loops that feel repetitive but slightly unique with every loop. Through a series of digital illustration, animation and video manipulation, I find happy accidents that blur the perception of the natural and unnatural – creating a confusing sense of awe and familiarity.

Opening Reception Details
When: Saturday, March 22nd, 6-9pm
Where: Heron Arts, 7 Heron St.
Exhibition Dates: March 22 – April 26th, 2025
Gallery Hours: By Appointment Only

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.