ArtZone 461 presents a two-person show of abstract works by married-couple artists Miranda Putman and Randy Beckelheimer.  This is the second in a series of three shows for married artists; the final one will be later in 2013.  The opening of this show coincides with the fifth anniversary of the Gallery opening on June 22, 2008. Exhibiting two very diverse abstract artists demonstrates continued diversification and expansion of the Gallery’s programming.

This new show revolves on concepts of parallel universes.  In geometry, parallel is defined as straight lines that never meet, no matter how far extended.  Applied here, a narrow view sees artists’ careers on paths that don’t intersect.  A more insightful and accurate interpretation views parallel as having the same direction, course, nature or tendencies.   These are the dynamics at play here.  Though completely different in approaches to abstraction, the “space” between parallel lines is not “empty”; rather, one finds an arena for mediation, exchanges of shared thoughts and emotional discourse, togetherness and individuality, conversations had – and not.  This is a universe of shared experiences, raw energy and boldness and deep emotional content.  It is also full of color, vibrancy and complexity, concessions and accommodations.

Randy Beckelheimer was an ArtZone 2010 “Introductions” artist and has since had two solo shows of his photo-real, large-scale paintings.  The current show features Beckelheimer’s and his wife, Miranda Putman’s abstract works.  For twenty years, until 2005, he was a color-field painter.  Color-field refers to “abstract painting in which large, flat areas of color are spread to cover the entire canvas and dominate over form and texture.” (dictionary.com)  These works, all completed before 2005, (some never exhibited), make up the current show along with his wife’s contemporary, abstract expressionist works.

Miranda Putman’s art combines raw energy and complex emotions to produce bold, exuberant compositions.   Based in abstract expressionism, the artist employs drawing as a stimulus and a basis for growth and revision in her painting.  She makes “diagrammatic studies to seek out the interplay of shapes in landscape, anatomical illustration and paintings by Tintoretto and Bellini.” (Italian Renaissance painters.)  Putman’s process alternates between applications of paint; deliberate or randomized marking; the collaging of notes, sketches and texts from her studio environment; and subsequent tearing away of layers to simplify the surface or reveal previous layers.  This complex process reflects Putman’s perceptions and experiences of the world.

Putman received her Bachelor of Arts in 1983 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her Master of Fine Arts in 2003 from the University of California, Davis.  Since graduating she has continually and actively participated in group and solo shows, mainly in northern California.  In 2011 she had a two-person show at b. sakata garo (Barry Sakata Gallery) in Sacramento.  Randy Beckelheimer received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara.