For Immediate Release September 6, 2001 Contact: Lizabeth Oliveria 510-625-1350 SHOW: Disorder by Nick Ackerman, David Huffman, and Christopher Oliveria DATES: October 30th-November 24th RECEPTION: Saturday, November 3rd 6-9 p.m. LOCATION: 942 Clay Street, Oakland. A map is on the website. WEBSITE: www.lizabetholiveria.com HOURS: Tuesday-Saturday 10:30-5:30 Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery is pleased to present, Disorder, a group exhibition of three Bay Area artists, Nick Ackerman, David Huffman, and Christopher Oliveria. The exhibition will run from October 30th through November 24th. An artists' reception will be held on Saturday, November 3rd, from 6–9 p.m. A San Francisco-based artist, Ackerman has exhibited his paintings in numerous group exhibitions both in New York and the West Coast over the past eight years. Ackerman is being included in the November exhibition, "Widely Unknown"at Deitch Projects in New York. His piece titled "Just Moved In" was selected at the 1998 Southern Exposure Gallery's annual juried exhibition, "Nothing But Time", juried by David Ross. Ackerman's paintings are bright, colorful compositions that make reference to television, the media, society, and everyday life through abstract and representational elements. He combines geometric shapes, rhythm, beauty and vibration through various layers in his work. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute and a master's degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, Ackerman is an award-winning artist whose paintings can be found in the Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery. The minstrel plays a pivotal role in the paintings of Berkeley-based artist David Huffman. A historical display of degradation, the haunting image of the minstrel cannot help but address the issue of racism and the trauma that the false smile hides. In Huffman's work, these smiling figures are flat, often floating, disconnected from the ground. The paintings' surfaces are worn down, scratched, and therefore become layered with images and ideas. Trauma is then addressed both in the subject matter and through the medium. Huffman's minstrels have now evolved into robots, often with accompanying spaceships. This phase directly influenced by Japanese culture and cartoons such as Astro Boy and Tetsujin-28 where trauma has manifested into a joyful character. Huffman studied at the Alliance of Independent Colleges of Art, New York Studio School and the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland. Since 1994, he has exhibited his work in both solo and group exhibitions nationwide, including the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles; Southern Exposure, San Francisco; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery; Watts Tower Art Center, Los Angeles. In September of 2001, Huffman will be exhibiting his work in a solo exhibition at Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco. He has been a guest lecturer in the painting department of CCAC and currently teaches art at Winrush School in El Cerrito, California. Using greed and corruption as the point of departure for his work, Oakland-based Christopher Oliveria's paintings explore their effect on society through the use of allegorical images and figures. Oliveria uses his interpretations of writings by social philosophers such as John Dewey and Ralph Waldo Emerson, constructed in a way that reflects his admiration for Flemish painters and Rembrandt. His juxtaposition of precisely executed figures and images compels viewers to investigate his humorous, psychological and cynical commentary on life, money, avarice, conceit and dishonesty. The depth and dual aspects of his work can be understood as symbolic of his constant struggle with the bad and the good in society. Since 1990, Oliveria's paintings have been exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Chicago and the Bay Area. His work was selected at the 2000 Lucky 13 juried exhibition at the Nika Gallery by jurors Jenn Joy and Monika Lin, as well as Southern Exposure's 9th Annual Juried Exhibition, Tender, by juror Karen Moss in 1999. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Crafts and the San Francisco Art Institute, he was a guest of the Centro de Actividades e Investigaciones Artistica de Catalunia, Espluges del Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain, in 1998. Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery is a fine arts gallery located in downtown Oakland that shows and sells original works of art (painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, etc.