Mike Berg and Marc Katano

August 17, 2016 – Stremmel Gallery is pleased to present Mike Berg and Marc Katano, an exhibition of new works, opening on September 8, and continuing through October 1, 2016. The show will feature Berg’s distinct tapestries and Katano’s elegant works on paper. The opening reception will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday, September 8, 2016, and is free to the public.

Displaying for the first time at Stremmel Gallery, Mike Berg creates beautiful abstract kilims – a pileless textile produced by several flat-weaving techniques – that are painstaking in process, but render a sculptural quality upon completion. Berg collaborates with weavers in Western Turkey, creating stitched, knotted and woven art forms.

"Though I live in Istanbul, I am heavily inspired by the western abstract aesthetic,” Berg says. “My work is a process: it's a combination of intentional design – my drawing compositions – and the application of chance, color selection, and the vagaries of the translation of my compositions into the finished work.”

Born in Tokyo, Marc Katano's paintings demonstrate a sensibility of Japanese mark making with an overlapping influence in calligraphy. These stunning gestural works on paper are created using acrylic and ink. The practice of Japanese calligraphy underscores simple, but precise flicks of the wrist and arm to create the gesture. The organic nature of these gestural paintings is further accentuated by Katano's deliberate paper choices. The works are on heavyweight, handmade Nepalese paper. The presence of soft rag is relegated to the outermost edges exposing the paper pulp, but the predominate surface area is dense and textured. The paper creates a tactile canvas, allowing the ink and paint to pool and seep in wide crevasses, rendering an abstract configuration.

In composing these works, sometimes Katano uses his bare hands and fingers to apply paint. At other times, he splatters it on the floor, a la Jackson Pollock. He then creates whatever comes to his mind, such as the outlined shapes of triangles and upside-down hearts, which he equates to letters of the alphabet, and is revealed later in the process.

For more information, or to schedule a private viewing of Mike Berg and Marc Katano’s respective works, please call Stremmel Gallery at 775-786-0558. Please visit www.stremmelgallery.com for more information. High-resolution images are available upon request. Stremmel Gallery is located at 1400 South Virginia Street in Reno, Nevada. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.