Making a Better Yesterday Today: Isabel Samaras Opening Reception November 3, 2012

Nov 3 - Dec 22, 11am-6pm Tues-Sat, Opening Reception Sat, Nov 3, 6-9pm

Opening Reception: November 3, 2012, 6 - 9 P.M.

Varnish Fine Art is pleased to present Making A Better Yesterday Today: Isabel Samaras. Pop Surrealist painter Isabel Samaras' first solo exhibition with Varnish opens on November 3. In this very special exhibition, the gallery divides into 2 spaces, "Yesterday" and "Today." Isabel's new series of pop cultural mash-up oil paintings and limited edition prints on wood comprise the artwork of "Today." The "Yesterday" space within the gallery showcases a curated selection of Isabel's greatest hits, publications and object d'art featuring popular images from past works never before shown in San Francisco.

In her work, Isabel Samaras takes us on a tour through Art History populated with characters from Modern Mythology (20th century television characters and narratives.) Referencing timeless themes, Renaissance Art, Dutch genre painting, Persian Miniatures and Victorian Ethnographic photography, Samaras compresses space and time to create alternative narratives for the familiar characters we grew up watching on TV. Universes collide to create an alternate reality where our favorite people from different programs co-exist in a world that is at once hilarious and bittersweet. Samaras opens an alternate dimension to address the what if.

A known figure in the Pop Surrealism movement, Samaras was featured in the documentary films "The Lowdown on Lowbrow" and "Newbrow: Contemporary Underground Art." She is familiar to a broad audience through publications like Juxtapoz, and Hi Fructose as well as the books "Vicious, Delicious and Ambitious: 20th Century Women Artists," "Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art," and her own monograph "On Tender Hooks: The Art of Isabel Samaras." Samaras spent a month in Italy steeping in its art and culture of after graduating from Parsons NY, where studied Illustration and Fine Art. She lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. Samaras is represented by Varnish Fine Art.

Official Website: http://www.varnishfineart.com