Art exhibit at the UNCLE Credit Union Art Gallery at the Bankhead Theater is a look at the Bay Area Figurative art style. In the early 1950’s, a few well-known Bay Area painters who were known for their Abstract Expressionist style began creating works with recognizable shapes. David Parks and Richard Diebenkorn are two artists painting with the “new” style. Paul Mills, curator of the Oakland Museum of Art at the time, describes the distinguishing features of the style developing: “the bold methods of handling paint,… which are a mark of Abstract Expressionism , are applied to shapes which come from either real or imagined scenes”. By the time Mr. Mills created an exhibit of 12 painters working in this style around 1957, followers of the arts in the Bay Area were proud to find that the Bay Area had a nationally recognized regional “school”. Bay Area Figurative was born. In the exhibit at the UNCLE Credit Union Art Gallery at the Bankhead Theater, viewers can experience for themselves that the artists working in this style have an understanding of abstraction but that the works here have a sophisticated dialogue between abstraction and representation. There are recognizable subjects and boldly colored, abstract arrangement of thick slabs of paint.

The Art Reception takes place on Sat March 11 from 1-3:30pm.