PAST EXHIBITIONS 2024
Devils in the Details
Harry Clewans and Shenny Cruces
July 5 to August 3, 2024
Gearbox Gallery is proud to present Devils in the Details, a new exhibition by Gearbox member artist Harry Clewans and guest artist Shenny Cruces. Clewans creates large-scale compositions on panels from hundreds of individual pieces of his own woodcut prints. The prints are arranged to create complex scenes that communicate a state of disrepair or decay. Cruces’ work derives from the process of collecting existing porcelain objects, re-casting and combining them into new sculptural forms. The resulting sculptures evoke a sense of home and memory and examine the meaning of objects in our lives. Both using the strategy of piecing together to create something new, Clewans and Cruces’ work beckons the viewer from afar then rewards one with an intimate intricacy.
Above left, Harry Clewans, A Moment 43 Years Ago, 2024, assembled woodcut prints on kozo paper, 68" x 56"; right, Shenny Cruces, The Sisters, Laura and Lizzie, 2021, 22.5"h x 6.5"w x 6"d & 17.5"h x 6"w x 6"d
Harry Clewans, Sculpture in the Park in Winter, 2019, assembled woodblock print on wood panel, 68" x 51.5"
About Harry Clewans
For thirty years, Harry Clewans has been making woodcuts of found objects like these and has built up an extensive library of images from which he makes prints that he cutsup and arranges to create larger and more complex compositions. Like mosaics or jigsaw puzzles, these larger works are typically comprised of hundreds of individualpieces that he fits together to form a picture, which he then adheres to a wood substrate. Just as everything in our physical environment is composed of the same matter,Harry’s large pieces are composed of the same collection of woodcut images. This approach, he hopes, communicates the idea that all things, by virtue of their makeup, areconnected, and that all things participate in a cycle of composition and decomposition in which the old, the broken down, and the disposed of become material for the new.
About Shenny Cruces
Shenny Cruces, Jeannie, 2021, 25"h x 12"w x 12"d
Shenny Cruces received a BA in Ceramics from Illinois State University and Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from San Francisco State University. Her work has appeared in showsnationally and internationally and includes NCECA Biennial at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Monumental Clay at Palo Alto Art Center, and at CRETA Rome. Her work has received numerous awards and residencies including MurphyCadogan Fellowship from San Francisco Foundation, and a KilnGod Award Residency at Watershed Center for the CeramicArts, Pentaculum at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, andsummer residency at CRETA Rome, Italy. Ms. Cruces lives in Sacramento and is currently a Professor of Art and Ceramicsat San Joaquin Delta College.
Shenny Cruces, Goblin Market Series, The Sisters, Laura, 2021, 22.5"h x 6.5"w x 6"d and Lizzie, 2021, 17.5"h x 6"w x 6"d
left, Shenny Cruces, Three Sisters, 2021, 43”h x 21’d x 21”w; right, Harry Clewans, Sculpture in the Park in Winter, 2019, 68"x51.5"
Harry Clewans, Sleep of Reason, 2024, assembled woodblock prints on kozo paper on wood panel, 71" x 48"
Shenny Cruces' and Harry Clewans' work in Devils in the Details
Harry Clewns, Photographers Studio, 2024, 65" x 51" and Shenny Cruces, Stack 1
Shenny Cruces, Stack 1, 2021, 16.5"h x 7"w x 7.5"d
Shenny Cruces, Stack 2, detail, 2021, 19"h x 10"w x 10"d
Shenny Cruces, Stack 2, 2021, 19"h x 10"w x 10"d