Dana Bell & Carmen McNall

Oakland, California-based painter Carmen McNall (b. 1988) incorporates textures and patterns significant within the history of traditional craft-making to explore the symbolism of handmade objects. These timeless pieces represent humanity and hold personal power, providing strength in times of struggle and telling fragments of intimate stories and moments in time. Using a unique process that combines painting and wood-carving, Carmen's work balances colored patterns bound by organic shapes against stretches of pure pigment, suspending the objects in saturated space, and accentuating grooves of carved wood. Carmen's practice relates directly to the handmade in both subject matter and execution, opening a dialogue about the relationship between people and their environments and examining the empowering qualities these places retain.

Brooklyn, New York-based Dana Bell (b. 1974) investigates the intricate nuances of body language. Working from film stills, Dana selects scenes based on formal configurations of figures against a background. Silhouetting her figures, Dana casts them in vibrant, high-contrast hues that vibrate off of one another in her paintings and laser-cut plexi works. In her complimentary printmaking process featuring debossed and embossed monochromatic figures, Dana highlights the subtlety of each individual’s posture and gesture, drawing attention to the psychological intent (or mis-intent) of characters within a scene.