March 17, 2004

California outsider art is in at CSUS

Horse and Gun by Martin Ramirez

Art by a clerical worker and a mental patient, an architect and a homeless person – more than 20 California “outsider” artists – will come to the University Library Gallery at California State University, Sacramento during
“The Eyes Have It: An Exhibition of California Visionaries” opening at 10 a.m., Friday, March 26. A reception will be held the same evening from 5 to 8 p.m. in the gallery.

The show can be seen through June 4 during regular gallery hours, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibition is part of part of the University’s 12th annual Festival of the Arts.

“The Eyes Have It” features works by individuals who follow their own creative instincts, often without formal training, free from the constraints of artistic tradition. “This work reflects the unadulterated inner feelings of the artists,” says gallery director Phil Hitchcock, also a professor of art at CSUS. “My feeling is that it’s really ‘insider’ art.”

The pieces come to CSUS from the collections of co-curators Bonnie Grossman, founder of the Ames Gallery in Berkeley, and Steve Vanoni, head of Gallery Horse Cow in Sacramento. Drawings by Alex Maldonado, Martin Ramirez and A.G. Rizzolli, sculpture by Jim Bauer and Julio Garcia and paintings by Dorothy Binger and Jon Serl and others combine to create the powerful show. “It was very difficult to whittle it down to the pieces we included,” says Vanoni.

From more information, contact the University Library Gallery at (916) 278-2368. For media assistance, contact CSUS Public affairs at (916) 278-6156.

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