WELCOME TO THE BOWERHOUSE

	Work by artist Amy Saxe

The Bower explores its intrinsic condition as an uncommon, dual-purpose setting - simultaneously a private domicile and public exhibition space - with its CAM show, "Bowerhouse." The group show features the loosely "domestic"-themed work of Mel Prest, Amy Saxe, and Ian Sullivan to illustrate and explore the mysterious intersection between public and private, and internal and external landscapes.

As an added twist, the Bower team has also created an impromptu guest quarters in its gallery space, essentially flip-flopping the space's intended public purpose by inviting various out-of-town artists and curators to spend a night surrounded by "Bowerhouse" art.

In her small-scale oil paintings, San Francisco-based artist Prest creates intriguing two-dimensional optical illusions. By carefully choosing her color palette and cleverly manipulating basic geometric form, Prest's simple visual pranks effectively suggest imaginary internal landscapes. Like Prest, Chicago-based painter Saxe regularly invents fantastical environments, but her aesthetic leans toward very formal, object-oriented, less-abstracted

BOWERHOUSE Opening reception 6-9pm Saturday, July 12 Through August 30 By appt only Free The Bower 1114 S. St. Mary's, Bldg 1, Ste 200 535-3302 (Michael Velliquette) or [email protected]

manifestations of space. She focuses on the overtly domestic pop elements of the home - interior design, furniture, and architecture. Her "Bowerhouse" series is comprised of interior and exterior images of the Bower, e-mailed to her over the past few months.

Lastly, Brooklyn-based Sullivan employs the unlikely medium of quilting - a traditionally feminine, strongly domestic activity - to patch together homespun, yet slightly disturbed preadolescent dioramas. He sews his detailed, hand-colored pencil drawings of trees sprouting forts, platforms, and strange appendages onto muslin, creating a puffy, two-dimensional reality from a totally imagined mindscape. •