Nocturne no. 4

During a 1am shift closing a bar, walking with your friend down a cold, dark street when the neighbors are quiet leaving you with an unsettling feeling, or building a third place in one’s mind in the studio, the shadow of night always looms large and is a presence or subject that is often overlooked. In this group painting exhibition featuring Griffin Goodman, Ryan Lee, Atticus Gordon, and Noel Nissen, the artists construct images of labor, imagination, and the everyday. All share a sensitivity to how space is shaped by light and time. In Ryan Lee’s piece Up, the contrast found in streetlight plays a character in this creepy airbrush Sacramento scene, Gordon achieves a similar vision of low light contrast, except from the process of mark making in his piece Nightpainting. Alternatively, Nissen and Goodman both invent characters to play a role in a staged aesthetic revealing some imagined narrative. Altogether, these works represent a diversity in expression of the dark and hazy, yet compelling experiences found in the night.