Delta College campus
 

Press Release

Media Advisory
For More Information Contact:
Jan Marlese
L. H. Horton Gallery Director
(209) 954-5507
jmarlese@deltacollege.edu

For Immediate Release
01/22/2015
                                                  L.H. Horton Jr. Gallery Presents
                                         DELTA COLLEGE ALUMNI SHOW
                                        January 22 - February 12
                    
             Arts Lecture with Carlos Pérez, Jan. 28, 12pm
Delta College Horton Gallery Alumni Show - Jan 22 - Feb12
(Stockton)
Delta Center for the Arts L.H. Horton Jr. Gallery presents the Delta College Alumni Show,
January 22 - February 12, 2015
. A reception with several of the exhibiting artists is planned for January 28 from 5 - 7 p.m. Prior to the reception, artist Carlos Pérez, illustrator for the Apple logo design, will present an arts lecture at 12 p.m. in the Tillie Lewis Theater. Mr. Pérez will discuss his career and artistic influences - from present day, back to his studies at Delta College (1970–72). 

The Delta College Alumni Shows are intended to inspire and mentor today’s Delta College students. The shows present to our community the many Delta College student success stories from our Visual Arts Department. The exhibiting artists began their visual art studies at Delta, transferring to various universities and art schools to complete their degrees. The artists selected for this Alumni Show are high profile professional artists, who exhibit their work in national and international galleries and museums. In addition, their work was selected for the variety of media, style and content for this exhibition.

Exhibiting Artists

Bill Abright ~ Ceramic Sculpture and Drawings
John Yoyogi Fortes ~ Painting
Michael Lucero ~ Ceramic Sculpture
Carlos Pérez ~ Graphic Art and Painting
David Phelps ~ Bronze Sculpture
Tracey Snelling ~ Photography, Video and Sculpture Installations

Bill Abright was introduced to clay by Bruce Duke at San Joaquin Delta College in the late 60's. He completed his graduate degree at San Francisco State in 1974 working with Bud McKee, Stephen De Staebler, Joe Hawley and David Kuraoka. Abright has taught ceramics at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California since 1975 and has been influential in the lives of many artists. He has exhibited throughout the U.S. and his work is in many private and museum collections.

John Yoyogi Fortes is a Northern California painter based in Sacramento. He attended Delta College from 1972-74 under art professors Bill Williams and Chisato Watanabe, and transferred to California State University, Fresno. Fortes’ paintings have been exhibited in California, Nevada, Chicago, New York, Hawaii, Venezuela, Japan and Norway, and are held in numerous private collections, as well as, the Asian American Art Centre in New York, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno and the Triton Museum of Art and Crocker Art Museum in California. His work is included in the International Arts & Artists traveling exhibition, “Infinite Mirror; Images of American Identity.”  The exhibit opened at Syracuse University in New York and is traveling to museums and institutions throughout the Eastern United States. Fortes has received grants from the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and a Visual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. In 2004 John was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. John was also nominated for the Alliance of Artists Communities, Vision from the New California Project in 2006 and 2007.

Michael Lucero attended Delta College from 1974-1976, and study under ceramic instructor Bruce Duke. He received his MFA from the University of Washington in 1978. Since then, Lucero has challenged the traditional perceived limitation of clay by giving it the primacy of painting or marble sculpture. An ardent admirer of global culture, Lucero incorporates stylistic references from various cultures into his work (pre Columbian, Native American, European and African), creating complex, hybrid forms that comment on the changing nature of society and the environment in which we live. His work can be seen in the collections of the American Craft Museum, The Carnegie Museum, The Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, LA County Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others around the United States and abroad.

Carlos Pérez was born in Mexico City and raised in El Chante, a small town outside Guadalajara. Carlos came to the United States in 1970, attended Delta College (1970–72), and graduated from San Jose State University (1972-74). SJSU Graphic Design Program selected his academic portfolio for an honored apprenticeship with the Western Art Director’s Guild. His artwork has been exhibited internationally and includes public art commissions, gallery work, and graphic design.  Among many notable commissions, his most recognized achievement is his work as a creative member of the first visual communications team for Apple Computers. He created the artwork for the Apple logo and supported the team in the development of the Apple brand. In addition, he designed and produced the first Apple newsletter and co-designed the first Apple magazine. His images are influenced by, such artists as Rufino Tamayo. The stories tell of an indigenous spiritual heritage, they are textural, colorful and symbolic.

David Phelps attended Delta College 1974-76, and studied with Professors Roland Cheney (bronze and sculpture), Stephen Gyermek (art history), Bill Williams (drawing), and Bruce Duke (ceramics). David grew up on a family farm on Roberts Island in the California Delta. He attended elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse, where his elementary teacher, Mrs. MacIntosh, taught him first through eighth grade.

After graduating from Humboldt State University with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Ceramics, David moved to Norman, Oklahoma in 1980 to attend graduate school and received his MFA in sculpture in 1984. He was awarded a regional NEA Fellowship in 1985 and a six-month residency in the Kohler Arts/Industry program in Wisconsin in 1987. After finishing at Kohler, he was awarded his first large-scale commission from Triad Development Co. in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has since been commissioned to create large-scale sculpture across the United States including the "Desert Wildlife" installation at the Gate D Terminal of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tracey Snelling attended Delta College from 1988-1990, and studied photography under Greg Goodman. She transferred to the University of New Mexico, graduating with a BFA in photography. Through the use of sculpture, photography, video and installation, Tracey gives her impression of a place, its people and their experience. Often, the cinematic image stands in for real life as it plays out behind windows in the buildings, sometimes creating a sense of mystery, other times stressing the mundane. Snelling has shown work in museums such as Gemeentemuseum Helmond, the Netherlands; Shanghai Zendai MOMA, China; The Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Germany; El Museo de Arte de Banco de la Republica, Bogota; and Stenersen Museet, Oslo.

Tracy has had solo exhibitions throughout the US as well as in China, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and London, and has been awarded residencies in Beijing and Shanghai. Her large-scale installation Woman on the Run was originally commissioned by Selfridges, London during Frieze 2008, and has traveled to Smack Mellon, Brooklyn; 21c Museum, Louisville; Frist, Nashville; SECCA, Winston-Salem; and the Virginia MOCA, Virginia Beach. Her first short film "Nothing" premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival 2012, and showed at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, Circuito Off in Venice, and the AC Institute in New York. Snelling recently had solo exhibitions at Aeroplastics Contemporary in Brussels, Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco, and Krupic Kersting in Cologne. Her most recent installation was commissioned for an exhibit at the Negev Museum in Israel. Snelling will be starting on her second short film, and will be in forthcoming exhibits in San Francisco, Paris, the Netherlands, and Brazil.

Gallery Exhibition Hours: http://bit.ly/1GCAbxD

               Tracey Snelling - Danger Mountain
                          Tracey Snelling - Danger Mountain (Video Sculpture Installation)

David Phelps - Pastoral Dreamer (Bronze Sculpture)                                        David Phelps - Pastoral Dreamer (Bronze Sculpture)

John Yoyogi Fortes - The Six Stupid Remarks that Got You Slapped in the Face  (Acrylic on Canvas)
                   John Yoyogi Fortes - The Six Stupid Remarks that Got You Slapped in the Face (Acrylic on Canvas)

Bill Abright - Potter (Ceramic)
                                                    Bill Abright - Potter (Ceramic)

Carlos Perez - iTissued                                                        Carlos Pérez - iTissued

       Carlos Perez - Reflejo de Ometeotl (Acrylic on Canvas)
                               Carlos Pérez - Reflejo de Ometeotl (Acrylic on Canvas)

Michael Lucero - Teapot with Flowers and Eyes (Ceramic)

                                 Michael Lucero - Teapot with Flowers and Eyes (Ceramic)

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