by Amie Rangel

The College of the Sequoias Art Gallery proudly presents Archaiologia: Recovering Words and Multiples, which is open and free to the public Tuesday, October 4 to October 28.

Archaiologia: Recovering Words and Multiples features two artists, Will Ashford and Zach Medler. Both artists work in different media; however, approach their work through words and recurring imagery with similar sensibilities. Ashford’s process begins with finding old and discarded books using the pages as the source for inspiration, “I am like an archeologist I hunt for the words that speak to me with new meaning” he states. The book pages are then transformed into a series of one-of-a-kind drawings and collages as well as digital prints. The artist provided two digital screens that display the transformation of several pieces in time-lapse slide shows, featuring Ashford’s process of creating these subtle and seductive layered images.

Medler is exhibiting a large installation piece entitled Post Industrial consisting of 35 ceramic pieces, screen-printed and spray painted metal panels and video elements. Each of the pieces depicts fragments of imagery that can then be read into a narrative of how “we, as individuals interact and engage with society. Experience has become intangible or at least indefinable perhaps a product of the television consumerism or time spent in the bubble of our cars traveling between cities, suburbs and small towns,” he states.

Zach Medler, Re:ad/ Re:cent History

California native Will Ashford is a self taught artist who has transitioned from large ‘word art’ pieces featured in establishments such as the University Art Museum in Berkeley and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and has exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York and many galleries throughout the United States.

Will Ashford, Invisible Thought Effect

Zach Medler is an emerging potter, printmaker, and painter from Indiana. Medler has exhibited throughout the Midwest, with his most recent solo exhibition at the Gateway Arts Council in Sidney Ohio. Medler received in MA in ceramics at Purdue University and currently teaches ceramics and mixed media arts to adults and youth at Arts Place in Portland, IN.

The show opened Tuesday, October 4 and runs through Friday, October 28. The COS Art Gallery is located on the ground floor, room 214 of the Kaweah Building. Free parking is available during the day in the 20 minute zone in lot 3 at the corner of Meadow Lane and Mooney Blvd or in the half circle off Mooney Blvd. Our newly extended hours are: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 11:00AM to 4:00PM and Thursday we have extended the hours from 11:00AM to 7:00PM. For further information call the COS Art Gallery at 737-4861 or find us on Facebook.

Amie Rangel is originally from Dinuba. She attended COS in Visalia, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drawing/Painting & Printmaking from Cal State University in Long Beach, & a Master of Fine Arts degree in Drawing and Intermedia from the University of Alberta. She is currently teaching Drawing and Color and Design at COS, Co-Gallery Director of the COS Art Gallery, and is involved in several art events throughout the community.