This gallery continues to pursue an ex­hibition policy of emphasizing the un­commercial work being done by young Bay Area artists. Because of this policy, the gallery has attracted a surprisingly large number of first rate talents which have been exhibited on a regular basis. The group exhibition currently being shown is no exception. The show em­phasizes sculpture, Ron Yurewitz, Rod­ger Jacobsen, Karen Devich, Robert Hudson, Ernie Palamino, John Stevens and John Bernhardt represented by fine individual examples of their work.

Yurewitz’s wood sculpture is a depar­ture from his use of steel as a medium. The piece shown is pegged to a board which is set flush against the gallery wall, the smoothly joined pieces arch­ing from that point to a distance some seven feet away on the floor. The total piece satisfies the eye by languorously jostling the space within which it moves. Palamino’s construction, on the other hand, induces a certain revulsion as if an obscene event had just trans­pired and the viewer had arrived mo­ments afterward. Hudson’s recent metal sculpture combines the formal quali­ties of earlier work with the plaster constructions he completed while a student at the San Francisco Art Insti­tute. The one shown here is painted with great care and is a fantasy of a soldier guarding a cannon and what appears to be a missile chained to the metal platform upon which it rests. The total effect is one of both terror and whimsey, if these qualities can co-exist simultaneously. Jacobsen’s work relies on formal qualities resembling Hud­son’s earlier work. His work continues to improve at a rapid rate as he adds personal shapes to his already wide knowledge of classical open metal sculpture forms. Stevens, a previously unshown sculptor, uses both wood and metal in the solid constructivist piece displayed. This piece is more traditional than the other work in the group and relies heavily on the carefully worked surface of the wood to create an aura of secrecy and mystery which so en­gages the spectator.

The show has an all-pervading serious­ness of intent combined with a great deal of talent which, one hopes, will be seen in greater depth at some future time.

––James Monte