Mercy Gallery's Season Opens With "Petrified Forest"

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will open its 2011-12 season Tues., Oct. 20 with a reception for the opening of its new exhibition: Amy Chan's "Petrified Forest."

Inspired by the East Coast's forest ecosystem and the landscapes encountered during travel, Chan's work in gouache and acrylic "is noted for the distortions of nature that often lend a science fiction-like presence to the work, along with an occasional dose of humor," according to Loomis representatives.

“When I am outdoors I walk with my eyes on the ground, always searching,” she notes. “I see the natural world as many pieces of a puzzle, part of my inventory of objects that is ever-growing," said Chan.

"With an acorn in my pocket or a tracing of lichens in mind, I store away slices of imagery to cobble together as I please. Back in the studio I build them into hybrid scenes of the living world where rules like gravity and perspective do not apply. In my imagined environs, water spouts, islands and rocks float playfully across space, adorned by the trappings of nature rendered in delicate detail.”

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and having earned her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she currently teaches, Chan has created a noteworthy body of work, including prints that have been featured in exhibitions in Europe and the U.S. Her work has appeared in permanent collections in The Center for Book Arts in New York, Hallmark, Inc. in Kansas City, Fidelity Investments in Boston, and Capital One in Richmond. She also has an exhibition on the horizon at the Scottsdale Civic Center in Arizona.

An opening reception for "Petrified Forest," also the opening reception for 's season, will be held Tues., Sept. 20 from 6:45 p.m. - 8 p.m. The gallery is located in the Richmond Art Center on the campus of The Loomis Chaffee School.

The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7:30– 9 p.m. and Sunday afternoon from 1– 4 p.m.  There is no admission charge.