Astroturf
FEATURED ARTISTS: Genie Castro, Human Shaped Animal, Neal Breton, Nicole Mueller, in partnership with Blu Dot. Envisioned by Siobhan Mulloy and curated by Cass Garner.
Installed in place of grass from as early as the 1950s, AstroTurf™ forgoes naturally growing grass for the carefree ease of owning an evergreen front lawn. In mid-century America, the synthetic material was marketed to homeowners as a means of signaling status to their neighbors through perfectly manicured landscaping year-round. Mirroring our current consumer culture of filtered images and branded content, Gamut Gallery’s first show of 2023, AstroTurf, plays with the idea of appearances vs. authenticity through the iconic influence of SoCal architecture, pop art, and post-painterly abstraction. Astroturf peers over the neighbor’s hedge to sneak a peek at how the Joneses really live.
Gamut’s multimedia exhibit, in collaboration with Blu Dot , features local MN artists, Genie Castro and Nicole Mueller, along with returning SoCal artists, Human Shaped Animal and Neal Breton. Embracing bold and vivid colors, hard-edge lines, and geometry, this selection of work celebrates the resurgence and influence of the mid-century movement and pop-culture Southern California suburbia.
Genie Castro’s renditions offer a nod to the midcentury design through her vibrant mono-prints and nine accompanying pieces from her 2022 collection, Lily. While Human Shape Animal incorporates tropical foliage with post-painterly abstraction to produce sculptural, yet functional, wall fixtures that incorporate living plants. Nicole Mueller’s potent images from her annual pilgrimages to Palm Springs highlight mid-century modernist architecture, with the quiet stillness of manicured lawns and majestic palms. Also lending a nod to the leisurely lifestyle, Neal Breton’s works from his Strange Paradise Collection reveal inviting pool scenes we all long for during these cold winter months. Blu Dot’s selection of locally designed furniture elevates the modern aesthetic, immersing the viewer in the movement’s all-encompassing influence on art, design and culture.
MEMBER PREVIEW NIGHT
Thursday, February 16th// 5-8pm
Don’t miss the first dibs on your favorite pieces!
Not a Gamut Gallery member? Become one today.
• Must be a Gamut Gallery Member to attend
PUBLIC OPENING:
Friday, February 17th // 6-9pm
$10 day of the event / $7 pre-sale / FREE for Members
Featuring Genie Castro, Human Shaped Animal, Neal Breton, Nicole Mueller & showroom pieces from Blu Dot.
GALLERY & GIFT SHOP OPEN HOURS
Please note: Gamut Gallery is closed on exhibit opening days
FREE open hours: Wednesday – Friday, 11am – 6pm; Saturday 11am – 4pm
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Genie Castro is a community leader in the arts. She creates unity with projects she is involved in by connecting with people. She encourages students and clients to get into the creation process and learn through that exploration. Castro is director and owner of a printmaking studio in the Casket Arts Building in Northeast Minneapolis called SuperCharged Printmakers. It is there she and other printmakers create an inviting space for artists to create freely in the medium of printmaking and have showing opportunities. Her artworks hung alongside artists Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Frank Stella, Robert Longo and Donald Sultan. Castro’s art is featured in the homes of many private collectors and in public and corporate collections.
Human Shaped Animal a.k.a Rachel Barnes currently resides in Santa Cruz, California. After receiving a B.A. in Painting and Digital Design from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, she relocated to Upstate New York for some soul searching. Completely enamored by the ever-changing landscapes and energy that came from West Coast, she soon relocated to Santa Cruz, California in 2016. Expanding in multiple directions from her experience as a painter and muralist, Human Shaped Animal creates a striking bouquet of multimedium pieces. By cross-pollinating her original designs with digital fabrication and live plants she has reaped a mind-bending garden of complex form and moving stillness.
Neal Breton, orginally from New Hampshire, has been a professional artist for over twenty five years. He studied painting at Pasadena City College in the 90s, and has curated and shown his own work all over the United States. After living in the suburbs of Los Angeles, he now resides on the Central Coast in the quirky beach community of Los Osos.
Nicole Mueller is a Minneapolis photographer, printmaker, and real estate agent with a penchant for modernist design and architecture. Her most recent body of work was inspired on holiday in Palm Springs, California. Nicole’s photographs are color-saturated, timeless portraits of the homes that line the streets of Palm Springs’ iconic neighborhoods. Shot at eye level from the road, they seem almost like a view from a window of a neighboring home.