MAURICIO ANCALMO
Lux vs. Lumen

December 11th - January 22nd, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday December 11th, 4-7pm

Does the perception of sight happen in the mind, or does it emanate from the object perceived?
Baer Ridgway Exhibitions is pleased to announce its second solo show with San Francisco based artist Mauricio Ancalmo who will present two new installations  that deal with the subject of perception as sight and sound.  In Lux vs. Lumen,  Ancalmo asks the viewer to not only perceive the light from within the  gallery, illuminating the surfaces of his installations and mix-media  work, he also asks the viewer to perceive and recognize the light from  within the mind.

"At  the heart of Ancalmo's work are ideas about how visuals are articulated  as sounds, and in turn how sounds may manifest themselves as retinal.  The interesting thing about his work is not that he speculates  fictionally about these things, but that he gives us proof of them as  residue of an experimentation that falls somewhere in between scientific  and engineering. In this way what is presented to us is so layered that  it borders on the mystical."
-Rives Granade

Raised  in El Salvador and the United States, Mauricio Ancalmo works from a  dual cultural perspective, drawing on cultural and personal themes such  as circumstance, assimilation, and isolation. His work through sound and  image is reminiscent of personal artifacts based on experience,  striving to grasp individuality within the collective conscience.  Ancalmo received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in New  Genres. He was a recipient of the James Irvine Foundation Award, an  Artist in Residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and is a 2010  SECA Award Finalist from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and a  participant in the upcoming Bay Area Now 6 exhibition at the Yerba Buena  Center for the Arts, San Francisco.