Local News Matters: Best Bets: ‘Sentinels & Saviors’
Local News Matters
Best Bets: ‘Sentinels & Saviors’
by The Artful Observer, Bay City News October 16, 2024
Art for a turbulent era: At a time when it’s hard not to focus on the tension, strife, controversy and bad mojo swirling around, here’s an exhibit illustrating how the key to serenity lies within each of us. “Sentinels & Saviors: Iconic Avatars,” on display at the Richmond Art Center, features work by Oakland-based artists Joell Jones and Kim Thoman, who encourage viewers to “pay closer attention to themselves, their thoughts and their feelings.” Jones, who works with a variety of media, shows paintings here. Her colorful, abstract and ethereal works of various sizes represent different facets of herself as she invites viewers to visit the “unknown world” in which her images take life. “I have painted a woman engaged in a struggle for transformation and my paintings portray her as a fluid, shape-shifting creature adrift in liminal environments,” Jones says. Thoman’s large, steel figures, in a sense, stand guard over Jones’ works, each with an oil painting on canvas at its center. She compares her works to Chinese Terracotta Warriors designed to offer protection in the afterlife. “When I was recovering from a serious illness, I decided I’d like an army of bodyguards for protection in this life,” she says. “Sentinels & Saviors” is on display through Nov. 21 at the Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., in Richmond’s Civic Center Plaza. The Center is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. On tap this Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. is “Make Your Own Avitar at Fall Family Day” led by Jones and Thoman. Admission is free. More information is at richmondartcenter.org.
