DZINE Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Cracking Nutshells, a group exhibition exploring themes of construction and deconstruction in various media. Curated by Philip Bewley, the exhibition features work by 32 San Francisco Bay Area artists, with a number of commissioned works created exclusively for the show, including large-scale installations and more intimate works. The works of art in Cracking Nutshells are concerned with form, geometry and information systems; the subversion of worlds turned upside-down; questioning where construction and deconstruction meet; and examining the process of creating art itself.

Combined with this group show is the solo exhibition Mimi Herbert: My Country. Acclaimed artist and sculptor Mimi Herbert presents a new series of silkscreened acrylic-formed flag sculptures created especially for this exhibition. Herbert has reinterpreted the imagery of the American flag and others by selectively changing colors and symbols and reforming them into shapes and folds that create new meaning, formal beauty and is a celebration of and a call to action for peace, inclusion and tolerance.

During the opening night reception, San Francisco’s award-winning Opera Parallèle will perform throughout the evening, inaugurating the company’s six-month residency at DZINE. Choreographer Amy Seiwert of the Sacramento Ballet will collaborate with Opera Parallèle to provide an accompanying dance to the musical performance. Pop-up dance performances by RAWdance will also take place throughout the gallery during the evening.

DZINE Gallery welcomes Dana Harel as our artisan “maker” in residence, who will be presenting a new series of unique plaster deconstructed vessels as well as porcelain vases.

Exhibiting artists in Cracking Nutshells: Emilia Burchiellaro, Ronald Chase, Diane Tate DallasKidd, Paule Dubois Dupuis, Austin Forbord, Laura Hapka, Dana Harel, Jeanne Hauser, Howard Hersh, Scott Idleman, Gina Jacupke, Nina Katz, Sasinun Kladpetch, Barbara Bryn Klare, Yoko Kubrick, Sharon Kyle Kuhn, Ellen Markoff, Adia Millett, Leslie Morgan, Sherry Parker, Lauren Parks, Jenny Phillips, Carrie Ann Plank, Silvia Poloto, Lucky Rapp, Rachelle Reichert, Georgina Reskala, Kenneth Sloan, Gioi Tran, Nikki Vismara, Victoria Welling and Quinn Wharton.