CODA GALLERY PRESENTS
BON VOYAGE: THE ART OF TRAVEL AND LEISURE
MAY 4 - 25, 2018
OPENING RECEPTION: MAY 4, 5-8 P.M.

PALM DESERT, CA — Apropos of its 2017-2018 season end, CODA Gallery offers Bon Voyage: The Art of Travel and Leisure, May 4-25, with an opening reception on May 4 from 5 to 8 p.m. in conjunction with El Paseo Art Walk/Palm Desert First Weekend.

Evoking an image of popping Champagne corks, streamers, and adventure well-wishers, “Bon Voyage” means that CODA’s season-ending group show follows the theme of transit — be it by ship, plane, automobile, or horse. For the first two modes of transportation, see works by Chicago artist Kathleen Keifer. “My paintings invite the viewer to consider the complex relationship between time and timelessness,” she says of a concept that applies to travel. Born in Venice and taken as an infant to Italy’s famed glass-producing island of Murano, Dino Rosin takes the seafaring route with a glasswork sailboat.

One of CODA Gallery’s original artists, Chris Young traveled from his home in Utah to attend the opening reception for April’s exhibition of his contemporary realist paintings. Not hung in that exhibition but included in Bon Voyage is his study of Two Vespas, showing the iconic motorbikes at rest in front of an arched door. Similarly, Bon Voyage includes a painting by this season’s featured artist Jamie Perry of Riverside: Below a classic M-O-T-E-L sign, a trio of midcentury-styled suitcases sit outside a partially opened motel-room door.

Influenced by early years in his father’s neon-sign shop, Bruce Cody of Santa Fe, N.M., transforms the lights of an isolated Chevron station into Jewels in the Night. As the holder of a master of fine arts degree in graphic design from Yale University, Connecticut’s Ken Scaglia lends his skill to stylized car details. Classic cars and motorcycles will also be featured by painter Jeff Angell. Less-intimate travel plays well in The Intersection of Space and Time. Depicting a convergence of City Cab toys, the work by Allen Zeleski hints at his background in Hollywood, as well as his experience in graphic design and communications. In the general theme of travel, Lily Balasanova and Sergei Kolevatykh of Moscow create mixed-media works that blend early forms of flight (e.g., a blimp and fabric-covered-wood plane) with graphically constructed cityscapes.

An Otis College of Art and Design masters degree holder and entertainment industry/theme park mural painter, Tim Townsley of Cathedral City takes travel to one of its most elemental forms: a cowboy on horseback in Scene from an Imaginary Western. In bookending fashion, CODA Gallery includes in Bon Voyage two paintings by Los Angeles artist Johnny Taylor, who was featured in the gallery’s season- opening group show. His works bring to mind the romance of pre-TSA airline travel.  

After 30 successful years on Palm Desert’s chic shopping and dining boulevard, CODA Gallery remains a vibrant presence on the Coachella Valley’s arts and culture scene and welcomes visitors during normal business hours throughout the summer. Its third season in a new space on El Paseo, CODA Gallery will begin a new slate of monthly exhibitions and artists receptions in November.

Exhibited Artists:  Jeff Angell • Balasanova & Kolevatykh • Wendy Chidester • Bruce Cody • Kathleen Keifer • Jamie Perry • Dino Rosin • Ken Scaglia • Michael Steirnagle • Johnny Taylor • Tim Townsley • Chris Young • Allen Zeleski