New Solano Town Center Gallery show will feature scavenger hunt
Artists asked to use imaginations in interpreting word 'Imagine'
Imagine, if you will, an art exhibition with interactive elements, including a scavenger hunt.
Art aficionados will not need to imagine this for much longer. A new show at Solano Town Center Gallery, titled “Imagine,” will feature just that starting Wednesday and run through April 17.
While the art has not yet arrived, gallery Director Dennis Ariza said it will feature a variety of works by Fairfield-Suisun City Visual Arts Association (FSVAA) member artists, which will run the gamut from paintings to drawings to fused glass, photography and sculptures.
For each show, Ariza said artists are given a theme and directed to create a piece of art based on their own interpretation of that concept. This show bears the theme “Imagine,” so artists were told to use their imaginations in interpreting the idea of forming a mental concept of just about anything.
“It can vary to each individual,” he said. “‘Use your imagination,’ ‘Imagine the future,’ ‘Imagine what would happen if this was true’…it varies to everyone.”
The featured artist is Pat Calabro, a new FSVAA member who specializes in abstract paintings that utilize a “pour paint” technique over acrylics that bear titles like “anger,” “emergence” and “crystal blue,” which invite viewers to use their imaginations as they view Calabro’s interpretations of these concepts. Calabro’s work has been exhibited at Arts Benicia, were she has a studio, and at HQ Gallery, one of several art venues in Benicia.
“She paints on canvas, she paints on glass, she paints on acrylic Plexiglas,” Ariza said. “She has a wide variety of styles in her paintings. They’re all abstract, but (she’s) quite an artist.”
To make the trip to the Solano Town Center Gallery even more interactive, the show has added a scavenger hunt, something Ariza said a member artist created for a show five years ago to get people to come to the gallery and stay longer.
For this exhibit, visitors will be given sheets of paper with six images they need to find within the gallery. They will go around, jot down the title of the artwork and artist that corresponds to each image, write in their name and phone number and submit the piece of paper to the docent who will place all completed forms in a box. At the end of the show, all the sheets will be mixed up, one will be drawn and the winner will be contacted to receive a gift certificate to the gallery. All participants will also receive a Solano Town Center Gallery pen.
Ariza said the scavenger hunt would allow viewers to stay at the gallery longer.
“Some people come through, and some will stay an hour and look at all the different pieces, and others only a couple minutes,” he said. “They walk through, see what there is and leave. This might get them more interested it it and get them to see things they normally wouldn’t.”
Ariza said the artworks have minor details that are not always noticeable with the naked eye, a common technique in art. Salvador Dali famously hid images in his paintings on a frequent basis — including some images of himself. Ariza said there would not be anything in this show to that extreme, but “each piece always has something small to bring your attention to if you look for it.”
He hopes that examining those small details will give visitors a greater appreciation of art.
“People will enjoy a painting or enjoy a photograph, but if you see the little details of it, there might be something hidden there that you didn’t realize and that the picture could end up being something completely different to them,” he said.
“Imagine” opens Wednesday at the Solano Town Center Gallery, located at the Solano Town Center, 1350 Travis Blvd., Fairfield. The gallery is located on the upper level of the mall, next to the AT&T Store. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays.