With Love In Absentia, Jenn Porreca explores the challenge of doing something as simple as loving each other in the chaotic and complex modern world. With everyone's reality becoming increasingly fragmented, she attempts to connect the viewer with the universal stream of consciousness through the line in her work. The tension and release of painterly expressionism juxtaposed with the sharp, controlled line represent her search for balance in the duality of life and death.

While their medium and styles differ, Jet Martinez and Kelly Ording share in common many other things: their use of vivid color and bold lines, an art studio, and two young children. A married couple of artists, Fine Line brings together the work they have created individually yet side by side.

Addressing all forms of light, this exhibition seeks to transform the viewer's perception of space, both physical and intergalactic, in the new age of planetary exploration. Sarah Coleman, a painter who focuses on atmosphere, explores a new technique using mirrors and glass to depict the starry cosmos. Aleksandra Zee is an artist who creates 3D objects integrating reclaimed materials and lights to transform an immediate environment.

Light Years will be design-driven, as both Coleman and Zee have practical experience in the use of craftsman materials to create functional objects of whimsical beauty.

With Zombie Nation, Ezra Li Eismont explores his interest in image and identity, as well as the cult of fame and pop culture. He uses the zombie as a metaphor for the battle over free will: a person whose spirit is trapped in darkness, unable to find his voice. This exhibition is a cry for all to find their own light and spirit, and bring it into being. It coincides with the release of Eismont's limited edition full-color art book of the same name.

Each of the artists in Otherworldly has a unique perspective on society that manifests itself in a distinctive visual language that, while representational, is hardly realistic. Exhibiting collectively, these four painters will certainly take the viewer to another mindset.

Searching For Higher Ground, a solo exhibition of new work by Erik Otto, addresses the concept of higher ground. Not a physical place or a final destination, it is the positive perspective that setbacks and challenges are as necessary as victories and breakthroughs. Setting one’s heart on the end goal spontaneously opens the mind to how it can be done. Once this lifestyle choice is made, the real work begins. Life challenges begin, deep fears surface, and with no proper road map, discipline and perspective become paramount.

Otto’s latest work is about visually expressing this ability and freedom. Pulling from his own life and the struggles of his loved ones, his aim is to reflect the innate desire to find resolution in a deliberate way. He is attempting to illustrate the intangible so as to better rationalize it for personal growth. He hopes that creating work from feelings that are difficult to express will spark a deeper connection to the viewer, who may share his aspirations.

The Making Of, created between his mural at the Bernal Heights Public Library and a large-scale commission for the Grand Hyatt in Union Square SF, is a solo exhibition of new work by Reuben Rude.

With The Making Of, Rude focuses on the artistic process -- the creation of the work itself -- as well as the journey of the artist. Using his arsenal of media including painting, collage, and illustration, he produces pieces that reference the past and foreshadow the future, revealing a portrait of a lifetime maker of things.

In addition to the pieces made for the show, Rude’s sketchbooks from the last eight years will be on display. Multi-layered, diverse, and highly rendered, they are a view into his kitchen sink approach to art that borders on obsessive. Simultaneously they provide a missing, and sometimes disjointed, link between the artist's initial concepts and eventual manifestation.

Ambition, a collection of paintings created by Monty Guy over the last year, addresses aspiration and potential. Conveyed through gray-scale portraiture, the narrative is told in each character’s facial expression and skin art.

The pieces are based on existing photos, re-interpreted by the artist. From the steely focus look of Lady Liberty to the young boys channeling East Bay hip hop, Ernest Hemingway, and Michelangelo, Monty’s paintings give new meaning to the definition of ambition.

Polyptych Tales, featuring new works by Ursula X Young, Joshua Lawyer, and MJ Lindo, reinterprets the classical idea of the frieze into a chronological puzzle of paintings. While each piece stands alone as an individual work, together the polyptych tells one story with parts flowing among them and recurring themes that bind.

A group show exploring geometries, patterns, and their effects on the human eye.