M Stark Gallery is proud to announce our inaugural exhibition, Jerry Ross Barrish: Protagonist, curated by Paris Cotz MA. Jerry Ross Barrish applies his deft hand to the cast offs of our materialistic consumer society to tell immutable tales of love and loss. Both humble and exquisite, even his compositions of inanimate objects are imbued with personality. Familiar items like umbrella handles, funnels, and toys are transformed when combined with takeout containers, janitorial supplies, and vacuum parts. Each element of these assemblage sculptures is placed in a way that perfectly expresses the universal language of gesture. His figures’ mouths are open to the exact right degree to express disbelief, humiliation, ardor. The nearly imperceptible arch of a shoulder conveys grief, self-doubt, hubris.
Jerry Ross Barrish (b. 1939, San Francisco, CA) lives in Pacifica and works in the Mission District of San Francisco. Barrish received his BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1974 and 1976, respectively. He was the subject of a feature length documentary film, Plastic Man, the Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish, in 2015. Barrish has been the creative director of Sanchez Art Center since 2003.
M Stark Gallery opened January 22, 2023, in a newly remodeled 120-year-old building located in the historic downtown district of Half Moon Bay. The gallery features artists whose work evokes the spirit of the West Coast and is in dialogue with contemporary fine art movements. Also in the building is the Stark-Perry Coastside Artists Retreat, an invitational residency program for journalists and artists of all disciplines. For a list of things to do while visiting Half Moon Bay, go to mstarkgallery.com/visitHMB.
