Michael Patrick Amato:  Faces of Humanity

June – November, 2018. Featuring the work of  Michael Patrick Amato

Faces of Humanity looks beyond the superficial and into the lives of the subjects.  Mixed media is used to combine multiple images creating the reflective narratives.

G.O.A.T.S. March 29th - May 17, 2018

 Can photography and goats help change the world?

An exhibition that goes beyond the images and opens the world for women in poverty to change their reality.

Participate here and become part of the solution to end world poverty.

Past Exhibits

June 14 - September 1, 2017

Ryan Hunter

RYAN HUNTER

Based in Los Angeles, Ryan Hunter is an award-winn

ing photographer best known for his captivating documentary and dynamically lit portrait photographs of musicians and celebrities. His award-winning work is regularly featured in Guitar Center’s ad campaigns, critically-acclaimed TV program At Guitar Center with Nic Harcourt and Guitar Center Sessions, as well as numerous publications worldwide. His deft grasp of the craft has allowed him to capture legendary artists at their most intimate moments – showcasing musicians including Eric Clapton, Metallica, Linkin Park, Deadmau5 and Slash, to name a few.

Hunter’s passion for photography began over 20 years ago, when his stepdad gave him his first camera. Initially, Hunter started shooting his friend’s garage bands and eventually began shooting flyers, album covers and concerts of up-and-coming Punk bands in Hollywood. It didn’t take long for Hunter to make a name for himself as a photographer in the Punk music scene and before long he was offered an opportunity to shoot bands at the Warped Tour, leading to a two year stint capturing live shows for Revolt In Style magazine.

June 2 - July 12, 2017

the OUT comes IN

The Four Friends Gallery will be featuring the work of Christopher Broughton, Larry Janss, and David Isakson.  Exhibit Opening Night Reception:  June 2, 2017 6-9PM

Gallery Hours:  The Four Friends Gallery will have an opening reception on Friday June 2, 2017 from 6-9PM.  The gallery is open Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30PM to 5:30PM and by appointment.  To schedule an appointment please call the gallery director Christopher Broughton at (805) 601-7530.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT: Christopher Broughton

Les rues de Paris: A constant watchman looking past what is seen but anticipating what is about to be revealed.  The work cogitates the mise en scène of the street juxtaposed with the unscripted narratives of humanity.  Charles Nègre was the first to bring the camera to the streets, specifically Paris France in 1851.  Following within the pure roots of tradition and unnoticed observations, Les rues de Paris focuses on the multitudes of independent humanistic narratives interacting within layers of time. The camera’s invasive and subjective nature begins within the frame and its ability to include or exclude. Its subjectivity ends there.  Human interactions individually spontaneous and overlaid with time, allow true visual metaphors to be observed ever so briefly.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT: David Isakson

I am a small time operator. I find meaning in the contrast between opposites. My work is an effort to balance mind and body. I use technology against itself. I bring into question modern technology, as a point of reference. I bring antiquated technology, telephone parts, stereoscope viewers, antique drills, violins, piano parts, and animal bones, ad infinitum into a flux where the humor of the combination of materials begins to create, ex machina, meaning in and of itself. My name is David Isakson. I weld and join materials to make humorous deconstructions out of everyday objects. My art is an outsider deconstruction that blurs the distinction between the inside and outside world, thought and feeling.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: Larry Janss

As a youngster, I was surrounded by the works of many of the finest working artists of the day, my father having been a consummate collector of modern art. Wherever I looked, my gaze fell upon one sublimely beautiful, provocative artwork or another.

Later, when I was seventeen years old, I was brazenly bribed by my father. The deal he forced on me was that if I’d get my abysmal school grades up, he’d treat me to a summer photographic workshop with the acclaimed master, Ansel Adams, my then (and current) artistic hero. Thus, from my adolescent emersion in the great paintings and my teenage submersion in the study of the great photographs, my time and purpose in the world was predestined.

My recent experimenting in assemblage/constructive sculpture has surprised me and I’m rapidly falling under its spell. I am surprised and amused to I find that I am drawn to iconic religious themes in my assemblages - Catholic, Buddhist, Hindi, Judaic. When asked to list my religious preferences, I tick off “other”, though I admit that I most resonate with Buddhism and Judaism, as they are the gentlest of the great “isms” of ascendant thought.

The older and more “mature” I’m getting, the more willing I’m finding myself to simply chase my art wherever it takes me.

The exhibition the OUT comes IN opening will be June 2, 2017 from 6-9 pm and the show will run through July 12, 2017.  Gallery viewings are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm and by appointment.  The show will feature the photographic work of Christopher Broughton, sculpture by David Isakson, and sculpture and photography by Larry Janss.

March 24 - May 9, 2017

Zoë Marieh Urness - Native Americans:  Keeping the Traditions Alive

Zoë Marieh Urness - Native Americans:  Keeping the Traditions Alive

FOUR FRIENDS GALLERY 

Opens New Photography Exhibition

The Photography of Zoë Marieh Urness 

Native Americans:  Keeping the Traditions Alive

THOUSAND OAKS, CA – The Four Friends Gallery will hold a Public Opening Reception on March 24, 2017 from 6-9 pm of its latest exhibition: Native Americans: Keeping the Traditions Alive.  The exhibition will run through May 12, 2017.  Gallery viewings are always posted at the top of this page for the week and by appointment.  The show will feature the works of Zoë Marieh Urness, and include a selection of original photogravures by Edward S. Curtis.  Also on display will be ancient native Anasazi and Mimbris pottery.

            Zoë Marieh Urness is an Alaskan Tlingit and Cherokee Native American whose portraits of modern Native people in traditional regalia and settings aim to send a message; "We are here. And, through our traditions, we are thriving.”  Her unique style fuses documentary and fine art, with her imagery simultaneously reflecting the sensitivity and the ancestral strength of her subjects. Her most recent works include images from the spiritual movement at Standing Rock, North Dakota an experience about which she says:  "As a native photographer from the Tlingit & Cherokee tribes, being able to witness history unfold in an array of events only predicated through prophesy has left me Forever Changed and reunited with my cultural roots instilled in me as a child. Power of prayer and council. Belief in the spiritual workings from ancient times is a weapon that doesn't need violence to win. History has been made in the unity of us all, spreading healing all around. On December 5th, 2016 outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota at Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, military veterans march in support of the water protectors."

Educated at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA, Zoë's current project focuses exclusively on sharing beautiful, powerful images of indigenous Americans and the lands and traditions they hold dear. She has recently visited the Havasupai at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the Hopi at Second Mesa, the Apache Crown Dancers at Monument Valley, and the Alaskan natives at the biennial Celebration in Juneau. She has showed abroad in the United Kingdom, and made show appearances at Photo L.A., Art Basel Miami, the Heard Market in Arizona, and Native Treasures in Santa Fe. She has made two appearances on the plaza at the Santa Fe Indian Market, winning three blue ribbons, including Best in Division and Best in Category. Recently the Autry Museum recognized her recent image, Keeping Traditions Alive, as best in her division.

“I was raised to have pride in my culture and to know the importance of keeping Native American traditions alive,” says Urness. “I feel deeply connected to my native heritage, and my recent body of work is the first phase of my expression of that connection.”

            Edward S. Curtis:  At the beginning of the 20th century, Edward S. Curtis worked in the belief that he was in a desperate race against time to document, with film, sound and scholarship, the North American Indian before white expansion and the federal government destroyed what remained of their natives’ way of life.  His photographs represent ideals and imagery designed to create a timeless vision of Native American culture at a time when modern amenities and American expansion had already irrevocably altered the Indian way of life. Curtis biographer, Laurie Lawlor, wrote, “Curtis was far ahead of his contemporaries in sensitivity, tolerance and openness to Native American cultures and ways of thinking.”

            ‘Mimbres’ is the term used to designate a sub region of the Mogollon cultural tradition centered on the Mimbres and Rio Grande Valleys of the Arizona/New Mexico border region. The ‘Classic Mimbris’ phase, which spanned from approximately 1000 to 1150 AD, is particularly known for its distinctive pottery characterized by painted bowls decorated with geometric and figural designs in black on a white background.

For information, please visit the gallery website:  www.fourfriendsgallery.com and the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Four-Friends-Gallery-455275737841255 and Email  info@fourfriendsgallery.com or call the gallery director Christopher Broughton at 805-601-7530.

February 24 - March 22, 2017

Open Intake Exhibit

The Open Intake Exhibit was a great success and the Four Friends Gallery truly thanks all that participated.  We are planning on holding this event once a year so please stay in touch if you would like to participate in 2018!  Be sure to "Like" and "Follow" us on our Facebook page so you don't miss out on any of our future events!  Four Friends Gallery Facebook Page

The Four Friends Gallery held a Public Opening Reception on March 11th from 4:00 to 8:00 pm of its premier exhibit, “Open Intake” and first in a series of gallery shows.

The exhibit at the Four Friends Gallery included 123 pieces of original photography from over 40 local professional artists. Sizes range from 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches "Tiny Photographs" by Larry Janss to 6 feet by 4 feet by Sol Hill.  Four Friends is located at 1414 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Suite 111, Thousand Oaks, CA 91362. This exhibit, which held its “soft” opening on February 24, closes on Wednesday, March 22nd. Gallery hours for this show are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:30PM to 5:30 PM and by appointment.  (click link for press release)

Open Call to Photographic Artists

Art Intake @ The Four Friends Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday February 24, 2017 6-9PM @ The Four Friends Gallery
Images On Exhibit: February 24, 2017 - March 22, 2017

The Answers to most of your Questions:

What is an Art Intake:  This is open to for everyone!  This is a photography exhibit.   You don’t have to apply, it is an OPEN intake and those that submit their “ready to hand art” first are in the show until my walls are filled.  It is my goal to hang 100 pieces of photographic art for our first show.  I have over 200 linear feet of wall space in the gallery!  I set a limit of 3 pieces maximum per person.  If there is a huge response I might not be able to hang everyone’s 3ed piece.

Fee:  There is a fee of $5 dollars per piece paid when delivering artwork along with the completed intake form.  If you would like an intake form please request one at intake@fourfriendsgallery.com

Sales:  All artwork is for sale unless labeled not for sale.  Split is 65/35 - artist/gallery.

Intake Dates:  February 21st & 22nd 1-6PM at the gallery.

Opening Reception Date:  February 24^th, 2017, 6-9PM

Pick up Dates: March 22 and March 23, 1:00PM – 6:00PM at the gallery.