Out of the inkwell
Richard Shaw, Mrs. Partch, ceramic with underglaze, glaze and overglaze transfers (not on display).
If you’ve ever marveled at some of the more hallucinatory creations of Walt Disney from the 1930s, like when Mickey gets chased by mundane inanimate objects—brooms, inkwells—come to life with a vengeance, it’s likely that you’ll be enthralled by the ceramic work of Richard Shaw, currently being shown at b. sakata garo. Shaw, whose wife Martha’s beach-colored paintings and blockish sculptures are also on display, is a Bay Area college art instructor who studied at UC Davis under Robert Arneson and William Wiley. He specializes in the kind of trompe l’oeil sleight of hand that makes meticulously cast ceramics appear to be funky figurines cobbed together from found objects and garden-variety junk. The gallery is located at 923 20th St.; it’s open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m-6 p.m.; for info call 447-4276. Through November 3.
