SNAKE by Linda Fahey: Gallery Exhibition and Opening Reception

Rare Device is pleased to announce our February 2016 gallery exhibition SNAKE, featuring new ceramic sculptures by Pacifica-based artist Linda Fahey. These pieces explore the beauty of this familiar and potent animal form. The hand-built, wall-mounted sculptures are rendered in porcelain, black clay, and stoneware. Their surfaces are decorated with glaze, gold luster, and Delft-style patterns.

About SNAKE: Linda has always been captivated by snakes -- the shape of their head, eyes, and body, and how they move. She has handled live snakes, and amassed hundreds of photographic references. Additional sources of inspiration and study include the 18th century engravings of Albertus Seba, and contemporary photographs of snakes by Mark Laita. Linda’s installation SNAKE prompts viewers to confront the prejudices, fears and notions conjured by these enigmatic creatures and devise their own stories.

Some process images of Linda's pieces.

About the Artist: Linda Fahey trained in graphic design and illustration at the Academy of Art and San Francisco Art Institute. In the 1990s, she worked in the corporate world; what was intended to be a short stint lasted nearly 20 years. During this time, she pursued her art career and also spent over a decade learning the trade of custom tile design and fabrication, installing everything from art pieces, kitchens, and bathrooms to swimming pools. This led Linda to a full-time focus on hand-building and exclusively working with clay by 2006. She furthered her education, studying with master ceramicists Sharon Virtue and Tiffany Schmierer. With the growing success of her functional wares line, Linda became a full-time artist and left the corporate sector in 2012, the same year she launched a collaborative partnership with Anthropologie and began making her ceramic work more widely available through production.

In 2014 Linda opened YONDER in Pacifica. YONDER is a boutique lifestyle shop featuring Linda Fahey Ceramics, the work of other ceramic artists, and goods from local, national and international artists; YONDER is also home to Linda’s ceramic production studio.

Linda Fahey's SNAKE is on view at Rare Device from Friday, February 5 to Wednesday, March 2. Please join us for a reception for the artist on Friday, February 5 from 6pm-9pm at our Divisadero location (600 Divisadero Street). This reception is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

All images provided by the artist.