Aura

Modern Eden Gallery presents Golden, an art show inspired by gold and featuring works that go beyond the mere material application to embody the cultural and historical implications of what is ‘golden’.

Throughout history—from the gilded palaces and monuments of the ancient world to the golden Baroque-style halls of Versailles—gold has been used to symbolize power, wealth, and prosperity. The lust for gold has inspired centuries of westward migration in search of lost cities of gold, roads paved with gold, and river valleys full of gold. Artists and craftsmen have used gold for thousands of years to engender status and to decorate gods and noblemen alike. Today in popular culture, gold is still a symbol used to represent the fabulous and fancy.

Lacey Bryant is a San Jose artist who paints weird things. She works in a variety of media, oil paints being her favorite. She paints primarily on wood surfaces, often utilizing found wood for the unique textures and history they offer. Her subjects are often dreamlike, inhabiting a realm of strange, nostalgic sweetness with undercurrents of darkness and mystery. Each piece is a bit of the middle of a story for the viewer to interpret in their own way. Contrasting cute with creepy, familiar with odd, Lacey sets out to quietly captivate and unnerve her viewers through the underlying tension of her work.