Golden: International Group Exhibition

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.

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law's work follows in the tradition of the mythic arts. She is based in Oakland, CA. Her paintings explores a surreal otherworld, and the manifestations of desire and archetype when seen with a shifted perception. Much of her inspiration stems from mythology and folklore, mingled with the movement of dance, and the chaos of Nature's wild growth. She has authored and illustrated 4 books ("Dreamscapes", through North Light Books), a series on watercolor technique within a fantastical framework, and she is also the author and illustrator of the Shadowscapes Tarot (2009, Llewellyn Worldwide). 

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.

"I was born in year 1980 in Latvia, a small country in the North-East of Europe, which was at that time under soviet occupation.

My inspirations have been as diverse as: folklore fairytales, children book illustrations, imaginative soviet animation films and supernaturally real classical painting; the colorful forbidden rare secret imagery of the western pop culture surrounded by mystical, almost religious tone for us, soviet children; the terrifying war and deportation stories that my grandparents, and their little brothers and sister witnessed as small children; pompous alienated eerie atmosphere of the catholic church ceremonies, and the breathtakingly beautiful ballet performances in the opera house, where I was taken since the age of two etc. – all the bitter-sweetness and irreality of the every day.

But most of all, life is my inspiration. The way I comprehend it, and myself. People are my inspiration. The state of a human soul - dreams, longing, love, pain - that is what my visual images are about.

I have been exhibiting my artwork internationally since age of 15.

Till now, my work’s been exhibited and can be found in collections all across Europe – Italy, Belgium, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Finland, Spain, etc. – as well as in USA and Australia." ~Jana Brike

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.

Ania Tomicka was born in 1985 in Lodz, Poland.

When she was only 9 she moved to Italy, where she started to draw seriously: manga at first and realistic things afterwards. She attended an art institute and graduated in 2004. During the school years she starts to paint with oil colors, a technique that soon to became her favorite. Hence she attended the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice where she found a lot of inspiration for her realistic and academic art. A year later she moved to Tuscany where she graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence. She focused her interest in more things like digital art, illustration and new materials such as wood.

She also completed her studies at the academy of digital arts NEMO NT where she gained the title of student of the year.

Ania has always been interested in realistic, renaissance works. Her first loves are Salvador Dalì and Wojtek Siudmak's big canvases, full of absurd and strange creations, painted in a divine way.

Her current paintings are inspired by the American Pop Surrealist movement.

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.

Marie-Eve Proteau works with unconventional materials which abolish the distinction between the pictural and the sculptural. She works with some old retro televisions and gives life back to them by becoming the medium of a representation forever motionless. Some paintings on canvas are also made with this concept and most recently some special series of paintings. A feminine theme prevails in her work in the form of surrealist portraits where the emotions are drawn from the complexity of a relationship between two people; expectation, worry, obsession, secret, domination. The translucent textures are in contradiction with some more disturbing and darker allusions. Her works has been exhibited in Canada, United States, Japan and Switzerland.

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.

Connecticut illustrator Carly Janine Mazur works traditionally to bring to life her vision of a solitary world. Her paintings evoke a sense of intimacy within the viewer, inviting you in with solid composition juxtaposed against fine rendering. Carly's subject matter focuses on the hauntingly rendered human figure within a minimalistic, yet harsh environment to touch upon peoples' reclusive relationship with their environment.

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.

Archer Dougherty grew up in Albuquerque, and studied every single medium but painting at the University of New Mexico. She took as much drawing as she could but her figurative tendencies were not popular with the generational abstract professors, and consequently she was never encouraged in her development as a draftsperson. Drawing was a means to an end, not a finished product of itself. She finished school with a degree in three-dimensional media. Archer is currently hard at work developing her long overdue figurative training and painting techniques, while drawing and painting for shows across the globe.

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.

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.

Jaclyn Alderete is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and has resided in the Bay Area since 2001. She has been passionate about art since she was a child, when she first developed an interest in drawing people. She fell in love with oil paint at the age of 16, and over the years has drawn inspiration from many things; concerns of human existence, society, and our treatment of the environment. She continues to surround herself with art, sketching or painting daily.

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.

BIO.

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.

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.

BIO.

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.

Zoe Keller is an illustrator and graphic designer seeking a deeper understanding of nature through drawing. Since graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland she has explored the many lakes of Minneapolis, the rocky coast of eastern Maine and New York’s sleepy Hudson Valley. She is interested in the intersection of activism, the natural sciences and art making.

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.

"My childhood was spent in southern and northern California, bouncing around place to place, briefly residing in Vermont and Washington.
Finally, after some 16 different schools, K - 12, I finished school in western New York State. Overall, the experience was both difficult and exciting. After graduating high school in 1989, I enrolled in commercial design classes for a year at a privately owned art school. My training there launched me into the competitive environment of graphic design where I worked for 6 years. At that point, I felt increasingly driven to live a life with more meaning and purpose, and so decided to leap in a new direction, starting a career as a licensed massage therapist. Massage enriched my life.
More than that, it increased my knowledge of the human anatomy and healing. After 8 satisfying years as an LMT, my husband took a job out of state and we re-located. The move spurred another change in direction for me, During the past 4 years, I have redirected my attention to the fine arts. In the past, when I had pursued fine art, my work involved incorporating natural objects. It’s since evolved from depiction of the natural and external world to exploration of the internal landscapes of memory, dream, fantasy. Now I exhibit widely, both nationally and internationally and enjoy a growing fan base, while I continue deepening my skills, developing my style and exploring my favorite mythic themes." ~Lara Dann

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.

"My childhood was spent in southern and northern California, bouncing around place to place, briefly residing in Vermont and Washington.
Finally, after some 16 different schools, K - 12, I finished school in western New York State. Overall, the experience was both difficult and exciting. After graduating high school in 1989, I enrolled in commercial design classes for a year at a privately owned art school. My training there launched me into the competitive environment of graphic design where I worked for 6 years. At that point, I felt increasingly driven to live a life with more meaning and purpose, and so decided to leap in a new direction, starting a career as a licensed massage therapist. Massage enriched my life.
More than that, it increased my knowledge of the human anatomy and healing. After 8 satisfying years as an LMT, my husband took a job out of state and we re-located. The move spurred another change in direction for me, During the past 4 years, I have redirected my attention to the fine arts. In the past, when I had pursued fine art, my work involved incorporating natural objects. It’s since evolved from depiction of the natural and external world to exploration of the internal landscapes of memory, dream, fantasy. Now I exhibit widely, both nationally and internationally and enjoy a growing fan base, while I continue deepening my skills, developing my style and exploring my favorite mythic themes." ~Lara Dann

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.

Matthew Robertson was born and raised in San Francisco and graduated from the Academy of Art University in 2012 with a BFA in illustration. He currently lives and works in Berkeley, California. Robertson’s technical oil paintings are simultaneously chaotic and controlled as he masterfully weaves the two components into one canvas to intuitively explore the tenuous balance between real and abstract forms. The new series vibrates with a sense of innocence described by bold colors, geometric forms, and spontaneous lines which merge together harmoniously with an expert sense of realism,  to create a body of work that is both nostalgic and contemporary.

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.

Erich J. Moffitt is an American painter, born in 1982, in the Southern United States. 

From age three onward, he traveled Europe with his family and spent his formative childhood years as an expatriate in the heart of Austria, where he learned to embrace multicultural influences from either side of the Atlantic and nurtured what would become a lifelong passion for art. 

Having been simultaneously exposed to a wealth of literary, musical and artistic history, as well as the dawn of the internet and the information age, his work chronicles an effort to marry the rich cultural legacies of Old World Europe and 21st century America. His work often re-imagines classical themes from legend and myth via contemporary subject matter, frequently in a narrative style. His paintings are fables, featuring totemic animal archetypes and talismanic objects. 

After returning to the United States, he received his Bachelor of the Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2007. He currently lives and works in Charlotte, NC.

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.

"I was born in the Bay Area, and have since lived in quite a few locations. From Californian suburbia to the country of Kazakhstan, I have met some very colorful characters and have been exposed to many interesting experiences, but so far I couldn't be happier living in the city by the bay. " ~Mary Syring

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.

Megan Hudson Buccere (pronounced bus era) is a painter, ceramicist, and teacher. Originally from Murfreesboro, Tennesee, Buccere moved to Louisiana as a teenager where she pursued her love of art. She attended Louisiana State University, holds a BS in Art Education, and has taught advanced and talented high school art for the past 14 years. .  Buccere's painting style has evolved over the past 14 years to into one that now features coincidental, accidental, and unexpected connections. Again and again, Buccere leaves us orphaned with a mix of conflicting feelings and thoughts. Through the use of a narrative visual vocabulary she often creates works that are both  beautiful and visually unsettling.   

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.

Born in 1986, Caitlin Hackett is a Bay Area based artist, illustrator and creature concept designer. In her work, Hackett explores the relationship between humans and animals; the idea of the human denial of our animal nature and of humans as the dominant species, as well as the mutation of the animal created by the human interpretation of the animal.

“I invent creatures, anthropomorphic, mutated, or pseudo mythical in imagery, using my imaginary world and bringing it into the physical world in an attempt to create a language that speaks about the human animal relationship and the natural and unnatural elements of it. I am faced with the fact that we live in a planet in decline, where almost every natural ecosystem in the world is slipping away. Human kind has created a planet of refugees; animals forced to flee ever farther from the insatiable encroachment of urban development, victims of a war for space which they cannot hope to win. My drawings refer to this decline and to the refugees it has created. I am left with the question of what is natural; are we (human beings) still a part of nature? If so, does that make all that we have created, cities, vehicles, factories, all technology, part of nature as well?”

Hackett creates her large-scale drawings on paper using ebony pencil, ballpoint and micron pens, coloured pencil, and watercolours. Her “anthropomorphic creatures, which are installation pieces, are a balance between the power and physical presence of the life sized and the intensity of the dense, delicate, and time consuming detail of the ballpoint pen and ink. By installing these animals cut out on the walls they are released into our world and become characters that must be addressed in terms of our physical space, and must be granted an identity.” ~Via Daily Art Fixx

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.

Sheri DeBow creates emotive and intricate dolls and sculptures from clay and various mixed media materials. Never using molds or taking shortcuts, each piece is a unique result of meticulous creation. As a student, she worked and studied under sculptor Franco Vianello, Phil Cornelius, Michael Maday, Professor Sakaguchi, Richard Carter and Sensei Kusakabe. She now works as a full-time artist and mom to five children in California’s Napa Valley. Sheri DeBow’s work has been featured twice on the cover of "Art Doll Quarterly" and her dolls have received accolades and honors across the globe.

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.

Debra J. Gardner Abarca is a San Francisco Bay Area based ceramicist and ceramics teacher.

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.

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.

Amandalynn is inspired by the female form and spirit. She is passionate about her illustrative depictions of strong, seductive women, capturing an alluring invitation to each viewer through strong line work and decorative patterning. Amandalynn is constantly displaying her artwork in galleries and private collections all over the United States, as well as Internationally.

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.

Jel Ena is a Serbian born multi-media artist living in her adopted home of Los Angeles. She comes from a family of artists in every field who supported her pursuit of the fine arts. Jel Ena attended the Academy of Fine Art in Belgrade where she received her MFA in painting. She has been showing in galleries around the world where her work is widely collected, as well as freelancing in the movie and video game industry as a designer.

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.

Melanie Pereira Alves is a visual artist living in San Francisco, Ca.

Alves was born in december 1983 San Jose, California (USA) but raised in Portugal.

On her recent work - Urban Jungle - Alves focuses on current social and cultural issues, such as gun violence and culture of fear. She addresses how society is losing its core human values by focusing on power, greed, the individual and deception. She translates this loss into the powerful imagery of the toy gun (the “playful” or distorted appropriation of an object of violence) as a thing of beauty and pride in the form of taxidermy. Society’s trophy to itself: a reminder of its greatness. Alves work continuously, talks about paradoxes between hunter and prey, power and powerless, violence and protection, toy and weapon. Alves has also been painting “animal masks” where she explores the relation between animal instinct and our deepest inner self, viewed per the artist as our essence.even though the art of francis bacon will always be what ignited her artistic pursuit, Alves has been mainly influenced by the interaction of installation art, the motion of vídeo art and the marginality of street art. Some of her favorite artists are Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, Marina Abramovic, Mathew Barney, Bill Viola and Banksy. Since moving, on October 2011, from London UK, Melanie Alves decided to focus entirely on her art, participating in various shows around town, including wonderland sf, 111 Minna Gallery, Spoke Art and Modern Eden.

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.

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.

"My childhood was spent in southern and northern California, bouncing around place to place, briefly residing in Vermont and Washington.
Finally, after some 16 different schools, K - 12, I finished school in western New York State. Overall, the experience was both difficult and exciting. After graduating high school in 1989, I enrolled in commercial design classes for a year at a privately owned art school. My training there launched me into the competitive environment of graphic design where I worked for 6 years. At that point, I felt increasingly driven to live a life with more meaning and purpose, and so decided to leap in a new direction, starting a career as a licensed massage therapist. Massage enriched my life.
More than that, it increased my knowledge of the human anatomy and healing. After 8 satisfying years as an LMT, my husband took a job out of state and we re-located. The move spurred another change in direction for me, During the past 4 years, I have redirected my attention to the fine arts. In the past, when I had pursued fine art, my work involved incorporating natural objects. It’s since evolved from depiction of the natural and external world to exploration of the internal landscapes of memory, dream, fantasy. Now I exhibit widely, both nationally and internationally and enjoy a growing fan base, while I continue deepening my skills, developing my style and exploring my favorite mythic themes." ~Lara Dann

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.

"My childhood was spent in southern and northern California, bouncing around place to place, briefly residing in Vermont and Washington.
Finally, after some 16 different schools, K - 12, I finished school in western New York State. Overall, the experience was both difficult and exciting. After graduating high school in 1989, I enrolled in commercial design classes for a year at a privately owned art school. My training there launched me into the competitive environment of graphic design where I worked for 6 years. At that point, I felt increasingly driven to live a life with more meaning and purpose, and so decided to leap in a new direction, starting a career as a licensed massage therapist. Massage enriched my life.
More than that, it increased my knowledge of the human anatomy and healing. After 8 satisfying years as an LMT, my husband took a job out of state and we re-located. The move spurred another change in direction for me, During the past 4 years, I have redirected my attention to the fine arts. In the past, when I had pursued fine art, my work involved incorporating natural objects. It’s since evolved from depiction of the natural and external world to exploration of the internal landscapes of memory, dream, fantasy. Now I exhibit widely, both nationally and internationally and enjoy a growing fan base, while I continue deepening my skills, developing my style and exploring my favorite mythic themes." ~Lara Dann