ONE PERSON SHOW BY SACRAMENTO ARTIST LANE WILL RUN FROM JANUARY 8 TO MARCH 8, 2009 WITH OPENING PUBLIC RECEPTION FROM 6 TO 8PM ON JANUARY 8TH

Dave Lane, frequent winner of the California State Fair art competition, will create an installation of his sculptures, drawings and paintings in a museum context for only the second time ever, at the Nelson for the Winter 2009 quarter. Lane uses found industrial and agricultural machinery from the 19th and 20th century; he transforms these large-scale, heavy steel objects into artworks that embody Lane’s vision of how the universe is organized.

“Lane is a visionary artist who sees the flow of the cosmos as part of a vast system of celestial machinery, which harkens back to such seminal artists as the 19th century’s William Blake in England,” says Nelson Director Renny Pritikin. Like renowned artist Richard Serra, originally from San Francisco, Lane works with heavy steel objects that can be daunting when first encountered, but which he infuses with a kind of baroque grace.

Lane’s work is particularly accessible to a wide range of viewers, from children who respond to its scale and scariness, to backyard mechanics who admire his resourcefulness. Art audiences and artists respond to his imagination and originality while those approaching the arts for the first time are reassured that contemporary art can be fun.

A catalogue with images of the work, and essays by Pritikin, Bay Area art journalist Tessa De Carlo, and writing by Lane will be published in January. For further information and images please contact Katrina Wong at kliwong@ucdavis.edu or 530 752 8500.