For Immediate Release
February 6, 2012

San Francisco Artist Leigh Barbier Featured in New Exhibit at Cañada College

"Mushroomville" is inspired by religious art, muralists of the Mexican Revolution, and lingering 60's Disney imagery.

The Cañada College Art Department is proud to present an exhibition by the San Francisco artist, Leigh Barbier. The show is in the Cañada College Art Gallery, Building 9, and will run from Feb. 6 through March 1.

Leigh Barbier's drawings, paintings and sculpture derive from an imaginary landscape called 'Mushroomville'. Inspired by religious art, muralists of the Mexican Revolution, and lingering 60's Disney imagery, Barbier's enchanting yet sinister "Mushroomville" is an all-female community in a physically spare yet emotionally rich countryside, dotted with occasional log cabins, brick buildings, or hollowed trees for shelter. Each woman enters Mushroomville through her own personal portal, tailored to meet her psychological needs for escape or transformation. The Mushroom is a metaphor for life's duplicitous nature, symbolizing the core of their culture, and provides Barbier with a world in which to transform her own and perhaps the viewer's emotions into physical form.

The gallery is open on Mondays and Wednesdays 9 a.m. to noon, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays noon to 3 p.m.. For more information contact William Morales, (650) 306-3343, moralesw@smccd.edu.

For more information, contact Robert Hood, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, at hoodr@smccd.edu or 306-3340