"Driven to Abstraction" Art Exhibition

Driven to Abstraction

Featuring:
Marian Davis
Jutta
Douglas Long

Opening Reception: Friday, May 8, 2026, 5-9 PM
On view: from May 7 – May 31, 2026

D’art Gallery is proud to present “Driven to Abstraction,” an exhibition of three gallery members whose work evokes a sense of adventure in their individual practices.

Marian Davis
Marian Davis’s art is a response to years of independent study in numerous mediums and a desire to create complex surfaces that incorporate multiple layers of color, contrast, shape, visual, and physical texture. The process is a dynamic adventure where she intuitively guides cold wax and oil paint through a continuous interplay using various techniques, mediums, and even some tools she finds in nature. Each stroke of a squeegee or the scraping with a palette knife during this endeavor brings unexpected and often delightful outcomes. Throughout the process, she strives to maintain curiosity, without preconceived notions about what may come next. Davis imagines her audience embracing a moment when they can embrace a feeling or create their own story in her work.

Jutta
Having been seduced to sit down at a potter’s wheel some fifty years ago in Kyoto, Japan clay still has not lost its magic for Jutta. Although the potter’s wheel has been semi-retired by now, a slab roller has become the tool for all her free-form work. Once Jutta is in her studio the outer world is forgotten, and her imagination goes to work. Jutta finds never-ending inspiration in the world around her. If you look closely, you will notice patterns of tree bark, bare branches recreated on a “floral wall branch”, cloud formation recreated as her undulated wall sculptures, and, of course, flowers.”

Douglas Long
Douglas Long, a ceramicist since college in 1990, primarily works with porcelain. He’s always been captivated by texture, creating vessels that are built up over time through pushing, repairing, and sometimes stressing them, leaving visible marks. His work stems from use and the remnants of it — from holding, containing, and carrying weight over extended periods. These forms draw inspiration from everyday structures, both domestic and architectural, reflecting how things endure through pressure rather than achieving perfection.