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Santa Monica College's Emeritus College Art Gallery is pleased to present "Joan Robey: Sculpture" - whose work has been displayed throughout the nation and is in such collections as the Museum of Modern Art in Miami - Jan. 7-Feb. 11, 2010.

The opening reception will be held from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 7 in the gallery, located on the first floor of Emeritus College, 1227 Second St. in downtown Santa Monica. Parking is available next door in Santa Monica Public Parking Structure No. 2. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A mid-career artist, Robey, of Santa Monica, has re-invented herself through her art. Robey grew up in New York and earned a BFA in English from the University of Florida. She spent a number of years in the San Francisco Bay Area studying and teaching woodworking.

In the early 1980s she relocated to Denver where she opened the Joan Robey Gallery. After settling in Santa Monica in the early 1990s, she started creating assemblage and sculpture from salvaged materials. Her work has been shown in galleries across the nation and collected by institutions including the Peter Norton Foundation and the Museum of Modern Art in Miami, and can be seen in the movie "Batman and Robin" and in numerous collections.

Robey's artistic roots can be found in the California assemblage movement of the early 1960s, in particular, "the poetic lyricism of George Herms." Drawn to the aged materiality of the found object, Robey's constructions employ the junk aesthetic of the early assemblage artists along with formal sculptural techniques, where a kinship is present with the works of Anthony Caro, Martin Puryear, and Catherine Burgess. Robey's work falls into two categories; the first having a greater linear/painterly quality, poetic in nature and the second is more volumetric, depicting implied danger or chaos isolated in time and space.

Duality, the cornerstone of the conceptual framework of Joan Robey's sculpture, is reinforced by the interplay between the positive and negative. Using salvaged materials such as discarded wood or metal, Robey's constructions have the ability to evoke insight, awe, and humor. However, rather than narrative, this artist prefers dialogue. Even in the very act of finding and choosing materials, the form, condition, or surface of an object will "speak" to her. In turn, the resulting evocative works of art she creates ask questions rather than make statements. As metaphors for psychological situations, the use of discarded materials in her work suggests transformation, salvation, and transcendence.

Emeritus College, SMC's widely praised program founded 35 years ago, currently serves about 3,500 older adults with 150 classes and special programs.

For information, call (310) 434-4306 or visit www.smc.edu/emeritus.