This is the gallery’s third year hosting the Winter Show, which has grown since the gallery owner Gabe Babcock started the tradition in 2020. Babcock and James have collaborated on several shows. This is their second collaboration with local artist LK James.

“I’m thrilled to have Roberta and LK working with me again this year. They are helping me realize my vision to have a place where artists can show their work,” said Babcock. “The history in this area has always appealed to me. The original buildings are still intact and it feels good to use them.”

Salmon Bend Art Studios in housed in a converted prune processing barn outside of Colusa, Calif. The gallery space was once the loading bay where horse-drawn carts would unload boxes of prunes for processing. The adjoining sculpture studio and wood shop still house steel tracks which once transported palettes of prunes to the dryer.

Gualala Arts Center in Gualala, California

Nature is vulnerable and fragile, yet also unyielding and perdurable. The Dualities exhibit highlights these two extremes in a way that also connects them.  

The pieces in this exhibit, while diverse in terms of media, are parallel in purpose. Collectively, this exhibit address both the timelessness and the vulnerability of nature. Both the individual pieces and the paired exhibits have been created with a sentimentality that reveres our forested landscapes and natural resources. The clean lines and natural curves in all of the pieces are strikingly similar, and speak to each other in unexpected ways. 

Finally, the artists hope to engage viewers to see the dualities in this exhibit from a third point of view, giving them a personal connection or perspective to the work.