On Thursday, May 29, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Stremmel Gallery will host an opening reception for an exhibition of new works by artists Bill Braun, Sharon Maczko and Michael Oatman. The public is invited to attend the show, entitled "Rock, Paper, Scissors," which will continue through June 21.

Bill Braun's tromp l'oeil (French for "trick the eye") paintings recall the work of the American master William Michael Harnett. Where Harnett concentrated on objects familiar to his 19th century audience, Braun's subjects are not just familiar but mundane. Crumpled colored cutout paper, staples, plywood, pushpins, string, and colored pencils appear to be low-relief collage, but upon close inspection, are discovered to be acrylic paint on canvas. Braun has shown his acrylics on canvas throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as Reno. Born in Long Beach, CA, in 1955, he studied at University of Nevada, Reno and California College of Arts and Crafts, where he received his B.F.A. in 1978.

Sharon Maczko paints masterful watercolors from still-life settings that she meticulously builds like "a small movie set where I can control the composition and lighting." Born in Michigan, but now a Nevadan, Maczko creates scenes whose implied dramas entice the viewer into inventing their own narrative for them: A beam of dusty light crosses a wall adorned with aging wallpaper, tattered yellow photo and cracked mirror. Half-empty liquor bottles, an open lipstick tube, perfume atomizer, and pill bottles are scattered across the top of a dresser. Maczko, whose expertise has been featured in several books on watercolor, has works placed in numerous corporate and public collections throughout Nevada and California.

Michael Oatman assembles his elaborate two-dimensional collages from books, magazines, and comic books, whose images he painstakingly cuts out and reassembles into new context. Often whimsical and humorous on the surface, his images are occasionally unsettling through their overlapping imagery: Birds carrying guns or a cobra rising out of a field of wildflowers, birds and butterflies carry mixed messages by his juxtaposition of the wholesome and sinister. These "meta-pictures," as he refers to them, remind the viewer of works by earlier artists, such as Breugel, or Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights." Oatman received his M.F.A. from the University at Albany, Albany, New York in 1992, and in 1986 his B.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. Oatman is currently Associate Clinical Professor of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

The exhibition of new works by the three artists will continue through June 21. Stremmel Gallery is located at 1400 S. Virginia Street. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, and Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. For more information, contact Stremmel Gallery at 786-0558.

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