Alum Robert Ortbal (MFA, art studio, ‘89) will have a solo exhibition, Encounters, at the Pence Gallery in Davis opening on Oct. 10. Running through Nov. 30, the installation includes video, costume, and sculpture from several of his recent series of exhibits.

Ortbal combines a vast array of both common and odd materials, applying them in endless variations to create small-scale, uniquely masked figures, traveling-case environments that house them, and wearable sculptures that are, at times, worn outside the gallery environment in performative public works. For Encounters, a 20-foot towering sculpture made from electrical conduit soars up into the clerestory and snakes along the gallery floor, displaying an assortment of his wearable works.

In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be an artist talk on Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. which is free for members and students and $10 for non-members.

The exhibition is sponsored by Kim Ohlson and Allen Barnes and its catalog is sponsored by Nancy Roe. 

Located at 212 D Street in Davis, the Pence Gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11:30 AM–5 PM, for gallery visitors, and 6–9 PM on 2nd Fridays for our monthly art receptions. For details, visit the Pence Gallery. 

Ortbal is an Art Professor in the sculpture department at Sacramento State University. He has had solo exhibitions at the Oakland Museum of California at City Center, 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle, and at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. He has been included in numerous group exhibitions including at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum; the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery; The Lab in San Francisco, and was included in the twentieth anniversary exhibition of SFMOMA Artists gallery. He was the recipient of the Leff-Davis Foundation Grant, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME; and a Research Grant from the College of Arts and Letters, California State University, Sacramento.