“The Farallonites” - Jon Altemus
March 2021

Opens Online Friday March 19th 2021 at noon

 Jon Altemus - “The Farallonites”

The intersection between human and natural history has been a central theme in mywork for decades. Those two elements have met, conflicted, co-existed, and reached some kindof stasis in the “Farallonites” exhibit at Faultline Artspace. The Farallon Islands, the lighthouse keepers and their families are treasure troves of stories - real and imagined -offering a rich source of images, ideas, and questions ripe for exploration.

The work in this exhibit investigates the transitional dynamics between people and nature and how they have affected each other.

The work in “The Farallonites” was originally inspired for a stage production with the same name by choreographer Dana Lawton, which was scheduled to premiere in 2020. While the stage production is on hold, this gallery showing offers visitors an opportunity to connect with the tenacity and perseverance of the men and women who lived on these uninviting islands through mixed media paintings.

For the last 30 years, my work has revolved around energizing different kinds of spaces in ways that invite people to engage in an exploration of natural and human history. My Career in the museum industry has taken me around the world working on projects in Mexico, Hong Kong and Taiwan and for museums in the US including the Smithsonian, Burke and Perot museums.

I began painting again in 2017 with a series of 365 7X7 inch mixed media works hung in an industrial space in Alameda. Initially, I started the paintings as a protest of the 2016 presidential election outcome. But it became an artistic process, not a political one. It also became a daily practice, not unlike meditation, prayer or exercise. For me it became the visual meter for my own growth and transitions of the year. This new direction started a few years ago when I was invited to design stage elements for an opera produced by San Francisco’s Opera Paralléle. It was exhilarating to see how the director chose to use my sculptural pieces as living participants in the narrative of the opera. In a subsequent collaboration with OperaParalléle I creating scenic artwork for their production of Philip Glass’s opera, “In the Penal Colony”. I was honored to have been part of the creative team producing media illustrations tobe animated and projected as backdrops for the opera. I was particularly moved and compelled to develop images that spoke to the vulnerability of the victim faced with fabricated convictions and torture. I developed an iconic image representing the commandant which became a primary character in the opera. The opera premiered at the Philip Glass Days and Nights Festival October 2018.

Jon Altemus- 2021