The exhibition Burning from the Inside brings together artworks by five artists that pulsate with visual and emotional energy. The title of the exhibition is a nod to the album of the same name by the post punk / goth band Bauhaus, whose music embodied a sense of moodiness and theatricality. The artworks in this show also hold a similar intensity and visual drama, while exploring a variety of scientific, bodily and phenomenological themes.

In Emily Davis Adams’ highly representational oil paintings, scientific documents are rendered uncanny, blurring the line between artificial and natural. In Erik den Breejen’s paintings, text comes alive and pulsates with psychedelic energy. Terri Friedman’s works buzz with electricity, connecting the weaving process to neural pathways and the brain-body connection. In Georiga Elrod’s painting and works on paper, glowing bodies are seen from the inside out, and rendered transparent and porous. In Sangram Majumdar’s paintings, fragments of figures and nature are concealed and revealed through a tactile painting process, complicating the relationship between recognition and representation.

All the works exhibited share a commitment to a handmade process and visual drama. They seem to burn from the inside out, glowing with phosphorescent radiance.

Karla Wozniak is a Bay Area-based artist. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the Yale School of Art. She has shown internationally, with solo shows at such venues as the Schneider Museum in Ashland, Oregon, and the Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco. Wozniak has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and was a SECA Finalist at the SF MOMA. She has participated in the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program; and received two MacDowell Colony fellowships. Her work has been featured in a number of publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and San Francisco Chronicle among others. Her work is included in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Knoxville Museum of Art permanent collections. Wozniak is an Associate Professor at California College of the Arts.