Stacey Beach and Amber Jean Young - Altar, February 25th to March 31st, 2025

K. Imperial Fine Art is pleased to present Altar, a multimedia two-woman exhibition featuring the ceramic and textile works of California artists Stacey Beach and Amber Jean Young. This powerful collection is at times playful, at times solemn, and invariably healing. The show will be on view from February 25th to March 31st, 2025. The gallery and the artists welcome the public to the opening reception on Thursday, March 6th, from 5-7 p.m.

Stacey Beach – Still Life with Chalkware Cat and Bird Amphora
Quilted cotton, rayon, lycra, canvas, thread and batting stretched over panel. 48 x 72 x 1.5 in

If the exhibition space is an altar, each artwork is an offering. Many of the pieces are titled “Vessel” or “Urn,” indicating an arm outstretched toward the spiritual realm. The objects represented here are as eclectic as those that would appear in a shrine: a crow with wings outstretched, a bust of Athena, a glaze inspired by a fabric pattern, a sprig of strawberries, all fashioned out of clay or cloth. Each piece contains a collection of memories, both personal and historic. Beach cites a variety of source material for her still lifes, from embroidery motifs to ancient Mycenaean pottery to carnival prizes from the American 1900s. Young draws inspiration from the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s and 80s. Beach incorporates autobiographical imagery of surfers, birds, and cats, while Young is influenced by her collection of house plants and textiles that are steeped in interpersonal significance. These florals, still lifes, and ceramics are more pattern than precise representation. They embody the rituals of these objects and their importance to diverse cultures, both recent and ancient. They participate in the rituals while acknowledging the vast histories contained within them.

Amber Jean Young – Urn #11
Glazed Ceramic 7.5″x5.5″x6.5″ 2024/25

The union of light and dark creates a space for reflection. Beach and Young frequently call upon this duality. Many of Young’s urns are graced with blooming adornments–bursts of life winding around repositories of departure. Beach also incorporates floral motifs, but another symbol of ephemerality is even more present in her textile narratives: burning candles, which have the potential to either inspire hope or cause destruction. Both artists are unafraid to face darkness in their work, and they embrace the strangeness, humor, and beauty that emerge along the way. As Young states, “Whimsy is an antidote to despair.” By bringing their two streams of reflection together, Altar assembles a patchwork of meaning-rich ephemera that charts a path to remediation.

Stacey Beach- Head Vase with Green Leaves
Quilted cotton, rayon, lycra, canvas, thread and batting stretched over panel.
20 x 16 x 1.5 in

Stacey Beach is a textile artist who has refined a meticulous multi-step, multidisciplinary process. She draws her images on fabric which are then cut out and sewn onto canvas, and stretched as one would a painting. Deeply aware of woman as both maker and subject within her work, she touches upon and celebrates the feminine history of textile. Beach holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and has shown all across the US, from the Kala Institute in Berkeley to Uprise Art in New York City. She has twice been shortlisted for the Hopper Prize and previously worked as a painting assistant to Takashi Murakami.

Amber Jean Young – Urn #12
Glazed Ceramic 12″x5.5″x5.5″ 2024/25

Amber Jean Young was focused on her textile collages and botanical paintings when she found her way to pottery while shopping for an urn for her deceased mother. Put off by the dreariness of the available designs, Young decided to create her own that were vibrant and life-affirming. She has come to navigate the grieving process by “imagining a resting place that is not a monument to death, but rather a reflection of the vibrancy of life.” Young earned her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited nationally and is a 2012 Djerassi Resident Artist Program fellow.

Altar will be on display from February 25th to March 31st, 2025. The gallery is open by appointment. Please contact the gallery at kimperialfineart@me.com or 415.277.7230 for inquiries or to view the exhibition.

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