Archway Gallery presents "Poetics of the Mundane," an exhibit featuring new paintings and collages by Silvia PintoSouza and ceramic works and sculptures by Jeff Forster.

PintoSouza, Archway Gallery artist, and Forster, Department Head of Ceramics at The Glassell School of Art, are focusing their dual exhibit on the transitory nature of life and of the scenes and objects that fire their imagination, capturing both a sense of permanence and of transition through their artistic media.

PintoSouza’s work transforms the common objects of our lives into something more lasting and meaningful. Starting with “real” subject matter, she creates an increasingly abstract work by simplifying or stylizing colors, shapes, and textures, often using many layers of much-diluted acrylic paint to build different tonal values.

Forster’s work repurposes materials oftentimes inspired by cast-off agricultural and automotive parts he encountered in so-called “junk piles” during his childhood. Also, he often uses cast-off items during the building process, for example using packing materials as press molds, exploiting the negative spaces to make industrial-looking objects.

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display until June 4.