Reception: Thursday, July 15, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Robb Putnam's first solo exhibition, Orphans, at the Rena Bransten Gallery is an exploration into the province of detritus dogs. With his sculpture, Putnam transforms discarded materials into castoff creatures who explore the dark spaces where emotions intersect. Old blankets, ripped shirts, fake fur, shredded rags, loose threads and plastic bags come together to become large-scale canine portrait heads whose individual personalities are expressed through a nuance of expression and texture. These oversized forms exist as misfits and reference a variety of sources: whimsical children's-book characters, abandoned stuffed toys, wounded stray dogs, and imaginary friends. In addition to the sculptures, drawings of the dogs as disjointed animals within fevered dreams continue the associations of innocence and play as well as their physical distortions. In either dimension, Putnam evokes our empathy and our compassion for these beings.

Putnam received his BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, MA and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA. His work will be included in an upcoming exhibition at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, Washington in 2011. He currently lives and works in Oakland.

Henry Wessel's exhibition will consist of vintage photographs shot in the 1960's and 70's while driving in the West and Southwest of the country. Simultaneously, Wessel will be included in New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, July 17 through October 3.This museum show is a re-staging of the pivotal 1975 exhibition which documented a radical shift within the traditional depictions of landscape photography. Wessel's continued interest in the depiction of the interface between man and the land contributed to the photo genre that defined New Topographics and influenced the next generation of both European and US photographers.

Wessel was born in Teaneck, NJ, received his BA from Penn State, and an MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop, NY State U at Buffalo. He has been the recipient of three NEA grants and two Guggenheim fellowships.

Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Fridays 10:30 to 5:30 and Saturdays 11:00 to 5:00. Please note that the gallery will be closed from August 22 through September 6, 2010. For more information, please visit our web site, www.renabranstengallery.com.