McCaig Welles and Rosenthal is pleased to present Passing Through, a solo exhibition of new work by artist Elizabeth Mooney; this is the artist’s first exhibition at the gallery’s San Francisco location. Using a combination of painting, performance, and kinetic sculpture, Mooney’s work considers both the effect of optical devices on the perception of nature and the speed at which landscape is experienced. Whether seen through a train window or on television, our physical contact with the natural world is distanced, despite the fast pace at which it is experienced. For Passing Through, Mooney’s new body of work continues her dialogue between nature, optics and abstraction. She presents a variety of optical inventions, inviting the viewer to experience and observe nature's beauty through a conceptual visual language, both static and moving scenic landscapes.

Mooney’s paintings consist of segments of silhouetted mountains and treetops interlaced within colorful line work and playful, abstract imagery, creating an environment of fragmented space. Mooney’s sculptures are proposed tools for viewing and experiencing landscape: Looking Sticks are branches meticulously covered with mirror mosaics and reflective tape that illuminate the gallery walls; KaleidoScape is a large wall-mounted kinetic sculpture that invites viewers to peer through a pair of traffic cones to observe a swirling, reconfigured environment.

“I view my paintings as a combination of places and scenic scapes merging into one space,” states Mooney. Inspired by traditional painting and claude glass, or black mirrors, used by artists of the late 18th century, Mooney’s sculptures similarly evoke an embellished, romantic sensibility. Here, motorized sculptures are presented as portable contraptions. Stemming from the artist’s recent drive across the United States, the works invite the viewer to move through these metaphysical landscapes. Her materials pass through fabricated contraptions, fusing elements of mechanics and sound, while simultaneously whisking the viewer to another place.

Elizabeth Mooney has exhibited internationally and was recently included in 2008’s MFA selections at the di Rosa Preserve in Napa, California. Previous exhibitions in the Bay Area include Zonal Confluence at Swarm Gallery and +1 with the Long Time Collective. Her works have been published in New York Arts Magazine in the September/October 2008 issue, as well as in Studio Visit Magazine 2008.