Shooting Gallery Presents:

…Sleep…

New Works by Aron Meynell

The Shooting Gallery is pleased to present “…Sleep…” an exhibition, done beside artist C3, by San Francisco-based artist, Aron Meynell. The exhibit is the artist’s first show with The Shooting Gallery, following a two-man show with Erik Otto at White Walls earlier this year. The opening reception for …Sleep…will be held at The Shooting Gallery on Saturday, November 12, 2024 from 7-11pm. The exhibit will be on display through December 3, 2024 and is free and open to the public.

With a peaceful poeticism, “…Sleep…” lays bare a world that exists without ornamentation or narrative. As if whisking us to a place removed from time, Meynell’s drawings capture a moment of perfect stillness. Many of the compositions focus on the delicate body of a bird, placed centrally in smooth foregrounds that give no hint of actual location. Removed from natural habitats, with graceful wings at off kilter angles, these figures’ vulnerability and beauty are magnified.

Working in greyscale, Meynell arranges his subjects carefully, with an impressive eye for small details. Meynell’s work is infused with a calm that is bordered by unease; it is like looking at the silver reflection of a placid lake, knowing that the slightest motion will break the surface. In “Sunk,” the profile of a man with eyes closed is given its eerie, dreamlike quality by the soft slope the subject’s forehead has taken inward, seemingly dissolved as naturally as a sandcastle too close to shore.

From the Artist:

“I became interested in the act of sleeping and death three or four years ago when I started to frequently sleep walk during the night, being in a state of unconsciousness but still able to act out thoughts or dreams.  It’s been thought that in this state a person is to be able to connect with the spirit world since you’re neither asleep nor awake. You’re somewhere in the middle.

My work is often very quiet and isolating with lonely characters in post-apocalyptic surroundings. Abandoned buildings or quiet forests in the dead of a snow filled freezing winter.  This new series of drawings has the environments removed completely to illustrate the subjects passing from life to the afterlife.”

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Meynell was born in Birmingham, England, but was raised in Detroit, Michigan. He received his bachelors in fine art at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Aron continued his education at the Academy of Art San Francisco where he received his masters in fine art. In Detroit, Aron found inspiration in the muted colors of the empty factories and high-rises once filled by the thriving automobile industry. As a child the artist loved to explore the corners of city’s surrounding forests, and found relics in left behind machinery and cars.

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The Shooting Gallery opened its doors in 2024 to the historic Tenderloin district of San Francisco; known for its lively street culture. Growing up in Southern California gave owner and curator, Justin Giarla, a love for everything lowbrow: pop art, street art, outsider art, punk rock album art, comic book art, surf/skate art and hot rod culture. Giarla recognizes how important it is to provide lowbrow artists with a platform for their work, which is exactly what Shooting Gallery has done for nearly a decade.