Light bounced around the white-walled gallery in between Fine Arts buildings 1 and 2 on Sunday evening, refracting through glass structures reminiscent of a lost, underwater crystalline cave.
This marked opening night at California State University, Long Beach for this semester’s School of Art senior shows, which are weekly exhibits in the spring that typically showcase the work of students in their final year.
The translucent stalagmite-like reefs were works Maccabee Shelley, a post-baccalaureate of studio art from Humboldt State University. In this show titled “No Redemption Value,” his second at CSULB, he said he emphasizes the execution rather than a message.
“This show is about exploring every little odd and end and to look under every rock,” Shelley said. “I kind of like to think of a river that’s flowing and divides into all tributaries … you have to walk up every single one of them to see what’s up there.”
With torn-up hands, he sipped from a pink cup of strong-smelling vegetable blend. Shelley was worn and tired from another long night of finalizing the gallery for which he had spent about three and a half months compromising his physical being.
“You don’t know if you’re going to pour your effort, time, energy, money and resources into something that’s going to be a hunk of crap that will cut you if you try to pick it up and almost break your back trying to move it,” Shelley said. “It can be really hard on you.”
Several trips, 200 pounds of glass and a couple of trash bins later, Shelley ended his dumpster diving days and instead make up to three visits per day to the Associated Student Inc. Recycling Center in order to render materials for his work.
And that’s only the beginning. Shelley recalled hurling bricks, bashing the raw materials with a metal rod or simply chucking bottles against a wall to produce glass shards that he can later manipulate under high temperatures.
He describes himself as a “very curious explorer and high-energy person.” The all-engaging nature of ceramics complements Shelley’s high-strung personality, which allows him certain omniscience when it comes to articulating the cause and effects before and after the kiln.
“[Ceramic art is] just a rabbit hole and you can keep going deeper but you’ll never find the end of it,” Shelley said. “It just goes and goes and goes … there’s so many things you can explore formality, color, shape value, light and shadow.”
It doesn’t hurt that Shelley comes from a background in science and his resume has racked up a few technician jobs including his time working at his community college, the City College of San Francisco.
“I’m very drawn to the ocean, the earth, geology … I think it gets back to my sense of sensibilities—road cuts, the way erosion works,” Shelley said. “I’ve learned to really listen to my sensibilities and follow them.”
Andre Ajibade, a CSULB junior art student who studies drawing and painting, said that he’s come to know Shelley through classes. He said that coming to the shows are both inspirational and beneficial “to see what your college and classmates are doing.”
“From my eyes, it looks very innovative,” said recent BFA CSULB graduate Jesse Minott, who sat down to sketch a few of Shelley’s pieces.
As for his next move, Shelley will be Italy-bound to help establish a ceramic arts center in Tuscany, Italy, and partake in a school field trip to visit the Venice Biennale, a major contemporary art exhibition in Venice, Italy that showcases every two years.
After, he said he hopes to continue working in the summer, attend fall semester at CSULB and then apply for a masters program among Ivy League schools.
“What keeps me going is that I’ll pull a piece out and I’ll try to recreate it,” Shelley said. “And in that journey of recreating it maybe I create three other things that start tributaries I have to follow up on.”
A more questionable medium he’s dabbled with is spray paint. Several of his more intricate pieces are featured on top of crude matte structures of similar shape but differing color.
“Glass is so hard to get. It’s valuable and it’s a pain in the butt to make,” Shelley said. “I make these pieces, pouring my heart into this work, and then just spray paint over it.”
He said questions of value came to mind as he tagged his own work in hot pink.
“To me there’s something really interesting about value,” Shelley said. “What do we value? What do I value? Why do we value it? Can I paint over it? Does that make it less valuable?”
Shelley’s exhibit is just one of five galleries that will be on display throughout the week until Thursday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. with extended hours lasting to 7 p.m. on Wednesday.