New York based figurative painter Milt Kobayashi is known internationally for his intimate, urban interiors in which he distills the essence of a casual moment. Expressive narrative, cadence of color, and brevity of the brushstroke characterize the subtle style the artist has perfected.

Gallery Shoal Creek has represented Mr. Kobayashi since 1984. Over the course of nearly three decades, his work has garnered national and international attention. The gallery is proud to be a part of the Kobayashi legacy and to showcase his newest work.

From Jerry Ruthven's realistic impressions of the Texas Hill Country to William Kalwick's plein air paintings of the Colorado Rockies, The Landscape and Beyond brings together five artists with distinct styles. Aleksander and Lyuba Titovets, Russian born and classically trained, provide a European perspective while Kirk Tatom leans toward pastoral views with a quiet solitude.

Cast bronze and paint on canvas meet in an exhibition of work by Gustavo Torres and Marc Burckhardt on view at Gallery Shoal Creek from November 11 through December 3.  The opening reception, on Friday, November 11, will unveil an intimate viewing of sculpture, paintings and drawings by the two artists.  Masters of their craft, both Torres and Burckhardt adopt symbolic imagery to convey complex themes and engage the viewer.

Working from his spacious studio in East Austin, Camp explores the human need to create order from disorder. The marked landscape becomes a metaphor for this basic human tendency. He distills the ever changing landscape to a textured surface of paint that suggests topographical features and delineates boundaries and navigational markings. The varied application of paint reveals an intersection of the raw, natural environment and the ordered grid that man projects upon it.

Through their work, each artist speaks of movement, that sense of "passing by" as Maratta calls it. Pratt records a single frame, distilling the view to near abstraction recording only the essential elements. Maratta, choosing a panoramic format, focuses on the sparse detail etched on a horizon line that stretches as far as the eye can see. Link's three-dimensional ceramics bring the conversation together. Etching loose graphic imagery and delicate detail on the surface of spherical vessels, she conveys a winding narrative within a changing landscape. From the back roads of West Texas to the Autobahn, the three artists share their unique perspective.

Speaking in the rich visual language for which he is known, Alvarado blends a complex mixture of personal and adopted iconography. The artist's narrative unfolds in his newest canvases as one explores the layered imagery and cultural metaphors; intermixed are sensory impressions from his travels in Morocco and the magical city of Marrakesh. The desert flora and saturated colors of the region add yet another layer to the artist's lush narratives.

Traveling, I often sense an unspoken language of familiarity . . . art. I find myself uncovering a hidden appreciation for the new surroundings and discover, at the same time, a missing piece of my own identity. Such was the case in Morocco as I disappeared from my own reality and became a shadow amongst the colors on a different cultural stage. Morocco imprinted a complex enigma of woven colors, textures, scents and sounds much like El Manantial, my birthplace in northern Mexico.

Heather Carter's and Nicholas Dertien's distinct three-dimensional work intersects in TIDES, an ON SITE installation which calls attention to the ebb and flow of time. Carter's lifeboats - constructed of bent wood and reclaimed materials - and Dertien's glass and ceramic surfaces play with light and shadow as they crisscross the gallery's open spaces. Embracing shared themes, the two Austin area artists speak metaphorically of human thresholds, generational imprints, and what we leave in our wake.

Focusing on environmental stewardship issues, Heather Carter [BFA, Southwestern University] is both sculptor and journalist. She lives and works in Wimberley in an off-grid solar powered house/studio. Commissioned by the City of Austin, she created The Souls of the Trees, a multi-piece bent wood installation which hangs in the Spicewood Springs Library.

Nicholas Dertien - artist, designer, glass blower - received his MFA in 2009 from Rhode Island School of Design. Upon returning to Austin, he set up his studio and workshop in a converted quonset hut at ArtPost in East Austin where he introduced his clear glass torsos and photograms in E.A.S.T. 2010.

PRESENCE / ABSENCE, a collaboration between Gallery Shoal Creek and The Texas Advanced Computing Center, explores the work of four artists who use digital media to transform the content and experience of their work. The digital exhibition, a collaboration between Gallery Shoal Creek and The Texas Advanced Computing Center, will be on view at the ACES Visualization Lab on the UT campus, April 7 and 9.

Jill Lear is known for her large scale mixed media renderings of magnificent trees identified by their coordinates. In these, she expresses the landscape as a particular, defined and measured place - those PLACES identified by longitude and latitude. While completing a 2010 artist residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York, Lear broadened her explorations to include the idea of territory, that amorphous, intuitive SPACE arrived at through an accumulation of sensory experiences.

New York based figurative painter, Milt Kobayashi, is known internationally for his intimate, urban works in which he distills the essence of a casual moment. Expressive narrative, cadence of color, and brevity of the brushstroke characterize the subtle style the artist has perfected. Mr. Kobayashi and Gallery Shoal Creek have had a close association for over twenty-five years.

Gallery Shoal Creek will showcase new work by Aleksander and Lyuba Titovets in a fall exhibition which opens on October 22 and runs through November 20, 2010. The classically trained duo immigrated from St. Petersburg, Russia, and both have achieved much artistic success and numerous accolades since arriving in their adopted country in 1992. The Titovets will be in Austin for the opening reception on Friday, October 22, from 6 to 8 pm at the gallery's central Austin space.

Gallery Shoal Creek will launch the Fall 2010 exhibition schedule with PAPER 2 which opens on September 2, and runs through October 2, 2010. The Exhibition explores the creative process of five artists whose work incorporates printmaking, collages, and sculptural works of hand-made paper. The gallery will host an artists reception on Friday, September 17.

The artists represent a continuum of personal and artistic experiences. Yet, all share a devotion to the medium of paper, a strong foundation in printmaking, and a sense of discovery inherent to the multi-staged creative process each pursues.