Press Release for Dan Corbin’s Butte College Art Exhibition and Book Signing

The Butte College Art Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by Chico artist Dan Corbin. The exhibition will be on display from October 1 – November 1, 2018, in the Butte College Art Gallery. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, October 18, 2018, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Dan Corbin’s newly published book, Kiss of the Art Gods: A Thirty-year Art Journey, will be available for purchase and signing also at the opening reception Thursday, Oct. 18, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Food and refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.

Dan Corbin’s recent works including nine figurative sculptures and thirteen figurative paintings will be present in this show. Originally working out of a studio in Chico in the 90’s, Corbin is represented in collections across the country and around the world. A well-traveled sculpture from Dan Corbin’s figurative show at the Fresno Art Museum was recently placed in a Stockholm, Sweden collection. In the 90’s, Corbin’s career gained traction with a juried award at the Crocker Kingsley Museum (they now have one of his figurative pieces in their permanent collection) that was followed by a one-man show at the Redding Art Museum. In 1996 he had a one-man show in New York. After that exhibition, he says, “There was a demand for my work.” Corbin’s work stresses a convergence of the old with the new. A quote from his memoir, Kiss of the Art Gods, drives this point home when he comically describes his work, “Rodin meets an Australian aboriginal conceptualist and they began having kids.” Corbin’s work showcases a mastery of materials, textures, colors, and techniques. He considers his greatest compliment a nickname given to him by a fellow artist, “The Surface King.”

Please join us in celebrating Dan Corbin and the water and fire that have marked the life journey of this figurative sculptor.

The Butte College Art Gallery is located on the main Butte College campus, 3536 Campus Drive, in the new ARTS Building (ARTS 106) closest to parking lot 3. Gallery hours are Monday – 9:00-3:30, Tuesday – 9:00-2:00, Wednesday – 9:00-3:30, Thursday 9:00 – 2:00.  For more information, contact the Butte College Department of Art, Digital Art & Design, 530-895-2404.

This event is ADA compliant. Anyone requiring a specific accommodation or adjustment should contact Simone Senat no later than five (5) business days prior to this event. Contact can be made by calling 530-895-2404 or via email to senatsi@butte.edu.

Dan Corbin will also be signing his memoir at the Chico Barnes & Noble on Saturday, October the 20th 10:00 a.m. to 6 p.m., with two of his sculptures at the event. The event is open to the public.

Posters for Exhibition:

Dan Corbin’s newly updated and revised edition of his memoir “Kiss of the Art Gods” is now available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Friends, artists, and book lovers, I’m offering the ebook copy of my memoir for a limited time for $8.00 at ebook retailers. The paperback is still reasonable at $16.00 and can be purchased on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/1619846594 and Barnes and Noble. If you like the book, please leave a no-sweat review.

Here are the links to other ebook retailers:

North State Public Radio Interview with Dan Corbin hosted by Nancy Wiegman describing his memoir http://mynspr.org/post/nancys-bookshelf-dan-corbin#stream/0

 

Here’s what folks have already said about the memoir, reviews:
“Wonderful” … “Beautiful” … “Honest” … “Heartfelt”
“The book is an interesting read…and ultimately simply beautiful.” “A tribute to the buoyancy of the human spirit.” “Corbin’s memoir infused with humor, features an unforgettable heart- rendering authenticity of life’s pivotal moments.” “A fresh look at American culture … skillfully delivered by the chisel of a master.” “Corbin’s memoir is not a leisurely picturesque art voyage, but a rough and tumble discovery of his inner self.”  “A hard-hitting expose not just for artists but all humanity.”

For full reviews, go to https://kissoftheartgods.com/reviews/

 

 

Dan Corbin’s memoir “Kiss of the Art Gods” has been reviewed by the Chico Enterprise Record, calling the book an “intriguing and passionate story” and a “heartfelt mediation on the Art Gods reclaiming a wayward son”.

Chico Enterprise Record: Book review by Dan Barnett, Book Columnist

Cover

Water and fire have marked the life journey of figurative sculptor Dan Corbin. He worked out of a studio in Chico in the ’90s where he began to establish himself as a living artist who could actually make a living from his art. Represented in galleries across the country, Corbin has specialized in creating life-sized sculptures of the female form.

His work is at once industrial and sensual. “An art analogy of my new sculpture style goes as follows: Rodin meets an Australian aboriginal conceptualist, and they began having kids”.

There is no straight line from growing up in the ’50s on a peach orchard in the Yuba City area to becoming a successful studio artist. The intriguing and passionate story is told in “Kiss Of The Art Gods: Memoir Of A Sculptor” ($15.95 in paperback from Barnes & Noble also for Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/1619846594. Corbin’s website (kissoftheartgods.com) features a gallery of his work.

The great flood came in 1955, inundating the ranch, drawing a line between an idyllic family life and the unraveling of that family in the years to come. After the flood, 10-year-old Dan discovered an encyclopedia article on sculpture.

“Looking back now, fifty years later,” he writes, “I believe something mystical happened to me on that day.” “Art,” he adds, “is the nearest thing we have for getting it right and keeping it real”.

That leads to the Art Gods. “I believe these gods reside in our bodies, in our minds, or in our DNA as agents of cultural progress, social bonding, and peaceful change”.

The Art Gods give short shrift to the dilettante, to the puffed-up person who dismisses his mentors. From Reno to Hawaii, San Francisco to Chico, the lesson took a long time to learn. There were brawls, booze, babes; and typhoid fever.

At long last he listened. He saw that firing clay sculptures produced incredibly fragile work, that his art demanded a different medium. The Art Gods smiled: “When the Art Gods think you can carry the torch of social change, only then do they give you their cherished blessing”.

It’s a heartfelt meditation on the Art Gods reclaiming a wayward son.

Biblio File

Dan Barnett teaches philosophy at Butte College. Send review requests to dbarnett99@me.com. Columns archived at http://dielbee.blogspot.com.