Ten community leaders subjects of artist's portrait exhibit

Long Beach artist Gregory Dane Sabin will present his collection of paintings entitled The Ten, featuring 10 of Long Beach’s renowned community leaders in a show that will run from Sunday, March 29 through Saturday, April 11. The exhibit will be on display at a newly developed retail space at 851 Pine Ave.
The 10 portraits, which are four feet by four feet, include: Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, Long Beach Fire Chief Mike DuRee, Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna, former Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell, Downtown Long Beach Associates President Kraig Kojian, Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association Executive Director Blair Cohn, Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau President & CEO Steve Goodling, Belmont Shore Business Association Executive Director Dede Rossi and Community Action Team leader Justin Rudd.

“The 10 portraits were created as a group— or series,” Sabin said. “It started during the mayoral campaign and the election of Robert Garcia— he was my first subject. The mayoral race captivated my attention being as Garcia was the first elected openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city. I also found his face and personality intriguing. The next portrait was the former police chief McDonnell, who I admired for his approach to crime within specific Long Beach neighborhoods. The series evolved from there, focusing on community leaders, and the subjects I chose all had in common facial features I found interesting.”

Sabin, a native of Seattle who relocated to Long Beach in 2004, is known primarily for his portraits of blue-collar working men and angst-ridden self-portraits, and more recently for an extensive series of raw meat and butcher-themed paintings completed in 2013. The Ten portrait series is reminiscent of Sabin’s expressive style, with facial features dramatically depicted and the remainder of the portrait left less developed.
“I’d spent some time traveling back and forth in a past life, and always loved the diversity of the city,” Sabin said of Long Beach. “And even the diversity of the neighborhoods within the city. Of course, being close to the ocean is appealing.”
A reception for the artist will take place at the space on Sunday, March 29 from 4pm to 7pm. The event is open to the public.

Sabin will be donating 25 percent of all sales from the exhibit to Food Finders food rescue/food bank.
“Being that I’m artist, I was interested in the CANstruction building competition benefiting Food Finders last summer, Sabin said. “I ended up volunteering for the event, and from that I learned about the problem of hunger in the community— in my own back yard. I was shocked that something so easily remedied in a country where so much perfectly good food goes to waste was even happening. It’s become an important personal cause and I just love the work that Food Finders is doing.”
For more information about Food Finders, visit foodfinders.org . For more information about the exhibit, contact Terri Henry at (562) 572-4770 or terri@terrihenrymarketing.com . For more information about the artist, visit gregorydanesabin.com .
Source: Terri Henry Marketing LLC