TUCSON, AZ.- The Gallery at 6th & 6th presents Ralph Iwamoto “Fifty Years of Abstraction” – a survey of major canvases from the last fifty years, on view January 5 – February 16, 2008.

Art talk: Sunday, January 6 at 2:00 pm, with the artist and Mark Pomilio, Professor of Fine Art at Arizona State University. Born in Hawaii in 1927, and a long-time resident of New York City , Iwamoto was an eyewitness to both the attack on Pearl Harbor , and the events of 9/11. This may partly explain his attraction to abstraction – the work is an escape from the anxieties of the real world, and explores the sublime pleasure of a perfect line, or the higher consciousness of complex mathematical concepts. Over the decades Iwamoto has moved from organic forms, muted colors, and elements from traditional Japanese art; to pure explorations of geometric and analytical concepts, culminating in the “quar-octagon” paintings in black and white. Iwamoto has exhibited regularly since 1948, and his work is in the collection of a number of major museums.