“Tom Franco: Billow Talk, Rock Walk” July 8th, 2022 – August 20th, 2022 Opening reception:Friday, July 8th, 5-8 PM Space Ten is extremely excited to present “Billow Talk, Rock Walk,” an exhibition of sculpture by artist Tom Franco, on view at the gallery from July 8th to August 27, 2022. Heavily influenced and inspired by the Bay Area funk movement, Tom Franco’s sculpture draws on the vernacular of funk assemblage as well as folk and outsider art. Throwaway objects and materials offer surprising, semi-recognizable forms as substrata for his quirky, sensuously painted sculptures. Paint layered upon bottles, bottle caps, shoes, ceramics, toys, discarded appliances, tools, and other found objects marry Franco’s rich inner world with poignant observations of life in and around his home in Oakland, California. “There is something about including as many layers to a work that can reasonably fit,” writes Franco. “Layers of color, images, combining my favorite objects and themes, layers of meaning, searching for answers in the work…” As Franco builds up his layers of paint, the sculptures become spontaneous playgrounds for Franco’s nimble, often absurd narrative imagination. In one sculpture, a Singer sewing machine becomes an undersea vessel surrounded by a school of variegated tropical fish; in another, a tiger inexplicably balances on the nose of a rocketship. Each of Franco’s artworks invites viewers to enter a dreaming world brimming with his own characteristic humor and sense of play. Tom Franco (b. 1980), born in Palo Alto, California, is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Oakland, California. Franco is the co-creator and sole director of the Firehouse Art Collective, a network of collaborative artist spaces in California and Nevada. “Billow Talk, Rock Walk” is Franco’s first solo gallery exhibition in Los Angeles and his first exhibition with Space Ten.