Opening Reception: Saturday, August 28, 1-4pm

Exhibition Dates: August 24-September 25, 2010

Name of Show: Old U.S. 99, Paintings by Dennis Ziemienski Along Old Highway 99 Exhibition

Location: Knowlton Gallery, 115 S. School St., #114, Lodi, CA 95240

Gallery hours: Tues-Sun 11am-5pm

The Knowlton Gallery is pleased to be featuring a show of new works by Dennis Ziemienski. Dennis has chosen California’s Old U.S. 99 (now known as Highway 99) as the theme of this body of work. Old U.S. Highway 99 was California’s first major north-south highway, at one time reaching from Mexico to the Oregon border. Built in the 1910’s and ‘20s, many dust bowl refugees traveled this road looking for employment, including Steinbeck’s fictional Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath. “A large part of the Sicilian side of my family,” says Ziemienski, “lived along this route, so it became our family’s favorite road trip.” His show will lead the viewer down the mid-century eucalyptus and palm lined U.S. Highway 99, from California’s capital south through the San Joaquin Valley to greater Los Angeles. Take this journey and re-live a refreshment stop at a Giant Orange, the panorama of mile upon mile of row crops punctuated by produce stands, a cool dip in a motel pool, competing neon arrows, Dairy Queens, and sleepy Main Streets. “Nearly all these images have been lost to highway upgrades and modern tastes, but the memories live on in the imagination of the people who traveled Old U.S. 99” Ziemienski’s narrative painting style is perfectly suited to the challenge of capturing California from this unique perspective. A native San Franciscan, Dennis Ziemienski graduated cum laude from the California College of Arts and Crafts. Interest in representational drawing and painting eventually led him to New York and a successful career in illustration. Dennis is known internationally for his work with Time-Life, Levi-Straus, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times. His paintings are featured on many well-known book covers including Tales of the City by Armisted Maupin and several covers for authors James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard. His compelling poster images include Super Bowl XXIX, the Napa Valley Mustard Festival, the Kentucky Derby, and the California Bear Flag Sesquicentennial. A member of the Oil Painters of America, the California Art Club and New York Society of Illustrators, Ziemienski has taught at the California College of the Arts, and the Academy of Art in San Francisco.

The Opening Reception will take place, Saturday, August 28, from 1 – 4 pm at the Knowlton Gallery located at 115 S. School Street #14, Lodi, CA 95240. Additional information regarding Dennis Ziemienski is available at www.ziemienski.com.