Sophie Johnson gazed into the many layers of color in the painting. Delicate blue tones washed over the faint outlines of a mother and son emerging from a hazy background.

“The layering of images is like the way memories build on each other,” said Johnson, an SF State senior liberal studies major.

Johnson, 21, is the curator for the upcoming show at The Art Gallery, “Aimee and Steve Dent: Recent Works,” located on the second floor of the Cesar Chavez Student Center. The installation will open on Feb. 7 with a reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“I think [the Dents’ installation] will be very engaging and accessible for students,” Johnson said.

Co-founders of Corridor 2122, an artists’ collective and studio space in Fresno, Aimee and Steve Dent are central to the surrounding artistic community and have a reputation throughout California for their commitment to artistic expression, Johnson said.

“We are very excited to be showing our art in San Francisco and at the university,” said Aimee Dent, 31.
An admirer of the Dents’ artwork ever since childhood, Johnson said she is impressed with the changes and evolution apparent in their newest creations.

“It’s been really great for me as a viewer to see their art progress, and what new directions it is taking,” she said.

In a piece called “Contemplating Chi,” the figure of a woman with closed eyes has an expression of complete serenity and protection. Colors and patterns cascade down her body, the lower half of which seems to be embedded within a cocoon. Drawing inspiration from her experience with the martial art of aikido, Aimee Dent said that the piece represents self-empowerment and confidence.

“It is about being in a state of peace and contemplation, [and] finding clarity amidst the chaos,” she said.

In her recent works, Aimee Dent also experimented with mixed media and transformed recycled materials into new forms of expression. Included in this are materials such as grocery lists, nylon stockings and notes and sketches.

“I wanted to find new meaning and interest in the everyday things that are accumulated and discarded throughout the day,” she said.

Although the Dents are a married couple, Johnson points out that as artists they work separately, and insists that the artistic approach of each is unique.

“They each have a very different style and objective in their work,” she said.

The style of Steve Dent’s work in this series is subtle, dreamlike and nostalgic, Johnson said. Inspired by photographs from his childhood, his paintings evoke memories and reflections of his past.

“They are serious paintings, but they also have an innocence about them,” Aimee Dent said.

The colors are smooth and atmospheric, heavily layered around the figures of his mother, father, and himself as a child.

One of the paintings is a scene of his grinning father sitting in a chair with his arm wrapped around his son, Steve, who was about three years old at the time.

“I’m going to be 40 years old this month, but sometimes I still feel like that kid sitting on that chair,” Steve Dent said.

Most of his memories of child-hood have to do with images, he said. The memories are reflected in layers of color, patterns, depth and dimension in some of his paintings.

“It’s kind of like a push and pull of what’s on the surface and what’s beneath,” said Steve Dent of his works.

He also incorporated geogra-phical maps and street maps into his artwork for this series, and used charcoal to shade in entire regions, creating new patterns, dimensions and textures to the underlying grid of each map.

“Ever since I was a kid I loved looking at maps,” Steve Dent said. “I could waste hours following lines, what everything means, trying to decipher the colors and symbols and what everything means.”

Johnson collaborated with the Dents to help decide which works would open the first show of the spring semester at The Art Gallery. She collaborated with the Dents to decide which works would be displayed, and how they would appear in the gallery, which she said influences audiences’ perception of the works.

“I’m really excited,” Aimee Dent said. “This is the first time we have worked with Sophie. I know she’s got an eye for things, so I’m not worried at all.”

The Dents’ works will show at The Art Gallery from the reception on Feb. 7 at 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. through March 5.