Review By Charles Shere
Tribune Staff Writer
Peter Vandenberge is showing some impressively haunting sculpture at the Quay Gallery, 234 Sutter St., San Francisco. This is his first one-man show here. though his work has been seen in group shows, and it suggests that he will make a strong contribution to Northern California art.

Vandenberge was born and reared in Holland. and there may be some European sensibility left in his work both in its imager aria its technique. But his ceramic sculpture is clearly a part of the Bay Area scene: one plate, showing A whale, a whale-watcher and some funky blue waves, seems to refer to Robert Arneson’s celebrated work.
The large figurative pieces are knockouts. Strong, moody, ambiguous and rich, they reserve their “meaning.” About life size, they’re representational but by no means photorealistic. In fact, their power may come from the degree to which human form is modified, generalized.
Both “Vrouw” and “Seamstress” have an odd cartoonlike cast, but there’s no caricature
Peter Vandenberge’s ceramic ‘Vrouw.’ at the Quay Gallery, is 65 inches high.

here: the abstraction some he makes greater depth of individual character, not less. They removed from specific human existence and resonate that abstract kind of strength you associate with Dada painting and sculpture: the strength of enigmatic presence. Still, human significance remains, somehow, be-hind those eyes, those gestures. Its very mysterious. very arresting work. The Ruth Braunstein Gallery, in the same rooms, is showing new paintings by Russel Gordon. He’s forsaken his witty_ realism earlier paintings played with huge pop Art fried eggs and light bulbs for their imagery—and has taken up illusionism in-stead. Abstract shapes seem to float in front of the picture surface, casting shadows behind them: at the edges of the picture shapes develop window-like frames. The palette is muted and strong, with occasional bright spots suggesting those egg yolks haven’t entirely disappeared. The surfaces are deep and the composition tight.