OpArt dances in a sea of color

Actually, these paintings belong to their own movement in art history and the ones inside this Burlingame gallery are truly vintage.

"Op Art began in the early '60s until the early '70s," said artist Liz Mamorsky. " Most of these paintings were done when I lived in New York City and I was in my 20s. Other paintings in the Op Art movement had more edgy or spiky shapes in them. I was the only one doing these soft cellular shapes at the time. An art critic actually coined the phrase 'Organic abstraction,' through these works."

Op Art became popular around the time acrylic paints became widely available. A typical Op Art piece will have an extremely smooth canvas surface that oil paints can't produce.

The art movement is also a study of complementary colors of equal value, which basically means choosing two colors opposite each other on the color wheel. On top of that, the colors have to be extremely bright because one of the effects these paintings are supposed to give off is a retinal flash. Basically when you look at the paintings you still see the shapes after you look away.

Mamorsky works with no natural light to create these paintings; she uses studio light to mimic a gallery to successfully achieve the retinal flash.

Mamorsky also has to mix her own colors to come up with the level of vividness her paintings display. This proved difficult to recreate after a fire took away her home of 27 years and damaged two thirds of this current exhibit.

In 1999, Mamorsky got a phone call in her San Francisco art studio "Lizland," telling her about the fire. Sparks from a roofing project next door to her Victorian home ignited and she lost almost everything.

She went down to her basement where most of her Op Art pieces have been stored and found that the damage was mostly from water and smoke rather than fire.

"I didn't look at them much because I was afraid, but they didn't look that bad, mostly nicks," said Mamorsky. "It took about a year to mix the colors again and then I got into it and received such a feeling of satisfaction in doing the repairs. It took me back to that space in the '60s and going over all those cellular shapes making them smooth was my own therapy."

Now anyone can see these paintings in their glory in an exhibit titled Modernism at 1212 Donnelly Ave. in Burlingame. The paintings are from 1964 to 1973 and will be shown there until Feb. 13, 2005 before moving on to the Palm Springs convention center from Feb. 18 through Feb. 20.

Mamorsky will be talking about these pieces at a reception also at the 1212 Gallery on Thursday Jan. 20, 6 p.m. To 9 p.m.

"When people come here they will be seeing vintage work, important work, authentic from a period in time," said Mamorsky. "That is what's important about this collection and it's a great opportunity for everyone to come down and learn."