TUCSON, AZ.- The Gallery at 6th & 6th presents Joshua Olivera, on view September 8 – October 27, 2007. The exhibition will feature mixed media paintings on wood panels. As a boy, Joshua Olivera showed a talent for staining woods that impressed his wood-worker father. Today, Olivera uses that talent artistically, creating abstract works on wood panels that start with stain, and then employ shellac, mylar, resin and acrylic. A strong, formal structure pervades his work - a reflection of his interest in the confluence of architecture and agriculture. Olivera grew up in the farmlands of northern California , where the processes of tilling, planting, harvesting and erosion pervade everyday life, and to the artist represent both birth and decay. These memories, and the choice of utilitarian materials, inform his paintings, resulting in works that range from the completely non-objective, to the near-landscape.