Artists Gallery Exhibitions

Overview

In keeping with its mission to promote Northern California art, the SFMOMA Artists Gallery presents eight exhibitions each year in its main gallery. Focusing on both new and established artists, the exhibition program consists of solo, group, and thematic shows, and represents a diverse range of art practices, including painting, sculpture, photography, and new media works.

As an extension of the gallery's exhibition program at Fort Mason, solo shows featuring selected gallery artists are on view year-round at SFMOMA's Caffè Museo.

All exhibited works are available for rent or purchase. Please contact the Artists Gallery at 415.441.4777 or artistsgallery@sfmoma.org for more information.

Currently at Fort Mason

Wondrous Strange: A Twenty-first Century Cabinet of Curiosities

July 22 - August 28, 2010

Opening reception
Thursday, July 22, 2010
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Closing event in honor of Goethe's birthday
Saturday, August 28, 2010
2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

The sixteenth century's cabinets of curiosities, precursors to today's museums, were encyclopedic collections of specimens from the natural world, as well as man-made artifacts. These cabinets served as educational resources for artists and natural philosophers of the early modern period in western Europe.

Featuring works by more than a dozen Bay Area artists and including photography, sculpture, and painting, the exhibition explores themes such as evolutionary biology and history, progress and decadence, and the carnal and the intellectual. These contemporary artists adopt a range of styles that pre-date twentieth-century modernism and mine the early modern period — that age of discovery for sources of wonder.

Michele Muennig, Older than Dream, 2009; oil on canvas; 30 x 24 in; photo: courtesy the artist

Agelio Batle, Tree man stump, 2009; graphite and resin on panel; 60 x 48 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Misako Inaoka, Deer Hunter, 2009; mixed media; approximately 3 x 4 x 2 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Kirk Crippens, Homage to Gursky: "Kirksky," 2010; chromogenic print; 30 x 42 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Kathy Aoki, Tomb Room (Temporarily Closed), 2009; mixed media; dimensions variable; photo: courtesy the artist

Leslie Frierman Grunditz, SeanO, 2009; mixed media; approximately 36 x 24 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Sharon Beals, Swainson's Thrush, 2009; ink-jet print; 32 x 32 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Donald Farnsworth, Antiquarian Library (detail), 2005; tapestry; 62 x 158 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Jo Ann Biagini, Untitled (detail), 2010; mixed media; 36 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Shenny Cruces, Satin Girl Cup, 2008; cone 6 porcelain, decal, luster, and satin ; 5 x 6 x 4 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Currently at Caffe Museo

Jessica Snow

July 8 - August 17, 2010

Bay Area painter Jessica Snow takes her audience on board for a kind of flying tour, where one gets the pleasure of seeing things from above. Her abstract paintings take the viewer over abstract, colorful, organic, and geometric landscapes and topographies. Her complex compositions contain imaginative use of pictorial space and intermingling elements that overlap, twist, fold, layer, and bulge. Her palette is optimistic, bright, and alive, awakening the senses like a soft gust of air on a summer day.

Jessica Snow, Mechanism of a Passing Moment, 2007; oil on linen; 24 x 24 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Jessica Snow, Against Gravity, 2009; acrylic and oil on canvas; 54 x 60 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Jessica Snow, Architecture's Internal Logic, 2008; acrylic and oil on canvas; 38 x 42 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Jessica Snow, Blue Parts and Other Aspects (Thanks to B.H.), 2010; acrylic and oil on canvas; 68 x 72in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Jessica Snow, Restless Linearity of Life, 2007; acrylic and oil on canvas; 30 x 34 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Currently at SFMOMA Garage Windows

Jesse Hazelip

July 9 - November 13, 2010
147 Minna and 150 Natoma Streets

The Artists Gallery's exhibition Wondrous Strange: A Twenty-first-century Cabinet of Curiosities extends to SOMA with the works of Jesse Hazelip. This curbside public venue is appropriate for Hazelip, who began making art in the streets at an early age after moving to Santa Barbara, California, from the mountain desert town of Cortez, Colorado, located in Navajo and Ute Nation territory. Using animals synonymous with the American frontier, such as the buffalo, the bison, and the Great Blue Heron, Hazelip intricately drafts, renders, and recreates these creatures into hybrids at monumental scale, incorporating mechanisms of war like World War II bomber airplanes and artillery. His dialogue with viewers asks them to consider decisions made in the past and reconsider the present and future, all the while never forgetting about the land we share and the responsibilities we have towards humanity.

Jesse Hazelip, Ghost Dance, 2009; acrylic on found wood; 79 x 49 in.; photo: Randy Dodson

Jesse Hazelip, Odin, 2009; wheat paste on found wood; 96 x 48 in.; photo: Randy Dodson

Jesse Hazelip, Fatman, 2009; acrylic, aerosol paint, watercolor, and ink on found wood; 67 x 49 in.; photo: Randy Dodson

Jesse Hazelip, The Celestial Siren, 2009; acrylic and ink on found wood; 34 x 56 in.; photo: Randy Dodson

Jesse Hazelip, 509th, 2009; acrylic, aerosol paint, watercolor, and ink on found wood; 60 x 36 in.; photo: Chris Blackstock

Jesse Hazelip, Installation, 2010; wheat paste and aerosol paint on found wood

Jesse Hazelip, Time 'll Tell, 2008; wheat paste on found wood; 84 x 131 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Upcoming at Fort Mason

Clare Rojas: Male Preserve

September 16 - October 30, 2010

Opening reception
Thursday, September 16, 2010
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

In the exhibition Male Preserve, Clare Rojas presents a body of work dedicated to the male nude. Sometimes referred to as folk, sometimes cartoon, Rojas's work is of a vernacular all its own while her use of line as a means of expression demonstrates one of her outstanding artistic gifts. In this show, she uses color and lines to create personable characters to great effect — sometimes funny, surreal, poignant, vulnerable, or even naïve. Certain images show naked men in poses reserved for naked women in our media culture. But rather than be objectified, Rojas's vulnerable naked men will be protected more by women. It is perhaps through women, nature, and animals that her men find wisdom, protection, and a common ground or understanding.

Clare Rojas, Untitled (Two men, one candle), 2008; gouache on paper; 8 1/2 x 11 in.; photo: courtesy Gallery Paule Anglim

Clare Rojas, Red Hooded Man and Baby Star, 2009; gouache and latex on panel; 19 x 24 in.; photo: courtesy Gallery Paule Anglim

Clare Rojas, Man walking in a field of lilies, 2006; gouache and latex on panel; 12 x 12 in.; photo: courtesy Gallery Paule Anglim

Clare Rojas, Untitled (27.03), 2007; gouache and latex on panel; 8 x 8 in.; photo: courtesy Gallery Paule Anglim

Clare Rojas, Untitled, 2006; gouache and latex on panel; 5 1/2 x 5 in.; photo: courtesy Gallery Paule Anglim

Clare Rojas, Untitled, 2006; gouache and latex on panel; 12 x 12 in.; photo: courtesy Gallery Paule Anglim

Upcoming at Caffe Museo

John W. Wood

August 19 - September 28, 2010

With a soft, natural, sophisticated palette and bold accents, John Wood's abstract paintings seduce viewers into the realm of his artistic process. Energy takes form through a succession of layers of graphite, crayon, oil pastel, pigment stick, and sometimes enamel. Wood’s keen awareness of materials allows him to translate the sensual, tactile world around us. About his work, Wood says, "I seek the sublime: those moments when images, sounds, or emotions transport me, and I strive to create similar sensations."

John W. Wood, Paraphrasing Walt Whitman, 2009, mixed media, unstretched canvas, 130 x 108 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

John W. Wood, Paraphrasing Walt Whitman (work in progress), 2009, mixed media, unstretched canvas, 130 x 108 in.; photo: Adam Parsons

John W. Wood, Frothing From Branches, 2010, mixed media on paper mounted on panel, wax varnish, 34 x 34 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

John W. Wood, Simple Hidden Things, 2009, mixed media on paper mounted on panel, wax varnish, 21 x 21 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

John W. Wood, Simple Pleasures, 2003; mixed media on paper mounted on panel, wax varnish; 40.5 x 40 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

John W. Wood, Not Quite a Safe Haven, 2009; mixed media on paper mounted on panel, wax varnish; 21 x 21 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

John W. Wood, Never Satisfied Appetite, 2009; mixed media on paper mounted on panel, wax varnish; 34 x 34 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

John W. Wood, Just to Avoid Being Abandoned, 2009; mixed media on paper mounted on panel, wax varnish; 34 x 34 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

John W. Wood, Covered in Fallen Leaves, 2009; mixed media on paper mounted on panel, wax varnish; 21 x 21 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Emily Lazarre

September 30 - November 9, 2010

Emily Lazarre's technique of layering dry painted paper allows her to extract and expose images. As she describes it, "the collage finds its own border and is never predetermined." This particular grouping offers subtlety and a range of nuanced color that is of great importance to the artist: "Memory dictates place and color and light. There is no way to change the facts: what was pink must be pink, and what was blue is still blue. Abstraction derives from what is true."

Emily Lazarre, Calling, 2010; collage, oil on paper; 36 x 39 in.; photo: Sibila Savage

Emily Lazarre, Clearing, 2008; collage, oil on paper; 36 x 34 in.; photo: Sibila Savage

Emily Lazarre, Cross Currents, 2008; collage, oil on paper; 31 x 50 in.; photo: Sibila Savage

Emily Lazarre, Rewind, 2009; collage, oil on paper; 34 x 34 in.; photo: Sibila Savage