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.

Located on the top floor of the Artists Gallery, the loft gallery is a new exhibition space devoted to artworks not typically found in our rental inventory, such as installations, unframed works on paper, and wall and floor sculptures. Similar to a "project room," this space welcomes exploration and experimentation.

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

Infix: The Grammar of Insertion

BARRIONICS, Renée Billingslea, E. G. Crichton, Lisa R. Gould, Willie Little, Lewis Watts
February 4 - March 12, 2010
Main Gallery

Opening reception:
Thursday, February 4, 2010
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Revolving around the linguistic concept of the infix, an affix inserted within a word, this exhibition looks at the works of six Bay Area artists as infixes inserted within the language of the global art market and asks how these works and artists are changing the way we talk and think about art. Curated by Rico Reyes, Infix assembles some of the Bay Area’s most dynamic artists working in a diverse range of media and engaging in themes such as identity and gender, perception and humor, place and specters, packaging and the grotesque, residue and culture.

Foreclosure, USA: The Great Recession

February 4 - March 12, 2010
Loft Gallery

Opening reception:
Thursday, February 4, 2010
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Inspired by the dust bowl photographs of the Great Depression, Kirk Crippens photographed the home foreclosure crisis of 2008 and 2009; Stockton, CA, an epicenter of the foreclosure crisis, became his subject. As the project neared completion, he made it a priority to find creative and timely ways to take the photographs to the people.

As part of preparations for a grant proposal, he partnered from various nonprofit institutions including the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, the Sierra Club, and the Museum of the African Diaspora; this exhibition is an outgrowth of that collaboration.

Renée Billingslea, People Color #2, 2007; book, colored pencils, fabric, thread; 7 x 8 x 6 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

E. G. Crichton, Aquafresh, Clairol, Iodine, 2005-08; ink-jet print; 30 x 40 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Lisa R. Gould, Re-Packaged, Beef, 2009; Fuji prints mounted on masonite; 20 x 20 in. each; photo: courtesy the artist

Willie Little, Walking Sticks, 2008-09; wood, cockleburs, beads; dimensions variable, approximately 72 x 12 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Lewis Watts, Untitled (Harlem series), 2009; gelatin silver print; 20 x 16 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

BARRIONICS, Sarung Banggi, 2004; composite video stills; dimensions variable; photo: Johanna Poethig

Kirk Crippens, A Weston Ranch Christmas, 2009; archival pigment photograph; 24 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Kirk Crippens, End, 2009; archival pigment photograph; 24 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Kirk Crippens, Triny's House, 2009; archival pigment photograph; 24 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Kirk Crippens, Duplex, 2009; archival pigment photograph; 24 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Currently at Caffe Museo

Irene Hendrick

January 21 - March 2, 2010

In Irene Hendrick's painting Half of what we've been through, three boys sift through rubble in the aftermath of the Blitz on London. Hendrick obscures their faces with a glaze of white paint making them seem like a memory, but also opening them up to our own projections: the children in this scene become individuals depending on how the viewer completes their features.

Given Hendrick's subject matter (war and economic hardship), it is apropos that the viewer plays a part in constructing the image; a more literal rendering might have seemed like reportage.

In addition to allowing her to create what she calls a "vagueness," her muted palette and use of washes (acrylic paint thinned down to make it transparent) set the scenes firmly in England. Atmospheric creams, yellows, and browns stream down the canvas, momentarily shattering the illusion of pictorial space. In contrast, her use of red is measured and precise, yet seems to signal chance, vulnerability, or danger.

In her pictures, women push prams, pick crops, or have a pint at the pub. Like the characters in songs such as The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" and "Penny Lane," her people simply go about their business; it is Hendrick's lyrical style that invites viewers to think about what their lives are like. In Hendrick's own words these women represent "feminine unity and their mutual protection."

Growing up in London in the 1950s, she heard stories about the war from her mother, and later she referenced family photos and archive images to help her imagine the working-class experiences of the 1940s portrayed in some of her works. Clearly, Hendrick was affected by the fallout of World War II, but she is most interested in what she describes as, "the close bonds of friends and families in their everyday lives."

Irene Hendrick, Hospital Food, 2007; acrylic on canvas; 30 x 40 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, Morning Sky, 2008; acrylic on canvas; 48 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, Going for Broke, 2007; acrylic on canvas; 48 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, Half of what we've been through, 2007; acrylic on canvas; 30 x 24 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, Independent Thinking, 2008; acrylic on canvas; 30 x 24 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, Nigel's World, 2008; acrylic on canvas; 48 x 60 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, One Girl at a Time May Use This Machine, 2008; acrylic on canvas; 40 x 30 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, That Father and Mother Thing, 2007; acrylic on canvas; 30 x 40 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, Two Barristers, 2009; acrylic on canvas; 48 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Irene Hendrick, Walkin' Just the Same, 2008; acrylic on canvas; 48 x 36 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Currently at SFMOMA Garage Windows

Ari Salomon and Andy Vogt

February 6 - March 20, 2010
147 Minna and 150 Natoma Streets

In this collaborative art installation by photographer Ari Salomon and sculptor Andy Vogt, each artist relies on a systematic process to create large-scale abstract artworks. Salomon experiments with found-lighting situations to reveal hints of what is all around us but hidden by the limits of perception. Vogt transforms found-wood lath strips into architectural and geological constructions, and these new structural meditations examine how time and materials intersect with our perception of place. Both artists explore the concept of building abstractions of reality in order to bring another kind of reality into focus.

Ari Salomon, Motion Study #4999 (Palette Town), 2007; duratrans transparency and aluminum light box; 36 x 54 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Ari Salomon, Motion Study #4995 (Odaiba), 2007; duratrans transparency and aluminum light box; 36 x 54 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Ari Salomon, Motion Study #5470 (Beaubourg), 2007; duratrans transparency and aluminum light box; 36 x 54 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Ari Salomon, Motion Study #2331 (Lotus Pond), 2007; duratrans transparency and aluminum light box; 36 x 54 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Ari Salomon, Motion Study #8342 (Olympiastadion), 2007; duratrans transparency and aluminum light box; 36 x 54 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Andy Vogt, Barren Echelon, 2009; salvaged wood; 324 x 84 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Andy Vogt, Beneath the Monument, 2007; salvaged wood; 120 x 74 in.; photo: courtesy the artist

Andy Vogt, Sustained Decay, 2009; salvaged wood; dimensions variable; photo: courtesy the artist