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Exhibition

Close to Home

Creativity in Crisis
March 6–September 5, 2021
Floor 3

Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis brings together seven Bay Area artists ― Carolyn Drake, Rodney Ewing, Andres Gonzalez, James Gouldthorpe, Klea McKenna, Tucker Nichols, and Woody De Othello ― and their deeply personal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and social upheaval of 2020. Their projects emerged from the profound curtailing of daily life that resulted from shelter in place: the disruption of routines and the inaccessibility of studios or materials, the instability in employment, and the delicate and sometimes untenable balance struck between family needs and work obligations. These challenges demanded an adaptive way of working; rather than closing off opportunities, the constraints prompted new approaches and new lines of inquiry.

Individually, the artists demonstrate a startlingly wide range of artistic, emotional, and political responses, a reminder of how this unprecedented period affects each of us differently. Taken together, their work emphasizes our shared experience in this collective crisis.


Exhibition Preview

James Gouldthorpe, COVID Artifact 81, 2020; courtesy the artist; © James Gouldthorpe
Carolyn Drake, Isolation Therapy, 2020; courtesy the artist; © Carolyn Drake
Andres Gonzalez, Sempervirens (Always Flourishing), 2020; courtesy the artist; © Andres Gonzalez
Woody De Othello, Definitely a Mood, 2020; collection Michael Sherman; © Woody De Othello
Klea McKenna, No Feeling Is Final, 2020 (detail); courtesy the artist, EUQINOM Gallery, San Francisco, and Gitterman Gallery, New York; © Klea McKenna
Rodney Ewing, One Has to Be (George Junius Stinney, Jr.), 2020; courtesy the artist; © Rodney Ewing
Tucker Nichols, Flowers for anyone who had something healthy in mind for dinner tonight and ended up eating a tray of tater tots, 2020; courtesy the artist; © Tucker Nichols

Generous support for Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis is provided by Joachim and Nancy Hellman Bechtle and Kate and Wes Mitchell.

Meaningful support is provided by Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard.

Header image: James Gouldthorpe, COVID Artifact 81, 2020; courtesy the artist; © James Gouldthorpe