Lauren Jade Szabo: Be Like Water

November 12, 2022 - December 23, 2022
Second Floor Gallery
November 12, 3:00–5:00pm

Lauren Jade Szabo: Be Like Water
November 12 – December 23, 2022

Artists Talk
December 4, 2:00–2:30pm
Join artist Lauren Szabo for a conversation about her process and the paintings in Be Like Water.

Be Like Water is a painting-centered interdisciplinary exhibition created by Lauren Jade Szabo, MarinMOCA’s 2022 Artist in Residence. The show focuses on underwater imagery that reflects our human connection to the natural world and man-made environment through the essential element of water. 

Szabo chose to include this theme during her residency as a meditation on the transformative properties of water, focusing on subjects below the surface being centers of contemplation for healing, symbiosis, and mindfulness. 

The title, Be Like Water, is derived from a concept articulated by many, most famously perhaps by Bruce Lee. In Lauren’s work, it also touches on the idea of radical acceptance and the ephemerality of all things. 

The exhibition will include a new series of paintings and the single-channel video Of Water (2022) developed in collaboration with filmmakers Bryan and Vita Hewitt. Additional collaborations on the project include movement by Lauren Godla, poetry by Rhiannon Hewitt, and an original score by Valerio Belloni. Taken together, the installation asks what we can learn from water. The work carries deeper explorative and collaborative inquiries about our relationship to the earth's rivers and oceans, climate change, and our ever-shifting landscape.

Be Like Water Opening Reception
November 12, 3-5pm
Live Performance at 4pm
Featuring movement by Lauren Godla and vocals by Hannah Levy.
Duration 5-10 minutes.

Watch the opening reception performace HERE.

About Lauren Jade Szabo. Lauren Jade Szabo is a Los Angeles-born artist who lives and works in the Bay Area. She graduated with a BFA in Illustration from California College of the Arts with distinction, and received an MFA Fellowship from San Francisco Art Institute for graduate study in Painting, completed in 2018. Her work has been exhibited in the Bay Area and internationally and is in private collections in Europe, South Africa, and the United States. Szabo received an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant to support Be Like Water. Learn More

Artworks courtesy of the artist. Image credits:
Blessings Seen and Unseen, 2022, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in
Bittersweet, 2022, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
Freedom Within Limitations, 2022, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Follow the String

October 29, 2022 - December 23, 2022
Main Gallery
Saturday October 29, 2:00 – 4:00pm

Lexa Walsh: Consolidated Mess

August 20, 2022 - November 6, 2022
Second Floor Gallery
Consolidated Mess: Tea Talk | November 5, 2 - 4pm
October 1 , 4 - 6pm

The Mills Building

June 23, 2022 - October 20, 2022
Offsite Exhibition

The Mills Building
220 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 
Hours: Mon-Fri, 7am-6pm. 

The Swig Company is pleased to present an exhibition featuring MarinMOCA artists Janey Fritsche, Elena Guryeva, Tania Houtzager, Kerith Lisi, Gloria Matuszewski, Aya Okawa, Laura Roebuck, Susan Shipley, Marine Strage and Lauren Szabo. The exhibition was juried by Kerri C. Hurtado, of Artsource Consulting, and is organized in conjunction with MarinMOCA's Art Everywhere! program.

MarinMOCA’s Art Everywhere! program is dedicated to serving the artist members of MarinMOCA by expanding awareness of their work through the development of partnerships with local Bay Area venues. The program seeks to create opportunities for artists to display their artwork in off-site locations such as office buildings, businesses, store fronts, art events, and art exhibitions, among other platforms. The program is committed to celebrating MarinMOCA artists and Art Everywhere!



image credit: Kerith Lisi, Overlap #3, hardcover book on wood panel 

Cara Gulati: Wrapped In Color

June 18, 2022 - August 14, 2022
Second Floor Gallery
Saturday, June 18, 2-4pm.

Wrapped In Color is an exhibition of stunning art quilts by artist member Cara Gulati. This immersive exhibition of sumptuous fabric and thread paintings envelops viewers via Gulati's dynamic compositions and use of vibrant colors. Swirling flowers, shapes, and ribbons meander through space, providing an engaging three-dimensional visual experience that will delight visitors of all ages. Gulati states: Color is the most important element in my work. Bright saturated colors that make the heart pound faster, the pupils dilate and the hands desire to reach out to touch. The look and feel of fabric provide a tactile sense of the familiar, while thread work adds depth and texture.

The exhibition will open to the public with a reception on Saturday, June 18, 2-4pm.

The 2022 Members’ Showcase exhibition series is juried by Donna Seager of Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley

About the Artist
Cara Gulati specializes in fiber art, teaching and lecturing internationally. From selling fabric and clothing, to designing and wholesaling a line of children’s wear, fabric has always had a role in her career. In addition to creating contemporary quilts, Gulati also illustrates and publishes books and patterns for quilters. 

Lamplit Flower, 2020, fabric and thread
Undulant Blossom #3, 2020, fabric and thread
Five Iridescent Buds, 2020, fabric and thread
Shell Swirl, 2021, fabric and thread
Undulant Blossom #2, 2020, fabric and thread
Courtesy of the artist
 

Jean Conner: Inner Garden

June 18, 2022 - August 28, 2022
Main Gallery
In Conversation: Dr. Anastasia Aukeman and Dr. Natasha Boas I July 20, 5pm

Read about the upcoming exhibition on the KQED Visual Arts Guide

Jean Conner: Inner Garden chronicles the artist’s prolific yet under-studied career, spanning 1954 to the present day, and showcases her work across a range of media. The 60 works included, many exhibited here for the first time, depict Conner’s interests in nature and spirituality. Influenced by the legendary Bay Area botanist Ida Geary and nineteenth century French Symbolists Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon, Conner’s works display her animated imagination through the use of religious symbolism, dream-like imagery, flora and fauna. Given Conner’s reticence to share her work publicly and the outsize role her husband, artist Bruce Conner (1933-2008), played in the art world, her contributions have gone largely unnoticed. Inner Garden is among the first museum presentations devoted to this historically overshadowed artist. 

Taken as a whole, the exhibition emphasizes the artist’s intimate relationship with themes of nature and the imagination, connections that emerge most profoundly when looking at the arc of her career. Conner’s work connects the visible with the invisible and looks to nature as a space in which the world can be known and understood. The artist continues to defy categorization, forging a path defined by her own unique approach to artmaking, and its link to the routine activities of daily life. 

Admission: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and children. Free for members.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue including contributions by Natasha Boas and Robert Conway.
Beginning on June 22, docent tours will occur every Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm.

This exhibition is generously supported by The Herbst Foundation. 
Additional support is provided by Ron Casentini, Daniel and Susan Daniloff, and William Otton.

Images:

Aztec Warrior, 1990, Watercolor, 30 x 22 in.
Untitled, 1961, Oil painting, 25.75 x 21.75 in.
Untitled, 1968, Oil painting, 23 x 19.25 in.
Flight of the Condor August 13, 2017, 2017, Collage on paper, 12.24 x 9 in.
All works courtesy the Conner Family Trust and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco; (c) Conner Family Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York]

Elisheva Biernoff: The Tools Are In Your Hands

April 2, 2022 - December 23, 2022
Ron Collins Gallery
Reception: Saturday, April 2, 3-5pm

Elisheva Biernoff: The Tools Are in Your Hands, is an immersive, interactive mural installation that will delight visitors of all ages and highlights MarinMOCA's historic campus and location at Hamilton Field. Originally conceived for an  exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Biernoff has adapted the installation for MarinMOCA, responding to an original mural sited within the museum’s lobby, and the utopian mindset, and vision, behind the creation of the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project and the Bay Trail. Airstrips where bombers had taxied were submerged to make way for restored coastal wetlands; toxic waste was cleaned up so wildlife could return, and over three decades, scores of people have worked together in an ongoing project to create 500 miles of hiking trails along the shorelines of the Bay Area.

Biernoff's stylized landscape, painted on steel sheets, resembles the surrounding terrain of Marin. Using her site-specific magnet designs, referencing the mingling and co-existence of nature, farmland, and the built environment unique to Hamilton Field, visitors can participate in the creation of a utopian landscape, building on previous formations or creating new ones. Visually and conceptually, the piece evokes children’s toys, such as Colorforms or Legos, that allow one to reconfigure a scene at will. The installation is ultimately hopeful: We can, and do, shape our world through individual and collective action.

An accompanying artist-designed takeaway map will be available in the lobby to guide visitors from the museum to nearby trails where they can enjoy the restored coastal wetlands and the history of Hamilton Field. 

Imagine Utopia and See What Sticks [link] 

Images:
Cover: Elisheva Biernoff, Hamilton Field magnet designs, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Elisheva Biernoff, Installation view of The Tools Are In Your Hands, 2013, commissioned for Work in Progress: Considering Utopia, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Steel, acrylic latex, and magnets. Courtesy of the artist and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

The Potential of Objects

April 2, 2022 - June 5, 2022
Thursday, April 21, 2022, 5–6 PM via Zoom. In conversation: Demetri Broxton and Natani Notah

The Potential of Objects has been selected as an Artforum Critics' Pick. You can check out the full review here.

Artists in the exhibition: Teresa Baker, Ashwini Bhat, Demetri Broxton, Sophronia Cook, Tyler Cross & Kyle Lypka, Renée Gertler, Cathy Lu, Masako Miki, Natani Notah and Peter Simensky.

The Potential of Objects highlights eleven emerging artists with ties to the Bay Area who use everyday materials to explore the human condition. In their hands, objects become transformative—vessels, mirrors, talismans—and engage with a range of social and political issues.

The works on view deploy a combination of natural and artificial materials, from clay, fiber, minerals, and shells to AstroTurf, pleather, resin, and steel, to draw out hidden meanings and latent possibilities. Teresa Baker, Demetri Broxton, Cathy Lu, Masako Miki, and Natani Notah manipulate traditional cultural objects through a contemporary lens to challenge our assumptions of identity, borders, and inherited values. Ashwini Bhat, Sophronia Cook, Tyler Cross and Kyle Lypka, Renée Gertler, and Peter Simensky invent entirely new forms as conduits for healing, preservation, intimacy, and universal connection. The works provoke questions: How does identity relate to inanimate objects? Can things connect disparate geographies, or past and present? And when does object making become an act of resistance? 

The exhibition reflects recent contemporary debates around visual culture, and also draws from a long history in both Eastern and Western philosophy of pondering the “vital forces” of the supposedly inanimate. All of the featured artists suggest that matter, things, and nonhuman forces have agency, vitality, and auras of their own. A vibrant materialism imbues their work.

As we collectively reemerge from prolonged separation and try to make sense of today’s polarized culture, conflicting values, and distortions of truth, these artists consider the potential of objects to wrestle with the pressing issues of our time. They demonstrate the alchemical power of sculpture to question, transform, and restore our relationships to the things that surround us, and to one another.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by Linda Jesmock and William Otton.

Admission: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students. Free for members.

Learn more:
Read the exhibition brochure
Read the press release

Public Programs:

Docent tours
Begin April 6 and take place Wednesdays at 11am and Saturdays at 2pm. 

Thursday, April 21, 2022, 5–6 PM on Zoom. Free. Register here today.
In conversation: Demetri Broxton and Natani Notah, moderated by Amy Owen 
Join artists Demetri Broxton and Natani Notah for a conversation about their dynamic practices and works on view in The Potential of Objects. The two will discuss how cultural objects find their way into mainstream contemporary culture and how their work aspires to reveal and nurture understanding across cultural divides. Moderated by Amy Owen. 

Saturday, May 14, 2022, 2–4 PM 
Community Dream Pillow Ceramics Workshop with Cathy Lu 
MarinMOCA Classroom 
$60/$50 for members, includes materials and firing. Capacity is limited. Advance registration required via Brown Paper Tickets.
Appropriate for ages 14+, must be accompanied by an adult.

Join artist Cathy Lu for a special collaborative ceramics workshop! The artist will provide a brief walk through of her works in The Potential of Objects followed by a special community based studio session in MarinMOCA's classroom. During this two-hour workshop, Lu will guide the group in creating a community "dream pillow" inspired by her works on view in the gallery. Participants will also have the opportunity to create their own personal dream pillow "charms." See the exhibition guide to learn more about Lu's work and the history of the ceramic dream pillow.

All art materials and firing will be provided by MarinMOCA. Completed charms will be available for pick-up at a later date. No experience necessary.

Sunday, June 5, 2022, 11 AM–4 PM 
Closing reception and Family Day Shape-Shifter Workshop inspired by the work of Masako Miki
MarinMOCA Galleries and Classroom 

Artist Biographies:

Teresa Baker (b. 1985, Watford City, ND) is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. In 2021 she had solo exhibitions at de boer gallery, Los Angeles, and Pied-à-terre, San Francisco. She has exhibited widely in the San Francisco Bay Area, including at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, Kiria Koula, Et al., and the Luggage Store Gallery. In 2016 she had her first solo museum show at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont. She has received the fellowship for Native American visual artists at the Ucross Foundation (2020), a Tournesol Award artist residency at Headlands Center for the Arts (2013–14), and an artist residency at MacDowell (2015). Baker holds a MFA from California College of the Arts and a BA from Fordham University.

Ashwini Bhat (b. 1980, Puttur, India) currently lives and works in Petaluma. Coming from a background in literature and classical Indian dance, she now works in ceramics, sculpture, installation, and performance. Bhat has been a recipient of the McKnight residency fellowship and the Howard Foundation award for sculpture. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and resides in the collections of the Newport Art Museum, Rhode Island; Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Koka, Japan; the FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum, Xi’an, China; the Watson Institute at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; the New Bedford Historical Society, Massachusetts, and many private collections. She has been reviewed and featured in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Alta Journal, the Brooklyn Rail, Lana Turner: A Journal of Poetry and Opinion, Riot Material, Ceramic Art and Perception, Ceramics Ireland, New Ceramics, Caliban, Crafts Arts International, Studio Potter, American Craft Council, Logbook, and Ceramics Monthly.

Demetri Broxton (b. 1979, Oakland) is a mixed-media artist of Louisiana Creole and Filipino heritage. His textile sculptures reflect his connection to the sacred art of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, the beading traditions of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians, and his love of hip-hop and graffiti. Broxton holds a BFA with an emphasis in oil painting from the University of California, Berkeley (2002) and an MA in museum studies from San Francisco State University (2010). His work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco (2019), Untitled Art Fair, Miami Beach (2021, 2020), and Kala Art Institute, Berkeley (2021). His work is in the permanent collection of the Monterey Museum of Art and several private collections. He is represented by Patricia Sweetow Gallery in San Francisco.

Sophronia Cook (b. 1992, Sanger, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles. Cook’s heavily textured, sculptural collage works compound images while sealing the replicas of both familiar and distant memories. She has exhibited in the Bay Area at Embark Gallery, SOMArts, Diego Rivera Gallery, Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, and most recently Et al. She has been an artist in residence with Recology and LightSource in San Francisco and has been featured at LVL3 gallery, Chicago.

Tyler Cross (b. 1992, Lancaster, CA) and Kyle Lypka (b. 1987, Philadelphia) met online in 2013 and currently live and work in Oakland. In 2016 they started making ceramic vases as a way to spend time together. Lypkahad been pursuing figurative sculpture and Cross was studying design, and the vases led to a collaborative sculpture practice that provided novel possibilities while also alleviating some of the difficulties of being a solo artist in the studio. 

Renée Gertler (b. 1974, Santa Barbara, CA) holds a BFA and an MFA in sculpture from California College of Arts, and also studied landscape architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Her sculptures and installations have been exhibited in the Bay Area at Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, di Rosa, the Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose, New Langton Arts, Southern Exposure, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, and Et. al. Gertler has been awarded the Anthony and Cadogan Fellowship, a Danish Arts Council grant, and artist residencies at the John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry program, Spaces, Cleveland Ohio, Vermont Studio Center, Pilchuck Glass School Emerging Artists Fellowship, MacDowell, and Kala Art Institute.  

Cathy Lu (b. 1984, Miami, FL) is a ceramics-based artist who manipulates traditional Chinese imagery and presentation as a way to deconstruct received ideas about Chinese identity and cultural authenticity. She explores what it means to be both Asian and American while not being entirely accepted as either, and unpacks how experiences of immigration, cultural hybridity, and cultural assimilation become part of American identity. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and her BA and BFA from Tufts University. She has had artist residencies at Root Division, Bemis Center for the Arts, Recology, and the Archie Bray Foundation. Her work has been exhibited in the Bay Area at Johansson Projects, Aggregate Space, Jessica Silverman Gallery, and the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. She was a 2019 Asian Cultural Council/Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation fellow. She currently teaches at California College of the Arts and Mills College.

Masako Miki (b. 1973, Osaka) has exhibited her immersive felt sculptural installations and watercolor works on paper in the United States, Japan, and China, including at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the de Young Museum, San Francisco. Inspired by Shinto animism, Miki crafts new mythologies concerning cultural identity as social collectives. She was a recipient of the 2018 Inga Maren Otto Fellowship from Watermill Center in New York, and has been a resident artist at de Young Museum and Facebook headquarters. Her work is in the Colección Solo in Spain and the collections of Facebook Inc. and the Berkeley Art Museum. She currently has monumental outdoor installations on view at Uber headquarters in San Francisco and OH Bay cultural coastal park in Shenzhen, China. Miki is based in Berkeley and is represented by CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions, San Francisco, and Ryan Lee Gallery, New York.

Natani Notah (b. 1992, San Bernardino, CA) is an interdisciplinary artist and a proud member of the Navajo Nation. Her current art practice explores contemporary Native American identity through the lens of Diné womanhood. Notah has exhibited her work at apexart, New York; NXTHVN, New Haven, Connecticut; the Tucson Desert Art Museum, Arizona; Gas Gallery, Los Angeles; Holland Project, Reno; Mana Contemporary, Chicago; Axis Gallery, Sacramento; SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, and elsewhere. She has received awards from Art Matters, International Sculpture Center, and the San Francisco Foundation. Her work has been featured in Art in America, Hyperallergic, Forbes, and Sculpture, and she has completed artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Grounds for Sculpture, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Kala Art Institute. Notah holds a BFA with a minor in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies from Cornell University and an MFA from Stanford University. Currently she is a 2021–23 Tulsa Artist Fellow.

Peter Simensky (b. 1975, Portland, ME) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Oregon; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Museum 52, New York; 500m Museum, Sapporo, Japan; the Swiss Institute, New York; and Project Row Houses, Houston. Selected group exhibitions have taken place at Sculpture Center, New York; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Mass MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York. Grants, residencies, and awards include the NYFA Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Arts grants, MacDowell, Skowhegan, and most recently La Tallera, Proyecto Siqueiros, Mexico, where he is researching and producing work on the silver industry. Recent performances include Heavy Breathing at the CCA Wattis Institute and a commission for the de Young Museum, both in San Francisco. Simensky chairs the Sculpture and Individualized programs at California College of the Arts. 

Images:
Ashwini Bhat, My Body Is Dirt, My Spirit Is Space (detail), 2021-2022, glazed ceramic, thread, wood, 48 x 12 x 8 in. Courtesy of the artist and Shoshana Wayne Gallery.

Natani Notah, Shell-Shocked, 2021, vintage t-shirt, shell beads, thread, faux fur, belt and plastic corn pellets, 15 x 11 8 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Cathy Lu, American Dream Pillow, 2020, porcelain, 17 x 11 x 6 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Demetri Broxton, Save Me, Joe Louis, 2019-21, Everlast boxing gloves, redwood, glass pearls, cowrie shells, Japanese and Czech seed beads, cotton, silver wire, stainless steel chain and hardware, frankincense, nylon thread, mirrors, 16 x 24 x 15 in. Courtesy of the artist and Patricia Sweetow Gallery, Oakland. 

Peter Simensky, Pyrite Pirate Radio - drum kit, 2021, Pyrite (fool’s gold), steel, plywood, copper, electrical wires, antenna cymbal, brass tubes, amplifiers, and radio hardware. Courtesy of the artist.

Ice Show

April 2, 2022 - June 5, 2022
Second Floor Gallery
Friday, April 22, 2022, 12:00 noon (PST) via Zoom: In Conversation: Bill Russell and Ariella Cook-Shonkoff
Reception: Saturday, April 2, 3-5pm

The urgent issue of climate change will be on view in the timely exhibition Ice Show. The exhibition features new work by Marin-based artist Bill Russell, whose paintings explore the effects of global warming on the polar icecap. Using the iceberg as a visual metaphor, Russell endeavors to educate viewers about how global warming has expedited the creation of icebergs, and seeks to communicate the urgency of climate change in a way that will both resonate with and educate visitors. 

The brutal changes occurring due to climate change are depicted through his narrative style. In The Deluge, the hot sun bears down through the depleted atmosphere as icebergs are set adrift from the melting icecap. The rising sea waters devour container ships, Noah's Ark, the Titanic and other cultural icons, in an apocalyptic vision that builds upon Russell's interest in human-influenced ecology.

Russell's work is informed by his research into climate science and a recent visit to Iceland, providing substantive subject matter for his work. Visit this educational exhibition to learn more about how this issue affects us all. The exhibition is free to the public. 

Public Programs:

FREE
Friday, April 22, 2022, 12:00 noon (PST) on Zoom. Register here today
In Conversation: Bill Russell and Ariella Cook-Shonkoff
This special Earth Day talk will highlight Russell's installation of new work which uses the iceberg as visual metaphor to address climate change. Join member artist Russell and art therapist Ariella Cook-Shonkoff, MFT, ATR as they discuss the role of art-making in the face of the climate crisis and the therapeutic benefits of art-based inner work in dealing with climate distress. 

Bill Russell is a multi-disciplinary artist. For more than 40  years, his creative life has included fine art, illustration, visual journalism, teaching and web design. He has exhibited his work at Stanford University, SFMoMA Artists Gallery, MarinMOCA, California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, Sofie Contemporary in Calistoga, and Reactor Gallery in Toronto, Canada, among others. His paintings can be found in private collections throughout the Bay Area and in Canada. Born and raised in Canada, he earned his degree from Parsons School of Design in New York. For eight years he was an adjunct professor of Illustration at CCA. He was an Artist-in-Residence at Recology San Francisco in 2010 and at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA in 2017. 

Images:
All works courtesy of the artist.

Jagged Peaks, 6 x6 in., 2021, acrylic on panel
Polar Bear Lost, 6 x6 in., 2021, acrylic on panel
Spires, 36 x 36 in., 2021, acrylic on canvas
The Deluge, 37 x 37in., 2020, acrylic on canvas
Swimming in the Bummock, 40 x 40 in., 2021, acrylic on canvas

What Is Art For?

February 5, 2022 - March 20, 2022

What Is Art For? opens on Saturday, February 5, 2022, and features over 90 works created by MarinMOCA’s artist member community. The exhibition theme is inspired by William T. Wiley and Mary Hull Webster’s 1999 Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) exhibition of the same name and pays tribute to the late Wiley, who passed away in Novato earlier this year, and is one of the Bay Area’s most legendary artists hailing from Marin County.

The original OMCA show What Is Art For? William T. Wiley and Mary Hull Webster and 100 Artists resulted from Wiley’s own invitation for a solo exhibition at the esteemed museum. Declining the opportunity, he instead turned the offer into a platform to showcase the breadth of art being produced across the region. The show was notable for its emphasis on community, collaboration, inclusivity, and democratization of the gallery space by presenting both famous and unknown artists on a level playing field. This open-ended exhibition model provides an apt jumping off point for the diverse voices of MarinMOCA’s artist community to reflect on the exhibition’s prompt as well as Wiley’s own legacy as an artist who defied categorization, charting a course entirely his own. 

Wiley developed a unique visual vocabulary that combined his lifelong interests in liberal social and environmental concerns as well as philosophy and mysticism. His hallmark text and wordplay infuse his varied body of work with  humorous puns, sarcasm, and double entendre to critique many of the most urgent issues of our time. A small group of works by Wiley will accompany the exhibition that highlight the artist’s distinctive blend of wit and wisdom and resonate with the range of voices on view from our artist member community.

What Is Art For? Invites both artist and viewer to consider, and reflect on, the role that art plays in our lives. Spanning all galleries this engaging exhibition includes work in a variety of media and genres. Art can inspire conversation, educate, document our world, stimulate our imaginations, or simply provide solace in disturbing times. We encourage visitors of all ages to enjoy this provocative exhibition on view from February 5, through March 20, 2022. Curator and writer Renny Pritikin will jury the awards.

Generous support for this exhibition provided by Ronald R. Collins. 

Download the list of award-winners here.

About William T. Wiley:
Over a sixty-year career, William T. Wiley (b. 1937 in Bedford, IN, d. 2021 in Novato, CA) was one of the most significant and influential artists associated with the Funk movement. He attended the San Francisco Art Institute where he received his BFA in 1961 and MFA in 1962. Alongside Robert Arneson, Wayne Thiebaud and Roy De Forest, Wiley helped form one of the most experimental and widely revered art programs in the country at the University of California, Davis, teaching there from 1962 to 1973. His students included such notable artists as Bruce Nauman, Deborah Butterfield and Richard Shaw. His earliest exhibitions were held in 1960 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art and he was the subject of touring retrospectives organized by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. His work is included in the collections of UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Stedelijk van Abbemuseum; Walker Art Center; and Whitney Museum of American Art; among many others.

About Renny Pritikin:
Renny Pritikin was chief curator of San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum from 2013-2018 and director of the Richard L. Nelson Gallery and the Fine Arts Collection at the University of California, Davis from 2004 to 2012. Pritikin was named chief curator for all artistic programs (film/video, visual art, performing arts, education) of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in January 1997 after serving as director of the Visual Arts Program since 1992. From 1979 to 1992 he served as executive director of New Langton Arts in San Francisco, an alternative space internationally renowned for its presentations of new visual art, interdisciplinary performance, video, literature, and music. 

Artwork credits:
Home and Exhibit Page:
Patricia Leeds, Once Upon a Time in California, 2021, encaustic, 30 x 30 in. Courtesy the artist.

Slide show:
Bernard Healey, Tornado, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Cecily O'Connor, Lost Page, 2021, oil, oil pastel, pencil, 13.5 x 12.5 in. Courtesy the artist.
Aya Okawa, Life, 2019, photograph, 24 x 36 in. Courtesy the artist.
Linda Mueller, Happy Stacks, 2021, acrylic, pencil, collage, 20 x 16 in. Courtesy the artist.
Debbie Dicker, The Kelp Forest in Monterey, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 39 x 59 in. Courtesy the artist.

Bridges and Walls

November 13, 2021 - January 30, 2022
Click here to watch Orin Carpenter's Art Talk

Bridges and Walls, a solo exhibition by 2021 Artist in Residence Orin Carpenter, has been extended through January 30, 2022. The exhibition is the culmination of the artist’s year-long residency on the MarinMOCA campus. Carpenter’s mixed media work is informed by his own personal experiences and observations of human encounters, and the outcomes that occur. He is inspired by the concept of humans building bridges to seek connections, or conversely, creating walls for protection. The artist's work investigates, and reflects on, those experiences and asks the viewer: “Did you build a wall or a bridge today, and why?” We invite visitors of all ages to explore this thought-provoking exhibition. The exhibition is free to the public.

Bridges and Walls in-person artist talk: Click here to watch Orin Carpenter's thoughtful talk about his work and process.

About the Artist

Orin Carpenter is an artist and educator and currently the Visual and Performing Arts Director at Marin Catholic High School. He holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Memphis, and received his MFA in Illustration from Academy of Art University in San Francisco. 

Carpenter has shown widely in galleries in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country. Most recently, in 2020, his work was included in The de Young Open exhibition of Bay Area artists at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. He is currently represented by Artize Gallery in Palm Springs, CA. The artist leads workshops that focus on art and racial justice and has partnered with Boston College University Roche Center for Education, and the Archdiocese of Omaha, to share his expertise as both an artist of color and educator. Carpenter's work has been published extensively and he is frequently interviewed on radio and podcast programs. 

Carpenter states: "Being an artist of color (AOC), I have the power to bring others into the world I experience through the lens of my creations. I have the power to educate, elevate, and challenge anyone who encounters my works of art, allowing viewers to see the world through my eyes. Hopefully my art can change their perception with a new vision and offer them the opportunity to share in the journey… my journey."

Images:

American Taboo, 2021, mixed media, 22 x 28 in. Courtesy of the artist

Tilling the Soul, 2021, mixed media, 16 x 48 in. Courtesy of the artist

Self-Doubt, 2021, mixed media, 22 x 28 in. Courtesy of the artist