2023 Bay Area Legends Exhibition

SUPER-SILLY-US: Barbara Stauffacher Solomon & Nellie King Solomon
March 25 - June 4, 2023
Opening Reception April 1, 2023 | 5 - 7pm

SUPER-SILLY-US celebrates the work of nonagenarian Barbara Stauffacher Solomon in dialogue with that of her daughter, Nellie King Solomon. Their shared training in architecture speaks to the artists' expansive and playful approach to visual art which challenges the boundaries of established rules or frameworks. 

San Francisco-based artist Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (b.1928, San Francisco), perhaps best known for her pioneering Supergraphics (oversized graphics created in response to the scale of architecture first produced at 1960s Sea Ranch), has worked across disciplines in graphic design, architecture, landscape architecture, drawing, writing, and more. Her original training in dance and painting, coupled with rigorous study of Swiss graphic design, has allowed her to establish an approach to art making uniquely her own. More Info

Los Angeles-based artist Nellie King Solomon (b.1971, San Francisco) is an essential collaborator for her mother and an accomplished abstract painter in her own right. While the two remain distinct in their formal approaches to art making, presenting their work in proximity demonstrates their shared influences and interests across architecture, movement, and the body. A selection of King Solomon's recent paintings will be included in the exhibition. More Info

The presentation features a suite of never-before-exhibited drawings from Stauffacher Solomon's hand-made book SUPER-SILLY-US, as well as new Supergraphic installations created in response to the historic architecture of MarinMOCA’s 1933 Hamilton Field building, spanning the museum's Main Gallery and Ron Collins Lobby Gallery. (The lobby installation will remain on view through 2023.)

The MarinMOCA exhibition is one of many across the world rediscovering the art of Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, including recent installations at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; LAXART, Los Angeles; Graham Foundation, Chicago; and St. Moritz, Switzerland (commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery, London).

The exhibition catalogue, designed by Stauffacher Solomon in collaboration with King Solomon, will feature new writing by critic and curator Peter Frank and arts writer Matt Stromberg. 

View the press release here. 

Image Credits:

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, SUPER-SILLY-US, 2023. Colored pencil, graphite, ink and rubber cement on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 in. Courtesy the artist.

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, SUPER-SILLY-US, 2023. Installation view, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. Photography by Chris Grunder.

Nellie King Solomon, SUPER-SILLY-US, 2023. Diamond Cloud 2, 2022, UUUUU 12-16, 2021. Installation view, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. Photography by Chris Grunder.

Nellie King Solomon, 1967 Ford Econoline with Supergraphics, 2023. Graphite on paper, 12 x 12 in. Courtesy the artist and Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert.