October 5 - December 21, 2024
Opening reception: October 5th 2-4pm | 1210 Fifth Ave. San Rafael, CA.
Curated by Natasha Boas and Asha McGee
 

On October 22, 1965, Beat Poets Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen ceremonially circumambulated Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. Inspired by the Buddhist practice of Pradakshina – the religious rite of circling clockwise around a sacred object – the poets hiked a 15-mile route around the mountain in a performative prayer and meditation. In the poets’ words, they were “opening the mountain” – a ritual of respect for their local bioregion.

Inaugurating MarinMOCA San Rafael, Opening the Mountain will pay tribute to the Beats’ journey with a dynamic, transgenerational group exhibition that ties Marin’s present to its past as a hotbed of imaginative thinking. Opening the Mountain celebrates the specificities of place and contemporary counter-cultural aesthetics by bringing together a vibrant group of artists who practice near, at the base of, or in the expansive metaphorical shadow of Mount Tamalpais.

Featuring artists: Saif Azzuz, Teresa Baker, Ashwini Bhat, JB Blunk, Annabel De Vries, Lucia Dillman, Nick Gorham, July Guzman, Tennessee Hildebrand, Johanna Jackson, Chris Johanson, Adeline Kent, Stella Kudritzki. Margaret Kilgallen, Ruby Neri, Tucker Nichols, McIntyre Parker, Jesse Schlesinger, Alice Shaw, Martha Shaw, Daisy Sheff, Studio AHEAD, Nina Venezia.

Image Credit: 

Adaline Kent
Untitled (Mountain Meadow), c. 1944
Ink and crayon on paper
17 x 13 7/8 in
43.2 x 34.9 cm

Photography by Ron Jones

© The Adaline Kent Family
Courtesy of the Adaline Kent Estate and Altman Siegel, San Francisco