Inspiration | A Gallery Guide
“Want to go arting on Saturday?” is one of my favorite texts to receive from any of my brilliant friends (one of them—artist Tanja Geis pictured here).
Some of you know that I come from the art world, and have my own established practice. Art absolutely guides my design work, and here, in the Bay Area, there is a rich creative community that provides endless inspiration.
As the art world can sometime be a bit obscure for newcomers, I’m here to give you a curated guide to the local galleries I follow and artists I love. Sign up for their newsletters, follow them on social media, and make arting a part of your own routine. Spend a Saturday cruising venues with a friend or hit an opening on date night. You’ll discover a thriving creative ecosystem offering new ideas, relationships and perspectives.
San Francisco
Minnesota Street Projects
This cool complex holds some of my favorite galleries, such as Municipal Bonds, which features a program of contemplative works on paper, but you’re sure to make your own discoveries.
It’s also situated across the street from McEvoy Foundation for the Arts and a couple more galleries, and there’s a great India-meets-California restaurant on-site called Besheram, so you can make a day of it!
Euquinom Gallery
Euquinom features a photography-focused program that takes the medium far beyond its expected form. Check out Klea McKenna’s ‘photographic rubbings’ of antique lace and tree rings, or Christine Elfman’s prints made with lichen dye.
Jessica Silverman Gallery
Head to the new Jessica Silverman space in Chinatown for big names (like Judy Chicago) and exciting newcomers (like Sadie Barnett). A recent Pae White show featured iridescent swarms of ceramic snakes and machine-loomed tapestries of snails and lightening bugs.
Oakland
Round Weather Gallery
This new space is run by a poet and directs funds from its sales to climate initiatives. Featuring mostly group shows with lots of local artists, it’s a great venue at which to make discoveries and start a collection.
Johansson Projects
With a huge roster of craft-and-color-oriented artists, this is a popular standby. I especially love Rachelle Bussieres’ atmospheric prints, and Michelle Blade’s new-age paintings on silk.
Marin
Sarah Shepard Gallery
Located in the Marin Country Mart, Sarah Shepard nails the California contemporary sensibility better than anyone, whether with Rachelle Reichart’s salt moons, Johnna Arnold’s ethereal abstract photography, or Lena Wolff’s quilt-like occult constructions.
Anthony Meier
Anthony Meier recently opened a gorgeous new space in Marin to showcase their heady roster of big-hitters, like art-world priestess Janine Antoni. But they’re also shining a light on exciting emerging artists like Saif Azzuz, whose colorful abstractions and found sculptures recall an intimacy with the north coast landscape through the lens of his indigenous heritage.
As much as I love design, I don’t think anything makes a home more compelling than art—art that has its own life, its own prerogative, which breaks the house rules.
To become a collector (or just a lover) of art, you have to tolerate the uncomfortable, embrace the mysterious, and allow for the elusive. Look for something that calls to you but never explains why, something that makes the familiar seem strange.
Soon in this space I’ll speak more to building a collection, but for now…get out there and go arting.