A sudden and significant increase in studio space in the mid-1980s meant that Azaceta was not only able to paint on a much larger scale than before, but also allowed him to explore the themes of his paintings and drawings in three dimensions.

Though Jeremy Anderson is often placed in a lineage of avant-garde thought which can be traced back to the Cubism and Surrealism of a half-century prior, his own concept of sculpture as an art form went well beyond any physical limitations.

Arneson began experimenting with himself as a subject in the early 1970s – by 1975 the artist in various guises and expressions had become a defining aspect of his career.

A year after her first exhibition at the gallery, with a pandemic in between, we spoke with Katherine Sherwood about her ongoing series of “Brain Flowers,” working in lockdown and what to expect from her in the coming year.

We are pleased to share our video series reflecting on the impact Joan Brown had as a person and an artist, both during her lifetime and after her death.

Sims, the recently appointed curator of the collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art paid a visit to Westermann’s Connecticut studio in December of 1976 to look at new work.

October 26, 2020, is the 30th anniversary of Joan Brown's death at age 52 in Prasanthinilayam, India, 1990. George Adams recounts organizing her memorial exhibition, which opened at the gallery in September of the following year.

Joan Brown’s handwritten checklist of drawings sent to Frumkin/Adams Gallery in March of 1990 for an exhibition in the fall of that year.

With summer turning into fall, the “back to school” season is on us though under radically different circumstances than ever before. Last spring, those of our artists who are also full-time professors had to make the abrupt and difficult transition to online teaching.

We asked photographer Kija Lucas to share some insights on her collaborative process and specifically the work from her series, Collections from Sundown which are part of our current exhibition Documents.

In December of 1981, the gallery mounted its sixth exhibition of Wiley's work, including new paintings, drawings and sculpture completed since his first retrospective at the Walker Art Center a year prior.

Though it is easy to remember Jack Beal solely for the role he played in re-affirming the figure as a subject of contemporary painting, a more complex side of his legacy is what lead him to the idealized, modeled affect of his best-known works.

An enduring focus of the gallery has long been self-portraits and indeed many of the artists who have shown here over the years, both regularly and occasionally, have experimented with the format if not made it a staple of their practice.

"A side of the gallery that is perhaps not well known but no less central to the gallery’s history and reputation is drawings."

For Documents, we invited Kevin Frances to create an installation in the side gallery, of the (totally impressive and detailed) scale models he uses as a basis for his photographs and prints.

Grooms' wide-ranging activities coalesced in the late 60s with the formation of his production company, Ruckus Construction Co with his then-wife, Mimi Gross. One of the company's first major undertakings was an immersive, 25 foot square sculptural installation of the city of Chicago.

Tony recently took a break from construction on his latest endeavor to speak with us from his painting studio.

For his installations at the gallery, Jose Bedia would either work directly on the wall or large rolls of canvas, as he is here, and often with little to no preparatory drawings.

Most of the gallery’s relationships with our artists stretch back decades and, while their work is always paramount in our minds, it is often the personal experiences which stand out most. Here, George Adams recalls such moments with Joan Brown.

In the summer of 1949, Elmer Bischoff, David Park and Hassel Smith presented their recent paintings in an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art.

Following the 2011 earthquake off the coast of Japan, Amer Kobaslija arranged to visit the town of Kesennuma in the Miyagi Prefecture, with the aim of chronicling the aftermath.

We are pleased to present our first online viewing room, as part of the ADAA Member Viewing Rooms in collaboration with Artlogic.

In the last decades of his life, Robert Arneson began using bronze both for the versatility of the medium and its usefulness in public installations.

When Andy told us he had just completed another sketchbook, we asked him to give us a virtual "tour". This book was started last summer and takes us through vacations, the school year, changing seasons and, in the final pages, the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the fall of 2005, after 45 years on 57th Street, the gallery moved to West 26th in Chelsea. One of the first exhibitions at the new location was of new paintings by Roy De Forest.

Tony May’s documentary paintings are precisely that: a record of the installations, projects and repairs he’s completed over the years.

In 1991, George Adams accompanied Robert Arneson and his wife, Sandra Shannonhouse on a visit to the Pollock-Krasner House, former home and studio of painters Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.

Elmer Bischoff was born and raised in Oakland, California and he lived his entire life in the Bay Area. Its landscape is an inescapable force in his paintings.

While isolating at home with his family, Amer Kobaslija has discovered inspiration in the experience, painting away in a self-described "fever state" expanding on his recent series of figures set in the Florida landscape and revisiting an old subject: his own studio.

As SFAI passed its first centennial in 1971, the experimentation and innovation of years prior was increasingly a defining characteristic of the school.

In 1975, Peter Saul relocated from California to Chappaqua, New York. This photo was taken during a studio visit soon after his move, while Peter was working on his version of Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware.

Square Cylinder reached out to artists and writers, to talk about life during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. As part of the series, Enrique Chagoya shares his thoughts while sheltering-in-place at home with his wife, artist Kara Maria. 

In 1961, CSFA changed its name to the San Francisco Art Institute. Under this new identity, the school continued to evolve, expanding programming to include the multi-media and conceptual disciplines that were beginning to take form in the arts.

We recently checked in with Diane Edison who is adjusting to working from home in Athens, GA.

In celebration of Earth Day this year, we are reminded of the power of nature, as seen in the work of Arnaldo Roche Rabell from the early 1990s.

In the early 1980s, Luis Cruz Azaceta was living and working out of a small studio in Ridgewood, Queens. George Adams recalls his first time visiting Luis’ studio and the impression he made.

Andrew Lenaghan’s work lends itself perfectly to today’s empty New York. 

Enrique Chagoya's codices are, in fact, books, in the tradition of ancient Mesoamerican texts. He employs the same amate paper and accordion format, read right to left, while updating the pictorial language with recognizable, contemporary images.

While Jeremy Anderson found inspiration in the ancient civilizations and their artifacts, the map drawings he started in the 1960s laid out his personal mythologies.

As we continue to celebrate the history of the San Francisco Art Institute and its alumni, one of the school’s most enduring (and important) legacies has been the fostering of communities that extend beyond the classroom.

An artwork we've been thinking of recently is Amer Kobaslija's Painter's Floor with Chair and Ladder, 2005.

Sometimes the best way to look at art is with the artist’s words in mind. For decades Gillespie kept a regular journal, filling it with his thoughts about life, painting and being an artist.

With the San Francisco Art Institute’s recent announcement that it may be forced to close, we wanted to take the opportunity over the next few weeks to highlight just how critical the Institute has been in shaping art in the Bay Area and beyond.

Galleries are communities: this photo from our archives encapsulates that better than most.

Here is the full video of our Online Studio Visit with Luis Cruz Azaceta! Azaceta gives us a tour of his “bunker” as he discusses the beginnings of his career in New York, his history with the gallery and his current exhibition.

Jack Beal’s relationship to Realism is rooted in his commitment to working from life.
 

We checked in with Chris Ballantyne, who is away from his studio but hard at work nonetheless.

Our first Online Studio Visit brings us to San Jose, California where Tony May shows us how to REALLY work from home.

As we are out of the gallery and unable to enjoy our current exhibition, another work by Luis Cruz Azaceta comes to mind.