Carolyn Meyer b. 1966
Carolyn Meyer is a California-based painter whose practice navigates the charged space between realism and abstraction. For over three decades, her work has explored the tension between structure and spontaneity, intuition and design. Drawing inspiration from the layered geographies of San Francisco and New York—cities she considers both muse and home—Meyer constructs compositions that merge memory, architecture, and gesture. Her paintings often begin with abstract underlayers, mapped with geometric scaffolding, then unfold through richly textured surfaces into expressive cityscapes or contemplative interior scenes. Materiality and process are central to her approach, where paint is not only a medium but a subject in itself.
“Painting is my life’s work and a calling I am drawn to, day after day, year after year,” says Meyer. “For decades, my work swings like a pendulum between aspects of realism and abstraction, which is at the core of each painting.”
Born in Bakersfield, CA, Meyer earned both her BFA and MFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where she now serves as Director of the School of Fine Art Painting. In recognition of her artistic and academic contributions, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Academy in 2019. Since 1995, she has taught painting while sustaining a rigorous studio practice, and for eleven years, served as a juror for the Sausalito Art Festival.
In 2021, following a life-threatening bout with COVID-19, Meyer’s work turned inward. Her still life series, Outside In, Inside Out, marked a period of reflection and renewal. From her Sausalito studio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, she began assembling intricate arrangements of glass vessels, flowers, and fabrics—humble subjects transformed through layers of oil paint into luminous meditations on presence and survival. These paintings, characterized by their tactile surfaces and compositional intimacy, reveal an artist attuned to the poetics of observation and the slow accumulation of form.
Over the past 25 years, Meyer’s work has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the United States. Her paintings are held in numerous public and private collections, including the Riverside Art Museum (Riverside, CA), Falkirk Cultural Center (San Rafael, CA), White & Case (New York), John Swire & Sons (London), and the collection of Margaret Hearst. Her work has been featured in American Art Collector Magazine, SouthWest Art Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Daily Femme, and the Marin Independent Journal.
Born 1966, Bakersfield, CA
Lives and Works in San Francisco, CA
EDUCATION
1995 MFA, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
1988 California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1980 BFA, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
1976 Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
1976 Arizona Western College, Yuma, AZ
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Outside In/Inside Out, Desta Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2020 Under the Knife, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2019 Wanderlust, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2017 Urban Legends, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2016 Here and There, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2015 San Francisco-New York (Non Stop), ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2014 SF+NYC, Atelier Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014 Optimum Propensity, Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 Metropolis, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2013 Speed Up, Slow Down, Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Italy, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2011 Tale of Two Cities, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2010 Wendt Gallery, New York City, Laguna Beach, CA
2009 Black and White, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2008 City Lights, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2006 Destinations, ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 In the Heat of It, Pamela Walsh Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
2022-25 ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2022-25 James Bacchi Contemporary, Palm Springs, CA
2022-25 Desta, Mill Valley, CA
2010-18 ArtMarket, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
2016-21 ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2021 Anniversary Show, Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2013-14 Sojourn, Italian Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
2010 Wendt Gallery, New York City, Laguna Beach, CA
2008-15 Group Shows, ArtHaus, Hang Gallery, Zantman Galleries, Wendt Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2007 MarinScapes, Corte Madera, CA
2007 ArtforAIDS, 11th Annual Auction, San Francisco, CA
AWARDS AND HONORS
2019 Honorary Doctorate Degree, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2014-25 Director, School of Painting, BFA, MFA, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
2009-14 Associate Director, School of Painting, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
2008-25 Summer Teaching in Florence, Italy
1994-09 Associate Director, BFA; Director of Galleries, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
1995-98 College of Marin, Kentfield, CA
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2015 "Art Beat: San Francisco, New York (non-stop)," The Leadtime
2015 "Place – The Art of Carolyn Meyer," SF Art News
2013 "Urban Paintings," San Francisco Chronicle, Home Section
2010 "Feature: Carolyn Meyer," The Daily Femme
2008 "City Lights at ArtHaus," San Francisco Chronicle
2007 "Vantage Points," SouthWest Art Magazine
2002 "Painting California," SouthWest Magazine
1999 "New California Realism," SouthWest Magazine
1996 "For Artist Meyer, Color’s the Thing," Press Democrat
SELECTED CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
White & Case, New York
John Swire & Sons, London
Margaret Hearst, San Francisco
Bosa Development California
Hanson Bridgett, LLP, San Francisco
Cummins West, Inc., San Leandro, CA
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
2001 Historic California Wineries Past and Present, Riverside Art Museum
1998 Inside Marin, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA