Inherited Forms
Following the gallery’s 2025 exhibition Concentric Circles: Tracing the Radiance of Bay Area Figuration, which focused on the founding members of the movement, Inherited Forms represents a natural progression. The exhibition features a focused presentation of works by historic artists associated with the Bay Area Figurative movement: Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliveira, Theophilus Brown, Frank Lobdell, and Manuel Neri. In dialogue with these foundational figures are contemporary artists Linda Christensen, Marshall Crossman, Fred Dalkey, Mark Engel, Andrew Faulkner, KL Folgner, Kim Frohsin, Ruth Hunter, Carolyn Meyer, Sandy Ostrau, Mary Robertson, Gary Ruddell, Hiroshi Sato, and Diane Warner-Wang, whose figurative practices are deeply rooted in and responsive to this lineage.
The exhibition reveals how artistic influence flows across time, carrying ideas, methods, and modes of attentiveness from one generation to the next. The artists absorb the legacy of Bay Area Figuration, including careful observation of the body, sensitivity to gesture, and a commitment to material presence, while reinterpreting it through their own perception, experience, and experimentation. Across painting, sculpture, and mixed media, the human figure emerges as presence, psychological space, and expressive potential.
The exhibition affirms the figure as an evolving language, carrying forward the Bay Area’s legacy while remaining deeply relevant to contemporary life. In this dialogue across generations, the historic roots of a regional tradition meet the vitality of artists who continue to extend its reach.
