Exhibition on figure painting on display at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art

From cave paintings to the Renaissance, artists have used the human figure to tell stories.|

About the artists

Sydney Cain is a visual artist born and raised in San Francisco. Through large-scale and intimate works, Cain honors those who have passed on and provides them with sacred sites to be reborn and re-imagined. Current works with printmaking, powdered metals and sculpture mine personal archives, their family’s genealogy, and the intersections of urban renewal and displacement on the psychic, spiritual, emotion and physical well-being of marginalized communities. Cain, currently in graduate school at Yale University, is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery, and has exhibited at SOMArts, and the Oakland Museum of California, among others.

Craig Calderwood, a self-taught artist, uses low-end materials such as found fabrics, polymer clay and fiber-tip pens to create intricate and decorative works, rendered through a personal vernacular of symbols and patterns, and arranged into constellations that tell stories both personal and fantasized. His work has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum of California, Mills College Art Museum and Museum of Craft and Design, among others.

John Goodman, a self-taught artist who draws inspiration from Bay Area figurative painters, came to painting after a long and successful career as a playwright. His storytelling skill is central to his being and career. His understated minimalism, signature impasto brushwork and reductive use of color speak of isolation and eternity. Goodman lives and works in San Francisco and is represented by Andra Norris Gallery in Burlingame.

Afsoon Razavi is an Iranian-American artist and designer living and working in Napa. With her charcoal drawings of free-flowing hair, Razavi tells the story of Iranian women’s protests and self-determination as their government prohibits them from showing their hair in public.

Josephine Taylor's mysterious drawings leave us searching for the sources of her history. Using delicate colors with meticulous details, Taylor explores the traumas and joys of contemporary experience. She is a 2017 Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellow and a 2004 recipient of the SFMOMA SECA award, among other accolades. Taylor is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco and will open a solo exhibition at the gallery in September 2023.

Heather Wilcoxon’s figures explore issues like abortion and immigration. Each piece has a story to tell — however she allows space for each viewer to make up their own narrative. Having studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, Wilcoxon lives and works in Sausalito, CA. She has received fellowships including two from the Pollack/Krasner Foundation, and recently received the Distinguished Women in the Arts Award from the Fresno Art Museum.

The art exhibition currently on display at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art is all about figure painting.

From cave paintings to the Renaissance and from Vermeer to Henry Moore, artists have used the human figure to tell stories. Di Rosa’s current exhibition, “Figure Telling: Contemporary Bay Area Figuration,” provides a fresh look at figure painting today.

Works by Sydney Cain, Craig Calderwood, John Goodman, Afsoon Razavi, Josephine Taylor and Heather Wilcoxon tell deeply personal stories about life in 2023. These range from ancestry to the persecution of women in Iran and from the horrors of adolescence to growing up transgender in a small town.

The multigenerational artists in Figure Telling have very different backgrounds, interests and artistic practices. Each of them, however, uses visual storytelling to convey unique identities, concerns and compassions. In a world that is so often complex, they use human bodies to tell stories — sometimes ugly and sometimes beautiful, always honest.

“Figure painting is all the rage in New York, Los Angeles and London,” said Chief Curator Kate Eilertsen in a news release. “Northern California is producing its own unique brand of contemporary figuration, rooted in the deeply personal.”

A panel discussion with the artists and Eilertsen will be held on Saturday, July 22 at 2 p.m. in the exhibition space. Tickets are available online at dirosaart.org. The exhibition will continue until Sept. 17, 2023.

Di Rosa is open to the public Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and by appointment Tuesday through Thursday.

About the artists

Sydney Cain is a visual artist born and raised in San Francisco. Through large-scale and intimate works, Cain honors those who have passed on and provides them with sacred sites to be reborn and re-imagined. Current works with printmaking, powdered metals and sculpture mine personal archives, their family’s genealogy, and the intersections of urban renewal and displacement on the psychic, spiritual, emotion and physical well-being of marginalized communities. Cain, currently in graduate school at Yale University, is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery, and has exhibited at SOMArts, and the Oakland Museum of California, among others.

Craig Calderwood, a self-taught artist, uses low-end materials such as found fabrics, polymer clay and fiber-tip pens to create intricate and decorative works, rendered through a personal vernacular of symbols and patterns, and arranged into constellations that tell stories both personal and fantasized. His work has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum of California, Mills College Art Museum and Museum of Craft and Design, among others.

John Goodman, a self-taught artist who draws inspiration from Bay Area figurative painters, came to painting after a long and successful career as a playwright. His storytelling skill is central to his being and career. His understated minimalism, signature impasto brushwork and reductive use of color speak of isolation and eternity. Goodman lives and works in San Francisco and is represented by Andra Norris Gallery in Burlingame.

Afsoon Razavi is an Iranian-American artist and designer living and working in Napa. With her charcoal drawings of free-flowing hair, Razavi tells the story of Iranian women’s protests and self-determination as their government prohibits them from showing their hair in public.

Josephine Taylor's mysterious drawings leave us searching for the sources of her history. Using delicate colors with meticulous details, Taylor explores the traumas and joys of contemporary experience. She is a 2017 Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellow and a 2004 recipient of the SFMOMA SECA award, among other accolades. Taylor is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco and will open a solo exhibition at the gallery in September 2023.

Heather Wilcoxon’s figures explore issues like abortion and immigration. Each piece has a story to tell — however she allows space for each viewer to make up their own narrative. Having studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, Wilcoxon lives and works in Sausalito, CA. She has received fellowships including two from the Pollack/Krasner Foundation, and recently received the Distinguished Women in the Arts Award from the Fresno Art Museum.

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