Viewpoints

Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco is pleased to announce Viewpoints, a group exhibition of abstract and conceptual artwork featuring a unique group of established masters and emerging artists, including Romare Bearden, McArthur Binion, Tony Lewis, Lavar Munroe, Blessing Ngobeni, Johnathan Payne, Cullen Washington, Aubrey Williams, and Nate Young. Viewpoints will be on exhibit from November 2, 2016 – January 14, 2017, with a special opening reception on Wednesday, November 2 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm. At the opening, Caitlin Haskell, Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMoMA, will moderate and participate in a panel discussion with a selection of exhibition artists.

“With grids, abstract figures, text, and found objects, the artists of Viewpoints expand the parameters of expressive practice. Titles provide hints about the topics and subjects which interest, if not preoccupy these makers. Yet above all, the creative imperative is to communicate ideas that can be taken in when looking at and experiencing painting, drawing, collages, sculpture, assemblage, and installation art. These projects demonstrate artistic commitment to materials, which are acted upon: strategic cuts, emotive drips, built up surfaces, and provocative juxtapositions are the outcomes of measurable activities and signs of “doing.” As the work of historical artists in Viewpoints evidences, the engagement with concepts and aesthetic problems is not a recently developed trajectory. What is new is broader awareness and curiosity about it.”

– Jacqueline Francis, Ph.D., the inaugural Robert A. Corrigan Visiting Professor in Social Justice in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University for 2016-17, holding an appointment at the California College of the Arts as Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Visual and Critical Studies