Invincible Summer
A Group Show at Minnesota Street Project
Presented by Anglim Gilbert Gallery
Open Now - September, 2020 (Date TBD)
1275 Minnesota St., San Francisco, CA
New paintings by Katherine Sherwood are featured in Invincible Summer, a group show at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco.
The exhibition is available to view online at Minnesota Street Project Adjacent, or make an easy online reservation to view the work in-person with social distancing conditions.
Note that this group show is distinct from Katherine Sherwood’s upcoming solo exhibition at Anglim Gilbert Gallery - details to be announced soon!
Katherine Sherwood After Josefa de Obidos, 2020 Mixed media on found cotton 36 1/2h x 29w in 92.71h x 73.66w cm
Invincible Summer is the first group show mounted by the galleries at the Minnesota Street Project. It began as our response to the circumstances brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, both in theme and in its physical and virtual configurations. Each gallery has contributed works from its roster of artists in response to a line in an Albert Camus essay, a line that beautifully and succinctly expresses hopefulness in the face of challenge. In this show, Summer is both a metaphor and a way to mark where we as a community find ourselves at this moment.
Of course, this moment has become more fraught and complicated as we all wrestle with the realities of racial injustice and with our responses to it. The theme of strength in the face of challenge and despair seems fitting here, too. This show is not meant as a response to this spring's racially motivated killings, the protests they engendered, or the systemic racism and lack of opportunity that are all too prevalent in society as well as the art world; ironically, it fills space that was to have hosted two shows by Black artists this summer that have been postponed due to COVID-19. But even so, there are works in the show that address these themes directly and indirectly. More important, this group show is only our first: Minnesota Street Project stands with Black Lives Matter as will be evident in future shows and opportunities we create this fall and beyond.
Invincible Summer has been installed in the Atrium at 1275 Minnesota Minnesota Street in San Francisco, a space that is large enough to accommodate socially-distanced viewing, once that is allowed and for as long as it is required. In essence, the galleries in the building have turned themselves inside out — placing art on their exterior walls in shared space. The show was also conceived from the start to live here in virtual space, both to allow a show at all when it can't be seen in person and to expand its reach when it can.
Anglim Gilbert Gallery is pleased to contribute works by Katherine Sherwood, J. John Priola, and Christine Streuli, whose work exemplifies the resilience and transience of the human experience. Katherine Sherwood recontextualizes still life painting tropes and Western art historical representations of the female nude, broadening the gaze with which we view disability, gender, and race. Sherwood’s examination of long-held biases in visual culture thoughtfully reclaims space for those who have been historically misrepresented. Her forthcoming exhibition, Brain Flowers, will be on view this summer in the gallery. J. John Priola's large-format photographs of synthetic, decorative sconces are reverent homages to American kitsch as much as they are reflections on personal loss and queer identity. Silk floral arrangements, meant to be vibrant and unchanging by design, fade with time and become subtle memorials. Christine Streuli's high-energy, acid-colored paintings borrow stylized forms and patterns from imagery in the popular consciousness. For Streuli, her works are a means of passionately asserting oneself outside the limited confines of ascribed womanhood and embracing the joys and difficulties of life as an artist.
This exhibition is viewable online at Minnesota Street Project Adjacent, or you can visit in person with an appointment.