PAST SHOWS

ROLLER COASTER PREVIEW
​SEPTEMBER 10TH 2019 THROUGH FEBRUARY 14TH ​

Life is a Roller Coaster!
​The Art depicts, The Good, The bad, and everything in between.

ART THOU GRAPHICS AND GALLERY PRESENTS:
"HOPE"
UP THROUGH MARCH 16 , 2019

​"HOPE" is a group show, consisting of paintings and sculpture, focusing on positive, loving, and hopeful images and concepts. Because we all need some of that these days. 

Art Thou Graphics and Gallery Presents:
MARC THORPE: a retrospective
Sculptural wall works and selected paintings
February 17 - April 21, 2018

Marc Thorpe: a retrospective

“I am mostly interested in formal issues. The meaning derives from a satisfying order of unlikely relationships." -Marc Thorpe

Art Thou Gallery presents the sculptural wall works of artist Marc Thorpe, now through April 21, 2018. See our Current Shows page for details.

Thorpe's curiosity, innovation, and commitment to the exploration of various mediums span the course of over thirty years, from toy inventions working for Lucasfilm to what is called "Behavioral Sculpture"; a synchronized dolphin training art form that won him the 1974 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Now, at the age of 71, we celebrate Thorpe's wall works that embody his longstanding interest in art as a subject of endless investigation. Join us for the reception on February 17 from 7-11pm.

NYC&T began its run in August 2016, and ended on October 2017!

The show kicked off with a fantastic opening party on August 20, 2016, and a follow-up party on March 18, 2017 to show off the transformation of the gallery. A reception on August 5, 2017 marked the next phase of the exhibit. The final party, which closed out the show, was on OCTOBER 14, 2017. So much happened to the show, and we thank you all for coming to experience it!  We're hoping to take this show on the road, so check back in here or on our social media pages for updates!

The Newsstand installation

The Subway Installation

Peter Canty, Like A Dream
Original Paintings by Peter Canty

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Millie Schiff - Drawings

About the Artist
Millie Schiff, currently a citizen of North Carolina, is a rare breed of artist, one whose work is suffused with reverence and awe of the grandeur and intimacy of the human race. She was raised in Mt. Loretta, a girl's dormitory and home in Staten Island, NY, and was given paints by the nuns at the orphanage. She recalls how the religious iconography affected her: "the over 10 foot tall sculptures overwhelmed me, they towered over me, impacting my life. Seeing such grace and beauty filled me, they were real to me, and that is when I started painting." As she says of the statues' expressiveness: "the poses, bending and twisting, exposes the emotional self; every inch of you exposes your true self."

While attending nursing school, she was able to see how bones, how muscles, how every part of the body played with light and shadows. Working in the surgical area had a profound impact on her, and shaped her artwork to come.  "I was blown away by what I saw, how perfect we are made. Working with the elderly connected me with a spiritual awakening, and showed me human emotions in a different light. I became aware of a gentle veil being lifted, which eventually led to looking within. I set about expressing my life's journey, in art form, which I hoped would form a connection to others, to see that awakening within myself. The emotional me…the enlightened me…is still discovering my artistic self."

Wunderkammer
A Small Works Art Exhibition

December 1st 2015 - January 17th 2016
Artists Reception : Saturday, December 12th,  5:30 - 8:30 pm

Art Thou Gallery proudly present Wunderkammer: Small Works Art Exhibition, a group show featuring over 24 Bay Area artists showing more than 100 tiny works of wonder sized at 12 inches and under.  Featuring artists...
 

Alexis Amann                             Gloria Huet                                                    Dave Strauss
Calvin Bohner                            Kaitlin McSweeney                                   Angela Tannehill
Ruth Chase                                  Lindsay Evans Montgomery                Monica Tiulescu
Josh Coolidge                            Avery Palmer                                                Claire Tompkins
Jackie Farkas                             Justin Pastores                                             Victoria Veedell
Dan Fenstermacher              Zsofia Penzvalto  ZSALTO                     Michelle Waters
Fig.6.                                               Jay Ruland                                                       Eugene Young
J.M. Golding                              Jenna Sarabia                                                 Thomas N. Young
 
This salon style exhibition showcases small scale work priced at $200 or less and encourages art lovers and collectors from all backgrounds to start their very own wonder-rooms! Come feast your eyes on all types of tiny curiosities:  from painting, drawing, and photography to mixed media sculpture and collage. There's something for everyone at our Wunderkammer exhibition!
 
Please join us and meet the artists at our Solano Avenue Holiday Art Walk and Artist Reception : Saturday, December 12th,  5:30 - 8:30 pm

Wunderkammer is curated by Chrysta Giffen

Peak Salvation
Tom Taylor, Fig.6, and Peter Canty
October 2nd - November 25th, 2015

Art Thou Gallery & the Sierra Club proudly present Peak Salvation, a group show featuring Bay Area artists working in the theme of nature and conservation.  Peak Salvation brings together paintings, photography, and cut paper collage from artists Tom Taylor, Fig.6, and Berkeley landscape painter Peter Canty.

Tom Taylor started his artistic career painting cityscapes and portraits, until a transformative experience living on a tungsten mine in Hope Valley. The peace and tranquility of this remote environment in the Sierras inspired him to work more with landscapes and to create work that could bring his love of nature indoors.

Fig.6 is the alias of emerging photographer and collage artist Chrysta Giffen. Her photographs of nature radiate serenity with their classical compositions and formal framing. In conjunction with her photographs, Giffen's use of recycled materials in her cut paper collage merges a contemporary design sense with an integrated environmental approach.

Peter Canty's rich oil paintings of mountains, oceans, and trees root the viewer to the Bay Area's natural landscape and gives reference to a historical sense of place. Residing in North Berkeley, Canty celebrates naturalism as the ideal in this exhibition.
Peak Salvation references both the segmented and natural landscape of the Bay Area which serve as the creative fuel for the artists presented in this exhibition.

10% of all gallery sales were donated to the Sierra Club.

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Wallace Bastein - Fragile Earth
August 19th - September 26th,  2015

Art Thou Gallery proudly presents Fragile Earth, a solo exhibition featuring the work of emerging Bay Area artist Wallace Bastein.

Mankind's population growth has surged exponentially and subsequently resulted in a plethora of negative repercussions for Earth's animals. Bastein explores humanity's relationship with our planet's wildlife through this series of colorful and unique oil paintings.

We often neglect to see how our lives are entwined with the landscape around us and our link to the rest of the animal kingdom. Bastein symbolizes this disconnect through diptychs portraying an animal and a human in each set: separated in each canvas, yet joined through their connection to the natural (or abstract) landscapes that contain them.

"It is easy for me to forget that I share this jewel of a planet with beautiful animals and people. Painting a portrait of an animal on its own canvas, then juxtaposing a portrait of one of us on a separate canvas (both sharing a common landscape) reminds me of the ultimate truth. We shall thrive or perish as one."
- Wallace Bastein

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Peter Canty - Seascapes
July 8th - August 15th,  2015

You fell in love with his gloriously rich oil paintings of forests and trees earlier this year in Urban Fodder / Rural Encounters... Now, Art Thou Gallery presents Peter Canty's Seascapes, a solo exhibition featuring Canty's evocative paintings of white-capped ocean waves, swirling blue-green saltwater, and textured rocky shores.

Born and raised in Laguna Beach, California, Peter Canty has always found inspiration from his seaside hometown. While he currently resides in North Berkeley, Canty's early life influences like tall sea-cliffs, crashing waves, lush greenery and idealistic ocean skylines remain close to his heart and on the tips of his paintbrushes.

Canty's beloved oil paintings are unique in a modern impressionist fashion. His immense imagery is the pure product of his imagination and he paints every day of the year. His simple life compliments his simple, yet captivating, works of art that can be found on walls all over the country.

Canty is a rare kind of artist, with raw talent and a kind heart to match. His peaceful aura matches his breathtaking works of art.

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Opal Moon Fauna 
Lindsay Evans Montgomery, Andreina Davila & Ytaelena Lopez, and Ryan Rebekah Erev. Curated by Chrysta Giffen
May 1st - June 24th, 2015

Art Thou Gallery proudly presents Opal Moon Fauna, an art exhibition featuring the work of four emerging Bay Area artists whose work celebrates bright colors, strong design, and fun, unexpected details.

Andreina Davila & Ytaelena Lopez are two Venezuelan artists that met in the Bay Area art scene and have joined forces to create the 2-person collaborative /ee.l.o.s/ (the phonetic pronunciation of hilos in Spanish, which means threads). After months of brainstorming and preparation, they debut their first series,Fauna, employing fine line work, dotting, and abstract color to portray an exquisite mixed-media menagerie.

Ryan Rebekah Erev merges a punk-feminist DIY mentality with earth-based spirituality to create art pieces that co-function as " tools to shift cultural healing towards the expression of liberation in all its complexities." Erev's works on paper accentuate delicate color washes, carefully executed brushstrokes, and a quirky surprise of googly eyes showing handcrafted skill and a playfulness that is a pleasure to indulge in.

Lindsay Evans Montgomery's paintings on canvas intuitively explore graphic line, shapes, and a wealth of colors in bright neon and opalescent pastels. Her series Truffle bubbles over with excess while the paintings in Aura take a surprisingly minimal turn. Sharp angles and acrylic-fashioned gemstones meet candy-coated rainbows and explode, sparkling into abstraction.

Opal Moon Fauna is an all-woman exhibition highlighting light-hearted fantastic worlds splashed with multicolored vibrant hues. 

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Urban Fodder / Rural Encounters 
Peter Canty, Scotty Gorham, Tijuana Rick, and Johnny Stewart. Curated by Chrysta Giffen
March 21st - April 22nd, 2015

Art Thou Gallery proudly presents Urban Fodder / Rural Encounters, an art exhibition featuring the work of four artists currently living in the Bay Area. Urban Fodder / Rural Encounters debuts the curatorial talents of Chrysta Giffen who brings together the work of three Silicon Valley emerging artists with Berkeley's highly regarded landscape painter Peter Canty.

Peter Canty's rich oil paintings of forests and trees root the viewer to the Bay Area's natural landscape and gives reference to a historical sense of place. Residing in North Berkeley, Canty celebrates naturalism as the ideal in this exhibition.

Scotty Gorham's guerrilla neon installations serve as a stand in for industry, re-contextualizing the paintings of Peter Canty. As a Chicago artist currently living in San Jose, Gorham's collaborative neon interventions seamlessly link the duality of the Silicon Valley tech world to Northern California's rural landscape.

Tijuana Rick (Ricardo Cortez) remixes current digital programming with tech objects from the past to create interactive sculptures. Cortez is a self-identified Chicano artist infusing his work with, and inviting the viewer into, his own cultural experiences. These works simultaneously explore old and new technology while referencing cultural histories inherent to the Bay Area.

Johnny Stewart's mysterious night photography pulls the viewer into a dark underworld where nature and our cities are in direct conflict. Stewarts' depictions of urban and rural space explore the desolate corners of familiar territories.

Urban Fodder / Rural Encounters references the abundance of technology, culture, and natural landscape of the Bay Area which all serves as the creative fuel for the artists presented in this exhibition.

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MB3 : Mixed Bag 3
Bob Amrhein, Wallace Bastein, Peter Canty, Cricket Deetz, Heidi Durbin, Chrysta Giffen, Chuck Joiner, Josh Jordach, Lauren T. Meyer, Anita Newby, Shaun Ortwig, SHYE, Tim Taylor, Marc Thorpe, Thomas N. Young, and Tom Taylor
December 2014 - February 2015 

The group exhibition MB3 : Mixed Bag 3 brought together painting, sculpture, collage, photography, and mixed-media of a variety of subject matter (a little something for everyone).

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Construction Show
Works by Peter Canty, Jerry Garcia, and more!
Early 2014

 For the Construction Show, the gallery was in the process of staging for the Next Big Show, but stayed open to show a ton of Peter Canty's work. We also had several original lithographs for sale by none other than THE Jerry Garcia! Please excuse our dust and power tools!

Imaginary Vacations
mixed media and paintings by Thomas Young
October - December,  2013

Imaginary Vacations. A show which embraces adventure and travel, but have you ever seen destinations like these? Probably not, It only exists in Tom's mind. The idea came about when the artist came upon a couple hundred old postcards, and decided to "jazz 'em up" with collage elements. "I'm giving the people from these old ads the vacation of their dreams", says the artist. Alaskan cruises through glaciers made of torn-paper, Cessna planes flying over strange patchwork farms of paper & paint, trips to Mars, plus postcards from all your favorite places you've never heard about; all of these sights can be seen if you just come down to the gallery! You can see more of the artists' work at www.thomasnyoung.com

Earth, Sea and Sky
August - September, 2013

Local artists explore the theme of earth, sea, and sky through paintings and sculpture. Featuring works by Peter Canty, Shoshana Zambryski-Stachel, Tim Taylor, Tom Taylor, Marc Thorpe and more. Also, this Saturday is our first year birthday party, from 7 till 11pm. Come on out and wish us a Happy Birthday! 

The Photography of Shahrukh Khurshid
May - June, 2013

A show within a show. As part of Mixed Bag Too, we will be showing the work of photographer Shahrukh Khurshid, whose images of Pakistan reveal a complex country full of beauty in the face of uncertainty and tragedy. From May 18 through June 15, Shahrukh's photos will be on display at the gallery in the Artists' Showcase. A reception will be held on June 8, from 7-10pm.

Mixed Bag Too!
February - June, 2013

This is the second Mixed Bag Show, a group exhibition that offers up an eclectic mix of local artists for your viewing pleasure, some of whom have established themselves while others are trying to get their foot through the door. This year, there are 12 artists, working in all mediums: Arthur Comings, Bg, Chris Granillo, Cricket Deetz, Eric Holliday, Melinda Morey, Peter Canty, Shaun Oertwig, Toby Tover, Tom Taylor, Wil Ehi Obinyan, and Thomas Young.

New Location Opening
with Canty, Deetz, & Obinyan

The New Location Opening is a painting exhibit, featuring the work of three powerhouse artists: Peter Canty, Cricket Deetz, and Wil Ehi Obinyan. These three are individually impressive and moving, not just working in a style but defining that style; but when they are brought together in one place and displayed mingling together, the effect is like getting tossed around by the surf, and catching brief glimpses of a woman in a bathing suit and tropical fish and sailing vessels. Painting is the form of expression in this show, and each artist expresses themselves wholly different from the others; Peter paints landscapes and seascapes rich with color, texture, and  solitude; Cricket's been analyzing, deconstructing, and re-assembling the female form through paintings and drawings; and Wil paints landscapes and portraits that are vibrant and unique in how they present the subject matter.

Preview Show with Peter Canty

Peter Canty's paintings grab you at first, with their vibrant color scheme and arresting composition. They speak to you and surround you, until you feel that you are not just looking at a flat plane of paint and brushstrokes, but you are looking at a real scene, and you are witnessing it all by yourself. But you don't feel threatened, or vulnerable, but rather solitary and at peace with the world he has painted. There are no people, no cars or boats, and definitely no cell phones or computers. Mr. Canty paints scenes of nature conjured up in his head; landscapes and seascapes, large format and some small, in a style reminiscent of Gauguin and Van Gogh, but with a style very much his own. In his seascapes, you can hear the surf crashing against the rocky coast, and in his landscapes, your can hear the rustling leaves.

Outer Space Experience

The Outer Space Experience was the final show at 1861 Solano Ave, the old backstage of the Oaks Theater. The space was filled from floor to ceiling with outer-space themed sculptures and paintings. A 25 foot tall wood rocket ship was built in the space which resembled something out of a child's dream. Neon asteroids and stars filled the ceiling, and a giant satellite dish beamed messages to the rocket ship. The result was a wondrous feeling of space travel, playful yet awe-inspiring. It was a fitting tribute to the gallery as it blasted off into a new frontier.

In the Forest

In the Forest was a group installation that featured works by Kaitlin McSweeny, Andreina Davila, Claire Tompkins, Chrysta Giffen, Drew Dara-Abrams, and Susana Davy. These artists created an otherworldly, haunted forest-scape which transported visitors into another realm, where fabricated paper and wire trees stretched to the ceiling, and viewers were invited to interact with the pieces. Subtle changes in the visual and audio environment would occur as the audience interacted with the sculptures, much in the same way nature changes when humans interact with it. This show was different from past shows, in that it made the gallery space melt away, rather than call attention to the uniqueness of the space; there were no more walls, only forest.

Mixed Bag

Mixed Bag presented a collection of works by Bay Area artists that were chosen to represent a wide range of styles and themes. Tom Taylor once again transformed the concrete backstage of the Oaks Theater into a radically different environment, one which resembled a warehouse of an eclectic art collector whose packing crates full of paintings had been dismantled and constructed into walls to hang his collection of weird and wonderful pieces.

Bamboo Show

This was the show that started it all. The old backstage of the Oaks Theater was transformed from a narrow, tall concrete shell into a forest of bamboo plants and artworks that seemed to grow from the bamboo shoots themselves. Paintings, photographs, and three-dimensional pieces could be seen through the stalks, as if they were relics from a long-forgotten civilization.