For Immediate Release
Press Contact: Meg Shiffler, Gallery Director
e: Meg.shiffler@sfgov.org    t:415.252.2568

40^th Anniversary Season: A Year of Artist-Driven Projects

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and Director of Cultural Affairs, Luis R. Cancel are proud to announce the opening of our 40^th Anniversary Season. Since 1970 the SFAC Gallery, originally Capricorn Asunder Gallery, has been a vibrant part of the Bay Area art scene and a champion of regional emerging and established artists. In the past 40 years we have exhibited over 4000 artists in over 400 exhibitions. This year we’re commemorating the past, celebrating the present and looking toward the future with a series of exhibitions that positions Bay Area artists at the front and center of our upcoming exhibition programming.

Gallery Director Meg Shiffler says, “The SFAC Gallery has had an incredible impact on the cultural landscape of the Bay Area over the past 40 years. It seems fitting for a gallery that has remained focused on engaging the cultural production and topics of the day, to create an anniversary season with exhibitions full of newly commissioned works that will provoke dialogue around current art practice and the evolution of the SFAC Gallery as the City’s municipal arts gallery.

Chain Reaction 11

Location: Main Gallery, 401 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister) and 155 Grove Street storefront space
Dates: February 12 – May 14, 2010

Chain Reaction 11 features thirty regional artists occupying all three of the SFAC Gallery sites by reviving a signature SFAC Gallery exhibition series. The first Chain Reaction exhibition opened in 1985, and continued as an annual exhibition through 1991, after which it became a much-anticipated but more limited event. For this version of Chain Reaction ten arts luminaries influential in the Gallery’s past were each asked to select one artist to participate in the exhibition. The ten selected artists each chose another artist to participate in the show, and finally the third group of artists each chose a final artist to be included. All of the participating artists will exhibit side by side, and the chain of selection will be clearly noted. Chain Reaction 11 gives the public an opportunity to both see what currently interests these artists, and to take the pulse of the current Bay Area art scene.

The ten chains include:
(The initial selector does is not a participating artist.)

Main Gallery at 401 Van Ness Avenue:

SFAC Staff – Anne Colvin – Ginger Wolfe-Suarez – Lordy Rodriguez

SFAC Advisory Board – Walter Logue – Alexander Cheves – Paul Clipson

Glen Helfand – Christine Wong Yap – Pablo Guardiola – James Tantum

Enrique Chagoya & Kara Maria – Justine Lai – Emily North – Angie Wilson

Desiree Holman – Joshua Churchill – Jasmin Lim – Cameron Soren

Judy Moran – Michael Arcega – Suzanne Husky – Amy Balkin

SFAC Gallery Window Installation Site at 155 Grove St.

Kamau Amu Patton – Chris Bell – Elaine Buckholtz – Floor Van Herreweghe

SFAC Gallery at City Hall, Ground Floor

Abby Chen –  Hui-Ying Tsai – James S. Kang – Scott Polach

Rupert Jenkins – Gabriela Hasbun – Karna Kurata – David Paul Morris

Kari Orvik – Robyn Twomey – James Chiang – Josh Kirschenbaum

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About San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery makes contemporary art accessible to broad audiences through curated exhibitions that both reflect our regional diversity and position Bay Area visual art production within an international contemporary art landscape. By commissioning new works, collaborating with arts and community organizations and supporting artist’s projects, the SFAC Gallery’s programs provide new and challenging opportunities for contemporary art to engage with a civic dialogue.

The SFAC Gallery was founded in 1970 and is the exhibitions program of the San Francisco Arts Commission, the arts agency of the City and County of San Francisco.

The San Francisco Arts Commission
The San Francisco Arts Commission is the City agency that champions the arts in San Francisco. We believe that a creative cultural environment is essential to the City’s well-being. Our programs integrate the arts into all aspects of City life. The Commission was established by charter in 1932 (Charter sections 5.103 and 16.106).