| Sanchez Art Center is full of joy with the announcement of the SF Bay Area's favorite art extravaganza and the most wonderful time of year: the 50|50 Show! The 50|50 Show is a destination event for art lovers throughout the greater SF Bay Area and beyond, showcasing the work of over 50 California artists. The 50|50 Show opens with a fundraiser held over two days, Fri, Sept 6 – Sat, Sept 7. This staggered opening provides art lovers the optimal experience to select the day and timed interval of their choice, and are the only days to view the +50 installations comprising +2,650 works, in their entirety.
Participating California artists create 50 small artworks within a time span of 50 days, a journey requiring an artistic vision, bold imagination, and staying power to undertake and complete. The result of the +50 artists' accomplishment is an astounding array of original art that along with the affordability of the small (6" x 6") artworks makes the 50|50 Show, the most highly anticipated exhibition of the year. Since the first show in 2009, 48,700 small (6" x 6") affordable artworks have been created by +950 artists!
The opening fundraiser also offers live music, time to chat with artists about their work, and the opportunity to purchase your favorite pieces. (Note: all works stay on the wall during the opening, and can either be picked up or shipped to buyers for a small fee as of the week of Sept 9.) Tickets are limited and none will be available at the door, so get yours early on Eventbrite.com.
Andra Norris, the principal of Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, exhibiting works by established and mid-career international artists with Bay Area ties, juried the 2024 50|50 Show. Utilizing her practiced eye for what bridges artists, collectors and enthusiasts, as well as a focus on California's vibrant aesthetic with a global edge, she delved into the over 160 entries to create a show of more than 50 California artists with a depth of themes and artistic mediums ranging from fiber to watercolor, oil and acrylic. Mixed media to ceramic and glass. Photography, collage, encaustic, print and more.
Developing an overall theme that will absorb their artistic practice over 50 days is the starting point for the artistic process. Current events, historic memories, real and imagined flora and fauna are interspersed with feelings from love to sadness. Studies of light, scenes from outdoors and in, mingle with explorations of decay and renewal and portraiture, with environmental issues and feminism also threading their way through the exhibition. Erika Adkins, Half Moon Bay, working in encaustic and secondhand books, asks "Why would we choose to restrict intellectual growth?" in her installation "50 Second Looks at 50 Banned Books". Through photographic visual imagery, Sriharsha Annadore, San Jose, created a study of liquid and personal experience in "Color of Water: My Immigrant Life's Reflections". Fuzz E. Grant, San Francisco muses about species, creating "Nomebas: A New Species from the Detritus of Humanity" in 3D sculpture. Continuing his layered paper collage work, Michael Gabriel, San Francisco, takes us back with "Peel Slowly and See: An Andy Warhol/Velvet Underground Tribute". Reflecting on the waste generated by consumption, Hilary Couch, Los Angeles, has developed her body of work titled, "When Our Rainbows Become Plastic" using reclaimed polyester (plastic) bags. Limiting herself to a simple palette with paper stained with turmeric to create vibrant yellows, paint skins and repurposed paper, Dee Mostofi, Berkeley, has created "Desert Visions: Revealing Self and Joy Through the Unexposed Landscape". Cutting, gluing, sewing, stitching, San Francisco based Saskia van Kampen's work "Sewn Mixed Media Collage Done Through a Blithe Feminist Lens" is rooted in design, feminist theory, and handcraft processes.
Can't make the opening? Don't worry! After the opening fundraiser, Sanchez Art Center will welcome visitors at no charge on Sunday, Sept 8, 1–5 pm, and thereafter galleries are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm, through Oct 6. Beginning on Sunday, Sept 8, art buyers get to immediately take purchases home with them. Art enthusiasts often visit multiple times to take it all in, and return again and again. Facemasks are not required, while we welcome visitors to do what is best based on current community health circumstances and own their personal circumstance.
Proceeds from the annual 50|50 Show support Sanchez Art Center's programs that, for over 25 years, have created community through art. Special thanks to exhibition sponsors: Art Guild of Pacifica, Bleyle Elevator, and Shelldance Orchid Garden.
Don't miss this inspiring celebration of art and artists! Order your ticket to the Opening Fundraiser at Eventbrite.com. Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd in Pacifica, about a mile east of Highway 1.
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