2024 Left Coast Annual Juried Exhibition

Opening Reception: Friday, April 12, 7–9 pm

Music by Don Rowell Trio

Juried by Janna Keegan: Associate Curator, contemporary art and programming, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Juror’s Talk & Artists Virtual Gallery Walk: Sunday, April 14, 3 pm

The 2024 Left Coast Annual Exhibition on view from April 12 through May 12, at Sanchez Art Center, will open with an evening reception Friday, April 12 from 7 – 9 pm. Juror Janna Keegan, Associate Curator, contemporary art and programming, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, selected 55 pieces from more than 1000 entries by artists on the left coast (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington). The exhibition brings forth feelings of connection and relationships, society and cultures, as well as transformation and possibilities.

Through the creative lens of the artists, gallery visitors will be able to visualize and contemplate relevant societal issues spanning environmental concerns, urbanization, consumerism, womens rights and more, that have been brought together with a diversity of styles. Representational works blend with the abstract. Vintage photographic techniques are included with modern digital methods. Traditional mediums, including oil, acrylic and watercolor on a variety of substrates are interspersed with bronze and other metals, textiles, weavings, spray paint, charcoal made from money and natural materials, colorful intricate beading, found objects, and even concrete, reflecting the variety of media being used by contemporary artists today to create their work.

Dora Lisa Rosenbaum, reflecting on women without shelter, created "Burdens, Green Shoulder Bag" noting that she was "struck not only by the importance of their material belongings but also by the burden these become. There is a heaviness and hardness to every aspect of their lives". Taking on the topic of misinformation, Michael E. Goldman states that "truth and what rules apply to whom has become fluid. What we once took for granted is now flipped, chopped, reorganized and sent back to us from a new point of view." The artist presents this concept through the transformation of road signs that scrambles their original meaning. From her Plant Messengers series of botanical contact prints on fabric, Anne Mavor is showing "I Am Floating" with the intention of honoring and connecting with the energy and imagery of plants around her and to heal ancestral grief and separation from place caused by war, colonization, genocide, and migration. Artist and sculptor Gadget's piece "Urban Sprawl" from the series "Questioning Cities" combines individual unique functional parts that have been retired from their past use, posing questions about their origins, lifespan, and long term impact, and unites them to form familiar landscapes to explore and reflect on. Lorraine Woodruff-Long worked with data from 1850 to 2022, collected by a British climate scientist who encourages artists to use his research, to illustrate global temperature change.