Autumnal Color

Christin coy traces her love of the land to her childhood in Norway. For the last three decades, however, she has channeled her affection through the inspirational settings of Marin County, where she has lived and painted since 1981. And from September 1 through 30 art lovers have a chance to experience Coy’s vision of Marin through a solo exhibition of her works at The Painters Place in Larkspur.

“I truly enjoy painting the area close to my home, where I am able to observe the changing landscape throughout the seasons,” Coy notes. “It is incredibly invigorating trying to capture the fog with my quick brushstrokes as it blows in over the hills on a summer evening.”

Coy’s depictions of Lucas Valley, Bolinas Lagoon and other West Marin locales have earned her widespread recognition, not to mention spots in numerous gallery exhibitions and high demand at fund-raisers—participation in which is a particular passion. She is a founding member of BayWood Artists, a coalition of landscape painters devoted to open-space causes, and an active supporter of several Northern California community organizations, such as the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), Napa Valley Land Trust, Truckee Donner Land Trust and the Bucklew Foundation.

“Her plein air paintings are all about the local light, and her studio paintings bring it all to a crescendo of composition, technical ability, knowledge of color and light, and emotion,” says Krystal Allen, Painters Place gallery director. “We feel that Christin is quickly becoming a real treasure and someone that Marin can be proud of saying is ours.”

The public is invited to an opening reception at the gallery on September 4 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The Painters Place, 1139 Magnolia St., Larkspur, 415.461.0351, thepaintersplace.com; 10–5:30 Mon–Sat, closed Sun

From September 4 through October 4 Haines Gallery in San Francisco presents a pair of provocative exhibitions that challenge viewers’ perspectives on ordinary objects. Though they work in different media and subject matter, artists David Maisel and Zhan Wang share the ability to create pieces that straddle the line between beautiful and disquieting.

In his series Library of Dust, Maisel—best known for dramatic aerial pictures of degraded landscapes—photographed copper canisters containing the cremated remains of patients at a state-run psychiatric hospital. Over the decades, the canisters have corroded, thwarting the hospital’s attempts to maintain a record of otherwise forgotten souls, but providing Maisel with strikingly beautiful—if disturbing—subject matter. Much like the Technicolor landscapes in his aerial photographs, the canisters exhibit unexpected explosions of color: the visuals are seductive, the content unsettling.

Though Beijing-based Wang takes a very different approach in his work, he similarly uses alluring aesthetics to address complicated issues. In Gold Mountain his subject is the Chinese immigrant experience during California’s gold rush. Wang collected rocks from the Sierra Nevada, whose gold lured so many across the Pacific Ocean, and wrapped them in stainless steel; he then painstakingly removed the steel skin and refashioned it as a hollow, glitzy counterpart to its nondescript original. An extension of his work related to “scholars’ rocks” in China—massive boulders that traditionally served as peaceful contemplation—his Gold Mountain sculptures raise questions about the substance of gains realized, in relation to both the Chinese immigrants and modern industrialization.

The gallery will host a public opening reception for the exhibitions; contact Haines for details.

Haines Gallery, 49 Geary St., San Francisco, 415.397.8114, hainesgallery.com; 10:30–5:30 Tue–Fri, 10:30–5 Sat, closed Sun–Mon

Each year Robert Green Fine Arts in Mill Valley devotes a group show to the pantheon of artistic stars in its stable. From August 5 through September 14 the gallery presents a selection of works by celebrated Abstract Expressionists Paul Jenkins, Sam Francis, John Grillo and Ed Moses as well as contemporary sculptor Bill Barrett.

The gallery’s emphasis is on color field abstraction, and Jenkins, Francis, Grillo and Moses ably exemplify this style with exuberant, colorful paintings rife with energy and emotion. Each artist is recognized for helping to shape American art in the post–World War II era, contributing to the development of Abstract Expressionism by showcasing an aesthetic breadth, through their use of both innovative techniques and a variety of media. This exhibition offers a peek at the dynamism of postwar American art with an assortment of stylistically linked works that reflect each of the artists’ unique approaches. Barrett’s sculptures provide a three-dimensional complement to the two-dimensional paintings and works on paper.

The gallery follows the group show with a solo exhibition of works by Grillo that opens September 16, offering a more in-depth look at his oeuvre. Grillo is credited with being among the earliest practitioners of action painting—a term most often associated with the frenetic, gestural works of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline—and with having a profound influence on the evolution of Abstract Expressionism on the West Coast.

Robert Green Fine Arts, 154 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, 415.381.8776, rgfinearts.com; 1–7 Tue–Fri, 11–5 Sat–Sun, closed Mon

Art galleries handle a terrific volume of intriguing objects every year, but not all have a chance to make it into the viewing space. Some are too big or too unconventional—they don’t fit with the gallery’s curatorial focus. So about 10 years ago San Francisco’s Paul Thiebaud Gallery created a loophole for itself: its roughly annual Twenty-Five Treasures show, which gives visitors an opportunity to see more than two dozen objects that the gallery holds in high esteem, even if it might not otherwise devote space to them.

For its 13th presentation of Twenty-Five Treasures the gallery collected an impressive assortment of modern masterworks, contemporary standouts and a few requisite nods to the quirky, on view from September 9 to November 8 in its North Beach storefront space. The works run the gamut from drawings and paintings to sculptural objects to three vintage Cadillacs, presented here in photographic form.

“We look for items throughout the year in order to find 25 really high-caliber works of art or cultural objects that we consider to be treasures,” says gallery director Kelly Purcell. Highlights of the current selection include Edward Hopper’s 1966 painting Two Comedians, a portrait of the artist and his wife that was the last work he completed before his death; a classical nude by Arshile Gorky; a jungle scene by Henri Rousseau; and a drawing by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingrès that dates back to 1817. Also in the mix are pieces by Joan Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, Henri Matisse, Mel Ramos and Wayne Thiebaud, plus an African carved figure and a pre-Columbian artifact.

The gallery hosts an opening reception on Tuesday, September 9; contact the gallery for details.

Paul Thiebaud Gallery, 718 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, 415.434.3055, paulthiebaudgallery.com; 10–6 Tue–Sat, closed Sun–Mon