Art in Sonoma County
Current Gallery and Museum Exhibitions for September, 2023
by Satri Pencak
Sonoma County has been a magnet for artists and art connoisseurs for many decades, and continues to attract sophisticated artists and art collectors, along with casual art lovers. Combined with the sheer natural beauty, and general creative ambience, the area readily entices visitors, as well as long-time residents, to explore the many and varied fine art offerings. With the addition of great food, drink, and outdoor activities, it’s easy to spend a day, a week, or a lifetime traversing through the vineyards, forests, and rolling hills, along the scenic coast, and through the welcoming towns of Sonoma County.
The following is a partial list of local art exhibitions. Many eateries, wineries, and civic buildings also present changing art shows in their spaces.
Please check with the venues for current status of health protocols, hours, events and exhibitions.
*** Designates an Opening Reception.
Art Trails Sonoma County
*** Open Studios on two weekends, September 30 & October 1; and October 7 & 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
EXPLORE Sonoma County, ENGAGE with artists in their own studios, and COLLECT beautiful art. View the work of 130 local artists in their studios. To prepare, visit the five preview exhibits to get a taste of what the artists have to offer. Starting in September and running through the open studios weekends, you can see preview exhibits at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Corrick’s/My Daughter The Framer, Bodega Art Gallery, Healdsburg Center For The Art, and Gallery One Petaluma. For specific dates and times go to the website, https://www.sonomacountyarttrails.org/
Arts Guild of Sonoma
Through September 25, Artist Members Exhibition
Showing the work of over 25 AGS artist members.
140 E. Napa St., Sonoma
707-996-3115
www.artsguildofsonoma.org
Café Frida Gallery
See the newly unveiled Public Art installation, the Los Nopales project, created by Artstart participants. The beautiful wooden nopales cactus doubles as a directory for the building.
SOFA Arts District
300 South A Street, Santa Rosa
Calabi Gallery
Through September 30, Anticipating Abstract Expressionism
In the years following WWII many Bay Area artists were seeking a new visual vocabulary. Already familiar with European abstraction, they were seeking a more nativist form of expression. By the late 40s most had turned to non-objective abstraction. The exhibition features work by a selection of those artists as they pushed the boundaries of representational art in new directions. Works by Walter Kuhlman, Robert McChesney, and Hassel Smith are included, as well as Ed Corbett, Robert Howard and Lundy Siegriest.
456 Tenth St., Santa Rosa
707-781-7070
www.calabigallery.com
Charles M. Schulz Museum
Through January 14, 2024, Snoopy in Orbit
Into space with Apollo 10, aboard the International Space Station, and now around the Moon during the Artemis I mission—Snoopy is the first beagle on the Moon! See Snoopy, who served as the zero-gravity indicator for the Artemis I mission, now safely home to Earth, alongside more never-before-exhibited space-flown Peanuts artifacts!
2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa
707-579-4452
www.schulzmuseum.org
Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery
204 N. Cloverdale Boulevard, Cloverdale
707-894-4410
www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org
Cloverdale, CA
Through April 25, 2024, Cloverdale Sculpture Trail
Nine new sculptures have been chosen by the Selection Committee and are part of the 2022-2024 Sculpture Trail. The themes of these nine sculptures are diverse and show the creative thinking and craftsmanship of the sculptors.
cloverdalesculpturetrail.org/
Corricks Art Trails Gallery/ My Daughter the Framer
September 1 through October 21, Art Trails Preview Exhibit
*** First Friday Meet the Artist reception, September 1, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Presenting works from dozens of Art Trails artists.
637 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa
707-546-2424
www.corricks.com
Gallery 300
6780 McKinley St., Suite 130, The Barlow
707-332-1212
www.gallery-300.com
Graton Gallery
Through September 17, A Stitch Well Lived
Featuring work by Heather Myler with Guest Artists Peggy Grills, Nishi Marcus, and Jay O’Neal.
September 21 through October 29, Essential Geometry; Part 2
*** Artists Reception Saturday, September 23, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Featuring Paintings by Bruce Hopkins, and Found Object Sculpture by Susan Shore. Guest Artists include Phyllis Rapp, Laura Lind, and Patricia Connolly.
9048 Graton Road, Graton
707-829-8912
www.gratongallery.net
Hammerfriar Gallery
132 Mill St, Healdsburg
707-473-9600
www.hammerfriar.com
Healdsburg Center for the Arts
September 7 through October 8, Art Trails Preview Exhibit
*** Opening reception September 9, from 2 to 4 p.m.
334 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-1970
healdsburgcenterforthearts.org
IceHouse Gallery / Digital Grange
Through September 15, Orin Carpenter–A Requiem to Claude Monet
Carpenter pays tribute to Impressionist, Claude Monet, one of the world’s greatest painters. After visiting Monet’s chateau in Giverny, France, Carpenter was enthralled with the true genius of Monet’s approach to art, life, and spirit.
405 East D St., Petaluma
707-778-2238
www.digitalgrange.com
Laguna Foundation, Heron Hall
September 9 through December 22, Sonoma County Landscape; Paintings by Charles Beck
*** Opening Reception Saturday, September 9, from 3 to 5 p.m.
The exhibit features large-scale paintings by Charles Beck of Sonoma County’s coastal and inland areas.
900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa
707-527-9277
www.lagunafoundation.org
Muscardini Cellars Gallery
9380 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood
707-933-9305
www.muscardinicellars.com
Museum of Sonoma County
Art
Through November 5, Nature Abstracted: Chiyomi T. Longo, Bob Nugent, and Younhee C. Paik
Nature Abstracted features three Bay Area artists who make abstract art inspired by nature. These artists differ in style and technique, but they all share a deep love and respect for the environment and humanity’s relationship to the natural world.
History
NEW Permanent Exhibition & Oral History Project, Sonoma County Stories
*** Grand Opening, Saturday, September 9, 11 a.m., Welcome and Festivities. 12 p.m., Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony.
Sonoma County Stories is a permanent Sonoma County history exhibition that allows visitors to engage with the past through the power of storytelling. The exhibition captures Sonoma County’s rich history, defined by a confluence of cultures and people, and a powerful connection to the land. Featuring stories representing the many diverse histories and cultures of the county, this ambitious and innovative permanent exhibition has at its core the Oral Histories of Gaye LeBaron.
425 Seventh Street, Santa Rosa
707-579-1500
www.museumsc.org
Occidental Center for the Arts
September 2 through October 15, OWLS
*** Reception with the artists Saturday September 2, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Featuring work by the Sonoma 5 Artist Collective; Jane Manning, Walt Morton, Omar Mueller, Charlie Pendergast, and Tamsin Smith.
3850 Doris Murphy Court, Occidental
707-874-9392
www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org
Oli Gallery
September, Redwood
*** Reception Saturday, September 2, from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Ten Artists Pay Homage to Our Amazing Redwoods.
16215 Main Street, Guerneville
www.oligallery.com
Paul Mahder Gallery
September 9 through November 19, New Works
*** Opening Reception September 9, from 4 to 7 p.m.
New Works by Represented Artists; Nikolai Atanassov, Jesse Clark, and Elena Zolotnitsky.
222 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg
707-473-9150
paulmahdergallery.com/
Pepperwood Gallery
Extended through September 17, Lure of Pepperwood
New paintings and drawings by Richard McDaniel created at Pepperwood Preserve while an Artist-in-Residence.
2130 Pepperwood Preserve Road, Santa Rosa
www.pepperwoodpreserve.org
Petaluma Arts Center
Through September 9, Laws of Nature: Sculpture
There are fundamental truths called natural laws through which everyone and everything is governed. They are the laws of attraction, polarity, rhythm, relativity and cause and effect. With these truths, our world seeks perfect harmony for which all organisms adapt and find balance. This exhibition aligns with these concepts not only because sculpture abides by these laws but can conceptually express these natural phenomena. Curated by Vicky Kumpfer.
Also showing, in the North Gallery, Towards a Movement of Peace: Then and Now – Honoring the Legacy of Sami Sunchild (1924-2013).
230 Lakeville Street, Petaluma
707-762-5600
www.petalumaartscenter.org
Ren Brown Collection Gallery
September 1 through October 13, A Journey of Discovery
The show focuses on paintings from the last 25 years by Chiyomi Taneike Longo, who creates uniquely lyrical pieces, often on a very large scale.
Housed in a refurbished building with shoji and a small, serene Japanese garden, the gallery shows contemporary art by Japanese and regional Northern California artists.
1781 Coast Highway One, Bodega Bay
707-875-2922
www.renbrown.com
Santa Rosa Arts Center
Through October 1, Multiples and Singulars
Showcasing Photography and Printmaking; artwork created using photography and printmaking techniques, such as silk-screens, block prints, lithography, letterpress, and other methods.
312 South A Street, Santa Rosa
707-526-0135
santarosaartscenter.org/
Santa Rosa Junior College, Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery
1501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa
707-527-4298
art-gallery.santarosa.edu/current-exhibits-0
Scott Nichols Gallery
Through October 14, Ansel Adams: Exhibition in Wine Country
Scott Nichols Gallery features the photography of Ansel Adams. Photographs spanning Adams’ long career as a photographer, including early vintage photographs, images of Yosemite National Park, the southwest desert, and the bay area will be on view.
450 1st St. E, Suite G, Sonoma
707-343-1928
Sculpturesite Gallery, Glen Ellen
SculptureWALK: View over 30 outdoor sculptures by 15 artists throughout the beautiful grounds at Jack London Village, offering a generous selection of abstract and figurative garden sculptures, including wind activated kinetic works. From our website, you may download the map and sculpture list to use for your self-guided tour when visiting.
14301 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen
707-933-1300
www.sculpturesite.com
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Through September 10, International Fiber Arts XI
The 11th Biennial Fiber Art juried exhibition includes work from around the world. Juried by fiber artists, Judith Content and Ann Johnston.
September 14 through October 15, Sonoma County Art Trails 2023 Preview Exhibit
*** Opening Reception Thursday, September 14, from 6 to 8 p.m.
See select works from all 130 Open Studio Artists to get a taste of what the artists have to offer. Then pick up a Collector’s Guide and plan your tour of Sonoma County Art Trails 2023. Sonoma County Art Trails Open Studios returns on the weekends of September 30 & October 1; and October 7 & 8, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
282 South High St., Sebastopol
707-829-4797
www.sebarts.org
Sebastopol Gallery
Through September 30, The Eye of the Brush; Everett Jensen
Everett’s focus for many years has been interiors with people, but he also paints landscapes. His paintings have many wonderful qualities – luminosity, beautiful color, crisp draftsmanship – but his sense of composition in particular is remarkable.
150 N. Main St., Sebastopol
707-829-7200
www.sebastopol-gallery.com/
Sebastopol Library, Forum Room
Through September 15, Art Expressions
*** Reception with the artists on Saturday, September 9, from 3 to 5 p.m.
A show of multi-media work by Joy Dellas, Barbara Goodman, and Denise Suzuki.
September 26 through November 18, Richard Nichols
*** Reception with the artist, Friday, September 29, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Richard Nichols creates assemblage, collage and photography featuring trash and refuse.
7140 Bodega Ave, Sebastopol
707-823-7691
Sonoma State University, University Art Gallery
September 7 through December 10, This Side of Blue: The Art of Mimi Chen Ting
*** Opening Reception, September 7, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The exhibition is the most comprehensive survey of Mimi Chen Ting’s five-decade career, and an important introduction to this underrepresented artist’s extraordinary work and vision. Mimi Chen Ting (1946-2022) was a North Bay painter whose life and career offer a view into the Bay Area art scene during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. A Chinese American artist who immigrated to California in 1965, Ting often interwove Eastern and Western aesthetics in her work.
1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park
707-664-2295
artgallery.sonoma.edu/
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Through September 3, Labyrinth of Forms: Women and Abstraction 1930-1950
With over thirty works by twenty-seven artists drawn almost entirely from the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Labyrinth of Forms highlights both the achievements of these women artists and the ways in which their works on paper served as important exploration and innovation.
September 13 through January 7, Richard Mayhew: Inner Terrain
*** Exhibition Reception Saturday, September 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. Free for SVMA members. $10 for non-members.
The exhibition features paintings that speak to American arts, culture, and history. Mayhew’s African American, Shinnecock, and Cherokee-Lumbee ancestries inform his dreamlike landscapes, which are saturated in vibrant colors, including shades of red and burnt earth that suggest, as the artist has said, “blood in the soil.”
551 Broadway, Sonoma
707-939-7862
www.svma.org
Upstairs Art Gallery
Through September 24, Wine Country Gold
*** Reception Saturday, September 2, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
UAG artists Nancy Gray, Willow LaLand, Karen Miller, Phyllis Rapp, Laura Roney, Donna Schaffer, Carmen Sheldon and Luba Stolper pool their talents to present Wine Country Gold, a collection of paintings that taps into Sonoma County’s spectacular Fall colors in a special salute to the season.
The Stairway Showcase presents Beverly Bird’s By the Water, small work paintings in acrylic, oil and watercolor that depict diverse scenes of water in nature. Meet the Artist; Bird will be hosting the Gallery September 9 and 19, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
306 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-4214
www.Upstairsartgallery.net
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If you would like to receive these posts in your e-mail each month, please sign up to follow my blog on www.satripencak.com. This post also appears on my Facebook page; Satri’s Best Bets in the Visual Arts.