On Silent Haunches

FFDG is pleased to present “On Silent Haunches” a group show including work by four local painters, Emily Proud, Jenny Sharaf, Michelle Fleck and Nicholas Bohac. On Silent Haunches is a microcosm of contemporary painting in San Francisco, with curatorial inspiration form an SF painting staple, Ferris Plock. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, July 10 (6-9pm). The artists will be present. Beer and wine will be served.

While each painter works in very different methods, from Sharaf’s pours to Fleck’s precision and then to Bohac’s layering and Proud’s watercolors, all share a sense of light exclusive to the bay area. Working with pastel and bold colors, reflective surfaces and subtle hues, all of the works encapsulate what it is to see in San Francisco. Like bay-area painters of the past such as Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn, this light permeates the air we breathe and therefore the work we make.

One of the emblematic features of San Francisco is the fog that covers the city and diffuses the sun’s light before it hits our concrete streets. Twitter followers have coined him Karl the Fog, and he spends summer looming over our city and encouraging weekend getaways. He may owe his nom de plume to Carl Sandburg who wrote the poem “Fog” which reads as follows:

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Each of these painters seems to be perched on these “silent haunches.” Not quite confrontational, but not willing to be overlooked, this work seems to spring from a similar ethos into very disparate incarnations of what contemporary painting is today.