Headlands Center for the Arts

Benefit Auction 2022

I’m excited to have my photograph, “Target House (Before/After)” available for bidding(HERE) at this years auction. As an alumni(Affiliate ‘15-’17), I can personally speak to what a transformative experience the Headlands was for me. I went in a painter and left as a photographer. Which is why having this piece in the auction is particularly special.

The photograph was taken while I was an affiliate artist at Headlands. In this piece, the top image of historic Fort Barry Building, Target House T828 was originally accompanied by a cypress tree. But in 2016, the tree was removed to help enlarge the grassland habitat of the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly. As a result, in the second photograph, I replaced the tree with an outline(scratched in to the negative) as a way of rebalancing the composition.

The Target House was destroyed by an arsonist on October 31, 2018.

The series in ongoing.

Full details, including tickets, reservations and how to bid. 

Opening Celebration: May 20, 6–9PM
Free with reservation

Exhibition: May 21–30, 11AM–6PM; May 31, 11AM–2PM
Free and open to the public

Live Auction with performance by Carole Kim: May 31, 5–9:30PM
Tickets required

All happening at:
The Store House and Gallery 308 at Fort Mason
2 Marina Blvd.
San Francisco

We’re kicking off our 2022 Benefit Art Auction with an opening celebration and exhibition on May 20, 6–9PM. View over 60 artworks available for bidding, enjoy interactive art-making activities, and experience site-specific installations from Headlands Artists Annie Albagli, and Anja Ulfeldt. Reservations required for the Opening Celebration.

Can’t make it to the opening, or just need some quiet time to experience the work? The exhibition will be open Saturday, May 21–Monday, May 30 11AM–6PM, and Tuesday, May 31 11AM–1PM; no reservations required.

Visit Headlands.org/auction for more information, tickets and reservations, and to register to bid.

Plastikcomb Magazine

Feature and Interview

Happy to share my 14 page feature in Issue #4 of Plastikcomb magazine. Great design and honored to be among the other amazing artists. Magazines like this are a special breed, if you’d like to support them, follow the link HERE to buy a copy.

Crocker Art Museum

Benefit Auction 2022

Exhibition Dates: May 10, 2022 01:00PM PDT - Jun 5, 2022 01:00PM PDT
Exhibition Reception: September 11, 5 – 9 pm, RSVP for timed-entry
Location: CROCKER ART MUSEUM 216 O Street  |  Sacramento, CA  95814

The Crocker Art Museum's Silent Art Auction features over 100 original works of art by the Sacramento region’s most renowned artists.

Bid on Target House Bldg. T828 with Pink Shape, Target House Bldg. T828 with Black Shape, LIVE AUCTION LOT 327, to help benefit the Crocker Art museum! If you are unable to attend, click on the HERE link for more information. This artful evening features works by more than 100 of the region's finest artists, silent auctions followed by a gourmet dinner, and an exciting live auction(where my paintinmg will be one of the featured works.) Casually elegant attire.

For more information, please visit: www.crockerartmuseum.org

Filter Photo

Interior Life

Exhibition Dates: August 28 – October 3, 2020
Exhibition Reception: September 11, 5 – 9 pm, RSVP for timed-entry
Gallery Talk: September 11, 6 - 7 pm, via Zoom
Location: 1821 W. Hubbard St., Ste. 207 Chicago, Il. 60622

Participating Artists:

Lois Bielefeld
Gary Edward Blum
Tuan H. Bui
William Camargo
Jeanie Choi
Anastasia Davis
Annie Donovan
Jesse Egner
Arthur Fields
Nate Francis
Preston Gannaway
Brian Gee
Juan Giraldo 
Conner Gordon
Olivia Alonso Gough
Mario El Khouri
Erica McKeehen
Darren Lee Miller
Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay
Jeremy Ng
Lingfei Ren
Rolls and Tubes Collective
Annick Sjobakken
Dean Snodgrass
Ursula Sokolowska
Liz Steketee
Wendy Stone
Sarah Sudhoff
Nicole White  
Zoë Zimmerman

Crocker Art Museum

Benefit Auction 2018

Live Auction: July 9-21, 2020
Time: 5:30 - 11:30 pm
Location: CROCKER ART MUSEUM 216 O Street  |  Sacramento, CA  95814

Bid on AFTER ALL, LIVE AUCTION LOT 327, to help benefit the Crocker Art museum! If you are unable to attend, click on the HERE link for more information. This artful evening features works by more than 100 of the region's finest artists, silent auctions followed by a gourmet dinner, and an exciting live auction(where my paintinmg will be one of the featured works.) Casually elegant attire.

For more information, please visit: www.crockerartmuseum.org

Always and Everywhere

Show and Lecture at the Shasta College Art Gallery

Date: January 17 - February 23, 2017
Artist’s Lecture: Thursday, February 2, 2017, 11-noon, Humanities Room, 400
Reception: Thursday, February 2, 2017, noon-1pm, Shasta College Art Gallery, Building 300
Location: Shasta College Art Gallery, Shasta College Art Department, Building 300
11555 Old Oregon Trail | Redding, Ca

Presented by the Shasta College Division of Arts, Communications & Social Science and the Shasta College Foundation.

SF CAMERAWORKS

2016 Benefit Auction

Date: Saturday, October 29, 2016
Time: Registration begins at 5:30 PM, Silent bidding begins at 6:00 PM, Live bidding begins at 7:00 PM
Tickets: $30 in advance; $40 at the door
Location: 1011 Market Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94103
Valet Parking on Market between 6th/7th

Founded in 1974, SF Camerawork’s mission is to encourage and support emerging artists to explore new directions and ideas in the photographic arts. Through exhibitions, publications, and educational programs, we strive to create an engaging platform for artistic exploration as well as community involvement and inquiry.

Help support a wonderful organization by bidding on my piece at left. (LOT 14)

Headlands Center for the Arts

Fall Open House

Come out to Headlands for the Fall Open House, Sunday October 16, noon-5pm. My studio is in Building 960, #17.  

For more information please visit: www.headlands.org | www.headlands.org/garyedwardblum

Los Angeles Time Review

Art Review by Leah Ollman

"We often hear of the silence within, an inner calm that can steady us against external demands and decibels. Blum’s paintings at Ruth Bachofner Gallery do project a sense of stillness, but the more the works reveal themselves, the more they rumble and hum."
—Leah Ollman 

Review of my solo show "The Silence Around You" at the Ruth Bachofner Gallery by LA Times art critic Leah Ollman.

Please click on the link here to read it in its entirety.

Euqinom Projects

Summer Group Show

Date: July 27, 2016 - August 27, 2016
Reception: Friday July 29, 6 - 8PM
Location: 1599 Tennessee Street, San Francisco, Ca 90404

I'm pleased to announce my first show of photographic works. Join me at EUQINOMprojects on July 29 for a group show including Oliver Leach, Daniel Postaer, and Gabrielle Teschner.

Ruth Bachofner Gallery

The Silence Around You

Date: July 27, 2016 - August 27, 2016
Reception: Saturday July 30, 5 - 7PM
Location: 2525 Michigan Avenue, Suite G2  Santa Monica, CA 90404

EXHIBITION DATES: July 30, 2016 - September 3, 2016  |  RECEPTION: 

For more information please visit: www.ruthbachofnergallery.com

Headlands Center for the Arts

Summer Open House

Come out to Headlands for the Summer Open House, Sunday July 17, noon-5pm.

My studio is in Building 960, #17.  

For more information please visit: www.headlands.org

Headlands News

Affiliate Program 2016 and Benefit Auction

I'm happy to announce that I will be returning to Headlands for a second year as an affiliate artist. The experience so far has been engaging and opened my practice to many new ideas and artists. I look forward to another year of art, beautiful views and some truly delicious artist meals provided by the talented chef staff!  

With that, I'm excited as well to have been asked to participate in this years Headlands benefit auction. My painting "Ditto(Grey)" will be a part of the silent auction.

See info below if you'd like to place a bid via paddle8, or better yet buy a ticket and attend the event. 

For more information please visit: www.headlands.org

Headlands Center for the Arts

Spring Open House

Come out to Headlands for the Spring Open House, Sunday April 17, noon-5pm. My studio is in Building 960, #17.

For more information please visit: www.headlands.org

Headlands Center for the Arts

Fall Open House

Come out to Headlands for the Fall Open House, Sunday October 25, noon-5pm. My studio is in Building 960, #17. I'll have paintings as well as new photography experiments. Stop by and say hi.

For more information please visit: www.headlands.org

Headlands Center for the Arts

Summer Open House

Come out to Headlands for the Summer Open House, Sunday July 26, noon-5pm. My studio is in Building 960, #17. Stop by and see what's happening.

For more information please visit: www.headlands.org

Headlands Center for the Arts

Affiliate Program

I am very excited to have been selected for the 2015 Affiliate Program at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. After twelve years of working out of my West Oakland studio, I'll be closing shop and moving out to the Headlands starting July 1, 2015. Stay tuned for more updates.

For more information please visit: www.headlands.org

Paul Mahder Gallery

A Beautiful Expanse

Date: February 21 - April 19, 2015
Reception: Saturday, February 21, 2015, 6 - 8PM
Location: 222 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg, California 95448

New American Paintings #115

Pacific Coast Issue

Very excited to come back from vacation to find my shipment of New American Paintings #115 had arrived. I was one of 40 artists chosen for the Pacific Coast regional issue by juror Apsara DiQuinzio, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Phyllis C. Wattis Matix curator at the UC Berkeley Art Museum.

She writes in her comments: "Let us also consider another important period in painting's history, that of the Italian Renaissance, what some may still think of as the pinnacle of western painting, known for its development of central perspective within a single compositional frame. The artist Gary Edward Blum utilizes this classical notion of perspective in his painting "The Nimrud Lens," that sets a painting within a painting, with the lines of the floor in the foreground continuing in the painting shown hanging on the wall. If Renaissance painting was about developing a concept of space within the canvas, painting today might be about examining the space around and outside of the canvas in addition to what is delimited inside."

Grab a copy in newstands everywhere.

Ruth Bachofner Gallery

You Are Never Alone Or Too Far Away

Exhibition Dates: September 6, 2014 - October 11, 2014

Reception: Saturday September 6, 4 - 6PM

Location: 2525 Michigan Avenue, Suite G2  anta Monica, CA 90404

For more information please visit: www.ruthbachofnergallery.com

Crocker Art Museum

Exhibition and Art Auction

Exhibition Dates: May 22 - June 7, 2014

Live Auction: June 7, 2014: Doors open at 5:30pm, Silent Auction closes at 7pm

Location: 216 O Street Sacramento, CA  95814

Bid on PAINTING FOR SYLVIA(left), to help benefit the Crocker Art museum! If you are unable to attend, click on the "bid" link for more information. This artful evening features works by more than 100 of the region's finest artists, silent auctions followed by a gourmet dinner, and an exciting live auction(where my paintinmg will be one of the featured works.) Casually elegant attire.

For more information, please visit: www.crockerartmuseum.org

Berkeley Art Center

Abstract Visions: Selections by Peter Selz

Exhibition Dates: June 11 - August 7, 2011

Reception: Saturday, June 11, 5-7pm

Location: 1275 Walnut Street, Berkeley, Ca  94709

The exhibition ABSTRACT VISIONS is meant to celebrate the centennial of abstract painting. Abstract art has evolved from its original spiritual and utopian stance in the early 20th century to its present vibrant position. Refuting the digital display of the current moment, abstract paintings are simply pictures, brushed by the hand of the artist, in which emotional intuition is framed by the artist's rational mind into dynamic metaphors.

Naomie Kremer's energetic abstract paintings allude to forest interiors and Donna Brookman's evocative Ragini Paintings also respond pictorially to the natural environment as do the stunning new paintings by Eva Bovenzi. Kevan Jenson creates visual magic with the use of smoke. Gary Edward Blum's acrylics which at first glace appear to be pure abstractions surprise the viewer with their trompe l'oeil details, just as Gloria Tanchelev's square canvases reveal glowing layers beneath their smooth surfaces.  Bruce Hassan's organically encrusted bronzes are ingeniously named after the volcanoes on the earth's six continents.

I am pleased to assemble this extraordinary group of Bay Area artists for ABSTRACT VISIONS at Berkeley Art Center and thank director Suzanne Tan for assisting me with the selection process.

– Peter Selz

For more information, please visit: www.berkeleyartcenter.org

Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery

Framing Abstraction: Mark, Symbol, Signifier

Exhibition Dates: February 27 – April 24, 2011

Reception: Sunday, February 27, 2-5pm

Location: LAMAG, Main Gallery   |  4800 Hollywood Blvd.  |  Los Angeles, Ca 90027

ARTISTS: 
Lita Albuquerque, Jordi Alcaraz, Gary Edward Blum, Hans Burkhardt, Meg Cranston, Mark Harrington, James Hayward, Charles Christopher Hill, Kevan Jenson, Naomi Kramer, Manfred Muller

GUEST CURATORS:
Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue and Peter Selz

Hosted by LAMAG

Abstract form always existed. Prehistoric cave art, ancient art, medieval art and modern art used abstraction right alongside stunning verisimilitude in smart, deliberate ways. Western cultures equated the ability to duplicate the world with the highest standard of art skill, until the camera. Machines that in a click captured the real—as well as contact with artifacts of colonialism—led artists to re-imagine uses and meanings for abstraction: universal communication, theosophy, primal expression, the inner structure of objective reality, and to signify creative ‘free will’ in contrast to lock-step formulas of social realism.  Art history attributes the first abstraction to Kandinsky’s Improvisation of 1911. Oddly enough, non figurative forms in that work repeat similar shapes in the oldest known caves in Marseilles—and these potent  marks sit comfortably beside images of lions so real they rend the heart. It’s fitting that one hundred years later we reconsider what abstraction means today, its legacy and longevity, how and why it is used. More fitting still is that we do this through works and words of artists who deploy that language now, each in very different but ever viable ways.

This exhibition, Framing Abstraction, is meant to celebrate the centennial of abstract painting. Abstract art has evolved from its original spiritual and utopian stance in the early 20th century to an art which was seen as radical-avant-garde, and on to its present vibrant position. Refuting the digital display of the current moment, abstract paintings are simply pictures, brushed by the hand of the artist, in which emotional intuition is framed by the artist’s rational mind into dynamic metaphors.

For more information please visit: www.lamag.org

Art in America

Review at Dolby Chadwick Gallery

In his show of new abstract paintings, Gary Edward Blum juggles modes of pictorial reality, creating productive tensions between flatness and depth, and intriguing interplays between fact and representation. He has a painterly feel for a color and surface as well as a gift for gamesmanship. 

Each of seven acrylics on canvas, ranging from 2 1/2 to 6 feet on a side, is accompanied by a small framed acrylic on paper study. Several of the paintings faithfully duplicate the studies, while some are variation on their themes. The canvases display a muted palette and rectangular blocks or bands of color, some of the works recalling the clarity of a John McLaughlin, while others are more Rothkoesque. All, though, feature an additional painting within the painting that replicates the composition on paper. These replicas seem to hang on the surface of the painting, trompe l’oeil fashion, complete with faux Scotch tape and painted shadows. In several works, such as A Rarely Loved Thing, the darker tones at the bottom seem to describe a floor, the lighter upper area a wall on which the replica of the study appears to hang. That “wall” is marked with a grid in subtle shades of off-white and light gray, recalling not only Agnes Martin but also the kind of grid artists use to scale up a study. 

Blum’s play between surface and depth, and his room motif, become at times a bit arch, with the exception of Get Your Things, with its reference to depictions of the artist’s studio. It could be read as representing the floor and wall of a room in which the replica hangs. The lower part is flecked with daubs of gray, white and blue that look like stains on a floor, but in fact they are the palette with which the replica was painted.

Elsewhere, things are satisfyingly hazier. The study for Solitude is divided between fields of deep violet-black on the left and turquoise-aqua on the right. Departing from this composition, the painting introduces a faintly gridded off-white area at the left, which includes the replica of the study; the violet-black that dominates half the paper work is reduced to a central vertical strip that separates the off-white from an expanse of turquoise-aqua at right. In this work, no “floor” corresponds to the “wall” where the replica seemingly hangs, and thus there is less implication of an interior. Instead, Blum suggests a more expansive and ambiguous space, just as the painting’s divergence from the study indicates a freer, looser approach. 

–Mark Van Proyen, Art in America

San Francisco Chronicle

Kenneth Baker Reviews “The Long Year,” at Dolby Chadwick Gallery

Blum's companion pieces: Gary Edward Blum's work at Dolby Chadwick risks getting snarled in its own cleverness, but it presents viewers a healthy resistance. Healthy in the sense that, in a culture hooked on speed, it takes time to figure out and rewards inspection with a clear internal logic. "Painting for Sylvia" (2010), a characteristic work in the series, consists of a small framed abstract "Study" that Blum has repainted - illustrated, really - as the kernel of a large unframed canvas.

In the painting, the "Study" appears to hang on a wall, but then you notice that the wall repeats, magnified, the composition of the "Study" itself. In this toying with pictorial paradox, Blum may revisit territory explored by William Anastasi and Michael Snow - even by René Magritte (1898-1967) - decades ago, but a pervasive new postmodernist suspicion of representation has refreshed the exercise.

–Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle  |  July 24, 2010

Crocker Art Museum

The Crocker Art Museum Acquires “The Long Year” for its Permanent Collection

I’m very excited to announce that the Crocker Art Museum has acquired it’s second piece of mine, “The Long Year,” for its permanent collection.

Dolby Chadwick Gallery

The Long Year

EXHIBITION DATE: July 1 - August 28, 2010

RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST: Thursday, July 1, 5:30-7:30

LOCATION: 210 Post Street, Suite 205, San Francisco, CA  94108

Ruth Bachofner Gallery

Quiet House

EXHIBITION DATE: February 28 - April 11, 2009

RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST: Saturday, February 28, 2009, 5 - 7PM

LOCATION: 525 Michigan Avenue, Suite G2  Santa Monica, CA 90404

For more information please visit: www.ruthbachofnergallery.com