Photo by Drew Altizer. Courtesy of Headlands Center for the Arts.
Phillips is proud to continue our partnership with the Headlands Center for the Arts, a beloved Bay Area arts organization that champions artists and the creative process like no other. The annual benefit auction kicks off on May 19 with a public exhibition at Headlands, and culminates on June 6 with a live auction led by Phillips’ auctioneer Rebekah Bowling. Headlands’ Board Member and Phillips’ Northern California regional lead, Sophia Kinell, shares her favorites with us below.
Shara Mays
Shara Mays, Helen, 2021. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist.
Shara Mays is a Bay Area–based artist and recent Headlands alum. She just celebrated solo shows at Chandran Gallery in San Francisco and Mehari Sequar in Washington, DC. Her works are powerful examples of abstraction — you can feel the physicality of her painting. Titled after her aunt, Helen is from the artist’s Heap series, depicting Eden-like environments filled with beauty, overabundance and decay. The colors and complexity of layered paint remind me of Joan Mitchell, who famously said, “I carry my landscapes with me.”
Julie Buffalohead
Julie Buffalohead, Mother Bear, 2022. Ink on handmade watercolor paper. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman.
As a new mother of two, this one really hits a soft spot. Julie Buffalohead is a Minnesota-based artist, who is a citizen of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. I love her use of animals as subjects — animals were characters in many of the stories that she heard as a child. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Denver Art Museum.
Rupy C. Tut
Rupy C. Tut, Buzoorg, the shade of the banyan, 2022. Handmade pigments on hemp paper. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman.
Done with handmade pigments on hemp paper, the details and inherent quality in Rupy’s work are exceptional. There is a layered meaning in the title of this one, and clear reference to the artist’s female ancestors — buzoorg means a wise elder, and banyan trees often signify wisdom. Rupy Tut’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Crocker Art Museum, the de Young Museum and the Asian Art Museum. The artist will open a solo show at the ICA San Francisco this coming fall.
Jesse Schlesinger
Jesse Schlesinger, Blue (On Exactitude in Science), 2019. Oak, kakishibu, and sumi. Courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier.
No one shows reverence and respect for natural materials like Jesse. Impeccable craftsmanship and purity of form are hallmarks of his work. He created this set of three sequential blocks as a JUSFC / National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Japan, utilizing oak from Hokkaido and kakishibu sumi (cured persimmon ink) finish applied by a master craftsman in Kagoshima. Based in Northern California, Jesse Schlesinger is a Headlands alum and is represented by Anthony Meier gallery in Marin.
Jane Springwater
Jane Springwater, In the Midst of Time, 2017. Ink on paper. Courtesy of the artist.
Did I mention I love a grid? Jane Springwater is a San Francisco-based artist with a meticulousness and attention to detail that rivals my own — a kindred spirit so to speak. With their impressive scale and intricate patterning, her works have an inherently meditative quality to them — both visually and conceptually when considering the repetitive nature of her mark-making. I love the fact that she is able to create the most complex compositions with the simplest tools: pen and paper.
For a full schedule of events and registration, visit Headlands’ auction website.
Read our interview with Mari Robles, Executive Director of Headlands Center for the Arts.
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