Pamela Walsh Gallery is pleased to invite you to join us for a panel talk for our upcoming exhibition, Concentric Circles. Read more on the panelists below:
Matt Gonzalez is a multidisciplinary artist, lawyer, and former politician with deep ties to the Bay Area art scene. A represented artist known for his intricate collage work, he is also a dedicated collector of Bay Area Figurative art, having personally known many of the movement’s key figures. His career spans law and politics, including serving as President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and running as Ralph Nader’s vice-presidential candidate in 2008. Gonzalez’s passion for both art and advocacy informs his perspective on the lasting impact of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.
Emilio Villalba is a San Francisco-based painter and the Director of the Art Department at Cañada College, where he also serves as a professor. His work explores the human condition through fragmented and reimagined forms. He holds an MFA in Painting from the Academy of Art University and a BFA in Animation from the Art Institute of California. Before dedicating himself fully to painting, he worked in the animation industry on projects such as Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Villalba has an extensive exhibition history, with works in the collections of the Crocker Museum and Colección Solo Contemporary Art Museum in Madrid, Spain. His recent exhibitions include a group show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco and a solo exhibition at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS.
Ted Barrow is an art historian, writer, curator, and former professional skateboarder whose work bridges academic scholarship and contemporary culture. He holds a Ph.D. in art history from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and has taught at institutions including Baruch College, City College, and the College of Staten Island. As a writer, he has contributed to galleries such as Pace, providing critical essays and exhibition texts. In addition to his academic work, he co-curates exhibitions with his partner under their company, The Place. Barrow is also well known in the skateboarding world for his cultural commentary and historical insights, notably through his satirical Instagram account @feedback_ts and This Old Ledge, a series for Thrasher Magazine exploring the architectural and cultural significance of skate spots.
About the Exhibition:
Concentric Circles: Tracing the Radiance of Bay Area Figuration revisits the fertile artistic period of 1950-1965, when a group of San Francisco Bay Area painters, led by David Park, Elmer Bischoff, and Richard Diebenkorn, dared to pursue figurative art at the height of Abstract Expressionism, as well as the successive generations of contemporary artists who continue to explore the intersection of abstraction and representation. Contemporary artists working across diverse media have drawn inspiration from the Bay Area Figurative Movement fusion of loose, expressive brushwork with deeply human themes, ensuring that its legacy remains a vital force in contemporary art.
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