Pt.2 is proud to present a group exhibition featuring the work of six monumental artists: Jay DeFeo, Martha Shaw, Mildred Howard, Robert Therrien, Squeak Carnwath and Viola Frey. With deep connections to the Bay Area, these artists have laid the groundwork for generations of artists to come, forming the very foundations of contemporary art in the region. The works in the exhibition delve into the themes of support and underlying structures—both literal and metaphorical—that shape our understanding of art and the everyday. These artists, each with their distinct approach and medium, come together to explore the ordinary and the extraordinary.

The tension between familiarity and mystery invites curiosity about the artists' choices and their relationship with these objects, prompting us to wonder what personal, cultural, or emotional significance these objects hold for them. What we take for granted as "ordinary" becomes a vessel for deeper meaning, inviting a reflection on how objects anchor us in reality while also allowing us to dream or explore new interpretations. It reinforces the idea that foundations are not always stable or fixed, but are constantly evolving as we interact with the objects and memories that form them. This abstraction mirrors the fluidity of identity itself—the idea that what we show to the world may be a projection, much like how we interpret objects through the lens of our own identities.

Jay DeFeo’s Tripod series explores themes of balance and support, using the camera tripod as both a literal and symbolic framework. Through her meticulous attention to surface texture and detail, she elevates this simple object into a meditation on stability and flux, challenging the viewer to reconsider everyday elements that are often overlooked in both art and life.

Martha Shaw’s small paintings and cast concrete pieces capture everyday objects like flowers, food, and teapots, rendered in a minimal, earth-toned palette. These works invite viewers to pause and appreciate the subtle beauty and mystery in the mundane, challenging our first impressions and expectations.

Mildred Howard’s iconic glass bottle houses and wall sculptures made of red punctuation marks are as much about the material as they are about memory and history. These works evoke personal histories and the hidden narratives embedded in everyday objects. Howard’s work speaks to the enduring legacies of cultural and familial foundations, particularly within the African American community. The glass bottle house in this exhibition is one of the last in this sculptural series, serving as a significant culmination of a theme that has become central to her practice.

Robert Therrien’s exploration and abstraction of everyday objects like beards and hinges challenges our perceptions of the familiar, offering a commentary on identity and the structures that underpin our daily lives. In his beard series, he questions how isolating the image of a beard alters its meaning, while his hinge series captures the essence of utilitarian objects, frozen in time, yet suggesting motion. By making these objects both familiar and unfamiliar, Therrien invites us to connect not only with his memories but also with our own, sparking curiosity about the significance behind these forms and how they resonate with the viewer.

Squeak Carnwath’s large text-based paintings bring a diaristic and conversational quality to the exhibition. Her works, filled with repetitive words and phrases, explore the connections between language, emotion, and memory, and encourage us to consider the larger significance behind everyday objects and occurrences. Carnwath’s paintings are a testament to the power of words and symbols to construct and deconstruct our understanding of the world.

Viola Frey’s ceramic plates, sculptures, and an oil on canvas painting selected for this exhibition represent the foundational elements that informed her later works - both intimate and monumental. These pieces encapsulate her distinctive visual language, built from mass-produced objects found at the Alameda Flea Market. Frey cast their shadows to create tableaus and silhouettes, repeating motifs that solidified her iconography. Frey’s work challenges us to see beyond the surface and to recognize the profound influence that everyday objects and experiences can have on our understanding of art and life.

Collectively, these artists remind us that things aren’t always what they seem. Their works celebrate the everyday, revealing the complexities and depth beneath the surface of the ordinary. This grouping invites viewers to reconsider the foundational elements of art and life, encouraging a deeper appreciation for the hidden structures that shape and support our experiences. In doing so, they not only reflect their personal histories but also continue to influence generations of artists within and beyond the Bay Area.

Jay DeFeo (1929-1989) was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. After receiving her bachelor's and master's degrees in studio art from UC Berkeley, she traveled extensively in Europe and North Africa, where she produced her first significant body of work, influenced by Abstract Expressionism, Italian architecture, and various ancient art forms. Upon returning to Northern California in 1953, DeFeo became a key figure in San Francisco’s vibrant artist community, creating work that blended representation and abstraction, organic and geometric forms, and experimentation with materials. In 1959, she held her first major solo exhibition at the Dilexi Gallery and was included in the Sixteen Americans exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Her most iconic work, The rose (1958–1966), a monumental painting-sculpture hybrid, consumed nearly eight years of her life. After completing The rose, DeFeo took a break from art-making, resuming her practice in 1969 with a focus on new materials, photography, and the transformation of everyday objects. In 1981, she moved to Oakland to teach at Mills College, becoming a tenured professor five years later, and continued to draw on both past and imagined travels to inspire her works.

Martha Shaw (b. 1943) is an artist based in Fairfax, California. Shaw received her BFA in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute, though painting has been her primary art form since the late 1960’s. She has shown her work throughout Northern California. Shaw is also known for her collaborations in clay with her husband, ceramic artist Richard Shaw. Her diligent studio practice is grounded in a shared artistic mentality that spans three generations.

Mildred Howard (b. 1945, San Francisco, CA) is best known for her multimedia assemblage work and installations. Her large-scale works have been installed at sites including Creative Time in New York; InSite in San Diego, CA; the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA; the National Museum of Women in the Arts; the New Museum in New York; throughout the City of Oakland; and in the San Francisco International Airport. Works by Howard are included in the permanent collections of the Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA; the Museum of Glass and Contemporary Art, Tacoma, WA; the Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA; and the San Jose Museum of Art San Jose, CA, among others. Howard’s numerous awards and honors include the Adaline Kent Award from the San Francisco Art Institute (1991), a fellowship from the California Arts Council (2003), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2004/5), the Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists (2017), and the Douglas G. MacAgy Distinguished Achievement Award at San Francisco Art Institute (2018). In 2015, she received the Lee Krasner Award in recognition of a lifetime of artistic achievement. Most recently, she received honorary doctorate degrees from the California College of the Arts and California State University, East Bay in 2023. Howard completed her Associates of Arts Degree and Certificate in Fashion Art at the College of Alameda, Alameda, CA in 1977 and received her MFA from Fiberworks Center for the Textile Arts at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, CA in 1985.

Robert Therrien (1947–2019) was born in Chicago and studied art at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara and then USC in Los Angeles. Therrien’s work created an extensive lexicon of numerous forms and motifs based on his memories, creating imagery that was both familiar and aloof. His vast body of work explores and reworks numerous immediately identifiable forms in a serial manner. He would often revisit and modify these structures in various media, including drawings, sculpture, photography, painting. His carefully wrought imagery encompassed everything from miniature works on paper to large scale architectural sculptural installations, of which he made a series as some of his final works. Therrien graduated from the University of Southern California, and remained in Los Angeles for the next forty-five years, living and working in a vast studio which he designed himself. Major exhibitions of Therrien’s works have been held at Gana Art Center, Seoul (2022); Tate Modern, London (2018); The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo (2013); The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2010); Kunstmuseum Basel (2008); Public Art Fund, New York (2005); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2001); and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1991).

Squeak Carnwath (b. 1947) draws upon the philosophical and mundane experiences of daily life in her paintings and prints, which can be identified by lush fields of color combined with text, patterns, and identifiable images. She has received numerous awards including the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, two Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Award for Individual Artists from the Flintridge Foundation, and the Lee Krasner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. In 2019, she was inducted into the National Academy of Design and Art. Carnwath is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. She lives and works in Oakland, CA.

Viola Frey (1933–2004) created an extensive and diverse body of work over her five-decade career, including paintings, drawings, bronze, glass, and most notably ceramic sculptures. Initially majoring in Painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts under Richard Diebenkorn to gain recognition as a fine artist, she later returned to ceramics for its sense of community. Frey seamlessly transitioned between two-dimensional and three-dimensional media, developing a rich visual language that featured suited men, hands, and cast figurines, using plates as narrative canvases and creating bricolage sculptures from molded objects to generate new meanings. Her masterful use of light, color, and scale evoked strong emotions and culminated in a 1984 Whitney Museum exhibition that showcased her larger-than-life figures alongside plates, bricolages, and paintings. Frey earned her BFA and honorary doctorate from California College of the Arts and Crafts, attended graduate school at Tulane University, and received numerous accolades, including two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Award of Honor in Sculpture. Her work is held in prestigious public and private collections worldwide, including the Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Hirshhorn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2000, she co-founded the Artists’ Legacy Foundation with Squeak Carnwath and Gary Knecht, becoming its first Legacy Artist upon her death in 2004.