This Gallery is Packed Full of Tiny Art by 200+ Bay Area Artists
This month, STUDIO Gallery in San Francisco opened its annual “Tiny” art show featuring over 200 artists. The walls of the gallery are packed full and artfully gridded out to showcase each piece. Each piece in the show is under 7-inches wide.
Seeing the tiny work of over 200 artists on the walls of an entire gallery is a collective masterpiece. All of the artists are local and you’ll often find Bay Area-specific renderings of familiar places to all of us.
STUDIO Gallery has been curating the not-so-tiny art show since 2005. Over the years, the show has become one of my personal favorites because you can get original art for under $500 with many of the pieces in the show being sold for under $200.
“The gallery’s first location was a small storefront on Polk Street, and the tiny show grew out of a desire to include lots of different artists in a single show,” says the gallery owner Jennifer Farris. “As the gallery has grown, the tiny show has too, more than we could ever have imagined.” There are over 300 pieces on the gallery walls for this year’s show, plus lots of tabletop sculptures and ceramics.”
More about Studio Gallery
I had moved to Nob Hill off Polk in the mid-2000s and often found myself meandering down Polk Street and visiting shops almost daily. At one point, I wandered into STUDIO and met the owners, painter Rab Terry and art lover Jennifer Farris. At that point, they had already been running STUDIO for a few years, having opened officially in 2003.
“We started the gallery on a bit of a lark – we thought it would be fun, and it was! We wanted to show Rab’s artwork, as well as the work of some of our artist friends, and things just grew from there. We were lucky to be embraced by our neighborhood: nearly all of our customers the first couple of years were folks who just walked in,” says Jennifer.
The owners of STUDIO really support the neighborhood and artists that come in to share their work. They truly care and love learning about new artists in The Bay Area. They would tell me about artists featured every time I came into the gallery.
Java Beach Cafe by Kristen Brown – 6×6 inches
Almost like an encyclopedia of who’s-who in the Bay Area art world, Jennifer and Rab would tell me the full story of a piece, and an artist’s background and even would sometimes go into detail on how they met the person. Unlike other galleries that focus on artists who may have already “made it”, STUDIO features fine art from emerging and mid-career artists in multiple art forms. It’s because of this I’d say STUDIO is probably my favorite gallery in The Bay Area.
It was clear to me that Jennifer and Rab want to help emerging artists get their work seen by other people. At some point, I felt enough courage to submit my work to shows at their gallery. STUDIO was the first gallery in SF that took my paintings. “tiny” was always my favorite show to participate in because at the time I was painting little works of art closer to 4-inches wide. Since the gallery only exhibits artists from the San Francisco Bay Area, the show is a great chance to see a range of local talent in one spot.
“Many of the artists we show throughout the year make pieces, especially for the show,” says Jennifer.
The gallery reviews hundreds of submissions from local artists to put the show together. As pieces sell they’re replaced, so the show evolves over its six-week duration and is different each day. In addition, the gallery releases groups of pieces for sale on its website throughout the show. You can shop some the “tiny” collection via the STUDIO Gallery website as well if you’re unable to attend in person.
Complete “tiny” Show Details:
Visiting the gallery is FREE. With this much art, it feels like visiting a museum!
View the hundreds of tiny masterpieces runs through December 23rd inside STUDIO Gallery is located at 1641 Pacific Avenue (between Polk and Van Ness) in San Francisco.
Gallery hours are Thursday – Monday, 12-6. For more information contact the gallery at 415-931-3130 or visit their website, www.STUDIOGallerySF.com
CLICK HERE for a complete list of artists participating in the “tiny” show at STUDIO