This exhibition honors the legacy of the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), the oldest and most influential fine arts school on the West Coast, which shut its doors in 2022 after 150 years of dynamic art making.

SFAI was founded in 1871, by a group of artists who envisioned it as a key nexus for art and culture in the American West. By the twentieth century, SFAI had become renowned as a school that provided its students with space to inquire, experiment, and even rebel. SFAI students were taught the rules so they could break them, with the school providing a safe place for artists to creatively explore new avenues and perspectives.

The UNRULY exhibition specifically focuses on the impact and influence of SFAI in the North Bay. The show features the work of 18 regional artists, spanning multiple generations, who either studied or taught at the Art Institute. Collectively, they embody the spirit of boundary-pushing and experimentation that SFAI so famously fostered and affirmed.

The participating artists are: Richard H. Alpert, Chester Arnold, David Best, Mark Grieve, Robert Hudson, Anton Kuehnhackl, Evri Kwong, Virginia Linder, Janis Crystal Lipzin, Phil McGaughy, naomi murakami, Sam Roloff, Alice Shaw, Simone Simon, Liz Steketee, Inez Storer, Hwei-Li Tsao, and Heather Wilcoxon.

Dates: February 15 – June 8, 2025