Welcome to the Fine Arts Gallery
The Fine Arts Gallery presents both professional and student-oriented exhibitions every semester. Professional exhibitions are organized to spotlight the range and diversity of both contemporary and historical art. Open Tuesday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m., during exhibitions.
Announcements and Exhibitions
Current Exhibition: HAVE YOU SEEN ME?
February 25 to March 29, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 25, 1 - 3 p.m.
HAVE YOU SEEN ME? centers on the return of the gaze in contemporary self-portraiture created by diverse artists across diverse media. The exhibition features work by Marcel Pardo Ariza, Erica Deeman, Yaron Michael Hakim, and Jamil Hellu.
Marcel Pardo Ariza is a trans visual artist and curator who explores the relationship of representation, kinship, and queerness through constructed photographs, color sets, and installations. Jamil Hellu’s work focuses on themes of identity representation and cultural heritage, addressing intersections among race, gender, and sexuality, while amplifying queer histories and challenging the social construct of masculinity. Brazilian-born Hellu claims his Syrian roots and Arab ethnicity, questioning the complexities and stereotypes associated with this background. Yaron Michael Hakim has adopted the formal approach of naturalist illustration to depict imagined anthropomorphic self-portraits. Through these paintings, he examines his South American heritage and the kind of exoticization that has been projected onto him and that he has, in turn, projected onto himself. Erica Deeman’s work reflects on diasporic and transnational movements, Black permanence, and the nuances of hybridity within cultural identity. British born Deeman’s family roots are in the Caribbean. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication featuring essays by Dr. Santhi Kavuri-Bauer and Dr. Laura E. Pérez with Maya Elisa Pérez Strohmeier. Public programs will include artist talks, and conversations between artists and scholars.
Learn About the Gallery
The vision of the Fine Arts Gallery is to serve a broad and varied audience that includes students, faculty and staff of the University, along with the local arts community and the greater population of the region, while carrying out a program that reflects the range of disciplines taught by San Francisco State University's School of Art.
The mission of the Martin Wong Gallery is to provide San Francisco State University's student artists the opportunity to exhibit works and organize and present exhibitions. This program is made possible through the generous support of the Martin Wong Foundation and SF State’s Instructionally Related Student Activities Fund.
The Fine Arts Gallery program typically features group exhibitions conceived by School of Art faculty that explore different dimensions of California contemporary art, annual student exhibitions and a faculty exhibition once every four years.
