
No longer Supercilious: ‘SUPER-SILLY-US’ MarinMOCA | Pacific Solar
The Marin Museum of Recent Artwork (MarinMOCA) has a protracted and deeply-rooted historical past in supporting native artwork and artists from communities around the Bay Space.
The museum itself, situated within the ancient construction that when housed the Hamilton Air Drive Base Headquarters, used to be technically based in 2007—however the thought at the back of MarinMOCA may also be traced all of the as far back as 1983 when 11 Faculty of Marin scholars got here along side a shared purpose: to deliver available fresh artwork to the neighborhood.
Although so much has modified because the museum’s inception (together with its identify and placement), a lot of the unique thought stays intact. This comprises the once a year Bay Space Legends exhibition, a MarinMOCA springtime custom that celebrates an area and mythical Bay Space artist.
“We set to work in this exhibition within the spring of ultimate 12 months. It’s part of our annual Bay Space Legends exhibition collection,” defined Amy Owen, govt director of MarinMOCA.
“Since I began my tenure right here, I’ve been truly excited by presenting traditionally underrepresented artists of the area.”
MarinMOCA is recently putting in place to host the following set up of the collection with its upcoming “SUPER-SILLY-US” exhibition, that includes the artwork of 2 mythical native feminine artists: Barbara “Bobbie” Stauffacher Solomon and her daughter, Nellie King Solomon. The exhibition will run from March 25 to June 4, with an open reception on April 1.
“It’s been nice operating with Bobbie and her daughter, Nellie, who performs a key position in her mom’s paintings as a collaborator and is an completed painter in her personal proper,” stated Owen.
“Since Bobbie is now 94 years previous, Nellie is frequently boots at the floor in dealing with logistical facets of tasks.”
This mom and daughter duo percentage greater than only a interest for artwork and an upcoming exhibition, then again, and their equivalent but wholly distinctive stories and kinds lend to an exhibition this is concurrently as various as it’s cohesive.
“Nellie’s paintings is summary and irreverent, and has one of those dating to motion and the frame,” defined Owen. “Bobbie’s paintings is truly knowledgeable by means of her meticulous coaching in Swiss graphic design with set regulations at the back of it. That stated, they had been each educated as architects, and it’s fascinating to peer how every of them has taken that hobby and translated it in very alternative ways via visible artwork.”
Stauffacher Solomon is a mythical San Franciscan artist, born in 1928 and in all probability easiest identified for her paintings as a graphic clothier and as a panorama architect. As a tender girl, she labored as a dancer and studied portray and sculpture on the San Francisco Artwork Institute. After the demise of her first husband, she left The us to review graphic design in Switzerland and, years later, studied structure on the College of California, Berkeley.
“When Bobbie’s husband died and he or she used to be looking for a solution to make her means on the planet, she packed her baggage and went to Switzerland to make her residing via graphic design,” defined Owen. “She studied there for a couple of years and later set to work for Laurence Halprin and were given an place of work with him—from there it advanced, and the theory of Supergraphics took place virtually accidentally.”
Stauffacher Solomon famously pioneered the idea that of Supergraphics (a well-liked internal design methodology, first used at Sea Ranch in Sonoma County within the Sixties as a reaction to its large-scale structure).

“[Bobbie] simply roughly fell into her artwork, in lots of respects,” stated Owen. “It’s fascinating, given Bobbie’s historical past with dance and plenty of different forms of disciplines similar to panorama structure, seeing how she pulls from the ones more than a few issues of data and hobby and experience.”
Stauffacher Solomon remarried in 1969 to an architect and professor named Daniel Solomon (father to Nellie King Solomon). King Solomon grew as much as transform a longtime artist in her personal proper, having studied structure prior to receiving her BA in artwork from College of California, Santa Cruz and a MFA from California Faculty of the Arts, San Francisco. She has additionally taught artwork at Stanford College. King Solomon is living in Los Angeles and continues to make waves within the inventive neighborhood.
King Solomon performed an integral position in making plans this 12 months’s MarinMOCA Bay Space Legends exhibition for each herself and her mom. No longer most effective did King Solomon make a reputation for herself within the aggressive panorama of summary artwork, however she did so in some way that concurrently displays and stays fully unbiased from the paintings of her iconic mom.
“Bobbie works in an overly site-responsive means, so we commissioned her to create a brand new foyer area which can open with the exhibition and proceed into the 12 months and will likely be accompanied by means of pictures from one in every of her hand-crafted books: SUPER-SILLY-US,” stated Owen.
Those that talk over with this 12 months’s Bay Space Legends exhibition will give you the chance to peer drawings from Stauffacher Solomon’s hand-made guide, the namesake of the showcase: “SUPER-SILLY-US.” Those drawings have by no means prior to been proven in an exhibition. And, to most sensible it off, a brand new Supergraphic set up, designed particularly to enrich the ancient Hamilton Box construction’s authentic 1933 structure, will stretch around the museum’s Primary Gallery and Ron Collins Foyer Gallery.
“Seeing Bobbie’s artwork right here in Marin is a chance to peer her paintings when it comes to position, website and the panorama of Northern California—in that means, it makes it a far richer revel in,” stated Owen.
Owen is especially excited for MarinMOCA’s April Fools opening reception for the “SUPER-SILLY-US” exhibition, which will likely be open to the general public. King Solomon is about to wait and is designing Supergraphics for a 1969 Ford Econoline this is, in some ways, the enduring centerpiece of the hole birthday celebration—and now not simply because it’ll be parked outdoor with a DJ sales space and a bar within it.
“We’re at all times aiming to attraction to the hundreds at MarinMOCA. I feel there’s one thing for everybody with this exhibition, which is each rigorous and playful ,” stated Owen. “There’s alternative for intimate engagement but in addition an expansive, bodily and immersive revel in with the works…relying on how you favor to have interaction with museum works.”
The Marin Museum of Recent Artwork is situated in Novato at 500 Palm Dr. and is open to the general public Wednesday via Friday from 11am to 4pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Common museum admission prices $10 whilst seniors (elderly 65 or older), army and scholar tickets value $8 every. Kids elderly 12 and below and MarinMOCA contributors might talk over with the museum without spending a dime.
For more info about MarinMOCA and the ‘SUPER-SILLY-US’ exhibition, talk over with the site at marinmoca.org, ship an electronic mail to [email protected] or name 415.506.0137.