Picture This: Six San Francisco Illustrators

January 30th 2014 - April 11th 2014
Curated By: Rhiannon Alpers and Peter Linenthal
Featured  Artists: Rhiannon Alpers, John Hersey, Peter Linenthal, Wendy MacNaughton, Shannon May, Jane Wattenberg

Illustrators continue one of the oldest human traditions: making
story-telling pictures. Both prehistoric images painted on cave walls and medieval illuminated manuscripts show the work of the human hand, but we live in a different world. The invention of printing and advances in
reproduction techniques bring us images that are less handmade, and computer programs can generate images on their own. The fact that a person actually made the pictures we see is less and less obvious.

Paradoxically, pictures have become increasingly powerful and pervasive in our interconnected world. Books, offering a sustained engagement and physical experience electronic media can’t give, are printed more than ever before. In graphic novels and manga, illustration becomes more important than text. We live in a visual age where pictures constantly bridge cultural borders.

The six illustrators in this show give a sense of the wide range of possibilities open to artists to make stores come alive. Here, pen and ink, painting, collage, photography, and digital magic are used to make personal art and to illuminate narrative. Each illustrator’s distinct style and technique eventually come to us in the form of a printed book, but here we’re reminded where illustrations begin. Picture This: Six San Francisco Illustrators gives us the chance to see personal art and pictures before they find their way into books, fresh from the minds and hands of the artists who make them.