Announcing the second edition of Same Blue as the Sky, opening January 22 at Et al. in San Francisco! Same Blue as the Sky is a biennial exhibition co-curated by Studio AHEAD and Blunk Estate Director Mariah Nielson, that celebrates Northern California’s unique cultural heritage and gives thanks to the artists who inspire the studio.
In this second iteration, Same Blue recognizes the historic freedom and independence that artists have found in Northern California, but turns toward the shared experience of our densely populated and expressively-built cities. In her quintessential book Green Architecture, San Francisco architect and graphic designer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon argued that “landscapes with buildings are where history takes place.”
Same Blue as the Sky brings together the work of eight contemporary and historical artists from Northern California working across sculpture, furniture, and painting: Isaac Vazquez Avila, Garry Knox Bennett, Squeak Carnwath, Elana Cooper, Kate Greenberg, Jeffrey Sincich, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, and Nobuto Suga. Continuing a tradition in which aesthetics, innovation, and place are seen as inextricable, their practices are informed by the urban landscapes of San Francisco and Oakland: places formed by layers of historical and newly constructed narratives.
Same Blue as the Sky
January 22–February 22, 2025
12pm–6pm
Et Al.
2831A Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Limited Edition Sconces by John Gnorski made for Studio AHEAD. Photo by Ekaterina Izmestieva.
J.O.H.N…G.N.O.R.S.K.I…X…S.T.U.D.I.O…A.H.E.A.D…x
John Gnorski Kozo Paper limited edition lanterns are being sold exclusively through Studio AHEAD starting winter solstice. Inquire here.
These lights, originally commissioned for the interior of With Others wine bar (Brooklyn, NY) by Studio AHEAD, are made of Douglas fir, Thai kozo paper, and porcelain electrical elements, and hand printed with one of three woodblock images carved by the artist for this winter solstice collaboration (a bird taking flight, a horse resting in a field, and a moonlit dancer). Each piece is unique will be released in a limited edition of 25 of each of the three printed images, signed and numbered by the artist.
Every element of the lights is handmade, from the delicate joinery of the wooden frames to the woodblock images, each of which is printed by hand (without the aid of a printing press). They are intimately scaled wall sculptures that transform a space with their warm, comforting glow.
John Gnorski is an artist living in Pt. Reyes Station, CA. He works in sculpture, drawing, painting, and the design and fabrication of emphatically handmade functional objects. Studio AHEAD has presented his work in the exhibition The Lily Too Shall Function.
Artist Squeak Carnwath in her studio in Oakland, CA. Photo by Ekaterina Izmestieva.
O.U.R…J.O.U.R.N.A.L : S Q U E A K C A R N W A T H
To give back to the community that has given so much to us, we launched California: A Journal, a monthly dedicated to highlighting the makers and creatives of Northern California.
Our last interview of the year is with Squeak Carnwath, who has lived and worked in Oakland for the past five decades. Carnwath makes heavy use of text in her paintings: sometimes in a dreamlike way, as when you half-forget upon waking a phrase that seemed vivid in sleep; sometimes as subjective encyclopedia, as in her list-paintings of “pretty words” or “what we love about life”; sometimes in sprawling, philosophic lines that move across the whole canvas.
Despite all these words, Carnwath is hesitant to say anything definitive about what a painting might mean; and anyway there is not one meaning because we are always growing and changing, coming back to the painting a different person each time. Read more on California: A Journal.
