Calabi Gallery exhibit honors artists who ‘stepped outside the box’

Sometimes one good art exhibit leads to another.

In February, the Museum of Sonoma County in downtown Santa Rosa opened its current exhibit, “UNRULY, North Bay Artists from the San Francisco Art Institute.“

The show, which continues through June 8, features more than 30 works by 18 regional artists who either studied or taught at the art Institute.

The institute was founded in 1871 by Northern California artists and intellectuals. By the 20th century, it had become known as a school that encouraged its students to experiment and rebel. It shut its doors in 2020 after nearly 150 years in operation.

“Artists there were encouraged to step outside the box. After World War II, the institute became known as a place of innovation,” said Dennis Calabi, owner of the Calabi Gallery in Santa Rosa.

The Calabi Gallery, now in its 16th year, was originally founded to represent works by artists of the 1945-1950 golden age of the California School of Fine Arts, which was renamed the San Francisco Art Institute in the 1950s.

The gallery has a large inventory of pieces by artists who studied, taught or both at that academy, and decided to mount its own new exhibition to complement the Museum of Sonoma County’s current show, “UNRULY” which is focused on North Bay artists associated with the San Francisco Art Institute.

“I guess some people might see it as coat-tailing, but I see it as complementary,” Calabi explained. “At the museum exhibit

The Calabi Gallery’s new show, “Pushing Boundaries” features SFAI artists including Bob Morehouse, Susan Marie Dopp, Claire Falkenstein, Bella Feldman, Sonia Gechtoff, Robert Howard, Harry Jacobus, Walter Kuhlman, Frank Lobdell, Sutter Marin, Robert McChesney, Irving Norman, Nathan Oliveira and Hassel Smith.

The exhibit, opening Saturday and running through April 26, features different works by some of the same artists that are represented in Museum of Sonoma County exhibit, including Inez Storer, Evri Kwong, Robert Hudson and Pamela Glasscock.

“There is a little overlap,” Calabi said, “but the museum exhibit represents mostly Bay Area artists who are still living. My show is more eclectic. Not all of the artists are living. The main difference between the museum exhibit and mine is that mine covers a broader swath and an earlier period.”

Some of the 60 pieces in his exhibit date back to the 1800s, and most are from the 1940s through the 1980s. The downtown museum show, on the other hand, features more than 30 works by 18 regional artists, all but one of them still alive, who either studied or taught at the art Institute.

When the Museum of Sonoma County exhibit of work by San Francisco Art Institute alumni and former faculty opened, Calabi immediately recognized an opportunity.

“I just decided to see the show and I went to museum exhibit’s opening. The turnout was enormous,” Calabi said. “So I think there’s interest.”

Karen Wise, executive director of the Museum of Sonoma County, welcomed the idea of a gallery show that complemented the museum exhibit.

“We are thrilled that Dennis is mounting this exhibition. The range and richness of the art that has flowed from and through SFAI (San Francisco Art Institute) could never be covered in a single exhibition, and the success of ‘UNRULY’ to date demonstrates how much this legacy resonates with our community,” Wise said.

“To have this complementary show opening at Calabi Gallery is a gift to us all,” she added. “Now we can refer visitors who want more after seeing ‘UNRULY’ to Calabi Gallery – only a few blocks from the museum.”

The legacy of the San Francisco survives. Since the institute’s closure, its advocates organized an alumni exhibition at Chico’s Museum of Northern California Art in 2024, and they plan additional future exhibitions.

And the former site of the institute itself may have a future. Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, led a nonprofit that purchased the San Francisco Art Institute in March 2024.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On X @danarts.