Gallery Wendi Norris

SF Art Galleries - Openings & Events Event source calendar Event Link: see venue calendar above ^^ WOLFGANG PAALEN AND ALICE RAHON WORLDS GONE AND TO COME September 10 – October 24, 2026 Gallery Wendi Norris 436 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA Painting is the adventure into an inner space which cannot be measured by yardsticks nor light years. A space where thought travels faster than light, where the nearest is also the farthest, where the smallest sea-shell curves are as meaningful as the galactic spiral and the eye of the mind at once beholds worlds gone and to come. — Wolfgang Paalen, Dynaton (1951) San Francisco, CA: Gallery Wendi Norris is proud to present rarely seen paintings and works on paper by Wolfgang Paalen and Alice Rahon, marking the first time their oeuvre has been presented together in a two-person show. Husband and wife from 1934 to 1947, Paalen and Rahon charted artistic paths that were simultaneously deeply rooted in Surrealism and charged by their own singular visions. Request Preview ----------------- Alice Rahon (1904, Chenecey-Buillon, France – 1987, Mexico City, Mexico) would come to embody the promise of Surrealism, transforming her background as a celebrated poet into a visual language that turned canvases into luminous, textured topographies of poetic incantation. Wolfgang Paalen (1905, Vienna, Austria – 1959, Taxco, Mexico)—hailed as the "philosopher of the possible"—in turn represented Surrealism's theoretical evolution, an artist who made significant contributions to the movement in the 1930s before co-founding the Dynaton movement in the late 1940s in the San Francisco Bay Area to move beyond Surrealism’s dogmas. Through a selection of works ranging from Paalen’s innovative fumage technique—a mode of automatic image-making he described as “dictation by candle”—to Rahon’s sand-infused, sedimentary paintings, the exhibition underscores these artists’ enduring significance. These works demonstrate how Paalen and Rahon did not merely document their surroundings, but utilized their art as a form of artistic excavation, revealing and unearthing forms, color, and cosmic energies. Read Artnet's exclusive feature: "The Surrealist Couple History Forgot Is Finally Getting Its Due" Unsung Surrealists: Wolfgang Paalen and Alice Rahon Alexander Nemerov and Megan Kincaid in Conversation Thursday, September 10, at 6 pm Floor 1, Phyllis Wattis Theater San Francisco Museum of Modern Art To celebrate the opening of Wolfgang Paalen and Alice Rahon: Worlds Gone and to Come, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Gallery Wendi Norris will co-present a public conversation at 6 pm on September 10 at SFMOMA between Alexander Nemerov, Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford University, and Megan Kincaid, who serves on the Faculty of the Humanities & Social Sciences at The Cooper Union and is curator of the Kenneth C. Griffin Collection. Marin Sarvé-Tarr, assistant curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA, will introduce the program. The talk marks the 75-year anniversary of SFMOMA's original staging of Paalen's landmark Dynaton exhibition in 1951, and the museum's role in presenting Rahon's first institutional solo exhibitions in 1945 and 1953. More information and tickets can be found at this link . RSVP Here location provided by event source: "436 Jackson St, San Francisco, CA 94111, USA" ―――――――――― SF Stuff To Do