San Rafael Gallery’s New Exhibits Tap Into Different Emotions
San Rafael Gallery’s New Exhibits Tap Into Different Emotions
By Barry Willis | barry.m.willis@gmail.com | IJ correspondent
PUBLISHED: October 15, 2025 at 1:52 PM PDT | UPDATED: October 17, 2025 at 11:48 AM PDT
Amanda Farrell’s embroidery pieces in "Repair" at Art Works Downtown in San Rafael. (Photo by Barry Willis)
San Rafael’s Art Works Downtown has two audacious exhibits running simultaneously at its Fourth Street gallery. The intent and emotional impact of the two could not be more opposed.
The street-level gallery hosts “Joy,” an outrageously exuberant display of unabashedly positive art — paintings, photos, sculptures and assemblages that all provoke warm responses from viewers. In keeping with its title, the entire installation is a wild, dazzling celebration of happiness.
Some art-world sophisticates don’t take such pieces seriously, adhering to the old Bolshevik dictum that “art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
Those who agree with this interpretation will find much to ponder in “Repair: An Exploration of Trauma and Healing” in the downstairs Founders Gallery. This part of the parallel exhibit opened last week, in time for the monthly Second Friday Art Walk.
“Repair” deals somberly with issues of social justice, personal trauma and private struggle. Visitors will be immediately riveted by Najee Strickland’s “The Throne,” a barber’s chair in gold, its seat back adorned with an image of ancient Egyptians in a hair care ritual, its base encrusted with hair picks. A barber by training and profession, Strickland also uses these devices as construction elements for a trio of pyramids nearby.
His imposing throne was described by Maria Tuttle, one of Art Works Downtown’s installing artists, as a comment about the only royal treatment most Black men ever experience. That’s also the theme of a couple of current TV commercials.
Near Strickland’s work are Sarah Merola’s three sculptures of infants, two of them sleeping, and one (“Reflection”) standing on all fours looking into a mirror. Initially amusing, the piece has serious intent, with an open zipper on its back implying all that might be programmed into or extracted from young humans.
“Repair” also extends to personal possessions brought back to life rather than discarded, such as Amanda Farrell’s embroidery pieces. A grimly compelling display of photographs honors the work of tattoo artist Regina Estrada, who applies tattoos over scars from surgery, accidents, skin grafts and self-laceration as a way of both camouflage and enhancement. The before-and-after photos are arresting and fascinating.
A lone whimsical piece in “Repair” is Mansur Nurullah’s “Blank Doll,” made from assorted scraps and found materials. The figure’s demeanor could be interpreted as one of abandonment but could also be seen as humorous — a nice little transition piece to the exhibit upstairs, where uplifting images and objects run amok without inhibition or apology.
In “Joy,” visitors will be struck by three huge bright acrylic abstract paintings by Yusuf Ssali, all of them spectacular. They’re offset by blooming flower construction pieces by Marin fiber artist Bonnie Kuhr, one of the most prominent exhibiting artists in the annual — and regrettably, discontinued — “Altered Book Show” at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. Photos by Fairfax photographer Stephanie Mohan are also charming — one, a leaping dog and its human, another a black-and-white snap of a group of female friends.
On the main gallery floor are several comical sculptures, including Marin artist Emily Dvorin’s imposing “Wastements,” an obelisk festooned with fabric scraps and buttons, and Melanie Christie’s “Ollie Olly Oxenfree,” a three-dimensional depiction of a dashing bunny in overalls and red sneakers. Tops in the whimsy department are Christie’s two jewel-bedecked denizens of the animal kingdom: a huge fat frog called “Prince Malcolm” and a smiling simian called “Lydia.”
Seeing both “Joy” and “Repair” in the same visit may bounce you from despair to elation. Should you wish to leave Art Works Downtown on an up note, go downstairs first. “Joy” will provide an antidote to what “Repair” may quite intentionally engender.
The Art Works Downtown website lists hours as noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, but the gallery should now be open on Saturdays too, with the recent hire of someone to keep it open, according to executive director Elisabeth Setten. Be sure to call before a Saturday visit. Setten also mentioned the impending arrival of Mill Valley gallerist Kim Eagles-Smith, a longtime resident of San Francisco’s 49 Geary Street art enclave.
With multiple galleries and studios in its below-ground catacombs, Art Works Downtown continues to be an amazing and valuable resource for the Marin art scene.
Contact him barry.m.willis@gmail.com
If you go
What: “Joy” and “Repair”
Where: Art Works Downtown, 1325-1337 Fourth St., San Rafael
When: Through Nov. 14; noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays
Admission: Free
Information: 415-451-8119; artworksdowntown.org
https://www.marinij.com/2025/10/15/san-rafael-gallerys-new-exhibits-tap-into-different-emotions