Contemporary Women of Abstraction
at Paul Thiebaud Gallery
Barbara Morris
Paul Thiebaud Gallery’s summer offering, the work of 16 powerhouse women artists, offers the viewer a remarkable look at some of the phenomenal talent currently working in the Bay Area in a non-objective mode. The multi-generational exhibition features paintings, sculpture, and mixed media work.
In the first room, featuring well-established artists with lengthy and significant careers, we find works by Donna Brookman, Linda Fleming, Nancy Genn, Grace Munakata, Sono Osato, and Cornelia Schulz. Osato’s Ku (1999), a thickly encrusted black painting at 96” x 66”, gets the distinction of most massive object, recalling the similarly imposing work of the late Jay DeFeo, whose Oakland studio she occupied while creating the work. Schulz, whose solo show (see my review Synthesis) was held at Paul Thiebaud in late 2024, continues her emphasis on physicality and thick oil paint slathered on deceptively compact supports, with a pair of gestural works whose emotional weight belies their compact size.
Genn, another major artist from the Bay Area, is represented by two formally elegant and visually arresting mixed-media works on paper. Her diverse body of work is largely in the realm of geometric abstraction, with a strong Asian influence. Genn was honored by a 2025 retrospective The Nature of Being at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Sculptor Fleming’s Wisp (2019), a large, airy sculpture presented on a steel base, transforms powder-coated stainless steel into an ephemeral and almost weightless object—seemingly by sleight of hand.
Painters Munakata and Brookman work in a vein of abstracted nature, Munakata’s often more inflected by representational imagery, flora and fauna, or Japanese textiles, as well as a strong collage element. (see my thoughts on Biology of Flight at Anglim/Gilbert); here works such as Blue Sentinel (2020) display a more non-referential side and a Hofmannesque spatial push-and-pull. Brookman’s large-scale oils on canvas and panel reference water, works such as fullflood #13 (2012) display bold gestural strokes suggesting the use of a palette knife or squeegee, as well as the influence of painter Gerhard Richter.
The three artists in the middle room, Mary Ijichi, Irene Pijoan, and Andrea Way, all create meticulously-crafted, somewhat obsessive small to mid-scale works primarily on paper, using a variety of labor-intensive, idiosyncratic practices. Pijoan, who sadly passed in 2004, is represented by three meditative works in mixed-media on cut-out paper including Untitled (2003). Ijichi uses a unique grid format, with minimalist tendencies to create sculptural constructions which play with transparency and employ a shadowbox technique, while Way presents intricate, layered silkscreens following a “rule-based” drawing technique conveying a compelling internal logic.
© 2026 Estate of Irène Pijoan
In the rear gallery are eight additional powerful artists, or in one case, an artist-pair, each with a strong focus on materiality and form. Rebekah Goldstein’s formal, yet playful oils on shaped canvases continue to evolve. These present the stylish, confident work of a painter with a mature voice, as displayed in Saw it Coming (2026). (see Full Length Mirror at Gallery 16) Karla Wozniak’s brightly hued abstracted work (see Living Room Days at Gregory Lind) in acrylic and oils also continues to shift, having moved farther from the landscape and still life references that used to drive it to a looser, more gestural expression.
Julia Goodman casts hand-made paper from recycled fabric, creating irregular shapes which she then paints with watercolor. Elegant formal objects, they may also read as organic forms, perhaps suggesting lungs.
Greg Flood, director of Paul Thiebaud, mentioned his interest in and support of the work of artists with disabilities, many of whom deserve greater exposure than customarily received. Shantae Robinson and Sylvia Fragoso, both from NAID art center in Richmond, create engaging paintings and ceramic works whose insistent, often architectural forms have a strong presence.
Finally, we have the unusual mixed-media works of Hughen/Starkweather and Laura Van Duren. The first pair collaborate on elegant works on paper using materials such as ink, sand, and river water to investigate ecological concerns, while Van Duren combines ceramic, wooden objects, glycerin, and thread into playful, somewhat abject biomorphic sculptures with a visceral impact.
If there is a qualm with the show, it is that it leaves the viewer wanting more.
While you are at the gallery, be sure to check out the show on the first floor, Echoes of Elsewhere, by Ǻsa Schick. The Swedish artist, whose work bears a strong affinity to that of Hilma Af Klimt, has a beautiful sense of color and creates lively, dynamic compositions.
Contemporary Women of Abstraction and Ǻsa Schick: Echoes of Elsewhere continue through September 12 at Paul Thiebaud Gallery.
hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm
Please note the gallery open by appointment only through September 7.