“Garden, Garland of Hours” (Small Version), oil on panel, 18”x24”, 2016
a short film made by friend Colin Frangos, summarizing a series of 2017 studio visits to my loft in East Oakland, where i worked from 2014-2020. We discuss, among other things, impermanence, and my series “Garland of Hours”, based on old family photos, still ongoing.
"Family, 1983", oil on panel, 12x18, 2015
Bio
Born in 1977 and raised in Northern California, Gage Opdenbrouw is an award winning painter, teacher, and woodworker, who, until recent times, traveled frequently both to paint and to teach.
He now teaches live online courses in drawing and painting to artists from all over the country and around the world, as well as a few in-person workshops each year.
When he’s not working, he is most often found with his family at the end of a seemingly provisional road in the forested mountains of coastal Northern California among some of the tallest and quietest trees on earth, where the illuminated fog sweeps in from the pacific. He plays bass and guitar, very poorly and with great enthusiasm.
at goat rock, on the sonoma coast photo: kelly gray
hank advising, on octoraro creek, in lancaster co PA
with Kelly Gray in Jenner, CA
7:13 am
Artist Statements
Garland of Hours
Using old family photos as a starting point, both my own, and those of strangers, my hope is that these paintings will be achingly rich and full, and about to disintegrate. They are intended to be meditations on time, family, love, memory, place, light, shadow, memory, and forgetting, love and loss, and ultimately, mortality and the transitory.
“Untitled Couple”, Garland of Hours, 16x20, oil on panel, 2016-2017, private collection
General Statement
I consider my painting to be a form of meditation. For me, painting is a way of drawing close to moments, and an attempt to pay homage to the fleeting beauty of everyday observations. Regardless of the subject, whether a figure or a moment of light in an interior, the sweep of a sky above an industrial neighborhood, the goal is, as Joseph Campbell once put it, ‘to reveal the radiance that lies hidden just beneath the surface of the everyday’. I aim to use a brush to create poetry from mundane materials, and if the paintings resonate with the viewer in the eye, the heart, the gut, then I feel I’ve been successful in sharing some small aspect of my experience.
“Friedrich’s Moon” #3, oil on canvas, 16x16, 2019
CV
Solo Exhibitions
“West County Light” Horse and Plow Winery, Sebastopol, CA, 2022
Sue Greenwood Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA, June 2022
Horse and Plow Winery, Sebastopol, CA, Summer 2021
B Sakata Garo Gallery, solo show, Sacramento, CA, April 2021
“Midsummer Sun in an Empty Room", solo show, SHOH Gallery, Berkeley CA, August/Sept 2020
Silent Music", solo show, Washington Studio School, Washington DC, January 2020
“Garland of Hours", solo show, Shasta College, Redding, CA, March 2019
"Into the Moment", solo show, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, October 2017
“Garland of Hours”, Luna Rienne Gallery, San Francisco, September 2016
“Recurring Dreams of Light Through the Trees”, Art Zone 461 Gallery, San Francisco, Sept. 2009
“Windows”, Art Zone 461 Gallery, San Francisco, March 2009
“Recent Paintings”, 50 Fremont St, San Francisco, CA, January 2008
“Silence & Distance”, Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, October/November 2007
“Dia de los Muertos: Paintings”, Charles Campbell Gallery, September 2006
“Small Fires in the Distance...”, MPG Contemporary, Boston, MA, March 2006
“Small Fires in the Distance...”, new works, 66 Balmy Gallery, SF, November 2005
“November”, 66 Balmy Gallery, San Francisco, CA, May 2005
“Strangers” series, new works, MPG Contemporary, Boston, April 2005
“Strangers” series, MPG Contemporary, Boston, March 2004
AWARDS, JURIED SHOWS, and RESIDENCIES
Artist in Residence, JSS in Civita, Civita Castellana, Italy, Summer 2019
(Avigdor Arikha Memorial Scholarship recipient)
Artist in Residence, Mineral School, Mineral, WA, August 2018
First Prize, "Honoring the Legacy of David Park" at Santa Clara University Art Dept Gallery, April 2017
Texas National 2010, Juried by Judy Pfaff, Stephen F Austin State Univ., Nacogdoches, TX, April 2010
23rd Annual McNeese National Works on Paper, Juried by Peter Frank, McNeese State University, LA
Marin Society of Artists 2009 National Exhibition, Ross, CA, August 2009
“Painting Large”, Dominican University, San Rafael, CA, July 2009
75th Annual Crocker-Kingsley Biennial, January 2009, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
“Painting as Presence”, June 2008, Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT, juried by William Bailey
2nd Place Award, Painting, Affaire in the Garden, Beverly Hills, CA, May 2007
“Expressions West 2006”, Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, Oregon, May -July 2006
Vermont Studio Center: Artist in Residence, December 2005
Best Emerging Artist, Drawing & Painting, AAC, 2001
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
“Ricochet”, Washington Studio School, Washington DC, 2024
Faculty Exhibition, Washington Studio School, January 2024
“Autumn Glow” Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe New Mexico Fall 2023
“Art in the Making” Evoke Contemporary, Summer 2023
“Tondo”, Hashimoto Contemporary, NYC, January 2023
“Disrupted Realism” (#2), Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, November 2019
"Abstraction/Obstruction", with Mark Daniel Nelson, Martin Campos, Scott Conary, Joseph Podlesnik, William Matthews Gallery, Denver, CO, May 2019
"Room with a View", with Sandy Ostrau and Andrew Walker Patterson, Fourth Wall Gallery, Oakland, CA, October 2018
"Sightings on Land", Mythos Gallery, Berkeley CA, October 2017
The Art of Painting in the 21st Century, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, March 2016
International Figurative Biennale, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, September 2016
15th Annual California Landscape Exhibition, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, July 2016
Urban Life, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO, Sept 2016
Edge of Realism, Abend Gallery, Denver CO, June 2016
Landscape, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO, June 2016
Safehouse Show #3, Safehouse Atelier, Los Angeles, CA, 2016
"Winter Group Show", Athen B Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2016
Safehouse Show #2, Safehouse Atelier, San Francisco, CA, 2014
Urban Aspect, (juried by Jeremy Mann), Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA, 2013
“POV: Landscape Interpreted”, Los Gatos Museum of Art, Los Gatos, CA, 2012
“Beyond Static” Gage Opdenbrouw and Ryan M Reynolds, Art Zone 461 Gallery, SF, CA, June 2011
San Francisco Fine Art Fair, 2010
Art Zone 461 Gallery, May 2010
“Bay Area Art Educators Invitational Exhibition”, Ohlone College, Fremont, CA, February 2010
“Dia de los Muertos” Bakersfield Musuem of Art, Bakersfield CA, September 2009
Grand Opening Group Show & Benefit, ArtZone 461, San Francisco, CA, June 2008
“New Artists 2008” Elder Gallery, Charlotte, NC, June 2008
“Archives”, with Brett Amory, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL, May 2008
Red Dot Art Fair, New York, New York, March 2008
“Painters of New York & California”, Elder Gallery, Charlotte, NC, December 2007
“Contemporary Works in the Plein Air Tradition”, Charles Campbell Gallery, May 2007
Swarm Gallery, Oakland, with Michael Cutlip & Mark Sasaki, December 2006
Facing West: “Portrait Show”, Tinhorn Public Works, San Francisco, August 2006
“Introductions”, Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, CA, July 2005
San Francisco International Art Fair, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco: January 2005
“375 Views” at Logan International Airport, Boston, MA, Fall 2005-January 2006
“375 Views”, Mayor’s Office, Boston City Hall, Boston, Summer 2005
“Coast to Coast”, with Dorothy Arnold, MPG Contemporary, Boston, July 2002
EDUCATION
BFA, Painting/Drawing, Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA
President’s Honor List: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
PUBLICATIONS
“Disrupted Realism”, by John Seed, Schiffer Publishing, 2019
Fall 2020: International Painting Annual #9, Manifest Drawing Center, Cincinnati, OH
"Waiting to Dry" Podcast, Interview with Sergio Lopez, and Dennis 'Bagger 43' Brown: June 2019
Voyage LA: Art and Life with Gage Opdenbrouw: http://voyagela.com/interview/art-life-gage-opdenbrouw/
Painting Perceptions: Feature Interview with Larry Groff: https://paintingperceptions.com/interview-with-gage-opdenbrouw/
The Studio Work Blog, with Elise Morris: Feature interview, August 2018
"Into the Moment" Catalog, John Natsoulas Gallery, with Essay by John Seed
Faesthetic Blog: October 2009,
Mas Magazine: September 2009, pages 17-18, “Cultural Creations”
SFExaminer.com, Museum Examiner Blog, “Dia de los Muertos at Bakersfield Museum of Art”, October 9, 2009
Studio Visit Magazine, April 2008
Feature interview at www.thevisualmovement.com, December 2007
Lifescapes Magazine, November 2006, pgs 48-49, “Return of the Day of the Dead”
ArtSpeak, “What’s in a Face?” San Francisco Examiner, 2/13/2003
TEACHING
“Painting the Ephemeral/Finding Presence”, Washington Studio School, Washington DC, November 2019
Lecture: “Garland of Hours”, Shasta College, Redding, CA, March 2019
Workshop: “Painting the Ephemeral”, Gage Opdenbrouw Studio, Oakland Cannery, March 2019
Workshop: “Painting the Ephemeral”, Gage Opdenbrouw Studio, Oakland Cannery, March 2019
Workshop: “Painting Presence”, Gage Opdenbrouw Studio, Oakland Cannery, March 2019
Guest Lecturer, Santa Clara University, Painting Department, 2011
Guest Lecturer, Academy of Art University, Painting Department, 2011
Guest Lecturer, California College of Arts, Painting Department, 2010
Sharon Art Studio, San Francisco, “Plein Air Painting in Oil or Acrylic--Workshop” October 2010
“Fundamentals of Figure Painting in Oil”, 15 week life painting foundation course, Spring 2010
Sharon Art Studio, San Francisco, “Drawing and Painting with Pastels”, 2009
Northern California Music and Culture Center: Painting Instructor, 2008
“Oil Painting Fundamentals”: a ten week course in oil painting, Spring 2008
“Painting 101”, Cellspace, San Francisco, Summer 2007
Private Instruction in drawing and painting: 2002-Present, ongoing--over 25 students, at all levels