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Robert Arneson, 'This Head is Mine,' 1981
Robert Arneson, 'Self Portrait Study,' 1964
Robert Arneson, 'Black & White (Self-Portrait, Television Series),' 1973
Robert Arneson, Balderdash-dash, 1978
Robert Arneson, 'Tonguing,' 1980
Robert Arneson, Splatt, 1981.
Robert Arneson, 'Portrait of the Artist After Bacon #1,' 1981
Robert Arneson, 'Main Event,' 1982
Robert Arneson, 'Head Skinned & Bleached,' 1986
Robert Arneson, Self-Portrait at 57, 1988
Robert Arneson, 'Poised to Infinity,' 1991
Robert Arneson, 'Cheek,' 1992
Robert Arneson, 'Untitled,' 1992
Installation view 1, Robert Arneson, Self-Portraits: 1964 - 1992, George Adams Gallery at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA, 2023
Installation view 2, Robert Arneson, Self-Portraits: 1964 - 1992, George Adams Gallery at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA, 2023.
Installation view 3, Robert Arneson, Self-Portraits: 1964 - 1992, George Adams Gallery at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA, 2023.
Installation view 4, Robert Arneson, Self-Portraits: 1964 - 1992, George Adams Gallery at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA, 2023.
Installation view 5, Robert Arneson, Self-Portraits: 1964 - 1992, George Adams Gallery at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA, 2023.
Installation view 6, Robert Arneson, Self-Portraits: 1964 - 1992, George Adams Gallery at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA, 2023.

Press Release

During the month of October, the George Adams Gallery at Minnesota Street Project will present a survey of Robert Arneson’s self-portraits, a continuation of the exhibition held at the New York gallery this past summer. This exhibition marks the first survey of Arneson's portraits since SFMOMA's Self-Reflections in 1997, and will encompass a range of works in ceramic, bronze, and pastels on paper, featuring significant pieces from Arneson's earliest and last self-portraits. The exhibition is on view in Room 107, the downstairs gallery of Anglim/Trimble. The gallery will be open Thursday through Saturday, 11am-5pm, and by appointment Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Robert Arneson (1930-1992) was born and raised in Benicia, California, where he lived and worked for most of his life. Along with Roy DeForest, Wayne Thiebaud, and William T. Wiley, he taught for many years at UC Davis. Arneson exhibited widely throughout his career and is recognized as a key figure in the re-consideration of ceramics as a sculptural medium. His work can be found in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Cleveland Museum of Art; Phoenix Art Museum; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; and the Australian National Gallery, Canberra. He has also been the subject of several traveling retrospectives: in 1974, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; in 1986-87, organized by the Des Moines Art Center; and posthumously in 1993, at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. In addition to catalogues and other publications about his work, a major monograph by Jonathan Fineberg was published by UC California Press in 2013. The George Adams Gallery has exhibited Arneson’s work regularly since 1975 and has represented his Estate since 1992.