Eight bridges connect the San Francisco Bay, so it is an apt name for a gallery platform that brings the Bay Area art world together.

Our mission is to maintain a vibrant gallery scene, despite restrictions on travel, celebrations and other larger gatherings. We want to support our artists by informing and entertaining curators, collectors and critics with potent online exhibitions of their work.

On the first Thursday of every month, we will launch 8 shows of artists relevant to the Bay Area. They may be working in this place, long considered an epicenter of change, or deeply engaged in the conversations the Bay Area holds dear, whether it’s related to technology, the environment, social justice or sexual identity, to name a few. In addition, each month will highlight the crucial work of a Bay Area non-profit arts organization.

Founding Committee

Claudia Altman-Siegel, Kelly Huang, Sophia Kinell, Micki Meng, Daphne Palmer, Ratio 3, Sarah Wendell Sherrill, Jessica Silverman, and Elizabeth Sullivan

Ambassador Committee

Sayre Batton & Maja Thomas, Joachim & Nancy Bechtle, Matt Bernstein, Sabrina Buell, Wayee Chu & Ethan Beard, Natasha Boas, Douglas Durkin, Carla Emil, Matt & Jessica Farron, Lauren Ford, Ali Gass, Stanlee Gatti, Brook Hartzell & Tad Freese, Pamela & David Hornik, Katie & Matt Paige, Putter Pence, Becca Prowda & Daniel Lurie, Deborah Rappaport, Komal Shah & Gaurav Garg, Laura Sweeney, The Battery, Robin Wright, Sonya Yu & Zack Lara

Sponsors

Lobus, The Space Program

Stephanie Syjuco

Catharine Clark Gallery returns to 8-bridges with a presentation of four works across series by multidisciplinary artist Stephanie Syjuco. Based in the Bay Area, Syjuco works in photography, sculpture, and installation, moving from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations. Using critical wit and collaborative co-creation, her projects have leveraged open-source systems, shareware logic, and flows of capital, in order to investigate issues of economies and empire. Recently, she has focused on how photography and image-based processes are implicated in the construction of racialized, exclusionary narratives of history and citizenship.

Syjuco’s work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Saint Louis Museum of Art, Missouri; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, among others.

Overlay, 2021
Pigmented inkjet print on Hahnemuhle Baryta mounted on 3mm E-Panel

Edition of 3 + 2 AP’s

34 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches, framed

$15,000

INQUIRE

Overlay, 2021
Pigmented inkjet print on Hahnemuhle Baryta mounted on 3mm E-Panel

Edition of 3 + 2 AP’s

34 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches, framed

$15,000

In the photograph "Overlay," Syjuco overlays an archival photo of one of the Gerhard Sisters - two early 20th century sisters who achieved financial success by photographing the Filipino Reservation at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair - over a studio image of one of her "sitters." By at turns deflecting the viewer’s gaze or redirecting it onto the act of viewing itself, Syjuco's composition questions the ability of the archive and photography itself to be neutral cultural narrators.

Chromakey Aftermath (Standard Bearers), 2019

Pigmented inkjet print

Edition 4 of 8 + 2 AP’s

Sheet: 40 x 30 inches

Frame: 41 x 31 inches

$12,000

INQUIRE

Chromakey Aftermath (Standard Bearers), 2019

Pigmented inkjet print

Edition 4 of 8 + 2 AP’s

Sheet: 40 x 30 inches

Frame: 41 x 31 inches

$12,000

"Chromakey Aftermath (Standard Bearers)" is a photograph that features two figures consumed by detritus, protest accessories, and flags in chroma key green. Even though the two sitters are surrounded by chroma key fabric, their presence insists on itself. Working with students from University of California, Berkeley where she is a professor, Syjuco created images that speculate on how young people from marginalized communities are defining themselves as resistant activists, despite xenophobic political policies.

Phantom Flag, 2018

Polyester chiffon

Edition 3 of 3 + 1AP

81 x 141 inches

$30,000

INQUIRE

Phantom Flag, 2018

Polyester chiffon

Edition 3 of 3 + 1AP

81 x 141 inches

$30,000

"Phantom Flag" continues Syjuco’s inquiry into how flags and national symbols become metaphors for political contest. Made of sheer black chiffon, the oversized flag is fragile and ghost-like, a symbolic manifestation of a nation haunted by and unresolved in its own conflicts.

Applicant Photos (Migrants) #2, 2017

Pigmented inkjet print

Edition 1 of 10 + 2 AP’s (last edition available individually)

Sheet: 3.6 x 4.2 inches

Frame: 20 x 16 inches

$6,000

SOLD

Applicant Photos (Migrants) #2, 2017

Pigmented inkjet print

Edition 1 of 10 + 2 AP’s (last edition available individually)

Sheet: 3.6 x 4.2 inches

Frame: 20 x 16 inches

$6,000

Syjuco’s series "Applicant Photos (Migrants) (2017)" furthers her investigation into the relationship between critical race and photography. Syjuco notes that the series “was developed in conjunction with the larger photographic series, 'Cargo Cults,' and directly references standardized identification photos people are required to submit along with an application for immigration, travel, or asylum.” With this new series, however, Syjuco fully obscures her face, thwarting the viewer’s attempts to “read” her identity. This serves a conflicting, dual purpose: to elude identification and remain anonymous in an era of surveillance and tracking, and to also reference the many ways that migrants and refugees have been depicted as a faceless, anonymous mass.
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