GENERATIONS/
The roots of making in the Asawa-Lanier family
J-Sei Group Visit
Fri, March 31st, 11:30 am
Ruth’s Table
3160 21st Street, San Francisco
RSVP to jill@j-sei.org with memo “Ruths Table”. The group will enjoy a gallery visit and hands-on activity and lunch outdoors on the patio.
“Learn something. Apply it. Pass it on so it is not forgotten.” – Ruth Asawa
Generation: The Roots of Making in the Asawa-Lanier Family, brings together four generations from a San Francisco family of makers. Inspired by world-renowned artist Ruth Asawa, the exhibition serves as an opportunity to honor Asawa’s life-long commitment to community-based art education and activism in the arts.
Generation is a tribute and a testament that Asawa’s values live on through generations – in the Asawa-Lanier family, in communities and organizations, like Ruth’s Table – that share her unwavering belief that creative engagement is essential and can impact the lives of people of all ages.
The exhibition brings together works in wire and lithography by Ruth Asawa; paintings, drawings, and birthday envelopes by Albert Lanier; paintings and a clay platter by Paul Lanier; textile, collage, and painting by Aiko Lanier Cuneo; origami portraits, paintings, and paper construction by Lilli Lanier; and paintings by Lucia Ruth Soriano. All of these artists have worked with one another on public commissions, as teaching artists in schools, and collaborated on pieces in this show.
The work exhibited in Generation spans 57 years from 1965 to 2022. Motifs rooted in interwoven patterns of line, repetition, and dynamic interactions between geometric shapes, color, and forms, appear in all artists’ works creating inherent conversation and visual connections carried through varying media. Together, they form a story of four generations of a family that is joined not only in relationship, but by the curiosity and love of materials, color, and pattern.