The art I live with: inside gallerist Jessica Silverman’s private collection

Jessica Silverman is poised for major changes. When she opened her eponymous gallery back in 2008, the San Francisco dealer was in her mid-twenties and fresh out of graduate school, having obtained an MA in curatorial practice from California College of the Arts. She’s now solidly established as one of the pillars of the San Francisco art scene, with an eclectic program that bends more to her genuine affinities than to artworld trends. With a roster split between emerging local talent such as Woody De Othello, and esteemed late-career artists including Judy Chicago, Silverman has developed the kind of international reputation that has helped put San Francisco on the contemporary-art map. This year, she will move her gallery into a 5,000-square-foot historic building in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood. The relocation heralds a shift for Silverman: she’ll finally have a space to match the scope of her ambition. San Francisco, meanwhile, can look forward to more of the envelope-pushing exhibitions for which Silverman has become known. The gallerist talked to Fanny Singer about some of the inspiring artworks she lives with. 

Judy Chicago, Study for Pasadena Lifesavers Yellow #3, 1968

‘Every morning, when I wake up and walk into my living room, this beautiful drawing by Judy greets me. She made it in 1968 as a study for a painting when she was still living in Los Angeles and fighting for visibility among her male Minimalist peers. My partner, Sarah Thornton, found this drawing, and three others like it, when we were visiting Judy in New Mexico. Her studio and archive are incredibly well organized, but it’s still possible to ‘discover’ gems like this. When Judy made this drawing, she was most strongly associated with Minimalism, but to me it feels very op art – the colors vibrate and oscillate. It’s incredibly dynamic. I’ve been working with Judy since 2016 and am really excited by her first major retrospective exhibition (so overdue!), which is upcoming at the de Young museum in San Francisco. We’ll be showing a concurrent exhibition of her works, titled ‘Mother Earth’, largely dedicated to her activism, particularly in relation to climate change.

Grace Cathedral

‘Our apartment is on the eighth floor of a building directly across the street from Grace Cathedral, the massive church of the Episcopal Diocese of California that sits perched at the top of Nob Hill. From most of our windows, the cathedral’s architecture fills the view. Its muscular, gothic-style forms and stained glass register as something akin to wallpaper, an environmental texture almost. We realized after the fact that the curtains we chose for our bedroom are the same color as the church! It’s become so much a part of our consciousness that we subliminally wanted to see it, even when the curtains were closed. Seeing the church every day – with the iconic Coit Tower and the glittering bay visible in the background – really grounds me. I’m Jewish, and I’m not even a native Californian, but having this visual relationship to Grace Cathedral, which is such an important cultural institution in San Francisco, is a reminder of my having built my professional life here, in no small part thanks to the incredible collectors and members of the local arts community.

Woody De Othello, Shelf life, 2018

‘Sometimes, when I show an artist, I’ll immediately identify a work that resonates with me, for whatever reason. Even if I love a piece I’m showing, though, I never acquire it at the beginning – I want it to have a chance to go out into the world, especially if someone else loves it equally. At the end of Woody’s first show with me in 2018, Shelf life hadn’t sold – it felt destined to come home with me. Woody creates sculpture in ceramic and often makes vessels – shapes that have functional but also symbolic potential, places to put things, concrete or intangible. This vessel is adorned with a mouth, an ear, and a hand. I think of it as a riff on the proverbial ‘See no evil, hear no evil, say no evil’ – so what better place for it to sit than directly across from our front door? It welcomes guests but perhaps also wards off evil spirits or bad energy. We just featured Woody’s work – at its most monumental and immersive scale – at Art Basel Miami, and are looking forward to presenting a solo show with him at Art Basel Hong Kong this March.

Rose B. Simpson, Cairn, 2018

‘We just closed our first solo exhibition with Rose, which was an incredibly powerful presentation called ‘Duo’. The show contained a series of sculptural pairs: free-standing warrior-like figures that mirrored one another. I first came across Rose’s work when Sarah and I were visiting Judy Chicago in New Mexico. We walked into her exhibition at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe in 2018 and were blown away by the work. Rose’s sculpture Cairn, which now lives in our home, was in that exhibition. Rose is descended from the pueblo of Santa Clara, and works between traditional materials such as clay and industrial ones like steel. She holds MFAs from Rhode Island School of Design and the Institute of American Indian Arts, but also has a degree in automotive science from Northern New Mexico College. I mean, the woman could build a car! She’s an incredible welder and, in general, her work reflects extraordinary material knowledge and craftsmanship. Cairn is a kind of self-portrait, with a representation of Rose’s daughter balanced securely on the mother figure’s shoulders. The sculpture stands between two windows in our apartment, with Grace Cathedral as her backdrop. It’s the only figurative sculptural work we have in our collection. I thought I would be alarmed by it whenever I wandered into the living room at night, but surprisingly I have found the piece to be a calming presence. For me, it’s a guardian, or sentry, not a threat. I love how Rose’s work has helped push the gallery, and also the works we live with, in a new direction.’ 

Jessica Silverman will be participating in Art Basel Hong Kong 2020 with a solo booth by Woody De Othello. 

Top image: Jessica Silverman. Portrait by Jack Bool for Art Basel.