Lisa Esherick: Paintings February 7, 2007

Even now, after nearly half a century, the vibrancy and gestural immediacy of the Bay Area Figurative School continues to reflect the attitudes shaped by both art history and the cultural and political currents of contemporary life. Lisa Esherick has incorporated that particular extension of figurative work that emerged as a counterrevolution to the Abstract Expressionism of an earlier generation. Having studied with Jack Jefferson, Frank Lobdell, Richard Diebenkorn, Manuel Neri and James Weeks during the early 1960s at the San Francisco Art Institute, her struggle has been to find a personal voice for the expression of her painterly concerns. Exploring values and their relationship to color while addressing contemporary figurative issues, Esherick's fusion of extensive travel and psychological inquiry has resulted in complex paintings crowded with a sense of movement and mystery.