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About Gale Antokal

Gale Antokal was born in New York, New York, and received her MFA from the California College of the Arts in 1984. She is formerly a Professor in the School of Art & Design and Foundations Coordinator in the Pictorial area at San Jose State University. Antokal held several visiting artist positions and teaching positions including the San Francisco Art Institute, Instructor of Art History at the Lehrhaus Institute, and the American College in Jerusalem. In 1992 Antokal received a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is included in public, private and international collections.

Positions

2019 - Present Professor Emeritus, San Jose State University Emeritus Faculty
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2010 - 2019 Professor, San Jose State University Art and Art History
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Curriculum Vitae



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Honors and Awards

  • 2014 Jury Award: SKY: A National Juried Exhibition, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, California
  • 2005 Dean's Award for Distinguished Artistic Achievement, San Jose State University, San Jose, California
  • 1991 National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Arts Fellowship
  • 1985 Roselyn Swig Artsource Purchase Award, San Francisco Arts Festival
  • 1984 Drawing Division, "California Works" California State Fair, Sacramento, California 1982 First Place, Fine Arts, San Francisco Arts Festival

Education

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1984 MFA, California College of the Arts ‐ Painting
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1980 BFA, California College of the Arts ‐ Painting
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1972 B.A., LIU
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2013-2014: EXO (3)

I draw from ordinary objects to interpret or reinvent them. I'm always intrigued when something small and unexpected presents itself because in my experience, the most authentic work germinates from a simple notion or impulse, which then can transform into something more extraordinary, ineffable or abstract. I discover a world of complexity in one pictorial idea. In the process of working with repetition of form and multiple variations, the meaning of the object begins to emerge. As this happens I am engrossed in the generative relationship between the circumstance of the single image drawn on the picture plane, and the shift of meaning with the subsequent assembly of many. The essence of the form is realized in this process.

2012: Blossom (2)

I draw from ordinary objects to interpret or reinvent them. I'm always intrigued when something small and unexpected presents itself because in my experience, the most authentic work germinates from a simple notion or impulse, which then can transform into something more extraordinary, ineffable or abstract. I discover a world of complexity in one pictorial idea. In the process of working with repetition of form and multiple variations, the meaning of the object begins to emerge. As this happens I am engrossed in the generative relationship between the circumstance of the single image drawn on the picture plane, and the shift of meaning with the subsequent assembly of many. The essence of the form is realized in this process.

2010: Out of the Blue (1)

One drawing in Out of the Blue is an appropriation of the first photographic image I remember seeing as a child. This photograph, one of approaching tornado was frightful and foreboding. Several of the drawings in Out of the Blue depict small human figures not spared by natural and unnatural disasters. This image is a premise on which my work is often based, and bears an ambiance of uncertainty. The resonance of this image appeared in my early Nightswimming series, the multiple studies of cooking pots, and even the landscapes of The Messengers.

2008: No Vanishing Point (1)

2007: The Messengers (2)

The Messengers, like much of her previous work, is a gracious presentation, at once poetic and ghostly, of everyday subjects. While this presentation amounts to a fairly dramatic, if also hushed, formal innovation, it is always clear that form is not an end in itself, but rather Antokal's means of gently coaxing mysterious and affecting essences from "ordinary" images that matter to her. Among other things, her works remind us of, and give back, what was lost in the photographs that served as their inspirations-what is always lost when we see with a merely physical eye. (Craig Buckwald)

2003-2006: We Are So Lightly Here (6)

The ordinary yet delicate nature of Gale Antokal’s materials underscores the haunting images and important ideas they describe. Flour, ash, graphite and chalk unite into fragile surfaces that depict people walking, birds flying, mountains, milk pouring down stairs, children sledding, smoke and footprints. Though disparate in subject matter, all of the images have at their foundation two significant threads: the ambiguity of personal identity and physical location; and the way in which memory and history are forged from everyday moments. (Laura Richard)

2001: Blumenstock (1)

2000-2002: Past Accounts (1)

1997-1998: Drawings (1)

1990-1996: Early Works (1)

Solo Exhibitions (8)