In Emily Fromm‘s last big project “Four Corners,” a permanent, 10 by 40-foot mosaic at San Francisco International Airport’s Harvey Milk Terminal 1, she depicted San Francisco neighborhoods—the Mission, the Embarcadero, the Castro, and Chinatown—with a heavy emphasis on their neon and street signs. Today, when travelers arrive to SFO, her placards for Cancun Taqueria, Red’s Java House, the Castro Theatre, and little dim sum spots let them know that they have made it to the City By the Bay. But for her current solo exhibition “There You Go, Wherever You Are” (which runs through mid-April at 111 Minna), Fromm wanted the focus to be somewhat different.
“To me this was a little bit more for the local community,” she told 48hills. “I wanted to have a place that [San Francisco] residents would recognize a little more than just everybody at large.”
Bay-loyal visitors to the show will see what she means. The front room of 111 Minna is full of Fromm’s paintings of local gems: Donut World in the Inner Sunset, Tony’s Cable Car on Geary, Casanova’s on Valencia, and the New Century Theater in the Tenderloin. In the back room, we’re taken further afield with street scenes that Fromm painted in New York and London.
The artist has always loved signs. The Santa Clarita-raised Fromm says she has always had the habit of looking to see what the world is telling her. In “There Your Go, Wherever You Are,” she has even included ink drawings of signs she’s seen on quick trips outside the city: Catch the placards of Winters Tavern in Pacifica and Portland’s Banfield Motel (now a homeless shelter) for proof.
Michelle Delaney, who owns 111 Minna Gallery with David Mabry and Alex Kivelstadt, says she loves Fromm’s art, which a review in Juxatapoz Magazine described as “compelling because it invites and pulls the viewer into the action of the canvas.”
But it wasn’t just Fromm’s urban landscapes that convinced Delaney she needed a show at 111 Minna (which was recently hit by a fire and subsequent water damage—after all the turmoil of COVID), or why she’s extended the show’s run into mid-April.
“Emily’s an awesome artist, but she’s also just an easy person to deal with,” Delaney said. “She’s rad, she’s on it, she’s super sweet, and when we sat down with her to talk about the marketing and PR for this, the amount of organization that woman has—I was taking notes.”
Another thing Fromm tried out for the show are still-lifes that she created inside her apartment. These show the dresser in her bedroom that holds painting supplies, a coffee table, and a medicine cabinet. Fromm said she was considering making still-lifes before COVID, but that it made sense to start them during a time when she, like most people, were spending a lot of time at home.
“I was thinking of naturally occurring still lifes, like clutter,” she said. “I usually draw my inspiration from being out, so it felt fitting to work on this during quarantine.”
She found additional inspiration in this new vein of work from artist friends, such as Christo Oropeza and Emilio Villalba, whose imagery tends to revolve around interior life. And after years of painting and storing her work in her one-bedroom Outer Sunset home for years, Fromm is about to start working in a studio in the basement of the Moth Belly Gallery in the Tenderloin—another reason she’s been contemplating the realities of indoor life.
She’s glad to be able to share her work at last with San Franciscans.
“This is for them, the San Francisco art especially,” she said. “I think people are missing places they haven’t been able to visit. So come to the show, and travel via the arts, and hopefully it will spark memories.”
THERE YOU GO, WHEREVER YOU ARE Exhibition runs through mid-April. Gallery reception Thu/17, 5-9 p.m. 111 Minna Gallery, SF. More information available here, or contact michelle@111minnagallery.com
