Along with teaching art full time at Redwood City’s Cañada College, Emilio Villalba is a painter who is currently getting ready for a May exhibition at the Dolby Chadwick Gallery, not to mention director of the school’s gallery. Suffice to say, he doesn’t have a lot of extra time on his hands.
And so, he and his friend, artist, art enthusiast, and former San Francisco supervisor Matt Gonzalez had to make quick decisions as to which 18 pieces to include in the Cañada College gallery’s exhibition Painting Is Its Own Language (through May 15), which features works by 20th century painter couple Theophilus Brown and Paul Wonner. Luckily, Gonzalez and Villalba have hung many shows together and knew what they wanted.
“It was a little bit guns blazing. We just blitzkrieged it,” Villalba told 48hills. “I just rented a U-Haul, and we took every single piece down to the college and spread them out, and put the bangers—the big centerpieces—out first, and then sort of decorated the show around those pieces.”
Brown and Wonner were prominent artists within the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which arose in opposition to the 1950s Abstract Expressionism typified by Rothko and Pollock. The local duo’s contemporaries included Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff—creatives willing to explore the canvas via both portraiture and landscape, who often would all come together to paint in the studio Brown and Wonner shared above a Berkeley car dealership.
Wonner and Brown’s work has received a fair amount of contemporary attention. They were featured in an exhibition at Sacramento’s Crocker Museum in 2023 and Memphis gallery in 2024, and SF’s Paul Thiebaud Gallery recently displayed their canvases.
When Villalba was hired at Cañada in fall of 2024, the college’s gallery space had been largely dormant. The first show he orchestrated was of his predecessor at the college, Bill Morales.
Morales came to see Painting Is Its Own Language, and was suitably impressed.
“He stopped by my classroom after and was blown away,” Villalba said. “He was like, ‘How the hell do you get Paul Wonner and Theophilus Brown?’ I was like, ‘Oh, I know a guy. No big deal.’”
Help us save local journalism!
Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.
The guy was Gonzalez, who had been a friend of both artists and recalls sharing meals and talking about painting with them, as well as making collages with Brown. Villalba’s wife, artist Michelle Fernandez, had the initial idea for the show. The gallery director felt a little hesitant to ask his friend to borrow the Brown and Wonner pieces from his collection (though one piece in the show is Villalba’s—a gift from Gonzalez), but his friend responded enthusiastically.
Reactions to the mounted show have been just as positive, said Gonzalez, due to fervent local interest in Bay Area Figuration.
“I love just activating the gallery on the Peninsula, and obviously the location benefits the students,” Gonzalez said. “All of that is positive, and Emilio teaching there now was an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, let’s promote the work.’ It comes after the Crocker show, and it’s contemporaneous with the Paul Thiebaud, and it’s a nice way to promote their legacy.”
Gonzalez and Villalba both like the variety of the show, which features drawings and watercolors as well as painting. Villalba added that the work in the exhibition has everything he is teaching his students.
“You have still life’s, you have nude figures, and you have portraits, and landscapes,” he said. “How much more traditional can you get? It’s everything we’re learning.”
Denise Erickson, who has taught art history at Cañada since the late 1970s, said her students loved the show. “They were really wowed by it, they all wanted to come back. They’re interested in the lives of the artists and the background of the artists, and where they fit into modern art. But they really were struck by how the art resonated with them on such a personal level.”
“I’m very excited to have Emilio come on board,” Erickson continued. “He’s a wonderful teacher and has brought such an incredible wave of energy and excitement to the program. I’m delighted to have him as a partner now in the art department.”
Villalba wants to keep the wave going, and has hopes of expansion for the gallery, including activating it for more events. For example: on Wed/12, there will be a 5pm screening of a documentary on Brown’s life, Theophilus, with director Roy Allen Wood on hand to answer questions afterwards. Attendance is free and seating is open, but for planning purposes, organizers are asking for RSVPs to be emailed to villalbae@smccd.edu with your name and the number of attendees in your party.
PAUL WONNER AND THEOPHILUS BROWN: PAINTING IS ITS OWN LANGUAGE runs through May 15. Cañada College Gallery, Redwood City. More information here.
