Celebrating 25 Years at Paul Thiebaud Gallery

Celebrating 25 Years at Paul Thiebaud Gallery

September 19 – November 7, 2026
Opening reception: Saturday, September 19th, 3–5 pm
Remarks: 3:30pm

Laura Adler   
Robert Arneson   
Ruth Asawa   
Jeff Bellerose   
Tom Birkner   
Joan Brown   
William Theophilus Brown   
Stephen Coyle   
Fred Dalkey
Eileen David   
Roy De Forest
Willem de Kooning
Stephen De Staebler
Richard Diebenkorn
David Fertig   
Linda Fleming
Kim Frohsin
April Glory Funcke
Jeffrey Hester
Robert Hudson   
Mary Ijichi
Marc Katano
Hayward Ellis King
Ray Kleinlein
Franz Josef Kline   
Robert M. Kulicke
Dennis Leon
Frank Lobdell
Catherine Maize
Giorgio Morandi   
Grace Munakata
Ed Musante
Manuel Neri
Arthur Okamura
Nathan Oliveira   
Sono Osato
Robert Andrew Parker
Celia Reisman
Matt Rogers
John Santoro   
Åsa Schick
Cornelia Schulz
Pam Sheehan
Paul Stempen
Wayne Thiebaud   
Michael Tompkins
Andrea Way
Andrew I. Wilson
David Wilson
Paul Wonner   
Karla Wozniak
Suong Yangchareon

We are pleased to announce the opening of Celebrating 25 Years at Paul Thiebaud Gallery, a survey of artists and works exhibited by the gallery over the past quarter century, on Saturday September 19, 2026, with a reception from 3-5pm and remarks at 3:30pm. Although not a comprehensive overview, the exhibition includes selected key artists and works from important exhibitions in the gallery’s history. The exhibition will be on view through November 7, 2026.

Founded in 2001 by Paul LeBaron Thiebaud (1960-2010), the gallery began in an 1,000 square foot storefront space located at 718 Columbus Avenue in San Francisco, with administrative offices around the corner on Union Street. Paul LeBaron Thiebaud’s initial focus for the gallery was exhibiting the works of a small group of represented artists, including Laura Adler, Tom Birkner, Fred Dalkey, Eileen David, David Fertig, Ed Musante (1942-2022), Estate of Paul Stempen (1957-2000), Wayne Thiebaud, Michael Tompkins and Suong Yangchareon, while also helping collectors build their collections through private sales on the secondary market. Notably, in these early years Paul LeBaron Thiebaud mounted special exhibitions of historically important European and American modernists, including Willem de Kooning, Stephen De Staebler, Richard Diebenkorn, Franz Josef Kline, Robert M. Kulicke, and Giorgio Morandi, which established the gallery’s reputation as a place to see works by artists rarely seen in the San Francisco Bay Area.

After Charles Campbell Gallery closed in 2007, Paul Thiebaud moved the gallery into 645 Chestnut Street, where it operates today. The 645 Chestnut Street building has a storied history within the San Francisco art world. It is the longest continuously occupied gallery space in the city, beginning in 1960 when Charles Campbell moved his frame shop and gallery into the building’s ground floor. At the time Campbell moved in, the building’s second floor was the home of the important queer African American painter Hayward Ellis King (1938-1990), who was a crucial part of the Beat Art Movement and close ally of the Fillmore group of artists. Hayward King has the distinction of being the earliest known black and queer gallery owner in San Francisco (6 Gallery 1954-1957) and the first black director of a Bay Area non-profit arts institution (Richmond Art Center 1966-1970). The exhibition honors King’s part in the building’s history with the inclusion of a painting that was likely made while he lived there.

After Paul Thiebaud’s unexpected death in 2010, the gallery’s program evolved to primarily showcase American Realism, with artists Jeff Bellerose, Stephen Coyle, April Glory Funcke, Ray Kleinlein, Catherine Maize, Grace Munakata, Celia Reisman, and Pam Sheehan joining the roster. The semi-abstract paintings and works on paper by John Santoro, Grace Munakata, Åsa Schick, and Kim Frohsin created a balance among the gallery’s offerings when they joined during these years.

With a newly appointed directorial lead in 2023, the gallery’s program and roster have developed in fresh ways. Now representing 35 contemporary artists – Mary Ijichi, Marc Katano, Cornelia Schulz, Andrea Way, Andrew I. Wilson, and Karla Wozniak among them – and working with 10 artist estates, including Robert Arneson, William Theophilus Brown, Roy De Forest, Robert Hudson, Dennis Leon, Arthur Okamura, Robert Andrew Parker, and Paul Wonner, the gallery exhibits paintings, sculpture, ceramics, works on paper, and prints in a broad range of styles that are united through their aesthetic quality and the rigorous engagement of the artists in their creation. The gallery has also mounted curated exhibitions, including Fertile Ground: U.C. Davis Faculty and Alumni, Where Things Begin: 10 American Artists of the Asian Diaspora, Along the Way Continued… Artworks by John Moore and MYL3Z, and Contemporary Women of Abstraction.

Since Paul Thiebaud Gallery’s founding, it has regularly lent works to important exhibitions at museums and arts non-profits, including the Museo Morandi, Bologna, Italy; Whitney Museum of American Art; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Crocker Art Museum; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Palm Springs Museum; Laguna Art Museum; San José Museum of Art; Hilbert Museum of California Art; Lehman College Art Gallery; Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University; Richmond Art Center; Palo Alto Art Center; Sebastopol Center for the Arts; San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries; San Francsico Arts Ed Project; and to the forthcoming exhibition Making (Space): Celebrating 5 Years of Black (Space) Residency at the Minnesota Street Project, among others.