‘Ripples’ celebrates artists bringing new perspectives to UC Law SF campus
UC Law San Francisco celebrated the artists whose work brightens its campus walls at the fourth annual Ripples community art celebration on Sept. 24. The rotating Ripples exhibit, curated by Esther Mallouh since 2022, features 81 works by 53 Northern California artists displayed across three UC Law SF buildings.
The exhibit brings local art into the Academic Village, where students and programs from multiple higher education institutions share a living-learning community, while giving Northern California artists a place to showcase their work.
Browse a few highlights from the event below. Find the full photo gallery here.
UC Law SF Chief Financial Officer David Seward has strongly supported making the arts an essential part of the College’s Academic Village, which houses students and programs from multiple universities on campus. He said, “We’re more than just a law school … we are creating a community of learning and of living and celebrating arts and education in the broader community.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener spoke about the important role artists have played in shaping San Francisco’s culture and recognized UC Law SF’s contributions to the community, saying, “Thank you, UC Law, for being a great civic participant and leadership organization in San Francisco. And thank you as well to UC Law for lifting up our local artists.”
Esther Mallouh, who has curated UC Law SF’s rotating art exhibit since 2022, was presented a certificate of recognition from the California Senate by State Senator Scott Wiener. Mallouh said, “It has been an absolute privilege to bring this collection together, intentionally weaving the artwork into the very fabric of our campus.”
Albert “Chip” Zecher, who chairs UC Law SF’s Board of Directors, said he looks forward to expanding the art exhibit to UC Law SF’s 100 McAllister St. Tower after renovations are finished next year. He said, “Art inspires, and I think we all agree, when you’re in an academic setting, like law school, it’s very nice to look up and see something that takes you away for a minute, makes you think and gives you the big picture of why we are all here and [how we are] all human.”
Oakland-based artist Lorrie Fink has two oil-on-canvas nature-scene paintings adorning a wall on the seventh floor of the 198 McAllister St. building. “I focus my awareness on environmental concerns about stewardship and sustainability, while celebrating the beauty and exuberance of our natural world,” she said.
Fabric artist Alice Beasley’s 2018 work “Silence,” displayed on the fourth floor of the Cotchett Law Center, captures Martin Luther King Jr.’s words about not being silent in the face of injustice. “We each have an obligation to speak out and have our voices heard,” Beasley said.
San Francisco-based artist William Rhodes’ “Nina Simone Quilt,” seen on the fourth floor of the Cotchett Law Center, pays tribute to William C. Rhodes Jr., who published the Black Times Magazine in the 1960s and ’70s. “This quilt is in honor of my father’s dedication to journalism that told the stories of Black heroes,” he said.
Seen on the first floor of the 198 McAllister building, Ana-Maria Gower’s 2023 oil paintings “The Storm II & III” are part of her Open Fields series depicting abstract landscapes. “Each painting is an intuitive reinterpretation of a classic landscape, delicately capturing the essence of the work through the vocabulary of non-figurative art,” she said.
Mill Valley-based artist Janet Yano discusses her 2016 work, “The W.R.A. Game,” which uses the Monopoly board game to illustrate the timeline of the War Relocation Authority’s incarceration of Japanese people during World War II. “By reimagining the iconic American game, I sought to make a complex and painful history accessible through a familiar form,” she said.
Displayed on the second floor of the Cotchett Law Center, East Bay artist Pablo Manga’s 2023 acrylic on panel, “Forever and a Day,” uses colorful geometric shapes to create an illusion of movement. “I aim for compositions that activate the eye and reward sustained viewing with shifting patterns and unfolding dynamic relationships of shape and color,” he said.