Artist Statement: These paintings by Jean-Baptiste Besançon represent an ongoing exploration of intuitive mark-making and spontaneous composition. Departing from his usual palette, Besançon introduces lighter, softer tones that amplify the interplay between shapes, while alternating between translucent washes and heavily textured applications of paint. Working without preconception, he allows each piece to evolve through a reciprocal exchange — the painting gradually returns something to him that exists beyond language, signalling its completion. This dialogue between artist and work extends outward to the viewer, who encounters an immersive experience of color and depth, drawn into their vastness and moved by the emotional resonance of their palette.

Artist Statement: In this new body of work, John Zabawa turns to water as one of humanity’s most enduring symbols — revered across millennia and cultures as both life-giving force and sacred material. From the Nile’s Hapi to Hinduism’s Ganga, from West African Oshun to the Ojibwe water ceremonies, civilizations have honored water through ritual, offering and art. Zabawa’s paintings draw from this rich lineage while carving out distinctly personal territory: these are not the manicured garden ponds of Impressionist estates, but rather, wild, prehistoric water bodies — untamed and unseen, interpretations of the Midwestern landscapes of his childhood.

Chidy Wayne has created a playlist to accompany his solo show, Ancestral Futures, at Francis Gallery.

Artist Statement: Titled Non-reification, this collection reflects my desire to portray human existence through the intangible. Drawing from the Frankfurt School’s concept of reification — particularly the process by which human relationships are commodified and individuals are reduced to functional, even replaceable, entities — these paintings strive to go beyond the realm of the material and engage in the sensorial. Non-reification reveals a world not through visible form, but through resonance — intimate, invisible, and vibrational.

Migaam and Casa Francis warmly invite you to join a Korean tea ceremony of 6 delicate courses, serving Korean tteok, kumquat jeonggwa, and more. The 1-hour event will be hosted in conjunction with our current show — Have you eaten today? (밥 먹었어요?) — at Casa Francis, featuring works by Ash Roberts, Christina Kim of dosa, John Zabawa, Koo Bohnchang, Nancy Jiseon Kwon, Lindsey Chan of Office of BC, Rahee Yoon, Will Calver, and Yoona Hur.

Casa Francis — our new exhibition space set in a Spanish Colonial home, just a stone’s throw from the LA gallery — opens this weekend.

The inaugural show, Have you eaten today?, features site-specific works by Ash Roberts, Christina Kim of dosa, John Zabawa, Koo Bohnchang, Nancy Jiseon Kwon, Lindsey Chan of Office of BC, Rahee Yoon, Will Calver, and Yoona Hur.

Casa Francis will be open by appointment only, and Have you eaten today? will be on view from 16 May – 12 June.

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Paul Philp’s work demonstrates a deep sensitivity to structure. A long experimentation with three-sided and four-sided vessels has resulted in the refinement of a dynamic, shifted shape, where perspectives seem to merge across its gently tilted planes. “Vases have always intrigued me,” Philp says. “I wanted the challenge of somehow making the epitome of a classic shape, but taking it further, beyond the traditional, rounded form.” Having settled on his archetypal four-sided vessel over a decade ago, Philp continues to gain a nuanced understanding of its form through repetition, making only the slightest adjustments to each piece.

“The more darkness you can gather up, the more light you can see too.”

Over the past four decades, Korean artist Myoung Ae Lee developed a practice delving into themes of materiality, relationality, and space. Lee’s shaped canvases, currently on view at our LA gallery, challenge the flatness of the surface while preserving its essence. The resulting canvases by Lee interweave the artist’s individuality with the materiality of her medium, imbuing a sense of poetic correspondence. During a conversation at her home-studio in Daejeon, Korea, Lee and I discussed her shaped canvases, her return to academia, and the ongoing process of discovery and revelation at the core of her practice.

For SF Art Week, we've partnered with Evan Kinori to present a weekend exhibition comprising Kinori’s new furniture collection made from sustainably salvaged old-growth redwood; a capsule of naturally dyed garments; and a collection of paintings and sculptures curated by gallery director Rosa Park. William Stout Architectural Books will complement the experience with a selection of rare books, while Stuart Bogie will set the soundscape with a live performance.