Letters
from the
SAIFhouse 

20 Jun 2023 – 23 Aug 2023 
Opening Reception:  We 28 Jun 530p – 730p

A solo exhibition of abstract paintings by San Francisco artist Ali Saif. Features works from across Saif’s career, reflecting his decades-long exploration, in oil colors, of light, gesture, texture, and movement.

“Letters from the Saifhouse” is the first-ever comprehensive, multi-decade gallery show of Saif’s oil paintings. As with so many artists in the Bay Area, the realities of making a living meant that for Ali painting was, despite his training at the storied San Francisco Art Institute, largely confined to an off-hours activity. Thus, previous exhibitions of his work came primarily through group shows and open studio events. This solo show ends that relative obscurity, putting on impressive display the sensibilities of a master who has spent decades perfecting his craft.

The breadth of Saif’s talents as a painter are clearly seen through the quiet forcefulness of his brush strokes and the intuitive dashes of brightness that trim the dark and thickly textured colorfields which form the backgrounds of his canvases. In nearly every piece one can find a portal, usually a dark arch or doorway of sorts, that beckons the viewer irresistibly deeper.

Ali’s work has developed steadily over the decades, the general arc showing more deft and nuance, with periods where weight and structure took precedence giving way to more lyrical plays between gesture and color. Some of his current work, which was included in the recent Radian exhibition, “Moda Botanica,” moves into the territory of representational art through its depictions of tulips standing bold and bright against rich backdrops of stormy blue-grays or deeply passionate bull’s blood reds.