CHRISTINE WOLHEIM - BIOGRAPHY
Christine Wolheim is an artist who gets her inspiration from travel, flea markets, other makers, magazines, books, photos, trees, nature and water. She lives in San Francisco and has a log cabin in her hometown of Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe. She works per assignment as a Food and Prop Stylist for her day job. As an ex-chef, Christine still cooks for friends, drinks wine, makes runners and custom fragrances, and has a habit of re-doing orphan chairs. She loves to ride her Vintage Vespa, which reminds her of her years living in Italy.
About her work, she writes:
My work varies depending on the project and the medium.
In all, I am interested in what is hidden and what is seen. My work is layered: secrets are exposed and desires covered. Hidden meaning is concealed in barely seeable imagery. Sex, love, beauty, human desire, the exalted and the ordinary, are all imbedded beneath the layers of paint and paper. Vulnerability, mystery, trauma and spirituality drive a need to have a voice and express something beyond words.
I love adventure and the hunt, and chance encounters with people, places and things. I love found objects, imagery and things divorced from their usual environment and their intended meaning. These elements come into play in my collage and assemblage work, which I have always done. I love the incongruities this way of working presents. Trinkets of wonder and the absurd.
My Representational work employs this same simultaneity of spirit: done by layering and playing with scale, but with more intention. My imagery conveys psychological and emotional states, iconic ideals, desires, cravings, biology, nostalgia, wishes, and culture distilled into pattern. Pattern being a metaphor for our interior landscape and how our biography actually becomes our biology.
In my abstract work: I am much more formal. My earlier abstracts were about color, and form, and space. My latest series is (mostly) monochromatic (perhaps as a result of a recent illness, when painting was my only access to myself as my body was rebelling). The paintings are spare: composition and gesture are at the forefront. In all my abstracts, expression, mark making and texture are very important and the painting of them becomes a collaborative dance between me and it. I am walking the line between getting out of the way and using my faculties to complete them.
I also do work which is political in nature: bitingly sarcastic, and blatantly about an issue. There have been a few political pieces peppered in my past representational work. But in 2020/2021, I made a series of protest pieces on paper which spanned themes of race, environmental justice, social justice, economic justice, prison reform, women’s rights, domestic abuse, child abuse, slavery, and police brutality. They are loose and gestural. And are meant to shed light and spark dialog.
To see her commercial work go to: www.wolheimstyle.com
Anti-Sexual violence piece
with Model Channy
for "We Step Into The Light" show
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Captain OKO Design
Point Reyes, CA
2018 Lines and Gestures
Yonder
San Francisco, CA
2011 Balms for the Busy
Cowboys & Angels
San Francisco, CA
2006 Paving the Way
Di Pietro Todd
San Francisco, CA
2005 Helium
24seven @ 49 Geary
San Francisco, CA
2005 Fabricate
Ambitalia
Mill Valley, CA
2004 Wolheim
24seven @ 49 Geary
San Francisco, CA
2000 Heaven
Luna Rossa
San Francisco, CA
1997 Fotografie delle Marche
Il Particolare
Petritoli, Italy
1997 Recent Works
Wyatt Studio Gallery
San Francisco, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 In Flux: Recalibrating the Unknown
MONCA: Museum of Northern California Art
Chico, CA
2017 TOGETHER
Heron Arts
San Francisco, CA
2011 We Step Into the Light
Create Social Change Exhibition
San Francisco, CA
Artists were paired with a survivor of sexual violence and invited to make a portrait of their subject as not merely a survivor but as one who thrives.
2008 Rock. Paper. Scissors
Untitled Gallery
Sausalito, CA
2006 Winter Show and Auction
Hotel Des Artes
San Francisco, CA
2003 Wolheim, Garcia, Del Rosario
Washington Square Gallery
San Francisco, CA
2002 Untitled
Limn Gallery Showroom
San Francisco, CA
2002 SF/LA
Basswerk Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
2001 The Arts Forum Inauguration Exhibition
Irvine Fine Arts Center
Irvine, CA
2001 Five New Artists
Kweejibo Gallery
San Francisco, CA
2000 In the Beginning
Mission Cultural Center
San Francisco, CA
2000 Women's Work Jubilee
Venue 9
San Francisco, CA
1999 Endo/Exo
The Music Annex
Menlo Park, CA
1999 The New Book of Etiquette
Diego Rivera Gallery
San Francisco, CA
RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2018 Ombre Wall Treatment Design and Video
Sunset Magazine Home Style
2008 Cover Art for Anti-Poetry Magazine
August edition
2006 Commissioned Paintings, Paul Wallace
Interior Design
San Francisco, CA
2006 Compact Disc Artwork and Cover Design for Merlin Coleman
Berkeley, CA
2004 Business Card/Artwork/Brochure Design
Interior Alchemy
San Francisco, CA
2003 Guest Lecturer at San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco, CA
2000 - 2004 Founder, co-curator and host
Woolsey St. Downstairs Gallery & Cold Cuts Sessions
(an ongoing monthly salon)
Berkeley, CA
2002 Commissioned Painting, Insalata's Restaurant
San Anselmo, CA
2002 Compact Disc Photography, Artwork and Cover Design for Peoples Bizarre
San Francisco, CA
1997 Art History Tutor, San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco, CA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Vanesssa Silva, San Francisco, CA
Carla Bourque, Woodacre, CA
Joe Kyle Jr, San Francisco, CA
Vx Capital Partners, San Francisco, CA
Younossi Law Offices, San Francisco, CA
Lupe Restaurant, San Francisco, CA
Ty Hunter, San Quentin, CA
Thomas Roedoc, Sausalito, CA
Anthony Grant, New York, NY
Frances Bowes, San Francisco, CA
Jessica Ress, Sausalito, CA
Major Mugrage, San Francisco, CA
Former Mayor Willie Brown, San Francisco, CA
Merlin Coleman, Berkeley, CA
Amanda Rieux, Kamuela, Hawaii
Agnes Kersten, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Donna and Ian Fitzpatrick, Greenbrae, CA
Davy Crockett & Mara Meisner, Mill Valley, CA
Ilya Yukhtman, New York, NY
Elaine Kim, San Francisco, CA
Adam Bard & Renee Beard, Boston, MA
Nancy Colville, Los Angeles, CA
Lourens Crous & Arturo Cosenza, San Francisco, CA
Katie Christ, Sonoma, CA
Tracey Fischer, Joshua Tree, CA
EDUCATION
1997- 2001 B.F.A. San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco, CA
GRANTS, AWARDS, and AFFLIATIONS
1999 Honor Studio Recipient
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco, CA
1998 and 1999 Ivan Majdrakoff Painting Merit Award
San Francisco, CA