By Kirsten Coachman
After being put on pause following the COVID-19 pandemic, the School of Fine Art (FA) at Academy of Art University is celebrating the return of its Faculty/Alumni Fine Art Auction on Saturday, December 7, at The Cannery. Festivities will start with a reception at 2 p.m., followed by the live auction at 3 p.m.
“It puts us back on the map,” said FA Executive Director of Painting and Printmaking Dr. Craig Nelson about the return of the Fine Art Auction. “It opens our department and our school, to a degree, to the community because it’s not only Academy people who attend but others visiting San Francisco and within the community as well.”
The auction, which started in the late ‘90s at the Academy, is a way for the department to raise its profile and give back to its students each year at Spring Show.
“The whole concept began when we wanted to raise money to give away at the Spring Show, as a merit scholarship,” Nelson explained. “So, it’s primary purpose was a fundraiser. I don’t know if that’s why people were buying. I tend to think people bought because they liked the pieces.”
The first Fine Art Auction—a collaboration between Nelson and FA instructor Tom Marsh—was held in a classroom at 180 New Montgomery. The proceeds from that initial auction would be split 50/50 between the artists whose work sold and the School of Fine Art.
“And it did pretty well,” Nelson remarked. “I think we grossed about $11,000. We had 50% of that to give away at Spring Show.”
A portion of the proceeds from this year’s auction will benefit students through the Fine Art Scholarship Fund.
The work
This year’s auction will feature 200-plus works from over 40 Academy faculty and alumni artists. Though the auction has a majority of oil-painted pieces, Nelson shared that “the variety is pretty substantial, as far as styles go.”
Attendees can expect to see traditional fine art pieces, as well as well as modern, figurative pieces. In addition to paintings, there are also sculpture and jewelry pieces up for auction. Some of the artists attendees can expect to see pieces from in addition to Nelson, are FA Director of Painting Carolyn Meyer, FA alums Brian Blood, Gabriel Islas, Hiroshi Sato, and Nina Fabunmi, as well as School of Jewelry and Metal Arts Director Charlene Modena.
According to Nelson, the submission process for the auction considers a number of variables, including the size, quality, and subject of the work, as well as its potential opening bid. A jury comprised of FA instructors makes the final call on which submitted pieces will be in the auction. Of the works available, 15 to 20 pieces will be in this year’s live auction; the rest will be a part of the silent auction.
A preview of this year’s Fine Art Auction is available online at artsauction.academyart.edu. You can browse the works by artist or individual item. When clicking on an artist’s name, it takes you to their artist page, where you can see each of their items up for auction. When clicking on an individual piece, it brings up the title of the work and the name of the artist, the dimensions and medium of the piece, and the starting bid and value.
In addition to re-establishing the Fine Art Auction as FA’s preeminent event, Nelson is looking forward to his students witnessing a passion for fine art firsthand.
“We have a lot of our students that volunteer—present the work, wrap the work at the end—and I think it creates a lot of enthusiasm when they see a lot of people buying artwork,” said Nelson. “They see there’s an enthusiasm there, and that helps, to a degree, motivate some of the students.”
The Faculty/Alumni Fine Art Auction will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 7, at the Cannery, located at the Cannery Gallery, 2801 Leavenworth St. in San Francisco. The live auction will be held in the courtyard—weather permitting. For more information, please visit: artsauction.academyart.edu
Featured image: “End of the Line” by Brian Blood. 12″x16″, oil on canvas.