Bruce McGaw

Bruce Alanson McGaw (April 5, 1935 – March 22, 2025) was an American painter and educator. He is part of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, and was professor emeritus of the San Francisco Art Institute. He studied in the 1950's at the California College of the Arts with Richard Diebenkorn and others.

Background Bruce Alanson McGaw was born in Berkeley, California on April 5, 1935, and was raised in Albany, California. He graduated from Albany High School in 1949. He also studied with Leon Goldin, Sabro Hasegawa, Carol Purdie and Ralph Siegel. He graduated with honors in 1957 with a BFA degree.

By 1957, McGaw had increasingly focused on representational work and the depiction of the human figure, a focus that would define his practice for the next fifty years. This dynamic observational approach was influenced by the vitality of other Bay Area Figurative artists active during this period, such as David Park (painter) and Elmer Bischoff.

Studio and teaching practice In describing his relationship to teaching and his own painting practice McGaw states, "Painting is one of the oldest of human activities and remains vital and essential. Its wonder is related to the challenges and difficulties of its physical limitations, its constrained format and fixed facture, always totally present, a poetry of sight. Painting taps the deepest and most considered resources of its maker."

McGaw's work consists largely of medium to large-scale oil paintings and charcoal drawings featuring human figures, still lives of vignettes found often in his studio, and landscapes capturing the light of the San Francisco Bay Area cast on the mixed industrial and working-class suburbs of East Bay towns like Emeryville, California. An avid student of art history and poetry, he cites significant texts and relationships with colleagues among the most important influences in his studio practice.

McGaw continued to paint and draw in the studio he built in 1990 in the Richmond hills, California.

Teaching San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA – Professor, Painting & Drawing (all levels), Painting & Sculpture MFA seminars, Art History - 1957–2017 Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio – Visiting Artist - 1998 Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA – Fall semester 1984 University of California, Berkeley, CA School of Architecture, Spring quarter 1981–1983 Pacific Basin School of Textile Arts, Berkeley, CA – Summer 1978 Fort Wright College, Spokane, Washington – Visiting Artists - Fall 1973 Neighborhood Art Workshop, North Richmond, Contra Costa County, CA – Summer 1967 Palo Alto Art Club, Palo Alto, CA – 1960–61

Exhibitions Bruce McGaw Paintings, Fresno Museum of Art, Fresno, CA, 2009 Bruce McGaw Paintings, Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, 2008 Group Show – University Library Gallery, CSU Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, 2005 Bruce McGaw: A Survey of Fifty Years, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, 2004 Group Show - John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, 2002 Bruce McGaw Early Paintings, John Bergruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2000 Mural – Chylinski Building, Los Angeles, 1998 Group Show – Robert Ariele Fine Arts, Menlo Park, Group Show, 1996 Group Show - John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA 1996 Faculty Exhibition, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, 1995 Pier 23 Cafe, San Francisco, CA, 1991 Lyrical Vision: The 6 Gallery 1954-1957 – Natsoulas/Novelozo Gallery, Davis, CA, 1990 Group Show – Natsoulas/Novelozo Gallery, Davis, CA, 1990 Group Show - Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1990 One Person Show - Claypoole Freeze Gallery, Pacific Grove, CA 1990 Bay Area Figurative Art – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, 1989 One Person Show – Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1984 Courtside Tennis Club, Los Gatos, CA, 1977 Private Studio Exhibition - 363 Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA, 1974 Drawing Invitational - Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA, 1973 Private Studio Exhibition - 363 Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA, 1973 Drawing Invitational - San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, 1973 Four Person Show (with David Hannah, Jack Jefferson and Joe Oddo) - Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA, 1970 Solo Drawing Exhibition - San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, 1969 Solo Exhibit - Trinity University Art Gallery, San Antonio, Texas, 1967 Solo Exhibit - Derby Street Gallery, Berkeley, CA 1966 Five Person Exhibition - St. Aidans Episcopal Church, San Francisco, CA 1965 Solo Exhibit - Distel Gallery, Palo Alto, CA, 1964 Contemporary Bay Area Figurative Painting: The seminal exhibition with Elmer Bischoff, Richard Diebenkorn, and David Park - Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA 1957 Two Person Show (with Manuel Neri) - Six Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1956

Publications Rapko, John. “Artists Of Invention At the Oakland Museum.” Art Week Vol. 39 # 1, Feb. 2008. Cripps, Michael. “Bruce McGaw; An Artistic Force In The San Francisco Bay Area.” Lifescapes, May 2006. Dalkey, Victoria. “Bright Path In Shadows.” Sacramento Bee, Dec. 19, 2004. Bolden, Vanessa. Bruce McGaw; A Survey of 50 Years. John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, December 2004. Hackett-Freedman Gallery. Homage to the San Francisco Art Institute: Artists Who Transformed American Culture.; San Francisco Art Institute. Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Oct 1999. McGaw & Casey FitzSimons. "A Conversation with Bruce McGaw, Artist." Art Week, Vol. 27 #6, June 1996. Larry, Lawrence M., Lawrence, Sheila Davis. "A Collection of California Contemporary Art at the Official Residence of the United States Ambassador to Switzerland.", 1996 Shere, Charles. Alvin Light 1931 - 1980; Art At The Center And At The End, in The Expressive Sculpture of Alvin Light. Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA, 1990. Jones, Caroline. Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-1965. San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, 1989. Albright, Thomas. Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945–1980. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1985. Berry, Wendell. Salad. North Point Press, Albany, CA, 1981 (Jacket Art) Mills, Paul. Bay Area Figurative Painting. Oakland Art Museum, Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA 1957