Work / Gray Area Foundation

Gray Area Foundation For The Arts

Role
Founder
Period
2002 – 2019
Location
San Francisco, CA

I founded Gray Area to expose as many people as possible — no matter their socioeconomic background — to the arts. What began as a warehouse gallery and studio program I leased in Los Angeles in 2002 moved to San Francisco in 2005, where I refocused it on the intersection of art and technology.

In 2008 we mounted our first media arts exhibition — featuring data artist Aaron Koblin — secured 501(c)(3) status, and renovated 55 Taylor, a former theater, into gallery and studio space. In 2014 we moved into the Grand Theater, a historic 1940 landmark in the Mission District, renovating the 10,000-square-foot building into a home for the community. Over a decade we grew Gray Area from a single experimental space into one of the country’s leading institutions for art and technology, partnering with cities, foundations, and artists working at the edges of new media.

Throughout that period I focused on developing strategic community engagement models with art and tech in the civic realm — designing programs, raising money, and producing work that didn’t yet have a clear category.

Performers in light-reactive robotic exosuits during the US premiere of Inferno, bathed in deep blue stage light.

Inferno — US premiere of Louis-Philippe Demers & Bill Vorn’s robotic performance, which we curated and produced, including international artist visas. Gray Area Festival, 2019. Press →

Selected sub-projects

  • Urban Prototyping Festival

    Public activations partnering with cities to address civic issues.

  • Grand Theater Revival

    Led fundraising to revive the historic Grand Theater as an 800-person venue in the Mission District.

    Mission District, SF
  • Oakland Fire Fund

    Coordinated the fund supporting hundreds of people affected by the Ghostship tragedy.

    2016
  • Experiential Space Research Lab

    Sustainable models for artists working in the fast-evolving format of immersive experiences. Knight Foundation-supported.

Hexadome

We curated and produced the ISM Hexadome — a 360° immersive audiovisual environment — bringing it to San Francisco to showcase its collaborations in North America for the first time. The program paired artists and visual designers including Thom Yorke & Tarik Barri, Holly Herndon & Mathew Dryhurst, Ben Frost & MFO, Frank Bretschneider & Pierce Warnecke, Lara Sarkissian & Jemma Woolmore, Peter Van Hoesen & Heleen Blanken, and Suzanne Ciani & AudeRrose.

The ISM Hexadome — large suspended screens surrounding the audience, washed in vivid projected color.

The ISM Hexadome’s 360° environment at Gray Area, San Francisco.

Suzanne Ciani performing live on a modular synthesizer to a crowd, projections behind her.

Suzanne Ciani performing within the Hexadome program.

discrete figures

To commemorate Gray Area’s tenth anniversary in 2018, we presented the United States premiere of discrete figures — a dance-and-technology performance by Rhizomatiks and ELEVENPLAY pairing live dancers with real-time motion capture, drones, and generative visuals.

Five dancers inside glass cases rendered as glowing blue wireframe figures against a dark stage.

discrete figures by Rhizomatiks & ELEVENPLAY — US premiere at Gray Area’s 10-year anniversary, 2018.

Press

Featured in Fast Company, Wired, and TechCrunch.

Collaborators

MIT Senseable City Lab · Institute of Computer Sound and Technology · Stamen Design · Code for America · artists C.E.B. Reas, Robert Hodgin, Aaron Koblin, Camille Utterback, and many more.

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