artists

SAM PROVENZANO
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An early practitioner of abstract expressionist painting, Provenzano is best known for his seminal Wedge Series. This series, which incorporates the theories of "push" and "pull" of shapes on the canvas espoused by Hans Hofmann, is a joyful celebration of the possibilities of form and color. In San Francisco, Provenzano was a well-known figure drawing in cafes and on buses as he brought these same abstract theories to play in his figurative San Francisco Sketchbook watercolor series. Through his simultaneous work in figuration and abstraction, he unexpectedly allowed the two genres to influence one another. A wine bottle or shoe prints appear in otherwise abstract paintings. The composition and color of figurative paintings is handled as through they were abstract work. Through out his oeuvre, Provenzano's carefully trained eye captures details which invite us to reexamine the way we view our world.

Public Collection:
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Oakland Museum, California
Rochester Museum Memorial Art Gallery, New York
Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco
University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley
Rockefeller West, Embarcadero Center
De Young Museum, San Francisco
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento