SURFACE TENSION by Karen M. Gutfreund

Copyright 2026 by Karen Gutfreund Art. The book author and each artist here retains sole copyright to their contributions to this book. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without prior permission in writing from Karen Gutfreund Art and the individual artists. ISBN:

Catalog designed and edited by Karen M. Gutfreund, www.KarenGutfreund.com, @karengutfreundart

The Project Gallery at Arc Gallery & Studios, San Francisco February 28—April 4, 2026

SURFACETENSION

Ten contemporary women artists explore how meaning emerges through layers of material, memory, and language. Working across sculpture, photography, painting, and mixed media, they share a fluency in text and subtext, reflection and shape, mystery and emotional nuance. Through immersive storytelling, the work dissolves boundaries between viewer, subject, and landscape inviting us to read between the lines and feel the tension beneath the gloss. Meaning flickers between what is said, what is shown, and what is felt surfacing in bold declarations, whispered narratives, and the quiet shimmer of lived experience.

About Karen M. Gutfreund, Curator

Karen M. Gutfreund is an independent curator and artist with a focus on feminist and social justice art. She has worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department for MoMA, the Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group, the John Berggruen Gallery and the Pacific Art League, and is an art consultant to both corporations and individuals. She served on the board of the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Pacific Art League and the Petaluma Arts Council. She was the National Exhibitions Director for the Women’s Caucus for Art, is a member of ArtTable, the Northern California Representative for The Feminist Art Project, and Curator for UniteWomen.org.

To date Gutfreund has created over fifty national exhibitions recent exhibitions include: Process,Agency:FeministArtandPower,DeadlockedandLoaded:DisarmingAmerica , Not Normal: Art in the Age of Trump , and Embedded Message, Debating the Dream: Truth, Justice and the AmericanWay . She co-curated F213 , F*ckU!IntheMostLovingWay , and ManasObject:ReversingtheGaze . She has been an exhibition director for dozens of exhibitions.

Karen is partner in Gutfreund Cornett Art, with curator Sherri Cornett, a curatorial partnership that creates art as activism exhibitions, with the motto “changing the world through art” with national touring exhibitions. GCA exhibitions included: BeyondBorders:Storiesofim/Migration , SocialJustice:ItHappenstoOne,HappenstoAll , Rise:Empower,ChangeandAction , Vision:AnArtist’sPerspective,What’sRight,What’sLeft:DemocracyinAmerica, Visural:Sight,SoundandAction.Gutfreund is a consultant to artists and documents and creates art catalogs for galleries and individual artists around the country, and frequently juries exhibitions, participates in panels and gives lectures and classes. Lastly, she is an artist and has exhibited extensively around the country. She has a BFA in Photographic Design and a BA in Art History, and studies towards a MA from New York University. Gutfreund has lived in all four corners of the United States and now lives on a ranch in the Sierra Foothills outside of Yosemite.

About Arc Gallery & Studios

Founded in 2011, Arc Studios & Gallery features ten artist studios, a 1,000 square foot art gallery, two smaller galleries and an art education center, along with the Kearny Street Workshop office, the San Francisco Artist Network office and Cafe Suspiro Coffee Shop. Arc is located at 1246 Folsom Street between 8th and 9th Streets in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. Arc supports the making of quality art in all media, provides a nurturing environment for artists to create their work, builds a community of artists to encourage exploration of art, provides resources for the professional development of visual artists, and promotes appreciation of the visual arts in the City of San Francisco.

www.arc-sf.com @arcgallerysf

FEATURING:

Liz Bloomfield

Natalia Burd

Karen M. Gutfreund

Jeannine Henebry and Lucky Rapp

Sherry Karver

Lisa Marie Kwesell

Jenny Reinhardt

Sawyer Rose

ZaHaVa Sherez

Liz Bloomfield

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

@eb_clay

lizbloomfield.com

Biography:

Liz Bloomfield is a San Francisco native whose work is inspired by the forms, colors, and textures of the natural world. With a background in both art and science, she studied neuropsychology as an undergraduate and conducted research on human and animal behavior. She later worked as a biology technician for aquatic species at a science museum.

Bloomfield eventually returned to school to study art, bringing a scientific lens to her creative practice. Through clay, she explores natural structures and systems, translating observation and research into sculptural form.

Statement:

Liz Bloomfield is a San Francisco-based ceramic artist whose work draws inspiration from the complex forms and beauty found in nature. Compositions, hues, and textures found in the wild influence her pieces, and she finds special interest in how nature becomes evermore intricate the deeper one looks, even modeling a few series based off of forms found on a microscopic level. By working in clay, she creates art from earth, her muse, with the added bonus that the material allows her to easily mold, impress and carve it before turning it into stone via fire.

Bloomfield usually works from sketches, images, and collected samples from hikes around the world. She is constantly experimenting with new ways of using clay, often throwing, coiling, slabbing, and pinching depending on the piece. While the early works in a series are carefully planned, she later allows the process to become more intuitive, responding to the physical qualities of the clay as the work evolves.

Bloomfield’s work is exhibited and sold through galleries, museums, and design spaces throughout the Bay Area. She aims to encourage close observation and curiosity, inviting viewers to engage more deeply with the natural world. She is currently focused on expanding her practice to include larger, more immersive installations.

MushroomPuff , (2025)

Ceramic, fabric interfacing, 6 x 6 x 6 inches

PiercedVeil , (2025)

Ceramic, 12 x 9 x 3.5 inches

Natalya Burd

SAN JOSE,

@natalyaburd

natalyaburd.com

Biography:

Natalya Burd has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, South America and the North American continent, pursuing her love of the natural world. Burd has camped and hiked in national parks, forests, preserves and wilderness areas throughout the United States, sites that inspired her recent immersive installations. Featuring hand-painted imagery on colored plexiglass mounted to reflective mirrors, her constructions envelop her viewers in a shimmering atmosphere, evoking the transience of human experience against the enduring natural world.

Born in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Burd emigrated to the United States in 1996. She holds Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Washington, Seattle (1999) and the Moscow Academy of Art and Industrial Design in Moscow, Russia. (1996). Burd has lived and worked in the Bay Area for the past twenty years while exhibiting nationally and internationally.

In 2016, she received a Visual Artist Laureate Award from SVCreates, and in 2017, was awarded residency fellow-ship at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California. She has exhibited at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, De Young Museum; San Jose ICA; the New Museum of Los Gatos; Marine Museum of Contemporary Arts; her work is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Airport Museum, YouTube and other art foundation.

Statement:

From my initial train journey through Kyrgyzstan's mountains, across steppes, fields, and forests, all the way to Moscow, Russia, I developed a deep passion for traveling. This expedition granted me a sense of freedom in a country where movement was restricted and controlled, exposing me to a vast and ever-changing landscape that exceeded my imagination.

As an immigrant residing in a foreign land, I discovered solace and acceptance in nature, a realm unaffected by nationalities or language barriers. In its embrace, I found a place where I could bring my own story there and relate to the stories of people who existed there long before my time. I’ve experienced nature as a sacred site and a sanctuary, where I’ve come to understand the short, transient character of human life and history in the context of the planet.

Trained as a painter, I’ve moved into fabricating dimensional constructions of hand-painted foliage on fluorescent Plexiglas and mirrors. The reflective qualities of mirrors and plexiglas dissolve the boundaries of conventional flat surfaces, creating the experience for viewers of being immersed in the shimmering atmosphere of the piece. Working with these materials at a large scale has allowed me to play with illusion and juxtaposition, contrasting the artifice and fragility of a constructed, technical and digital reality with the organic character of the natural world a reminder to my audience to look at the surrounding beauty of nature and appreciate it more than the miracles of technology.

reflections, (2023)

Acrylic, plexiglass, plexiglass mirror, 32 x 46 inches

photography

Photo credit: John Janca

remedy, (2023)

Acrylic, plexiglass, plexiglass mirror, 48 x 48 inches

Photo credit: John Janca photography

puddles(a),(b),(c), (2023)

Acrylic, plexiglass, plexiglass mirror, 12 x 12 inches each

Photo credit: John Janca photography

Karen M. Gutfreund, curator

RAYMOND, CA

@karengutfreundart

@kgutfreundartist

karengutfreund.com

Biography:

I am an independent curator, consultant and artist with a focus on feminist and social justice art. I’ve worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department at MoMA, Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group, John Berggruen Gallery and the Pacific Art League and have been on the board of numerous art organizations. Historically, my artistic practice has centered on activist and feminist text-based works. Yet in response to the current state of the world, I've felt compelled to shift to create pieces that celebrate the beauty and light that still surrounds us and offer a form of transcendence. Drawing from lived experiences, emotional currents, and life's inherent complexity, I rely on intuition and the evocative power of color to cultivate serenity, nostalgia, longing, and connection. With a BFA in Photographic Design and a BA in Art History, I’ve exhibited extensively around the country. Gutfreund has lived in all four corners of the United States and is currently at her ranch outside of Yosemite in the Sierra Foothills.

Statement:

Historically, my artistic practice has centered on activist and feminist text-based works. Yet in response to the current state of the world, I've felt compelled to shift to create pieces that celebrate the beauty and light that still surrounds us and offer a form of transcendence. Drawing from lived experiences, emotional currents, and life's inherent complexity, I rely on intuition and the evocative power of color to cultivate serenity, nostalgia, longing, and connection.

As part of my OceanDreamsseries, I delve into the space between perception and reality, working instinctively with layered inks embedded in resin. This process builds richness, depth, mystery and fluid movement its unpredictability allowing for continuous discovery. As a scuba diver and having frequent recurring dreams where I breathe underwater, these reflect my fantasy dreamworld and connection to the spirit world. Each piece unfolds like a vision: translucent layers of ink suspended in resin beckon viewers into moments of reflection and quiet contemplation. With subtle to dramatic hues and shifting transparencies, I blur the boundary between the tangible and the imagined. These works are portals delicate yet intricate, serene yet never still evoking inner landscapes and fluid dream states in which to drift.

OceanDreams(bubbles) , (2025)

Resin, alcohol ink, wax, in wood frame, 20.5 x 20.5 inches

OceanDreams(drift) , (2025)

Resin, alcohol ink, wax, in wood frame, 20.5 x 20.5 inches

OceanDreams(tinybubbles) , (2026)

Resin, alcohol ink, and wax on canvas, 6 x 6 inches each

OceanDreams(octupus) , (2026)

Resin, alcohol ink, and wax on cradle board, diptych, 8 x 8 inches each

OceanDreams(anemone), (2026) Resin, alcohol ink, and wax on canvas, 6 x 6 inches

Jeannine Henebry and Lucky Rapp

Artist Collaboration

@jeannine_henebry

@lucky_rapp

jeanninehenebry.com

luckyrapp.com

Statement:

Jeannine Henebry and Lucky Rapp combined two styles in a collaborative process to create new pieces for the group exhibition SurfaceTension . The Artists integrated Lucky's text using transparent acrylic on the surface of Jeannine's photographs displaying the visual relationship between imagery and language. The decision to use transparent acrylic was to keep the integrity of Jeannine's images while incorporating Lucky's subtle words, only visible at certain angles. This series is the result of merging two mediums together and studying the relationship between surface and tension. Jeannine's image ratios and Lucky's word choices directed the scale of each individual piece. The Artists are fascinated with this new direction that opened up endless possibilities through collaboration.

Jeannine Henebry

APTOS, CA

@jeannine_henebry

jeanninehenebry.com

Biography:

Jeannine Henebry began photographing at the age of five with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye and black-and -white film. A formative moment came while studying photography at Columbia College Chicago, where she met Minor White and connected deeply with his principle: “To see, to react, to create” a philosophy that continues to guide her work.

Her formal studies include BAs from the University of Colorado and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where she completed the Photography program. A semester with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Alaska forged a lasting connection to wilderness an experience that still informs her vision.

At Art Center, where Ansel Adams once taught, Henebry refined her craft. Adams’ influence is evident in her monochromatic Yosemite series, where light, weather, and stillness converge through disciplined observation. Together with her brother John, she cofounded The Henebrys, an internationally recognized photography studio specializing in golf course landscapes. Over 40 years, they have photographed more than 400 courses worldwide, working extensively with a 4×5 view camera and cultivating a practice grounded in precision, patience, and largeformat tradition.

Jeannine’s personal projects reveal a deep engagement with nature and form. Her Yosemite series captures the valley’s iconic landscapes in refined monochrome, Nocturnal series explores the Milky Way and astro-landscapes through long exposures, and Inflorescence series examines the intimate structures of botanicals. Across all the series, her work reflects a lifelong dedication to seeing, patience, and the natural world.

Today Jeannine’s focus has returned to the landscapes of California. Using a medium-format Phase One IQ3 100-megapixel camera, she pushes the boundaries of long exposure and high dynamic range, creating images of extraordinary detail capable of mural-scale prints.

“Photographyhasbeenmylifelonglanguage.Throughit,Icontinueto articulatemyrelationshipwiththewildlandscapesofCalifornia.”

Biography:

Lucky's work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across the United States and Europe, including: Adeeni Design Galerie, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, ARC Gallery, ArtHaus Gallery, ArtHaus Consulting, Art Market San Francisco, ArtRage Gallery, ArtZone 461 Gallery, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Campfire Gallery, DVC Gallery, DZINE Gallery, Gallery 35, Houston Art Fair, h u g o m e n t o, James Bacchi Contemporary, Los Angeles Affordable Art Fair, Minnesota Street Project Editions, Museum of Sonoma County, New York Affordable Art Fair, Palette Gallery, Palm Springs Museum, Playground Global, Poliform, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Sausalito Center for the Arts, SCIC Italia, Slate Contemporary Gallery, Sloan Miyasato Fine Art, StARTup Art Fair San Francisco, Themes & Projects Gallery, Voss Gallery, and Wescover Gallery.

Lucky's work is in numerous private and corporate collections, including Springline Menlo Park, Vita Brevis Club, and all of Michelin Chef Dominique Crenn’s restaurants (Atelier Crenn, Bar Crenn, and Petit Crenn).

Lucky Rapp

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

@lucky_rapp

luckyrapp.com

An active member of the San Francisco art community, Lucky regularly donates works to annual auctions at Art for Aids, Hospitality House, ArtSpan, and Root Division. Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she resides, Lucky has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, and has lived and worked in Mannheim and Paris.

, (2026)

Mixed media: photograph, printed dye sublimation on aluminum, acrylic, resin, 11 x 33 x 2.5 inches

clouddancer

propagation , (2026)

Mixed media: photograph, printed dye sublimation on aluminum, acrylic, resin, 18.5 x 33 x 2.5 inches

reflections , (2025)

Mixed media: photograph, printed dye sublimation on aluminum, acrylic, resin, 16.5 x 33 x 2.5 inches

seaofdreams , (2025)

Mixed media: photograph, printed dye sublimation on aluminum, acrylic, resin, 13 x 20 x 2.5 inches

surfacetension , (2026)

Mixed media: photograph, printed dye sublimation on aluminum, acrylic, resin, 33 x 25 x 2.5 inches

Sherry Karver

OAKLAND, CA

@sherrykarver

sherrykarver.com

Biography:

Sherry Karver is not a traditional photographer. All of her work from various series push the parameters of contemporary photography by combining her photos with various materials such as oil painting, narrative text, and data corruption glitches. Most recently Sherry has incorporated jigsaw puzzles created from her own photos into her work.

Her background is in ceramic sculpture where she received her B.A. in Sociology from Indiana University, Bloominton, IN, and her M.F.A from Tulane University in New Orleans. She taught college level ceramics for a number of years while her own work gradually evolved into the mixed media photo-based work she does today. Sherry's love of ceramic experimentation has been influential in her ability to try new and different approaches with her photography.

Sherry's work is in over 185 private, corporate, and museum collections including the Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA, the Sasse Art Museum, Pomona, CA, the Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, CA, to mention a few.

Her work is represented by galleries across the country, and she has had over 25 solo exhibitions. Sherry was born and raised in Chicago, IL and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, poet and novelist Jerry Ratch.

Statement:

Her series IdentityandPerceptionpushes the boundaries of photography by combining it with oil paint for all the color, narrative text, decorative Japanese paper and resin surface on wood panels.

The works is this exhibition are ‘collaged’ from photographs Karver takes in public buildings such as Grand Central Station, and on city streets in various locations. The text is from ancient Japanese manuscripts no longer in use, and serves as both a textural surface element and a feeling it evokes in the viewer.

It is not important that we can't read or interpret the exact words, but rather what binds us together in an unspoken way. It is about shared experiences in our ever fluctuating society.

DistantHorizon , (2025)

Photo images, oil, decorative text paper, resin surface on wood panels, 24 x 18 x 2 inches

MysticMoments , (2024)

Photo images, oil, decorative text paper, resin surface on wood panels, 26 x 30 x 2 inches

OriginofLanguage , (2025)

Photo images, oil, decorative text paper, resin surface on wood panels, 24 x 18 x 2 inches

Lisa Marie Kwesell

RALEIGH-DURHAM, NC

@lisa_marie_kwesell

lisamariekwesellcom

Biography:

Lisa Marie Kwesell is an American mixed media artist working in conceptual digital art, encaustic collage, and abstract painting. She’s lived throughout the US in small towns, large cities and rural countrysides – including New York City, San Francisco, Scranton, and Raleigh-Durham. Her career has also crossed over many industries including fine art, advertising, tech, fashion and entertainment. Visual and conceptual references often come from her experiences across these many diverse communities and work cultures.

She’s exhibited with galleries and museums nationally and her pieces are in private and permanent collections. Her art was published as headline image for an encaustic feature in TheDenverPost . Lisa’s work in the fine arts field includes roles as a studio artist for The Metropolitan Museum and Christie’s and for several years she was the lead assistant to a corporate art consultant in Manhattan. These positions provided significant additions to her formal fine art education, allowing for research and handling of artworks from antiquity to contemporary. Lisa has a BFA in Illustration and a career creating digital art for clients including Apple, Google and global ad agencies.

Statement:

I’m a mixed-media artist working primarily in conceptual digital art, encaustic collage, and abstract painting. My collage and woven paper pieces are digital art composites printed on rice paper and fused to wood with encaustic. I work from my archive of personal photography often focusing on rugged and overgrown nature scenes, as well as industrial and construction based imagery. I love the sculptural qualities and handcrafting process of manipulating heated encaustic wax medium to create layers of translucency and opacity.

My paintings are abstract expressive pieces exploring time, energy and movement through gestural mark-making, kinetic palettes and careful layer structuring. Immersing myself in the process serves as a form of release, a way of letting go and responding intuitively to the moment toward transferring a charged dynamic energy. I work on wood for its organic qualities and resilience to vigorous brushwork, sanding, and scraping.

CheckIn/CheckOutis an ongoing series of conceptual digital art collages wherein I juxtapose charged, provocative words from contemporary discourse with calming, nature based imagery reflecting a need for balance and serenity in the era of doom scrolling, click bait and rabbit holes. I select words that I find personally triggering as they’re repeated across news headlines and social media, and composite them into digitally altered environments to diffuse their intensity. Letters are individually edited to blend into scenes as partially camouflaged while remaining present. Printed composites are fused to wood panels with encaustic wax which is manipulated to achieve subtle opacities and translucence.