Paul Thiebaud Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Kim Frohsin: Selected Figures from the 1990s on Saturday, March 15, 2025, with an opening from 3-5pm and an artist talk at 3:30pm.  On view will be 14 paintings on canvas and paper depicting scenes from a street carnival, athletes in motion, multi-figure allegories, and solitary portraits.  Drawn from experiences in her daily life and friendships with her models, Frohsin’s paintings poetically convey a sense of the inner life within her subjects through controlled and serendipitous brushstrokes.  The exhibition will be on view through May 10, 2025. 

Often described as a third generation Bay Area Figurative artist, Frohsin’s paintings are as much rooted in the lineages of Figurative painters like Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, and Joan Brown as they are to the tradition of thickly impastoed Abstract Expressionist paintings in the Bay Area, as well as the larger tradition of American Figurative art.  After completing her studies in painting in the late 1980s, the first works to emerge from Frohsin’s brush had an abstracted, surreal quality to them.  As her paintings developed, Frohsin’s figures fully emerged into the figurative paintings style she first became known and heralded for. 

This exhibition celebrates the works from this period for the first time in over 20 years.  Among them are signature canvases like La Jalousie, Dog People (both 1997) and Her Appreciation (1998).  Other themes among the works include depictions of athletes – Shadow of a Race (1996) and City Jogger (1995) – which Frohsin was at that time.  Also included are Fair and Carnival Fare (both 1994), which were inspired by a visit Frohsin made to a street market in San Francisco’s Civic Center, and a group of moody black and white portraits of single figures.  Made using oils or acrylics, and ranging from smooth to richly textured surfaces, Frohsin’s figures each convey personality, presence, and palpable sense of human emotion. 

Kim Frohsin was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, and went on to study at l’Institut pour les Etudiants Etrangers in Aix-en-Provence, France, and San Diego State University, where she earned a BA in Humanities and French.  She later earned a BFA from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco in 1988.  She has received numerous awards and honors throughout her over thirty-year career, including nominations for the 2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship Grant, the 2013 Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship, and the 1995 SECA Award at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 

Kim Frohsin’s works can be found in numerous private, corporate, and public collections, including the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA; Harnett-Hall Gallery, Minot State University, Minot, ND; Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA; and the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AR, among others.   This is Kim Frohsin’s third exhibition with Paul Thiebaud Gallery and her seventh since joining Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery in 1995.