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In Memento Vivere: Remember to Live, Sonia Gill’s work invites us into a world where painting is reimagined through paper—where the brushstroke is replaced by the torn edge of a magazine fragment, and color is discovered rather than mixed.
Beginning with a photographic reference drawn from her everyday life, Gill builds her compositions piece by piece through a slow and contemplative process. Drawing from a vast archive of printed matter: pages of magazines, discarded scraps, and remnants of images once whole, she assembles hundreds of paper fragments translating the image into a new state of presence. Within this self-imposed constraint, she embarks on a rigorous and intuitive search for the exact hue, value, or texture needed to bring a scene to life.
At its core, this body of work is an homage to the quiet, enduring moments that define human life: reading together, tending to small rituals, routine tasks and moments of reflection. In an era often marked by business and noise, Gill’s practice offers a counterpoint—a deliberate slowing down, a careful reconstruction of meaning through attention and care reminding us that life’s significance resides not in spectacle, but in the accumulation of small, luminous moments. This work is a reminder – remember to live.
Trained as a painter and influenced by mentors Jay DeFeo and Ron Dahl, Gill graduated with a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts, in addition to degrees from Michigan State University in French. With a robust exhibition history, she has shown extensively in the Bay Area with solo exhibitions dating over the past twenty years and inclusion in a long list of juried shows. Her work has been published in Studio Visit Magazine and 48 Hills, among other publications, and recognition in painting and watercolor with awards from the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Northern National Art Competition, Richmond Art Center and Fort Bragg Art Center.
Beginning with a photographic reference drawn from her everyday life, Gill builds her compositions piece by piece through a slow and contemplative process. Drawing from a vast archive of printed matter: pages of magazines, discarded scraps, and remnants of images once whole, she assembles hundreds of paper fragments translating the image into a new state of presence. Within this self-imposed constraint, she embarks on a rigorous and intuitive search for the exact hue, value, or texture needed to bring a scene to life.
At its core, this body of work is an homage to the quiet, enduring moments that define human life: reading together, tending to small rituals, routine tasks and moments of reflection. In an era often marked by business and noise, Gill’s practice offers a counterpoint—a deliberate slowing down, a careful reconstruction of meaning through attention and care reminding us that life’s significance resides not in spectacle, but in the accumulation of small, luminous moments. This work is a reminder – remember to live.
Trained as a painter and influenced by mentors Jay DeFeo and Ron Dahl, Gill graduated with a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts, in addition to degrees from Michigan State University in French. With a robust exhibition history, she has shown extensively in the Bay Area with solo exhibitions dating over the past twenty years and inclusion in a long list of juried shows. Her work has been published in Studio Visit Magazine and 48 Hills, among other publications, and recognition in painting and watercolor with awards from the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Northern National Art Competition, Richmond Art Center and Fort Bragg Art Center.
More about Sonia Gill
Raised as a middle child in the middle of the country in the middle of the 20th Century, artist Sonia Gill started creating at an early age. There is an abundance of family stories of her creating animals from Kleenex tissues while waiting in the car as mom did shopping (people left their kids in cars at that time). However, by ten she became discouraged from making art both by her family and by her teachers. Her creative stream went underground and didn't surface again until age 30 when she enrolled at CCA in Oakland and majored in painting.
Between 10 and 30, Gill tried her best to be a Normal All-American Girl, gearing up for a life of supporting the dreams and endeavors of a mate and offspring. Married at 21, she earned a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees and worked at many different jobs including teaching French at many different institutions. The children never came, the marriage dissolved, and she headed West from the East coast.
Landing in San Francisco and connecting to her present husband and constant muse, she brought that creative stream to the surface again entering CCA and earning a BFA in Painting. Her renewed art journey started with a chance connection to the Nabis Vuillard and Bonnard, which was enhanced in Art School by exposure to the Bay Area Figurative movement as exemplified by Park, Weeks, Deibenkorn, and Bischoff. After over 40 years of juried and solo shows, winning awards and drawing followers, these influences are still strong in the work presented here.
Gill lives in Northern California, maintaining studios and homes in both Berkeley and Yorkville.
Between 10 and 30, Gill tried her best to be a Normal All-American Girl, gearing up for a life of supporting the dreams and endeavors of a mate and offspring. Married at 21, she earned a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees and worked at many different jobs including teaching French at many different institutions. The children never came, the marriage dissolved, and she headed West from the East coast.
Landing in San Francisco and connecting to her present husband and constant muse, she brought that creative stream to the surface again entering CCA and earning a BFA in Painting. Her renewed art journey started with a chance connection to the Nabis Vuillard and Bonnard, which was enhanced in Art School by exposure to the Bay Area Figurative movement as exemplified by Park, Weeks, Deibenkorn, and Bischoff. After over 40 years of juried and solo shows, winning awards and drawing followers, these influences are still strong in the work presented here.
Gill lives in Northern California, maintaining studios and homes in both Berkeley and Yorkville.
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TRANSMISSION GALLERY
OAKLAND 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA 94612 Open Thurs-Sat, 12 to 5 pm and by appointment Closed Dec 25 and Jan 1 Accessibility: This a 2nd floor art gallery, accessible by stairs |
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