FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 23, 2026
Contact: Shiva Pakdel, shiva@sausalitocenterforthearts.org
Sausalito Center for the Arts Presents SCA Open 2026, Its Annual Juried Exhibition of Bay Area Artists
205 artists selected from nearly 1,000 applicants; on view October 30 through December 6.
SAUSALITO, CA — The Sausalito Center for the Arts (SCA) announces SCA Open 2026, its annual juried exhibition, on view Oct. 30 through Dec. 6, 2026, at 750 Bridgeway in Sausalito. This year's call for art drew 2,250 works from nearly 1,000 artists across the Bay Area, up nearly 40 percent from the inaugural edition. From that field, jurors selected 296 works by 205 artists.
The artwork selections range from photography and painting to carved stone, polished metal, handmade furniture, and 3D-printed sculpture, and several of the most striking works look to the past. Stanislava Chening's photograph Portrait of a Man with a Blue Sweatshirt restages Jan van Eyck's 15th-century Portrait of a Man in a Blue Chaperon, with the sitter's sweatshirt replacing the original's wrapped headdress. Rika Meriaux's painting Hermes and Argos moves the Greek myth of Io to a picnic blanket, where a young man plays the flute for his drowsy companion as a cow grazes in the distance.
Other artists find their subjects close to home. Leslie Laurence's Just Got Off the Ferry captures a vintage streetcar passing beneath San Francisco's towers near the Ferry Building, and Catherine Mackey's SOMA Car Wash turns a concrete self-serve car wash, lit at night, into something like a stage set. Janet Barnes, who describes her style as "social abstract," brings viewers to the family dinner table in Tasting CADE (Dinnertime Series).
Among the three-dimensional works, Michael Childs's swiveling counter stool pairs near-black wenge wood with curly maple on a base joined without a single screw, and Annemarie Baldauf's Facing is an intricate 3D-printed sculpture. In ceramics, Sarah Merola's Thin Ice shows a small child gazing into a cracked surface, and Swapna Das's Majestic Bloom unfurls in tendrils of lavender clay.
The exhibition was selected by three jurors representing the museum, gallery, and academic perspectives:
Nancy Lim is associate curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she is preparing an upcoming exhibition on Northern California craft, 1945–1980.
Danielle Fox directs SLATE Contemporary Gallery in Oakland and brings three decades of experience as a curator, writer, and former Sotheby's executive.
Chester Arnold is a Bay Area painter and longtime educator whose narrative oil paintings are held by SFMOMA, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the Nevada Museum of Art.
"When we launched SCA Open last year, we hoped to create an annual moment for the region's artists. A 40 percent jump in submissions in only our second year tells us artists are seeking out Sausalito as a place to show their work,” said Shiva Pakdel, executive director of SCA.
SCA Open 2026 opens to the public on Friday, Oct. 30. The opening reception on Sunday, Nov. 1, from 3 to 6 p.m., is sold out, but check the website for other exhibition-related events. All works in the exhibition are available for purchase, with 60 percent of each sale going directly to the artist and the balance supporting SCA's free exhibitions and programs. The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is always free. For more information, visit sausalitocenterforthearts.org.
About SCA
The Sausalito Center for the Arts was founded in 2021 and is located in the heart of downtown Sausalito. Its mission is to enrich the cultural experience and unite the community through diverse artistic expression that benefits all. The organization's programs aim to build connections, create dialogue, and foster understanding and inclusion through the arts.