Brief History

Haines Gallery, established in 1987, has over the last 22 years consistently maintained a distinctive position within a contemporary art discourse. Our exhibition program supports both emerging and established artists who engage conceptually with an underlying interest in the descriptors of place.

Our program has expanded beyond the singular confines of the gallery to include a warehouse project space dedicated to the presentation of large scale installations and video works (2008). We have also developed a focus on public art projects and were the representing gallery for commissions by James Turrell and Andy Goldsworthy at the de Young Museum, Andy Goldsworthy in the Presidio and Aspen Institute, Bill Fontana in the rotunda of San Francisco City Hall, and Alan Rath’s installation at the Oakland airport, among many others.

Employing a highly individualistic curatorial stance, Haines Gallery has been among the first to identify and support artists who have over time achieved critical acclaim. We were first in the US to exhibit Andy Goldsworthy (1992), Liza Lou (1996), Kota Ezawa (2003), and Zhan Wang (2008); our YBA exhibition proceeded the Brooklyn Museum’s (1999); our first exhibition with Shirin Neshat was at Haines Gallery in 1994.  We will also be announcing shortly an exhibition of conceptualist Ai Weiwei.

Parallel to this gallery program, Cheryl Haines established a non-profit artist-in-residency and education program. The FOR-SITE Foundation (established 2003) is dedicated to the creation and understanding of art about place. This pragmatic program supports the creation of a new work for exhibition in collaboration with partner museums on the West Coast. Past projects included a residency with Richard Long with an exhibition at SFMOMA, Cornelia Parker with an exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Pae White with an exhibition at New Langton Arts. This past Fall 2009 Mark Dion completed a residency with an upcoming resultant exhibition at the Oakland Museum.