Established in 1991, Catharine Clark Gallery is among the leading West Coast contemporary art galleries. Catharine Clark Gallery serves as the primary representative for an acclaimed roster of international artists, including Masami Teraoka, Stephanie Syjuco, Marie Watt, Nina Katchadourian, Arleene Correa Valencia, Julie Heffernan, and Sandow Birk. Exhibitions change every eight weeks, and each is accompanied by a time-based media or video work presented in the Gallery’s dedicated screening room. The Gallery works with fine art presses and co-publishes original prints, which are presented in our works on paper gallery. Since 1994, the Gallery has been a member of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association (SFADA), and in 2023, the Gallery joined the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA).
Gallery exhibitions have garnered critical attention from press, including the New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, San Francisco Chronicle, and Vogue. Works by gallery artists have been collected by international institutions including the Tate; National Gallery of Australia; Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Library of Congress; Smithsonian American Art Museum; J. Paul Getty Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Hammer Museum; Walker Art Center; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Asian Art Museum; and the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.
In 2016, Catharine Clark founded BOXBLUR, which is an initiative fiscally sponsored by Dance Film SF. The organization’s mission is to produce and support performance and ephemeral projects in response to visual artists’ work. Artist and performer-collaborators include Rufus Wainwright, Shinji Eshima, Sarah Cahill, EOS Ensemble, Catherine Galasso, Benjamin Freemantle, Adji Cissoko, Michael Montgomery, Emma Lanier, Cauveri Suresh, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Monique Jenkinson/Fauxnique, Indira Allegra, Kambui Olujimi, Jen Bervin, Amy Trachtenberg, and Shimon Attie, among many others.
Located within San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, the Gallery is situated in proximity to prominent arts venues such as California College of the Arts (CCA), the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, the Museum of Craft and Design, and Minnesota Street Project. In 2023, the Gallery expanded into a 9,200 square foot, ground-floor location, with added space for exhibitions and performances.
Cover image: Masami Teraoka, Waves: Waimanalo Beach, 1986 – 88 (detail). Watercolor on paper, mounted as a scroll. 42 x 94 inches. Right: Installation image of Waves and Plagues Redux, a survey of works from 1984 – 2008, at Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, 2023. Photo: John Janca.
MASAMI TERAOKA was born in 1936 in Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan. He graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts in Aesthetics from Kwansei Gakuin University, Hyogo, Japan.
Teraoka continued his education in Los Angeles, earning a Bachelor of Arts (1964) and a Master of Arts (1968) from Otis College of Art and Design. In 2016, Otis awarded Teraoka an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.
Teraoka’s work integrates reality with the surreal, humor with social commentary, and the historical with the contemporary. His early watercolors often focus on the cultural meeting of East and West evident in series that began in the 1970s such as “McDonald’s Hamburgers Invading Japan,” “New Views of Mt. Fuji,” and “31 Flavors Invading Japan.” The works on paper that define this period of his career reflect the impact of economic and cultural globalization. While sexuality is a recurring subject in his work, his representation of sex shifted from positive depictions of free-love in the 1970s and early 1980s, to concern for the spread of HIV in his work of the mid-1980s, and outrage over sexual abuse in institutions like the Catholic Church, later made visible through movements like #metoo. The medium during the “AIDS Series” period shifted from watercolor on paper to watercolor on canvas, enabling him to work at a large scale to address the enormity of the social and health crisis on communities impacted by the disease.
In the 1990s Teraoka’s medium shifted again. The narrative, oil paintings of this period until today engage in commentary and critique of the Church and other institutions that harbor sexual predators and foster sexual abuse. His most recent works also take on patriarchy, hypocrisy in American politics, and social and political repression in Russia under Vladimir Putin. His work of this era is often rendered in oil on panel, inspired by gilded Renaissance triptychs. He continues with a narrative approach like that of his earlier, ukiyo-e inspired work, but rendered in a Western-inspired style with baroque flair that references European ecclesiastical art. In 2017, Teraoka produced an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest in collaboration Viktoria Naraxsa of Russian activist collective Pussy Riot, which premiered in Hawai’i. Since their collaboration, Naraxsa has been featured as a protagonist in Teraoka’s paintings, interacting with Pope Francis, Vladimir Putin, and Teraoka’s former collaborator, the geisha Momotaro. Teraoka’s work has been the subject of more than 70 solo exhibitions, including the 2017 solo survey Floating Realities: The Art of Masami Teraoka at California State University, Fullerton, which was accompanied by a comprehensive monograph. Teraoka’s work has also been featured in solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution; Asian Art Museum; Yale University Art
Gallery; Honolulu Museum of Art; and the New Albion Gallery of New South Wales, amongst other venues. His work has also been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Bronx Museum, amongst other venues.
His work was recently featured in Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World, an exhibition with an accompanying catalogue at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. This fall, Teraoka’s watercolors and prints will be in Spirit House, an exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, accompanied by a catalogue. In 2023, Teraoka’s iconic folding screen titled Makiki Heights Disaster (1988), a centerpiece of his “AIDS Series,” was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; in September 2024, this work will be featured in the major exhibition Masami Teraoka and Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints, a survey that presents key examples of Teraoka’s ukiyo-e style works alongside traditional ukiyo-e prints, delving into their visual, strategic, and thematic connections. Leading ukiyo-e artists featured include Utagawa Kunisada, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Toyohara Kunichika, and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
Teraoka’s work is represented in more than 50 public collections worldwide, including the Tate Modern; National Gallery of Australia; Gallery of Modern Art in Scotland; Whitney Museum of American Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Library of Congress; Smithsonian American Art Museum; Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Walker Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Blanton Museum of Art; Honolulu Museum of Art; Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College; Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon; and Crocker Art Museum, among others.
In 2019, the Whitney Museum of American Art, acquired a significant watercolor by Teraoka, Los Angeles Sushi Ghost Tales/Fish Woman and the Artist I (1979) in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the artist’s solo museum exhibition. In 2015, the artist was awarded the Lee Krasner Award by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in recognition of outstanding lifetime artistic achievement.
Teraoka’s work has been featured in multiple publications, including the monographs: Masami Teraoka, published by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1979; Waves and Plagues, published by Chronicle Books in 1988, Ascending Chaos: The Art of Masami Teraoka 1966 – 2006, published by Chronicle Books in 2006, and Floating Realities: The Art of Masami Teraoka, published by California State University, Fullerton in 2018. The artist lives and works in O‘ahu, Hawai’i, and has been represented by Catharine Clark Gallery since 1998.
AIDS Series/Mother and Child, 1990
Watercolor on unstretched, prepared canvas
108 x 84 inches
$ 250,000
AIDS Series/Father and Son, 1990
Watercolor on unstretched, prepared canvas
108 x 84 inches
$ 250,000
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 28 1/4 x 77 1/8 inches
Frame: 31 1/8 x 80 inches
$ 175,000 framed
Watercolor on paper, mounted as a scroll
Sheet: 50 x 14 inches
Scroll: 90 x 17 1/2 inches
$ 125,000
Watercolor on two sheets of paper
Sheet: 11 x 55 inches
Frame: 14 x 58 inches
$ 150,000 framed
31 Flavors Invading Japan/French Vanilla IV, 1979
Watercolor on two sheets of paper
Sheet: 11 x 55 inches
Frame: 14 x 58 inches
$ 150,000 framed
New Views of Mt. Fuji/Dolphins and Samurai, 1979
Watercolor on two sheets of paper
Sheet: 11 x 55 inches
Frame: 13 1/2 x 57 3/4 inches
$ 150,000 framed
Study for New Views of Mt. Fuji/Whales and Samurai Tourists, 1979
Rapidograph and colored pencil on Vellum
Sheet: 3 x 15 inches
Frame: 7 1/4 x 19 inches
$ 3,500 framed
Study for New Views of Mt. Fuji/Dinosaur and Sinking Boats, 1979
Rapidograph and colored pencil on Vellum
Sheet: 2 7/8 x 15 inches
Frame: 7 1/4 x 19 inches
$ 3,500 framed
Wave Series/Tattooed Woman at Makapuu Beach, 1984
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 20 x 29 inches
Frame: 22 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches
$ 125,000 framed
Tampon Series/Woman and Assistant, 1982
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 28 3/4 x 40 5/8 inches
Frame: 31 3/4 x 43 5/8 inches
$ 125,000 framed
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 14 x 21 1/4 inches
Frame: 22 3/4 x 31 1/8 inches
$ 12,000 framed
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 14 1/4 x 21 1/4 inches
Frame: 24 x 30 1/4 inches
$ 12,000 framed
Left: Study for Aids Series/Geisha and Mushroom, 1988
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 22 1/4 x 15 inches
Frame: 28 x 21 inches
$ 14,000 framed
Right: Tale of a Thousand Condoms/Cafe au Lait, 1992
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 22 1/4 x 29 7/8 inches
Frame: 29 1/2 x 37 inches
$ 55,000 framed
NY Restaurant Series/La Boulangerie, 1992
Watercolor and gouache on paper
Sheet: 60 x 21 7/8 inches
Frame: 64 x 25 1/2 inches
$ 50,000 framed
London Tube Series/Inauguration Day Interview, 1992
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 35 1/4 x 27 inches
$ 35,000 framed
New York Restaurant Series/Steve and the Artist, 1996
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 34 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches
$ 35,000 framed
Marilyn Monroe/View from Fujimi Tea House, 1974
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 21 1/4 x 15 inches
Frame: 24 3/4 x 18 inches
$ 22,000 framed
Left: Tampon Series/Short Break, 1982
Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper
Sheet: 14 7/8 x 10 inches
Frame: 17 1/2 x 12 5/8 inches
$ 6,500 framed
Right: Study for Tampon Series/Fig and Tampon, 1980
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 8 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
Frame: 10 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches
$ 5,000 framed
Study for Nuclear Attack and Attack on Aid, 1984
Watercolor and pencil on paper
Sheet: 7 x 22 inches
Frame: 16 1/2 x 30 1/2 inches
$ 8,000 framed
Ink on vellum
Sheet: 25 x 18 1/2 inches
$ 7,500 framed
Drawing for Sushi Series, 1980
Watercolor on paper
Sheet: 15 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches
Frame: 24 1/8 x 18 3/4 inches
$ 6,500 framed
Preparatory Drawing for New Views of Mt. Fuji/Sinking Pleasure Boat, 1977
Ink and pencil on vellum
Sheet: 11 x 56 inches
$ 8,500 unframed
Study for 31 Flavors Invading Japan, 1976
Ink and pencil on vellum
Sheet: 11 x 55 inches
$ 8,500 unframed
Preparatory Drawing for New Views of Mt. Fuji/Dolphins and Samurai, 1979
Ink and pencil on vellum
Sheet: 11 x 55 inches
$ 8,500 unframed
Study for Sinking Pleasure Boat and Dinosaurs, 1977
Ink and pencil and colored pencil on vellum
Sheet: 11 x 55 inches
$ 8,500 unframed
Right: details
Study for Sarah and Octopus/Seventh Heaven, 2001
Ink and pencil on paper, chine colle
Sheet: 10 3/4 x 15 1/8 inches
Frame: 17 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches
$ 7,500 framed
Watercolor on paper
Image 17 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches
Sheet: 14 3/4 x 21 1/2 inches
$ 9,000 framed
Monumental Sculpture for Los Angeles County Museum: Drawing for Sculpture 11 (LACMA Engagement Ring on Hotdog), 1969
Ink and colored pencil on paper
Sheet: 11 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches
$ 4,500 framed
Various Site Specific Installation Plans, 1969
Ink on paper
Sheet: 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
$ 4,500 framed
Pink and Yellow Curves, 1968
Ink and colored pencil on paper
Sheet: 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches
$ 3,500 framed
It Series #1, 1970
Ink and colored pencil on paper
Sheet: 11 1/2 x 6 inches
Frame: 14 3/8 x 9 7/8 inches
$ 3,500 framed
It Series #2, 1970
Ink and colored pencil on paper
Sheet: 9 x 11 3/4 inches
Frame: 11 7/8 x 14 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches
$ 3,500 framed
31 Flavors Invading Japan
(Macadamia), 1978/2023
Five-color hand-printed relief print with oil-based lithography and etching inks on handmade Hamada Kozo from a polymer relief plate and an original zinc key plate. Edition of 50, plus proofs.
The original zinc key plate was produced in 1978 by Ron McPherson of La Paloma Press. Three impressions with hand-coloring were completed in 1978, corresponding to three different flavors of ice cream: Cherry, Pistachio, and Peach. The edition as originally conceived was not realized by Ron McPherson but was later realized by Paul Mullowney, Master Printer of Mullowney Printing, as approved by the artist and Ron McPherson. In 2023, the original zinc key plate was translated into a polymer relief plate and editioned. Printed by Mullowney Printing, Portland, OR. Published by Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.
Image: 11 x 7 1/2 inches
Sheet: 13 x 9 1/2 inches
$ 7,500 unframed; $ 8,300 framed
Left: 31 Flavors Invading Japan/Today’s Special, 1980-82
Thirty-five-color woodcut printed from hand-carved blocks of cherry wood with natural dyes and with additional hand-coloring on handmade Hosho paper. Numbered edition of 500, plus proofs. Signed and numbered in pencil on the verso. Carved and printed under the direction of Tadakatsu Takamizawa by Hanpei Okura and Kanjiro Sato respectively at the Ukiyo-e Research Center in Tokyo, Japan. Published by Space Gallery, Los Angeles, California.
Sheet and image: 11 1/16 x 16 9/16 inches
$ 3,500 unframed; $ 4,000 framed
Right: AIDS Series/Geisha in Bath, 2008
Forty-six-color woodblock carved from thirty-four blocks of laminated cherry wood. Printed by Satoshi Hishimura on Echizen Kizuki Hosho, 100% Kozo paper made by Ichibe Iwano who bears the title National Living
Treasure. The blocks were carved by Motoharu Asaka and published in a numbered edition of 75 (originally proposed as an edition of 200, but in 2010, Teraoka changed the numbered edition size to 75), plus proofs. Signed and numbered on the verso.
Sheet: 20 3/8 x 13 13/16 inches
Image: 18 3/8 x 12 3/4 inches
$ 8,500 unframed; $ 9,000 framed
Left: AIDS Ghost/Geisha, 1989
Etching printed in dark blue-green ink with hand-coloring in orange watercolor (facial lesions) on BFK Rives paper with deckled edge. Numbered edition of 10, plus 1 cancellation proof. Signed and numbered in pencil on the recto. Printed and published by Sarah Amos, Melbourne, Australia.
Sheet: 29 1/2 x 22 inches
Image: 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches; Frame: 32 1/2 x 25 inches
$ 5,500 unframed; $ 6,300 framed
Right: McDonald’s Hamburgers Invading Japan/ Tattooed Woman and Geisha III, 2018
Forty-three-color woodcut made from thirty-seven blocks of laminated cherry wood carved by Motoharu Asaka. Edition of 85, plus 20 proofs. Printed by Satoshi Hishimura (Tokyo) and Keizo Sato assisted by Makoto Nakayama (Kyoto) on Echizen - Kizuki Hosho paper made by Ichibei Iwano, who bears the title National Living Treasure. Sheet and image: 12 1/18 x 18 1/2 inches
$ 8,500 unframed; $ 9,000 framed
Sarah and Octopus/Seventh Heaven, 2001
Twenty-nine-color woodcut made from hand-carved blocks of cherry wood printed on Hosho paper. Numbered edition of 200, plus proofs. (Editioning is not completed as of winter 2006, but will not exceed 200 in the numbered edition.) Signed and numbered in pencil on the verso. Carved and printed by Tadakatsu Takamizawa, Ukiyo-e Research Center, Tokyo, Japan. Published by Masami Teraoka. Sheet and image: 10 3/8 x 15 5/8 inches.
$ 3,500 unframed; $ 4,000 framed
Geisha and Madonna, 2020
Three-plate, three-color direct gravure etching on handmade Hamada Kozo printed chine collé backed with Somerset satin white 300 gram paper, trimmed bleed. Printed by Erin McAdams, Wendy Liu, and Harry Schneider in an edition of 35, plus 10 proofs. Signed and numbered OKTP on the verso in pencil. Co-published by Catharine Clark Gallery and Mullowney Printing. Sheet and image: 11 3/4 x 17 inches.
$ 3,800 unframed; $ 4,300 framed
McDonald’s Hamburgers Invading Japan/Burger and Bamboo Broom, 1980
Twenty-seven-color screenprint with additional watercolor by the artist on Arches 88 paper. Edition of 72 + proofs.
Sheet: 22 x 14 3/4 inches; Frame: 24 x 16 5/8 inches NFS
McDonald’s Hamburgers Invading Japan/Chochin-me, 1982
Thirty-six-color screenprint on Arches 88 paper.
Edition of 91 + 28 proofs.
Sheet and image: 21 1/4 x 14 3/8 inches.
