Make a list of prominent artists who've elevated basic flower forms into unforgettable art, and you'd include Claude Monet, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Donald Sultan. Monet and O'Keefe are no longer with us. Sultan is. And he's bringing his unique vision to San Francisco's Serge Sorokko Gallery in an exhibit, “Donald Sultan: A Decade of Paintings and Drawings,” that promises to deliver the kind of 'oomph' that Sultan is known for. Six Aqua Poppies from 2004, for instance, is a 12-foot-wide assemblage of enamel, tar, spackle, tile, masonite, and fiber particles that elevate the flower into repeating rows of grandeur and beautiful, almost abstract simplicity. Ditto Sultan's Red Poppies Dec 3 from 2013, which frames the contours of four red flowers. Sultan depicts much more than blossoms — he uses the canvas to interpret everything from dice to dominoes to buttons. “Donald Sultan: A Decade of Paintings and Drawings” is Sultan's first San Francisco exhibit in 20 years, and its opening is a chance to see what the North Carolina-born artist, who's now in his early sixties, has been doing from his base in New York.
May 22-July 1, 6 p.m., 2014
