SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show will celebrate its 30th Anniversary in 2016. One of the only vetted exhibitions of tribal art in the United States, the San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art Show is considered the top tribal art event in North America. A pioneer in genre specific art fairs, The San Francisco Tribal and Textile Arts Show is one of the first art fairs to focus on high-quality tribal arts, and has been instrumental in elevating the appreciation of ethnographic arts in the United States.

The 30th Anniversary edition will open with a festive 30th Anniversary Cocktail Party on Thursday, February 18th. The Show will be open to the public from Friday, February 19-Sunday, February 21, 2016.

Special Programming:

Don’t Miss INDIA!: An unusual photographic and textile narrative-chronicling the experiences of textile dealer Thomas Cole in India. Spanning the entire subcontinent, the exhibition focuses on the everyday beauty of India. These visions of the exotic are the stuff of mundane daily life for most Indians. According to Cole, “Nothing is perfect and India, at the best of times, it is far from it.”

Utari: Ainu, Aboriginal Peoples of Japan Showcase selected from the Joseph G. Gerena Collection and Exhibited by Patrick Mestdagh and Marjorie Levin. The Ainu are an indigenous group of peoples from the Hokkaido region of Japan and the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands of Russia. Ethnically, they share a common ancestry with Amerindians, Tibetans and the people of Okinawa. The Ainu showcase is curated to provide viewers with an opportunity to discover the relatively unknown aboriginal civilization of Japan. “Objects chosen from the Gerena Collection of Ainu Art demonstrate an expert and discriminating eye. In this collection we see a visual cross-over with artistic expressions from Mr. Gerena’s other great interests: Animal Style art of the great Eurasian Steppes and ancient Eskimo art of St. Lawrence Island,” states Thomas Murray, Asian & Tribal art dealer and author of the introduction to the exhibition.

Top Picks Collector Tour with Cathryn M. Cootner, Emerita Textile Curator at the de Young Museum. The “Top Picks” tour is an opportunity for collectors to preview pieces in advance of public hours, and with the benefit of a scholarly eye. Each tour will showcase more than 50 museum-quality pieces that Cathryn Cootner has selected and studied in advance. The tours are designed to educate and inform participants about what they should look for in materials, the questions to ask, and through the selected works, illustrate why these pieces are exceptional. Tours will be followed by a Q&A period. Tours will take place on Thursday, February 18th at 4pm and Friday, February 19th at 9am, at The San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show. Tickets are $40 and include show admission. Tickets are limited and advance reservations are recommended.

Gallery Highlights:
The San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show will present more than 75 top dealers from Europe, the Americas, Asia & Africa showcasing exceptional pieces from Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and South America.

Selected highlights include:

A fine example of a mijora–a wooden bird sculpture from Madagascar courtesy Louis Nierijnck. Mijora were made for the graves of important families. This piece, from the late 19th / early 20th century is from the Sakalava peoples of west Madagascar. The Sakalava placed their deceased in rectilinear enclosures of wooden fencing. This example features a double bird motif. The birds were thought to represent the interconnection of life and death. (image left).

Tinglit Shaman figure of a bound witch from Tambaran Gallery (image right). The Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest range from southern Alaska to Oregon. Tinglit shaman, called ‘ixht' were healers who also foretold the future. They were consulted to heal the sick and drive out those who practiced witchcraft, among other things. The figure depicted here shows a bound witch.

A Bakongo wood fetish, Democratic Republic of Congo, 19th century. Courtesy of Patrick Mestdagh (left). The San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show will feature several galleries showcasing African art. Participating galleries include: California based galleries Jim & Lin Willis Tribal Art, Andres Moraga, Farrow Fine Art and Dave DeRoche; Washington based Peter Boyd; Belgium based Jo de Buck and
Alain Naoum; and New York based Amyas Naegele, among others.

Additional highlights include works from Oceania. Of particular note is an important New Guinea war shield from the Sepik River area, courtesy of Michael Hamson (image right). The piece was originally collected in 1912/13 on the Kaiserin-Augusta River Expedition for the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin, ex. Raymond Wielgus Collection, mid 19th century.

Another notable piece is a Maori architectural figurecourtesy of UK based Wayne Heathcote (image left). Additional Oceanic galleries include: Canada based Marc Assayag African & Oceanic Art.

The San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show will also present a number of exceptional Indonesian galleries including: Bali based Jack Sadovnic, California based Primary Source, and Mark A. Johnson Tribal Art, among others. (image right: Male Ancestor Figure “Adu Zatua”,North Nias Island, Indonesia. 19th century. H: 16.5" (42 cm). Courtesy of Mark A. Johnson Tribal Art).

This year the San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show is being held in conjunction with The American Indian Art Show/Marin, bringing together two historic shows to create one of the most important and exciting weekends of the year for Tribal & Textile Arts and American Indian Art.