from Belmont, CA circa 1990
Abigail McCallum is a Jewish-American multidisciplinary artist who specializes in oil painting. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and discovered a love of music and dance early on. She studied classical ballet at Ayako School of Ballet in Belmont, CA and the Kirov Academy in Washington D.C. After too many performances of Nutcracker, she left the dance world to pursue academics. She moved to Spokane, Washington to attend Gonzaga University and study mathematics, philosophy and maybe art. After befriending the painting professor Robert Gilmore in the Jundt Art Museum, she turned her attention to oil painting and drawing. She painted in the late hours all through the night in a small cubicle on the second floor of the museum. It started first with academic drapery studies and turned into paintings of withered botanical forms that caught her fascination. She thrived in this untraditional art education that was focused less on technique and more on individuation. Following University, Abigail moved back to San Francisco. She set up a studio in San Francisco, wondering still How Far Down the Rabbit Hole Could I Go?
Today, she lives in Noe Valley and works between her home studio and one in Hunter’s Point, painting with a baby and two whippets.
BIO
PROCESS
Every painting starts with my own canvas construction. The frames are handmade with Poplar. Though extremely time-consuming, I enjoy this part of making the work.
STRETCHING, PRIMING, & SKETCHING. REPEAT.
CV
Abigail McCallum b. 1990
Abigail McCallum’s luminous oil paintings are built up with layers of richly-saturated natural pigments. Her favorite subject is botanical forms, abstracted through attention to scale, color, and repetition. Drawing from an early background in music and dance, McCallum creates paintings that are meant to be experienced sensually rather than cognitively; beauty and immediacy are central to her work. She cites Chaim Soutine, Edwin Dickinson, and Walter Murch as influences, along with classical ballet and punk music.
After receiving her BA in Studio art from Gonzaga University in Washington, McCallum returned to her native San Francisco to continue her art career. She has been working in a wonderfully musty studio in a South San Francisco warehouse for the last four years.
EDUCATION
2012 BA, Art, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 “Pyrogenesis,” MEY Gallery, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA
2017 "Smothered," Hang Art, San Francisco, CA
ART FAIRS
2018 Context Art Miami with Hang Art
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 “Go Figure,” Hang Art at Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
2018 "In the Weeds," Hang Art, San Francisco, CA
2016 “Nocturne,” Hang Art, San Francisco, CA
2015 “In Search of Lost Time,” Chase Gallery, Spokane, WA
2015 “Same, Same, But Different 4.0,” Hang Art, San Francisco, CA
2014 “Same, Same, But Different 3.0,” Hang Art, San Francisco, CA
2012 Senior Art Exhibition, Jundt Art Museum, Spokane, WA
2011 “Explorations XII,” Chase Gallery, Spokane, WA
