Elmer Bischoff
January 22 - March 15, 2026
Five decades of the artist’s work - 1940s to 1980s.
Nelson Duni is proud to announce an exhibition of Elmer Bischoff, a celebration for one of the central figures of the Bay Area Figurative Movement and a pillar of San Francisco art. Opening January 22, 2026, and on view through March 15, the show coincides with San Francisco Art Week and the FOG Design+Art Fair, offering art lovers a rare opportunity to encounter Bischoff’s work in depth. The exhibition will present some forty paintings and works on paper, spanning the artist’s career from his early abstract, surrealist canvases and his large figurative compositions, to his joyous late abstractions. This comprehensive selection will illuminate Bischoff’s singular ability to capture atmosphere and feeling through brushwork that is at once descriptive and entirely free of representation.
Playground, 1954. Oil on canvas, 68 x 55, © Bischoff Family Art Trust. Photo courtesy of George Adams Gallery.
Objects Above and Below Horizon, 1947. Oil on canvas, 28 x 22 in, © Bischoff Family Art Trust. Photo courtesy of George Adams Gallery.
Rococo Figures, 1947. Tempera on canvas, 31 1/2 x 39 1/4 in, © Bischoff Family Art Trust. Photo courtesy of George Adams Gallery.
This will be the first Bischoff exhibition in over 20 years to offer five decades of the artist’s work, from the 1940s to the 1980s. In addition to his paintings, the show will feature numerous figure drawings from the 1960s and 1970s that were created in studio sessions with other Bay Area artists and are representative of Bischoff’s practice. A leading voice in the Bay Area Figurative Movement alongside Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, and Joan Brown, Bischoff (1916–1991) bridged abstraction and figuration with a painterly sensibility rooted in atmosphere and mood. His figures often emerge from luminous, ambiguous spaces — nature, interiors, or imagined places — evoking narrative. His influence continues to resonate in contemporary painting today. Exhibition Details Title: Elmer Bischoff Dates: January 22 – March 15, 2026 Location: Nelson Duni, 35 Bartlett Street, San Francisco, California Press Preview: January 20–21, 2026, 4–8 PM and by appointment Opening Reception: Thursday, January 22, 2026, 4–8 PM The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Bischoff Family Art Trust and will be accompanied by public programming and special events during its run.