Remembering James Stagg

Ernie | James Stagg

James Stagg was one of California’s most successful and best-known artists, and his dynamic cityscapes have been exhibited and published widely. His career came to an end when he died, much too young, earlier this year. “Cityscape: A Memorial Exhibition” brings together some of Stagg’s most important work. It opens on September 8, 2001, on what would have been his 50th birthday.

This exhibition also includes work by Larry Morace and Veerakeat Tongpaiboon, two other Bay Area painters who work in the expressionist urban style Stagg helped make popular. Morace and Stagg earlier in their careers shared a studio and often painted side by side. Thai native Tongpaiboon and Stagg first saw each other’s paintings in the inaugural exhibition of the Thomas Reynolds Gallery in 1994. There are remarkable similarities in their paintings of San Francisco, yet all three developed characteristics that give them their own unique style.

JAMES JEFFREY STAGG (1951-2001)