Three of the artist members of the San Francisco Art In­stitute, Tony Delap, David Simpson and Sam Tchakalian, have chosen a selec­tion of collages from among the mem­bers of the Institute to be shown at the Institute Gallery and then to be exhibit­ed in various museums in the Western U. S.

The exhibit divides itself into artists whose major work is principally in the collage or assemblage manner, such as Delap, Fred Martin, Robert Loberg, Joseph Romano and Daniel Shapiro. These artists have a keen sense of the possibilities of their medium probably because the questions, “What can I do?” or “What possibilities are open to me?”, are confronted every day they work. The other group of artists in the exhibit, Clayton Pinkerton, Ruth Armer, Robert Holdeman, Karl Kasten, Charles Gill, Leslie Sherman, Nell Sinton, Joan Brown, Manuel Neri and others use collage as a drawing medium or as an ele­ment in what is essentially an oil paint­ing process. In other words, the collage technique is of secondary importance and in most cases this fact is visually apparent in their work.

Some interesting shifts in direction are evident in the work of a number of the artists in the show. Charles Gill, whose work was concerned with a heav­ily romantic depiction of the figure, has recently shifted to a more open public statement which, in the case of the two collages exhibited, deals with images of the late Marilyn Monroe. The single collage Robert Holdeman exhibits is totally unconcerned with the usual niceties he interjects in his paintings. The departure seems worthwhile and may indicate a new freedom in this artist’s work. Tony Delap’s collages are becoming richer visual statements while at the same time they are literally ex­panding into three dimensions with box­like space appearing in the recent ex­amples.

—James Monte