Marcia Hafif emerged in the 1970s as a key figure among artists searching for ways of painting beyond abstraction. She directed her work to a study of pigments and their material supports, which led to single-color paintings made in series and intended to be installed in such a way that each wall and each exhibition becomes a work of art in itself. She has said, “I don’t make paintings so much as I make installations.”

Born in 1929, Hafif spent much of her childhood in Laguna Beach. Since then she has lived and worked mostly in New York, but for the past sixteen years has also had a house and studio in Laguna. The exhibition focuses mainly on paintings made in Laguna during that time. It includes selected works from the following series: Red Paintings, Pacific Ocean Paintings, Double Glaze Paintings, TGGT (Tomatoes, Grapes and Green Tea), and Shade Paintings.

Although she is well known on the East Coast and in Europe, especially Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, this was the artist’s first one-person museum exhibition in her home state in forty years. It was accompanied by a lavishly illustrated book, Marcia Hafif, The Inventory: Paintings, which provides a broad view of her work as a painter since the 1970s. The book includes an essay by Jane McFadden and an interview with the artist by Michael Ned Holte.

The exhibition and accompanying book were made possible by the generous support of Rick Silver, Joan and Mitchell Markow, and Robin and Steve Kalota.