Martha Alf

Kohn Gallery is pleased to announce the representation of the Estate of Martha Alf, with an exhibition opening at Kohn Gallery on March 5, 2021. Martha Alf (1930-2019) was born in Berkeley and died in Los Angeles, and with the exception of a short few years as a child, Alf spent her entire life and career in California. This fact helps to discern the multiplicity of influences that are found in her profoundly strong and subtle work. As an art student at UCLA in the early 1960s, she took classes with William Brice, Richard Diebenkorn and Lee Mullican.  The works presented here range from a self-portrait and landscapes to her most well known works of rolls of toilet paper portrayed with enormous dramatic flair. Her works span the traditional genres of landscape, portraiture and still life, while her paintings, drawings and photographs are intensely detailed, meticulously crafted, and betray the influences of Light and Space, Minimalism and Pop. Alf’s still lives are bathed in light and her pears resemble the female form; early landscapes from 1964-66 have a distant and decorative feel akin to Les Nabis; the toilet paper rolls and plastic spray caps are imbued with both Pop and Minimalist tendencies, while a sense of SoCal mysticism pervades all of Alf’s work. 

Michael Kohn, owner of Kohn Gallery, said, “We are thrilled and honored to represent the works of Martha Alf in our gallery, and in art fairs around the world. From the irreverence of Pop to the monolith of Minimalism, Alf embodies wide-ranging influences in an utterly emotive and beautiful manner, and this work is now ripe for rediscovery.

Alf has exhibited nationally and internationally and is collected by major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA and numerous private collections.