Mark Perlman, Pinpoint, 2026, oil and wax on panel, 36 x 30 inches
Mark Perlman
Comes and Goes
June 10 to July 18, 2026
Artist Reception
5pm to 7pm
Saturday, July 11
NANCY TOOMEY FINE ART
1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
Nancy Toomey Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Mark Perlman titled Comes and Goes on view from June 10 to July 18, 2026. The gallery is located inside San Francisco’s Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 12pm to 4pm, and by appointment–please contact nancy@nancytoomeyfineart.com or 415-307-9038.
The public is invited to meet artist Mark Perlman at the gallery on Saturday, July 11, from 5pm to 7pm.
Mark Perlman, Overview, 2025, oil and wax on panel, 60 x 48 inches
Mark Perlman’s Comes and Goes exhibition at Nancy Toomey Fine Art represents a culmination of over 50 years of painting. Perlman attributes this ongoing commitment to an inner search for a visual and conceptual language that is both personal and universal. In this particular body of work, Perlman feels that to understand the paintings it is essential first to view them from an adequate distance to be able to experience their inner light and atmosphere. Once perceived from that distance, the close-up viewing will be an entirely different experience based on the texture and loosely applied brushwork.
Mark Perlman, Flow, 2026, oil and wax on panel, 43 x 24 inches
In addition to the physical nature of Perlman’s heavily worked surfaces, he has attempted to place an equal amount of attention on what the paintings are actually communicating. His 20-year meditation practice continues to inform his process, serving to quiet his mind from the chatter that consumes him when he is out of the studio. Attempting to remain in the moment is crucial for the success or failure of whatever happens during his painting sessions.
Mark Perlman, Connection, 2026, oil and wax on panel, 48 x 48 inches
The light that permeates or radiates from the center of each painting is representative of the experience that Perlman discovers in the silent and focused time spent in his studio. The calligraphy that extends beyond the light is the collective energy of both the artist’s mind and body. There is a suggestive figurative element in the dissolving center of light in each work. Perlman has been consumed with these 10 paintings for the past year and hopes to continue this pursuit, setting a new direction and emphasis in his ongoing process. This meditative layering and nod to human consciousness is a fresh take on the gestural mark-making that Perlman has been known for throughout his career.
Mark Perlman, Windswept, 2026, oil and wax on panel, 48 x 36 inches
“Amidst the madness and cruelties we are all witnessing in the past several years,” says Perlman, “I believe it is essentail that we attmept to find some balance by living in two parallel realities. Personally, I find solace in painting, meditation, and surrounding myself with friends and family.”
Mark Perlman
Mark Perlman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and lives and works in Sebastopol, California. A former professor of art at California State University, Sonoma, Perlman has exhibited his luminous encaustic paintings in the Bay Area as well as throughout the United States over the last 40 years. He has also exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing, China, the Manage Central Exhibition Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Moscow Central House of the Artists in Moscow, Russia. His works are in many important private and public collections including the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C., Charleston Museum, Charleston, West Virginia, and Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Comes and Goes is Mark Perlman’s fourth show with Nancy Toomey Fine Art.