14″x13″; collage; 2026. Courtesy of the artist.
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Eva Lake: Relics of Beauty
at Modernism West in San Francisco, California, USA
12 February-25 April 2026
In “Relics of Beauty,” striking images are constructed from an array of art history and archeology photography paired with pop culture imagery of 20th century women. The result is a body of work that rewrites the historical record with softness and femininity and challenges the pervasive societal notions surrounding beauty.
Eva Lake’s collages are the natural culmination of her life and studies. She was a student of art history and archaeology at the University of Oregon and painting at the Art Students League of New York. Lake also spent decades working as a makeup artist and in the fashion industry. “In most of this work, I am uniting two lifelong pursuits: art history/archeology and beauty/fashion,” she says. “I want to mix up the narrative of who is grand and who is pedestrian, of what is worthy of endless theories, and of what is dismissed as pretty for the idle moment.”
32″x32.125″; collage; 2026. Courtesy of the artist.
Eva Lake has exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe since the 1980s. She is the recipient of multiple awards from the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family foundation. Her work is included in the public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Portland’s Arts and Culture Council. She now lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
(text adapted from material provided by the gallery)
INFORMATION
Modernism West/Foreign Cinema
2534 Mission Street
San Francisco, California 94110 USA
(415) 541-0461
Hours:
Monday-Thursday, 5-9:30PM
Friday, 5-10PM
Saturday, 10:30AM-2PM & 5-10PM
Sunday, 10:30AM-2PM & 5-9PM