SF Chronicle

Veteran San Francisco gallerist launches new contemporary space

Contemporary art galleries come and go, but the opening of a new space by a veteran of San Francisco’s quietly influential Anthony Meier Fine Arts is worthy of note.

Rebecca Camacho, until recently a top staffer at Meier, will open her new enterprise in a compact, 928-square-foot storefront next month.

 Meier’s relatively low local profile — two small showrooms on the ground floor of an elegant 1911 mansion, open to the public only Tuesday through Friday — belies an international business handling high-profile artists through the owner’s regular presence at major art fairs around the world.

Camacho, 43, worked with Meier from 1998 to 2018, moving from gallery assistant to director, “then senior director the last six years of my tenure,” she told The Chronicle. Rebecca Camacho Presents will open with a show of the work of Oakland artist Sahar Khoury. The exhibition, “Holder,” will run from May 17 through July 6.

 Though she demurred to the suggestion of a “stable” of artists, she said, “I hope to have long relationships with the artists in my program.” She said the first year of exhibits is set and will include artists from Los Angeles, Houston and New York. She is also working on commissions for public art at San Francisco International Airport, BART and Stanford University’s Denning House.

Camacho began her career in the nonprofit sector, at the now-defunct Capp Street Project. She is the current president of the board of the nonprofit arts organization Southern Exposure.

Charles Desmarais

April 3, 2019