SCROLL DOWN TO SEE VERA'S SELECTIONS...

Vera Gates is an artist and founding partner of Arterra Landscape Architects in San Francisco, California. Vera’s work is the creative imagining of an artist and landscape architect, both playful and forthright. Her goal is to create beautiful gardens that enrich our existence, foster a sense of joyful wonder and evoke a strong, emotional connection to the earth.

Vera studied art and landscape architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, graduating with a degree in environmental design in 1984. After graduation, she worked as a water features engineer and landscape designer on resort and international projects. She opened her own residential practice in 1993, with the desire to see work built. In 2003 Vera partnered with Kate Stickley to create Arterra Landscape Architects, a full-service landscape architecture firm specializing in contemporary, sustainable design.

We asked Vera to be our Guest Curator this month and select her favorite works from our current collection of works online and in the gallery. Read Vera's statement about the online exhibition below, then scroll down to view the selected works. Please call or email the gallery for more information about the works shown.

Curator's Narrative:
I envisioned these pieces as an installation in a sculpture garden, in a rolling landscape of meadow and oak woodland, with a sharp stone path spiraling outward from center. 

As you traverse the path, the landscape and sculpture collection are revealed incrementally and then disappear again as you move forward. The narrative is of air and earth, the sacred and the profane. A lingering pause, a deep breath and delight.

Pieces are sequenced according to shared geometries and a symbiotic contrast of light and dark, delicacy and mass. Collectively they portray solid connection to the earth and the ethereal space found in between moments.