GALE ANTOKAL suspends her drawings in an ambiguous space between reality and abstraction: a lone pine shrouded in mist; a temple-like pavilion on a hill; the twinkling lights of a city viewed from afar. Seemingly small moments in time, her images lodge in the psyche and form an ineffible identity of place.
Working from photographs, she crops in on forms that transcend time and place, leaving enough detail to invite empathy, although not enough to identify. By narrowing the field of vision, she distills scenes into memories, situation into subconscious
A native of New York, Gale Antokal earned her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Long Island University before moving westward to study for her BFA and MFA in painting from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. In 1986, she joined San Jose State University’s School of Art and Design as a lecturer. She is currently a Professor Emeritus in San Jose’s department of art and art history. In 1991, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship. Her work resides in many private, public and corporate collections, including the Four Seasons Hotel in Dubai and the Millennium Tower in San Francisco.