Gale Antokal’s figurative work is often situated in a space devoid of a vanishing point, with only a vague sense of perspective diminution. This enhances the work's ambiguity, creating a stateless, undefined space that lacks a specific location, an effect not evident in the photographic source material. Recently, in her Cascade series, Antokal has embraced using water-soluble ink, brushes, squeegees and sponges on synthetic paper, relishing in what emerges. Combined, these materials have their own gorgeous and unpredictable nature that informs and shapes the direction of her works, which are often color studies of Antokal’s surrounding or art throughout history.
Gale Antokal was born in New York, New York, and received her BFA (1980) and MFA from the California College of the Arts in 1984. She is a Professor Emerita at San Jose State University in the Department of Art and Art History and was Coordinator in the Pictorial area. Antokal held several visiting artist positions and teaching positions including the San Francisco Art Institute, Instructor of Art History at the Lehrhaus Institute, and the American College in Jerusalem. She was an affiliate faculty member in the JSSItaly program in Civita Castellana, Italy in 2015. In 1992 Antokal received a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is represented by Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, CA, Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, CA, Tayloe Piggott Gallery in Jackson Hole, WY, and Amy Simon Fine Arts in Westport Connecticut. Her work is included in public, private, and international collections.