Black and white photograph of two people seated in an office

Timeline

2020–Present

It can be difficult to have perspective on the recent past, especially these last few very eventful years, but we are cheered to see here in pictures some highlights of what we have witnessed. Among them are finding new ways to gather, reaching new audiences as well as longtime friends, and discovering new ways to connect. Already just a few years into this decade we are excited by what it foretells.

2021

Colorful image of a building with large windows displaying artwork on view and a sign that reads Fraenkel Pop-up
Fraenkel POP-UP, a short-term gallery space located in San Francisco’s Presidio Heights neighborhood, opened May 1st, 2021
Lee Friedlander shows off a newly discovered picture from Baltimore in 1968. During the quiet of the past year, he took the opportunity to go through older negatives and make prints of overlooked images
Jeffrey Fraenkel with Elisabeth Sussman from the Whitney Museum of American Art visit the Ray Johnson exhibition at David Zwirner
A screenshot from an online gathering celebrating Frish Brandt’s 36th year at the gallery
In connection with Christian Marclay’s exhibition, experimental vocalist Elaine Mitchener performs Marclay’s graphic score, No!

2020

A virtual conversation between Frish Brandt and artists Elisheva Biernoff, Johnnie Chatman, and Alec Soth, on the occasion of the exhibition I’m Not The Only One
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s exhibition Opticks opened in March, his fifteenth exhibition with the gallery
Fraenkel Gallery and Luhring Augustine’s double booth featuring work by Lee Friedlander and Christopher Wool at ADAA’s The Art Show
Jeffrey Fraenkel, Frish Brandt, Roland Augustine, Lawrence Luhring, Daphne Palmer, Donald Johnson-Montenegro, Amy Whiteside, and Lauren Wittels at ADAA’s The Art Show
Sophie Calle at the opening of her exhibition Because

2010–2019

In the 2010s, Fraenkel Gallery exhibited a wider swath of multi-disciplinary work, as well as video, sculpture, paintings, film posters, and record albums. The gallery’s roster expanded to include younger artists—Alec Soth, Richard T. Walker, Wardell Milan, Elisheva Biernoff, and Richard Learoyd—as well as those working in a range of media, such as Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller and Mel Bochner. The satellite space FraenkelLAB ran from 2016 through 2017 with a diverse and experimental program. Following the expansion of SFMOMA in 2016, San Francisco became even more firmly established as an international destination for photography and contemporary art.

2019

Jeffrey Fraenkel and Frish Brandt discuss perspectives on the gallery’s evolution and its forthcoming program, and artists and friends of the gallery including John Waters, Lee Friedlander, Richard Misrach, Alec Soth, and Elisheva Biernoff tell us what the gallery has meant to them.

On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, Fraenkel Gallery has rededicated itself to presenting work in a wide variety of contemporary media–not at all limited to photo-based work–while maintaining photography as a through-line for its exhibitions and publications.

Wardell Milan and Frish Brandt on the occasion of Milan’s first exhibition at the gallery, Parisian Landscapes: Blue in Green
Ola Dlugosz, left, and Frish Brandt, right, with Diane Meatyard and Christopher Meatyard of the Ralph Eugene Meatyard Estate
Alexander Goodwin with Fraenkel Gallery publications at the San Francisco Art Book Fair
Richard T. Walker’s outside repetition, 2018, on view during Walker’s first solo show at Fraenkel Gallery, 2019
Daphne Palmer discusses Adam Fuss’s work with young visitors to the FOG Design+Art Fair
Fraenkel Gallery’s space at the Grand Palais during Paris Photo, one of our favorite stops on the annual agenda
Frish Brandt introduces Richard Misrach before his walkthrough of the exhibition Another West, which he curated
Staff celebrate the gallery’s 40th anniversary with a kayaking trip
Long Story Short, the gallery’s 40th anniversary publication
Jeffrey Fraenkel, Alan Mark, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Atsuko Koyanagi at Sugimoto’s Enoura Observatory, Odawara Art Foundation, Japan
Fraenkel Gallery at 49 Geary Street

2018

An installation view of gallery’s collaboration with Adrian Rosenfeld Gallery, Each with the Other, 2018-2019. Photo credit: Aaron Wojack

2017

A view of Elisheva Biernoff: Paintings, the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller discuss their work, The Poetry Machine, 2017
Jason Fulford: High Anxiety at FraenkelLAB
Jeffrey Fraenkel, Sophie Calle, and Frish Brandt
Katy Grannan and Ola Dlugosz at the gallery’s holiday party
Alec Soth speaking at FraenkelLAB during his Seesaw exhibition

2016

Installation view of How I Learned to See: An (Ongoing) Education in Pictures, curated by Hanya Yanagihara
Christian Marclay (pictured right) prepares his third exhibition at the gallery, Six New Animations
Installation view of Home Improvements: Curated by John Waters at FraenkelLAB

2015

Staff sing-a-long on the occasion of the publication of Alec Soth’s Songbook
Staff Bowling Party with guests Lee Friedlander, Katy Homans, and Maria Friedlander
Sophie Calle’s second exhibition at the gallery

2014

Jeffrey Fraenkel, book designer Katy Homans, and Frish Brandt with The Plot Thickens
The Plot Thickens, 35th anniversary publication
Jeffrey Fraenkel receives a surprise Facetime call from Lee Friedlander
To celebrate our exhibition Love & Lust, Nan Goldin and The New Yorker photography critic Vince Aletti sat down with Jeffrey Fraenkel to reflect on Peter Hujar’s life and career in photography
Ken Clanton and Amy Whiteside with Mel Bochner’s Color Crumple (#1) at Art Basel

2011

Preparing for Richard Learoyd: Presences, the artist’s first exhibition at the gallery

2000-2009

In the 2000s, Fraenkel Gallery began to feature even more artists whose work is not strictly—or not at all—photographic. The gallery’s ambitious exhibitions during this decade included Edward Hopper & Company, Nothing and Everything: Painting, Photography, Drawing & Sculpture 1896–2006, Christ in a lobby and Other Unknown or Almost Known Works by Diane Arbus (curated by Robert Gober), Not Exactly Photographs, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater.

The gallery also added Katy Grannan, Peter Hujar, Christian Marclay, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard to our roster, increased publishing to at least one new title each year, and expanded our international footprint to encompass Art Basel and Paris Photo.

2009

Furthermore, the gallery’s 30th anniversary publication
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Lightning Fields, the artist’s ninth exhibition with the gallery
Bebe Nixon, Cara Megan Lewis, Lee Friedlander, Maria Friedlander, and Matthew Yeager at gallery lunch

2008

Lee Friedlander: America by Car, 2008

2007

Poster for Several Exceptionally Good Recently Acquired Pictures XIX, 2007 (Garry Winogrand, Peace Demonstration, Central Park, New York, 1970)

2006

Richard Misrach gives staff a demonstration of shooting his Golden Gate Bridge series

2005

Ken Clanton, Frish Brandt, and Jeffrey Fraenkel

2004

Sol LeWitt: New Wall Drawings and Photographs, 2004

2003

The Eye Club, the gallery’s 25th anniversary publication
Photobooth portraits from our 25th anniversary celebration
Letter from Maria Friedlander about Lee Friedlander and Richard Avedon’s photoshoot
Ileana Sonnabend and Hilla Becher visit the Bechers’ exhibition at the gallery in 2003

2002

Poster for Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater
Lee Friedlander, Frish Brandt and Jeffrey Fraenkel at an art fair, New York

2001

Richard Avedon reviewing proofs for the 2001 book and exhibition Made in France

2000

Jeffrey Fraenkel in the gallery’s exhibition Sol LeWitt: Recent Wall Drawings
Matthew Yeager and Ken Clanton joined the gallery’s staff in 2000

1990–1999

1999

In the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, in 1991 Fraenkel Gallery moved to a larger space at 49 Geary Street, one short block from our first location. The gallery expanded the range of artworks and media featured in our exhibitions and books, including solo shows of artists such as Nan Goldin, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sophie Calle, Richard Avedon, Sol LeWitt, Gilbert & George, Jay DeFeo, and Bernd and Hilla Becher, as well as group shows encompassing sculpture, drawing, and mixed media.

Gallery lunch for Richard Avedon: Early Portraits, with Avedon (seated, center)
Jeffrey Peabody, Jeffrey Fraenkel, and Nan Goldin
Robert Adams, Kerstin Adams, Frish Brandt, and Jeffrey Fraenkel
Jeffrey Fraenkel and Frish Brandt on the occasion of our 20th anniversary
The gallery’s 20th anniversary publication, 20Twenty

1997

Frish Brandt and Richard Misrach
Jeffrey Fraenkel, Frish Brandt, and Albert Fraenkel

1996

Frish Brandt sets up at the Chicago Art Fair
Gallery talk with Thomas Ruff for his exhibition Portraits Houses Stars Night

1995

The gallery’s 15th anniversary publication, Seeing Things
Poster for Seeing Things

1994

Nan Goldin’s first exhibition at the gallery
Installation view of Several Exceptionally Good Recently Acquired Pictures VIII

1993

Frish Brandt and Jeffrey Fraenkel at an early art fair

1991

Construction begins at our 49 Geary Street location
View of our 49 Geary Street offices, library, and gallery spaces before construction began
Jeffrey Fraenkel standing in our new gallery, designed by architect David Robinson
Amy Whiteside installing books in our new library

1979–1989

Fraenkel Gallery opened in 1979 at 55 Grant Avenue in San Francisco, and immediately brought new attention to under-recognized and seldom-exhibited photographs by 19th-century artists Carleton Watkins, Timothy O’Sullivan, Anna Atkins, and Eadweard Muybridge and significant 20th-century artists, including Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Robert Adams, Garry Winogrand, and Bruce Conner. In these early years, the gallery also began its publishing program of books and posters.

1989

Installation view of Diane Arbus, Nineteen Faces
Planning our expansion at 55 Grant Avenue
Jeffrey Fraenkel and Frish Brandt opening the new floor of the 55 Grant Avenue space

1986

Jeffrey Fraenkel and Harry Callahan in our exhibition Several Exceptionally Good Recently Acquired Pictures I

1984

Frish Brandt joins Fraenkel Gallery in 1984

1980

Poster for our first Diane Arbus exhibition, Unpublished Photographs
Garry Winogrand (center left) in the gallery for our 1980 exhibition Retrospective

1979

Fraenkel Gallery’s original location at 55 Grant Avenue, San Francisco
Inside our 55 Grant Avenue office
Announcement for our second exhibition, Lee Friedlander, 1979
Jeffrey Fraenkel next to Carleton Watkins’s 1867 photograph Cape Horn, Columbia River, Oregon
Black-and-white photograph of a gallery interior with works framed on the walls.
Fraenkel Gallery opened in 1979 with Carleton Watkins: Photographs of the Pacific Coast