August 7 - September 26, 2026 | Gallery 1337 | Art Works Downtown | San Rafael, California
Featuring an expanding network of Bay Area artists, (3 words) is a visual and verbal art game in which the exhibition theme mutates playfully over the course of the show. The exhibition follows a long tradition of art games and spontaneous activities intended to bring the unexpected—what the Surrealists called “objective chance” or “the certainty of hazard”—into the creative experience. Modeled on the children’s game of telephone, in which a message morphs in unanticipated ways over the course of a human transmission chain, (3 words) engages with what transpires when artists are invited to transform the energy of an exhibition in real time through their own word and image choices.
Here’s how it works: an artist chooses one work of art and describes it to another artist in just 3 words. Using those words as a prompt, the second artist chooses a work of their own to exhibit, then shares 3 words about that piece to a third artist. And so on, until the gallery is filled. A sense of playfulness and collaborative, impromptu meaning-making breathes life into community and collective artistic practice, and the artists of (3 words) embrace that ethos. Holding the process lightly and letting their work and imagination lead the way, they map out new and unexpected pathways of language, art, and meaning.
Exhibiting Artists:
Lauren Bartone, Holly Bobisuthi, Anne Capron, Jean Capron, Lana Capron, Mabbie Dumn, Tanya Gill, [grease], Jada Haynes, Tianzong Jiang, Ella Rose Ledyard, Julia Ledyard, Martin Ledyard, Nichol Markowitz, Phil McGaughy, Joshua Moreno, Lucía Nava Moreno, Eleanor Scholz O’Leary, Sun Park, Matt Reynolds, Saint, Naomi Alessandra Schultz, Lela Shields, Carroll Swenson-Roberts, Rebecca Szeto, Emily Tarner, Chelsea América Torres, Eleanor Trombla, Whitney Vangrin, Margot Vaughan, Catherine Wang McMahon, Hayoung Yun
(3 words) Artist/Curator Panel | August 22, 2026