di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art maintains a permanent collection of works by Northern California artists that was originally collected by Rene di Rosa (1919-2010) and Veronica di Rosa (1934–1991). The collection contains notable works by artists living or working in the San Francisco Bay Area from mid-twentieth century to the early twenty-first century, highlighting a story of experimentation of the artists of the region. It is displayed in part, on a rotating basis, in the galleries at di Rosa.
This page represents a just a portion of di Rosa’s rich permanent collection. Stay tuned as we continue to populate this page with artworks from our collection.
di Rosa strives to be a resource for educators, students and lifelong learners. For research inquiries, please contact curatorial@dirosaart.org.
Third Coat
Mixed Media
Canvas cloak decorated in paint and feathers; painted taffeta lining with bone, hair, and cloth dolls
408
Cloth, canvas, taffeta, acrylic paint, feathers, bones, hair
AR408
Carlos Villa
Purchase
Carlos Villa
1983
Feathers
Object
77 in
79 in
22 in
To the Max!
Friday, September 8, 2023 - Sunday, August 25, 2024, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa
Building A Different Model: Selections from the di Rosa Collection
March 9 - December 30, 2019, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA,
The Incorrect Museum: Vignettes from the di Rosa Collection
Ongoing
Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision
February 8, 2022 - May 8, 2022, The Newark Museum of Art, NJ; June 17, 2022 - October 24, 2022, The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
FETISH: Objects of Power and Desire
January 14 - March 4, 2003, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art Napa
Carlos Villa trained alongside William T. Wiley, Joan Brown, William Allan, and Manuel Neri in aesthetic modes he would later bring into dialogue with Minimalist sculpture and his own Filipino heritage. Villa sometimes used his sculptures in performances in the 1980s. These works advance ideas of sculptural space, the artist as shaman, and the very notion of what art can do. But Villa was adamant that his heritage not be the only lens through which his work was viewed. He likened his approach in this sense to, say, Bruce Conner’s unheralded identity as an Irish American. It’s there if you are looking for it, but ultimately the work is a fulsome expression of complexly woven strains of cultural identity.