Photos by Richard Whittaker.

1926 to 2013

Leigh Hyams (Martha Mae Nickerson), age 86, passed away on Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with her children by her side.

Born in Papillion, Nebraska on April 22, 1926, she was the daughter of Mae (Baxter) and Ralph Nickerson She decided in the third grade that she was an artist and never wavered from that conviction. She studied art at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, earned a B.F.A. at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and an M.F.A. at University of Guanajuato’s Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende. She did post-graduate work at New College Fine Arts Institute in Sarasota, Florida, where she had the honor of being studio monitor for Philip Guston.

Over the years, her painting subject matter ranged from European megaliths and Mayan temples, Brazilian rain forests and Yosemite waterfalls, to giant images of imaginary flowers, Mexican folk art, dogs, cows, and her family. Her work was distinguished by an edgy line quality and luminous color. She said she was driven by “a passion for what frees us, makes us aware of a deeper reality, and brings us closer to the universe around us and the one inside ourselves.”

Her drawings, paintings, and artist’s books are in the permanent collections of the Achenbach Foundation in San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California Art, Des Moines Art Center, Joslyn Art Museum, Palácio Imperial in Curitiba, Brazil, and University of California at Irvine, as well as private collections in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Her museum exhibitions included solo shows at the Paco Imperial Center for Contemporary Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at El Museo de la Ciudad de Santiago Querétaro in Querétaro, Mexico. She was represented by Meridian Gallery in San Francisco, California.

She was a Fulbright scholar, having received a Western European regional research grant for her series of paintings based on Megalithic sites, as well as the recipient of ten painting fellowships, including Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, American Academy in Rome, and George Rickey's Hand Hollow Foundation. She served as founding executive director of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California.

A beloved teacher, she worked as an adjunct professor of art at San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, John F. Kennedy University, California College of Arts and Crafts, and University of California at Berkeley Extension. She taught art in mental institutions, Athabaskan Indian villages in Alaska, and at retreat centers in exotic locales, among them Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and La Serrania in Mallorca, Spain, for a devoted following of painters from around the globe. For many years, she also led international art tours for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

She published a book about her artistic journey titled “How Painting Holds Me on The Earth: Writings of a Maverick Painter and Teacher” and produced a half-hour video about her teaching philosophy titled “Making Marks: On the Excitement and Importance of Making Art.” For more information about her work, see www.artsreal.com.

She loved to travel. Her first husband, Robert Bolling, was a Navy pilot, whose work led them to live in Hawaii, Alaska, Texas, and Rhode Island. She divorced him when their sons, Kris and Jan, were little and moved to Mexico, where she lived for four years before marrying artist Ralph Hyams, who had two sons, Charles and Nicholas. They lived in New York City and later in Sarasota, where they ran the education department at the Ringling Museum of Art. The couple had a daughter together, Gina.

When she divorced her second husband, she changed her first name from Martha to Leigh and moved with her young daughter to San Francisco. She never had much money, but she managed to take many trips to Europe, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, as well as to India, Russia, and South Africa. She also enjoyed dancing and singing, doing yoga, reading thrillers, and eating Snickers candy bars. She spent her last dozen years in Mexico, where she relished the colors, sunshine, and humane pace of life.

She was predeceased by her son Jan Bolling and stepson Charles Hyams, and leaves behind her sister Joan Prior, son Kris Bolling, daughter Gina Hyams, son-in-law Dave Barrett, and granddaughter Annalena Barrett.

In her memory, gifts to Feed the Hungry San Miguel de Allende or KPFA Radio in Berkeley would be appreciated. Her ashes will be interred at the Guadalupe Cemetery in San Miguel de Allende.

MEMORIALS

Monday, March 18 at 4:00pm in the expat section of Panteon de Guadalupe (Guadalupe Cemetery, located behind Hotel Real de Minas) in San Miguel de Allende.

Sunday, April 21 at 2:00pm at Meridian Gallery (535 Powell Street) in San Francisco.

Anyone who would like to speak at the memorials is invited to do so. The family will welcome your stories. Leigh did not believe in wearing black to funerals, so please wear bright colors.

You can also visit the Leigh Hyams Memorial page on Facebook.

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LEIGH HYAMS
leighhyams@artsreal.com
www.artsreal.com
Mexico: 011.52.415.154.6204

EDUCATION

NEW COLLEGE FINE ARTS INSTITUTE, Sarasota, Florida (studio monitor for Philip Guston)
MFA - UNIVERSITY of GUANAJUATO, Mexico
BFA - UNIVERSITY of NEBRASKA, Lincoln, Nebraska

PAINTING FELLOWSHIPS

1996 STRAEMUR ART KOMMUNE, Hafnarfjordur, Iceland
1995 HARAHORN, Hemsedal, Norway
1993 KAHUA RANCH, Kohala, Hawai
1990 SAN FRANCISCO-LENINGRAD ECOLOGICAL ARTS, Russia
1985 MACDOWELL COLONY, Peterborough, New Hampshire
1985 AMERICAN ACADEMY in ROME, Rome, Italy
1981 & 82 HAND HOLLOW FND. (George Rickey) Chatham, New York
1980 DJERASSI RESIDENT ARTISTS PROGRAM, Woodside, California
1979 OSSOBAW ISLAND PROJECT, Savannah, Georgia
1978 YADDO, Saratoga Springs, New York
1976 EDINBURGH ARTS/EUROPE, Edinburgh, Scotland

HONORS, GRANTS and PROJECT AWARDS

1997 JOHN F. KENNEDY UNIVERSITY, Berkeley, CA research grant
1992 ART IN AMERICA magazine: Painting-of-the-year slide series
1991 SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY, University Fdn. research grant
1990 SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY, Meritorious Performance and Professional Promise Award
1985 FULBRIGHT GRANT, Western Europe
1981 ALASKA COUNCIL for the ARTS, Aleutian & Arctic residencies
1977 CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL/FORT MASON FOUNDATION, Director, Nine County Art by Children Celebration
1975-76 FLORIDA FINE ARTS COMMISSION, Art with hospitalized patients in State Mental Hospital, Arcadia, Florida
1973 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT for the ARTS, Development of RINGLING MUSEUM of ART traveling art caravan
1970-75 RINGLING MUSEUM of ART, Sarasota, Florida, Education Department special events director: Happenings, Artists’ Theater Events

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2009 EL MUSEO de la CIUDAD de SANTIAGO QUERÉTARO, Querétaro, Mexico
2008 MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco
2006 EL MUSEO de la CIUDAD de SANTIAGO QUERÉTARO, Querétaro, Mexico
2006 GENERATOR GALLERY, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
2005 MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco
2003 MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco
2000 MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco
1999 BAYFRONT GALLERY, San Francisco
1999 OAKLAND MUSEUM of ART, Oakland, CA
1997 MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco
1996 PACO IMPERIAL, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1995 MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco
1994 PACO IMPERIAL, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1993 TERESA MULLEN GALLERY, San Francisco
1992 MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco
1992 SOMAR GALLERY, San Francisco
1991 JOHN F. KENNEDY UNIVERSITY, Berkeley, CA.
1987 ANNE JAFFE GALLERY, Miami, Florida
1985 BLUXOME GALLERY, San Francisco
1982 OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE, Los Angeles, CA.
1980 SOUTHERN EXPOSURE GALLERY, San Francisco
1978 L.Y.C. MUSEUM, Brampton, Cumbria, U.K.
1977 RICHARD DEMARCO GALLERY, Edinburgh, Scotland
1975 RINGLING MUSEUM of ART, Sarasota, Florida
1973 JOSLYN ART MUSEUM, Omaha, Nebraska

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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2006 ATLASIDES GALLERY, Marrakech, Morocco (Fulbright Scholars Invitational)
2005 SAN JOSE MUSEUM OF ART, San Jose CA.
2003 LEGION OF HONOR MUSEUM, San Francisco
1999 ARTEUM, San Jose, Costa Rica
1994 MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil
1994 YERBA BUENA CENTER for the ARTS, San Francisco
1992 GHIA GALLERY, San Francisco
1992 BI-STAGE GALLERY, Utsunomiya, Japan
1990 GALLERAYA 1010, Leningrad, Russia
1990 EAST-WEST CENTER, Honolulu, Hawaii (Fulbright scholars)
1989 CROCKER ART MUSEUM, Sacramento, CA
1988 SAN FRANCISCO ART COMMISSION GALLERY
1988 GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, Washington, DC
1986 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, Washington, DC
1984 WOMEN’S BUILDING, Los Angeles, CA
1983 SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE
1981 SAN FRANCISCO/BERLIN Exchange Show, Germany
1978 GULBENKIAN GALLERY, Newcastle-on-Tyne, U.K.

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines, Iowa
GOVERNMENT PALACE, Curitiba, Brazil
JOSLYN ART MUSEUM, Omaha, Nebraska
LEGION of HONOR MUSEUM, Achenbach Collection, San Francisco
NEW COLLEGE, Sarasota, Florida
OAKLAND MUSEUM of ART, Oakland, CA
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE, Omaha, Nebraska
SAN JOSE MUSEUM of ART, San Jose, California
SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY, San Jose, California
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, Irvine, California

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rohan, Theres, CATALOGUE ESSAY, The Ancient Presence, MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco, 2008

Horner, Gabriel Garcia, CATALOGUE ESSAY, El Jardin de Redon, MUSEO de la CUIDAD de SANTIAGO QUERÉTARO, Querétaro, Mexico, 2006

Brodzky, Anne, CATALOGUE ESSAY, Redon’s Garden, MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco, 2005

Rohan, Theres CATALOGUE ESSAY, Redon’s Garden, MERIDIAN GALLERY, San Francisco, 2005

A Conversation With Leigh Hyams, "This Incredible Fact of Being Alive", WORKS & CONVERSATIONS No. 12, 2006

Webster, Mary Hull, Leigh Hyams at Meridian Gallery ART WEEK, Feb. 2004

Selz,Peter, Charles Miedzinski and Anne Brodzky, brochure essays for
Does the Dark have a Door?, PACO IMPERIAL, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1996

Cebulski, Frank, Leigh Hyams at Meridian, SAN FRANCISCO ART GUIDE, Jan. 1995

Roche, Harry, Critic’s Choice, SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN, Feb. 1995

Brodzky, Anne Trueblood, CATALOGUE ESSAY, The Exchange Show,
San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1994

Rohan, Theres, On Landscape and Spirit - Leigh Hyams’ Path,
detail: A JOURNAL OF ART CRITICISM, 1994

Morris, Gay, Leigh Hyams at Meridian , ART IN AMERICA, June 1992

Brzezinski, Jamey, Leigh Hyams - Brazilian Forests, ART WEEK, May 1992

Baker, Kenneth, Brazil Observed - Landscapes by Leigh Hyams
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, January 1992

Ahlander, Leslie Judd, Monolithic Stelae Paintings by Leigh Hyams
MIAMI NEWS, April 1987

Rosen, Jim, Nothing Unreal Survives: Leigh Hyams Megalithic Paintings, CORONA MAGAZINE, May 1986

Liss, Andrea, Content as Metaphor, ART WEEK, 1985

VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES

“A Conversation with Leigh Hyams and Richard Whittaker” Richard Whittaker, San Francisco, 2009

“Making Marks: On the Excitement and Importance of Making Art”
  On The Verge Productions, San Francisco, 2000

“The Launch” Lisa Lu, San Francisco, 2000

“Duos With Dave” Manana Media, San Francisco, 1996

 

OTHER

Founding Director, DJERASSI RESIDENT ARTISTS PROJECT, Woodside, California, 1980 - 1983

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"Gracias a Gina Hyams y Kris Bolling." — Leigh