About

San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Galleries is excited to present "I split the ground, so it would not close over me," a two-person exhibition featuring the work of two emerging Bay Area artists Kelley Finley and Tricia Rainwater, curated by independent curator Shirin Makaremi.

"I split the ground, so it would not close over me" opens on May 28, 2026 at the SFAC Main Gallery in the War Memorial Veterans Building and will be on view through August 29, 2026.

In the exhibition, Finley and Rainwater approach survival as both a personal and collective experience. Delving into personal and communal histories, the artists explore what it means to sustain communities and how resilience is an ongoing process.

"I split the ground, so it would not close over me" is part of SFAC Galleries’ new mentorship fellowship program, now in its second year, where two emerging artists work closely with a curator for seven months on their professional development and to create new work for an exhibition in the Main Gallery. Nearly 130 artist applications were submitted when SFAC Galleries launched an open call for artists in July 2025. Kelley Finley and Tricia Rainwater were selected a panel of both SFAC staff and stakeholders in the Bay Area arts community.

Kelley Finley is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is autoethnographic, primarily working in sculpture, textiles, and performance. In "I split the ground, so it would not close over me," Finley, reflecting on the resilient symbolism of birds, draws parallels between a Chinese folktale of a two-headed bird and Chinese immigrant communities in cities. Allowing for the complexities and strengths of hybrid identities, she considers how these communities sustain the cities they inhabit and survive within the boundaries and constraints it imposes on them.

Tricia Rainwater is a Choctaw multimedia artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with roots in the Central Valley and New Mexico. Her multimedia practice spans self-portraiture, sculpture, large-scale murals, and installation and is grounded in themes of identity, loss, and survival. For "I split the ground, so it would not close over me," Rainwater confronts her past as a grounding act in her survival, tenderly holding space for her younger self and other victims as she stands in the presence of places and objects that hold her violent past.

About the artists
Kelley Finley is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is autoethnographic, primarily working in sculpture, textiles, and performance. Finley received her MFA from California College of the Arts and a BFA in Sculpture and a B.S. in Art Education from Kutztown University. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Hong Kong and Italy, and across the US. Recently, she was an Artist in Residence at Recology, SF, and participated in Edge on the Square’s Annual Contemporary Art Event.

Tricia Rainwater is a Choctaw multimedia artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with roots in the Central Valley and New Mexico. Her multidisciplinary practice spans self-portraiture, sculpture, large-scale murals, and installation, and her work has been presented at institutions including the Berkeley Center for the Arts, ICA San Francisco, MOCA Toronto, Muz Collective, ICA San Jose, and San Francisco Camerawork, among others.

About the curator
Shirin Makaremi is an Iranian-American artist and curator based in San Francisco, CA. Makaremi has over 10 years of experience working within the Bay Area art community where she has curated and facilitated exhibitions and programs. She enjoys working with emerging local artists, collaborating and supporting them to take a leap with their practice. Makaremi has worked with a number of Bay Area organizations, such as the San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery, Makaan Artist Residency, 500 Capp Street Foundation, Southern Exposure, Zamin Project, SF Camerawork, and SOMArts. Makaremi received her BA from San Francisco State University in Studio Art and Art History.

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