ATMOSPHERIC

Gearbox Gallery is pleased to present Atmospheric, a two-person exhibition featuring new work by San Francisco-based artists, Rachel Major and Scott Idleman. Though visually distinct, their practices converge around shared concerns of process, perception, and the dynamic relationship between structure and spontaneity.

Rachel’s paintings are created through a process of dripping paint onto canvas, resulting in richly layered surfaces that explore texture, color, and the balance between control and chance. The series is inspired by her daily encounters with the landscape surrounding her home in San Francisco’s Richmond District—a quiet, often fog-laden neighborhood bordered by Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, and Ocean Beach. Her work reflects the shifting moods of this coastal environment, particularly the San Francisco Bay, the Marin Headlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge as they emerge and recede through fog. The recurring acts of covering and revealing in these paintings echo the rhythms of the landscape itself.

Scott Idleman’s work similarly inhabits a space between intention and intuition. His grid-based dot series celebrates intersections: science and art, nostalgia and futurity, the organic and the artificial, isolation and community. Drawing from his family’s heritage of textile-making, Idleman merges meticulous patterning with imagined skyscapes and aerial perspectives—an enduring fascination shaped by the view from above. Based in San Francisco’s Mission District, his practice is informed by the neighborhood’s vibrant energy and colorful mural culture, translating urban vitality into structured yet atmospheric compositions.

Together, the works in Atmospheric offer a meditation on place, process, and perception—inviting viewers to consider how environment, memory, and material intersect to shape visual experience.