Artists Over 70 (431 artist entries)
November 2026
Of the 431 entries, 269 state a birth year; 162 (38%) do not, and those artists are left out of this page. Among the entries with a birth year, 57 living artists were born in 1956 or earlier and are 70 or older in 2026, about 21% of the known group. 2 are in their 90s, 19 in their 80s and 36 in their 70s.
On museum and biennial shows, artists over 70 look much like those born between 1957 and 1975; the sharp break comes with artists born from 1976 on. Where the over-70s stand apart is in medium, schooling and where they live: more video, film and conceptual art, more SF State and UC Berkeley graduates, and homes spread more widely across the region.
| 70+ (born ≤1956) | Born 1957–1975 | Born 1976 or later | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artists | 57 | 78 | 133 |
| Median exhibitions listed | 10 | 10 | 9 |
| Any museum or biennial show | 91% | 87% | 68% |
| Any biennial | 37% | 38% | 12% |
| Shown at SFMOMA | 14% | 29% | 14% |
| Shown at BAMPFA | 21% | 22% | 8% |
| Shown at the Whitney | 21% | 18% | 5% |
| Any non-collecting institution | 61% | 68% | 68% |
| Tagged international | 65% | 55% | 48% |
| Tagged queer | 11% | 9% | 11% |
| Tagged painting | 39% | 41% | 48% |
| Tagged sculpture | 32% | 41% | 40% |
| Tagged installation | 40% | 41% | 32% |
| Tagged video | 28% | 17% | 14% |
| Tagged film | 16% | 8% | 7% |
| Tagged photography | 23% | 19% | 20% |
| Tagged drawing | 21% | 26% | 31% |
| Tagged performance | 12% | 5% | 11% |
| Tagged conceptual art | 11% | 4% | 6% |
| Tagged printmaking | 11% | 12% | 17% |
| Tagged public art | 12% | 8% | 19% |
| Tagged textiles | 2% | 10% | 14% |
| Any Bay Area school tag | 46% | 56% | 59% |
| Tagged sfai | 18% | 10% | 17% |
| Tagged ucberkeley | 18% | 18% | 7% |
| Tagged sfstate | 16% | 5% | 5% |
| Tagged cca | 4% | 19% | 27% |
| Tagged stanford | 0% | 9% | 10% |
| Lives in San Francisco | 40% | 44% | 47% |
| Lives in Oakland | 12% | 23% | 31% |
| Lives in Berkeley | 16% | 14% | 4% |
| Lives elsewhere in the Bay Area | 32% | 19% | 18% |
What they share with younger artists. Entries for artists over 70 are no longer than anyone else’s (a median of 10 exhibitions listed, the same as the younger groups), so the differences below are not simply a matter of longer entries. Painting, sculpture and installation lead in every age group, the queer tag appears at about the same rate (11% against 10% for those under 70), and San Francisco is the most common home for all three groups.
Where they differ. Museums: 91% of artists over 70 list a museum or biennial show, close to the 87% of those born 1957–1975 but well above the 68% of those born from 1976 on; biennials follow the same pattern. Their museum record leans toward BAMPFA and the Whitney rather than SFMOMA (BAMPFA 21%, Whitney 21%, SFMOMA 14%, against 29% SFMOMA for the 1957–1975 group), and fewer list non-collecting spaces (61% against 68% of the youngest group). Medium: video (28%), film (16%) and conceptual art (11%) are about twice as common as among those born from 1976 on. Artists over 70 with these tags include Paul Kos, Tom Marioni, Howard Fried, Doug Hall, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Craig Baldwin and Trinh T. Minh-ha. Textiles, printmaking, public art and drawing are more common among younger artists. School: the school tags shift with age. SF State (16%) and UC Berkeley (18%) are prominent among the over-70s, while CCA (4% against 27% for the youngest group) and Stanford (0%) are rare. Place: artists over 70 live across a wider area than younger ones, with more in Berkeley and in Marin, Sonoma, Solano and the outer East Bay (32% live outside San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley, against 18% of the youngest group), and fewer in Oakland.
The 162 entries without a birth year differ from the dated ones: they more often carry social practice (20% against 6%), performance (28% against 10%) and installation tags, and fewer list a museum or biennial show (65% against 78%). Some of them may also be over 70.
| Artist | Born | Age in 2026 | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carmen de Monteflores | 1933 | 93 | Berkeley |
| Oliver Lee Jackson | 1935 | 91 | Oakland |
| Tom Marioni | 1937 | 89 | San Francisco |
| Bill Owens | 1938 | 88 | Livermore |
| Ron Nagle | 1939 | 87 | San Francisco |
| Lynn Hershman Leeson | 1941 | 85 | San Francisco |
| Rupert Garcia | 1941 | 85 | Oakland |
| Paul Kos | 1942 | 84 | San Francisco |
| Stephanie Crawford | 1942 | 84 | Oakland |
| Tony May | 1942 | 84 | San Jose |
| Al Farrow | 1943 | 83 | Marin County |
| Michael Cooper | 1943 | 83 | Sebastopol |
| Nancy Selvin | 1943 | 83 | Berkeley |
| Nathaniel Dorsky | 1943 | 83 | San Francisco |
| Betty Kano | 1944 | 82 | Berkeley |
| Doug Hall | 1944 | 82 | San Francisco |
| David Best | 1945 | 81 | Petaluma |
| Diane Andrews Hall | 1945 | 81 | San Francisco |
| Linda Fleming | 1945 | 81 | Benicia |
| Mildred Howard | 1945 | 81 | Oakland |
| Howard Fried | 1946 | 80 | Vallejo |
| Bernie Lubell | 1947 | 79 | San Francisco |
| Squeak Carnwath | 1947 | 79 | Oakland |
| Nancy White | 1948 | 78 | San Francisco |
| Paul DeMarinis | 1948 | 78 | Stanford / San Francisco Bay Area |
| Dewey Crumpler | 1949 | 77 | Oakland |
| Lenore Chinn | 1949 | 77 | San Francisco |
| Richard Misrach | 1949 | 77 | Berkeley |
| Hal Fischer | 1950 | 76 | San Francisco |
| Mark Thompson | 1950 | 76 | Orinda |
| Bart Hopkin | 1952 | 74 | San Anselmo |
| Bob Jones | 1952 | 74 | Vallejo |
| Chester Arnold | 1952 | 74 | Sonoma |
| Craig Baldwin | 1952 | 74 | San Francisco |
| Janet Delaney | 1952 | 74 | Berkeley |
| Katherine Sherwood | 1952 | 74 | Rodeo |
| Michael Naimark | 1952 | 74 | San Francisco |
| Trinh T. Minh-ha | 1952 | 74 | Berkeley |
| Catherine Wagner | 1953 | 73 | San Francisco |
| Enrique Chagoya | 1953 | 73 | San Francisco |
| Helen De Michiel | 1953 | 73 | Albany |
| Jim Goldberg | 1953 | 73 | Cotati |
| Naomie Kremer | 1953 | 73 | Berkeley |
| Annie Sprinkle | 1954 | 72 | San Francisco |
| Arthur Gonzalez | 1954 | 72 | Alameda |
| Deborah Oropallo | 1954 | 72 | West Marin |
| Isabella Kirkland | 1954 | 72 | Sausalito |
| Maria Porges | 1954 | 72 | Oakland |
| Amy Trachtenberg | 1955 | 71 | San Francisco |
| Guillermo Gómez-Peña | 1955 | 71 | San Francisco |
| Ishan Clemenco | 1955 | 71 | San Francisco |
| Jeanne Finley | 1955 | 71 | San Francisco |
| Leonie Guyer | 1955 | 71 | San Francisco |
| Jim Campbell | 1956 | 70 | San Francisco |
| John Zurier | 1956 | 70 | Berkeley |
| Judith Belzer | 1956 | 70 | Berkeley |
| Pamela Z | 1956 | 70 | San Francisco |
Method: birth years come from each entry’s bio (e.g. “born in 1945”, “b. 1945”); no outside sources were used. Age is given as the age reached in 2026, so the 4 artists born in 1956 are counted whether or not their birthday has passed. 162 of 431 entries (38%) state no birth year and are excluded throughout. Museum, biennial and non-collecting figures use the same classification as Museum Exhibitions. Location is taken from each entry’s Location line.