Born: 1963, Big Sur, California
Education: Reed College, Portland, Oregon

Exhibitions: Click Here for a recent list

Erin Gafill's roots in the arts run deep. Her great-great grandmother was painter Jane Gallatin Powers, who co-founded the artist's colony Carmel-by-the-Sea and who had the first artist's studio there. Gafill's grandparents Lolly and Bill Fassett built Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur, a legendary watering hole for artists, poets, writers, and bohemians. In this creative milieu, Gafill's creative interests in art-making were nurtured.

Gafill's maternal uncle Kaffe Fassett is a renowned textile designer, her mother Holly Fassett is known locally for her expressive landscape painting, and son Chi Birmingham was selected this year (2006) as a foremost emerging artist under 30 by Southwest Art Magazine. In this family of artists, Gafill has explored mosaic making, textiles, and a broad panoply of crafts, each of which has lent structure, variety and depth to her painting practice.

In 1998, Gafill co-founded Big Sur Arts Initiative, a nonprofit arts education organization dedicated to nurturing art and culture in the Big Sur community. With BSAI, Gafill works to instill these values in the ongoing educational processes of local youth while collaborating with arts agencies to promote opportunity for artists throughout the region.

An award-winning writer, painter, and teacher, Gafill's work is collected internationally. In 2001, the artist was chosen as the first American artist-in-residence of the Hamada International Children's Art Museum, Hamada, Japan. Works from this trip were displayed at the Hamada Museum and at the Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, California. The artist has been honored with grants from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Turner Youth Initiative, and other local foundations for her on-going work in arts education.