Sonoma County’s sheer natural beauty and general creative ambience entices visitors, as well as long-time residents to explore the many and varied fine art offerings. With the addition of great food, drink, and outdoor activities, it’s easy to spend a day, a week, or a lifetime traversing through the vineyards, forests, and rolling hills, along the scenic coast, and through the welcoming towns of Sonoma County.
This month some new exhibitions involve printmaking at the Graton Gallery as well as the Ren Brown Collection; inspirations from nature at various venues; and the history of Punk culture at the Museum of Sonoma County.
The following is a partial list of local art exhibitions. Many eateries, wineries, and civic buildings also present changing art shows in their spaces.
*** Designates an Opening Reception.
Arts Guild of Sonoma
April 1 through April 27, Emerging Artists: Student Art Exhibition
*** Artists Reception and ArtWalk Thursday, April 2 from 5 to 7 p.m.
Also showing work by guest artist, Amy S. Kelly. Kelly is a mixed media artist and painter. She has a BA in Art from the University of the Pacific with an emphasis in textile design and has spent more than three decades working in the interior design industry.
April 2 ArtWalk, from 5 to 7 p.m., includes the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, where the exhibition Maija Peeples-Bright: Life is Just a Bowl of Terriers will be open free of charge. Music at the Mission and the Mission Gallery showcases the historic Chris Jorgensen collection of watercolors painted in 1903 to document California Missions. Trashion Fashion’s popular Barbies and Bags will be on display at the Sonoma Community Center. Additionally over 20 local artists will be exhibiting their work.
140 E. Napa St., Sonoma
707-996-3115
www.artsguildofsonoma.org
Charles M. Schulz Museum
Through September 16, Snoopy’s Family
Snoopy once claimed to be an “only dog,” but we know that’s not true! Enjoy an in-depth look at Snoopy’s family with original Peanuts art by Charles M. Schulz, animation cels, and products. Learn about Daisy Hill Farm, Snoopy’s parents, his siblings, and how they became a part of Peanuts.
2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa
707-579-4452
www.schulzmuseum.org
Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery
204 N. Cloverdale Boulevard, Cloverdale
707-894-4410
www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org
Corricks Art Trails Gallery/ My Daughter the Framer
637 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa
707-546-2424
www.corricks.com
Erickson Fine Art Gallery
Through April 21, Susan Hall; The Ordinary Sublime
In her oil paintings Hall explores the sublime aspects of the ordinary things in life. The artist states that “Because my ongoing inspiration resides in what I live with, see, and use in my daily life I am not committed to particular subject matter, but rather to the sublime aspects I feel and see in them.”
324 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg
707-431-7073
www.ericksonfineartgallery.com
Fulton Crossing Art Gallery
1200 River Rd., Fulton
www.fultoncrossing.com/exhibitions
Graton Gallery
April 2 through May 10, Printers Ink—Expressions in Printmaking
*** Reception Saturday, April 4, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Featuring prints by Rik Olson and Mark Ross, with guest artists Livia Knight, Craig Magoon, Karen Purdy, and Linda Schroeter.
9048 Graton Road, Graton
707-829-8912
www.gratongallery.net
Hammerfriar Gallery
Through July 11, Forms in Flux
Kerry Vander Meer and Laura Van Duren bring together their shared love of organic abstract forms using a variety of materials and bold colors. Together, their work reflects forms in continual transformation evolving through intuitive processes.
132 Mill St, Healdsburg
707-473-9600
https://www.hammerfriar.com/art-gallery
Healdsburg Center for the Arts
Through April 5, For the Love of Art
This show brings together works made with passion, curiosity, and devotion, inviting viewers to experience art not just as something to see, but something to feel. It’s an ode to the joy of making, the pleasure of looking and experiencing art.
April 4 through May 30, An Abstract Vision
*** Artists Reception April 11 from 4 to 6 p.m.
334 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-1970
healdsburgcenterforthearts.org
IceHouse Gallery / Digital Grange
April 4 through May 1, Lynda Nugent: Reflections on Nature
*** Opening reception Saturday, April 4 from 5 to 7 p.m.
This collection of drawings and watercolor paintings tracks an ongoing exploration of observation, process, and material. Working primarily on Mylar, Nugent uses polychromes, graphite, ink, and watercolor to investigate the relationship between precision and unpredictability. The drawings emerge through a slow accumulation of marks, where obsessive detail becomes a form of sustained attention. In contrast, the watercolor works introduce a fluid, responsive element—pigment moving across the surface with its own logic, creating moments that cannot be fully anticipated. Together, these works reflect a practice grounded in close looking and openness to surprise, where process becomes a way of engaging with the natural world.
405 East D St., Petaluma
707-778-2238
www.digitalgrange.com
Laguna Foundation, Heron Hall
900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa
707-527-9277
www.lagunafoundation.org
Museum of Sonoma County
Art
Through May 24, Artistry in Wood
Artistry in Wood, presented in collaboration with the Sonoma County Woodworkers Association, showcases fine woodwork by local and regional artists. Now in its 36th year, Artistry is one of the most respected juried shows of woodwork in the state, and a perennial favorite for museum visitors.
History
April 18 through August 23, Disturbing the Peace: Sonoma County’s Early Punk Underground
*** Opening reception Friday, April 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. with an afterparty sponsored by KQED from 8 to 11 p.m.
In the 1970s and ’80s, as their parents settled in the suburbs or got “back to the land,” a generation of disaffected youth in Sonoma County channeled their alienation into a subculture that would grow to become a cultural force: the underground punk scene. With photos, flyers, records, zines, videos, listening stations and more, Disturbing the Peace chronicles the impact of Sonoma County’s flourishing punk movement that continues to reverberate today. A first-of-its-kind visual and audio history of Sonoma County’s punk scene, Disturbing the Peace is guest curated by Gabe Meline, KQED’s Senior Editor of Arts and Culture. A Santa Rosa native, Gabe evidences his love of the punk scene (as both musician and fan) in the artifacts and details gathered for this exhibition.
425 Seventh Street, Santa Rosa
707-579-1500
www.museumsc.org
Occidental Center for the Arts
April 4 through May 9, Energy
*** Artists’ Reception and People’s Choice Award April 17, from 2 to 4 p.m.
An all-media exhibition focusing on Energy; that which cannot be created nor destroyed. It is both intangible and tangible at the same time. You can feel it, but you cannot touch it. Controlling energy has challenged inventors for generations.
3850 Doris Murphy Court, Occidental
707-874-9392
www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org
Paul Mahder Gallery
Through April 12, Omar d’Leon; In Memoriam–Paintings & Drawings
Omar D’León was a visionary multidisciplinary artist whose work explored identity, memory, and cultural lineage through painting, mixed media, and installation. Deeply influenced by personal history and broader social narratives, his art bridged abstraction and figuration to examine themes of belonging, resilience, and transformation. Known for his evocative use of color, texture, and symbolic imagery, D’León created works that were both intimate and expansive, inviting viewers into spaces of reflection and emotional connection.
222 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg
707-473-9150
www.paulmahdergallery.com
Petaluma Arts Center
Through April 18, Americana Reimagined
This juried exhibition looks beyond nostalgia to examine how familiar symbols, stories, and styles evolve over time—bridging the past and present through creativity and craft.
Also on view, States of Anxiety, States of Hope | Works by Inez Storer
States of Anxiety, States of Hope presents a selection of works by artist Inez Storer that reflect on the emotional, cultural, and political complexities of contemporary life.
In Conversation with Inez Storer: Sunday, April 12, from 4 to 5 p.m. An afternoon conversation with Inez about her approach to artmaking, her family history, and the stories that inform her art. Q&A to follow. $15 members; $20 non-members.
707-762-5600
www.petalumaartscenter.org
Ren Brown Collection Gallery
April 1 through May 31, What are Moku Hanga?
Moku Hanga is Japanese for woodblock prints. The show is an exploration of the many ways woodblock printing is used by Japanese and American artists. There will be examples of chine collé, embossing, and combinations of printmaking techniques. Housed in a refurbished building with shoji and a small, serene Japanese garden, the gallery shows contemporary art by Japanese and regional Northern California artists.
1781 Coast Highway One, Bodega Bay
707-875-2922
www.renbrown.com
Santa Rosa Arts Center
Through April 25, Shadows and Reflections
The artist’s use of shadows and reflections on a subject can impact how the images are perceived by the viewer.
April 3 through May 30, A Many Splendored Spring
*** Artists Reception Friday, April 3 from 5 to 8 p.m.
A Many Splendored Spring focuses on the stunning revival of life and light that underpins a new season of rebirth and growth, changing colors and forms.
SOFA Arts District
312 South A Street, Santa Rosa
707-526-0135
santarosaartscenter.org/
Santa Rosa Junior College, Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery
Through April 2, New Faculty Showcase
The New Faculty Showcase is a group show featuring and welcoming five new members of the SRJC Art Department faculty; Kaela Barker, Ryna Frankel, Laeh Glenn, Hwei-Li Tsao, and Anna Valdez.
1501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa
707-527-4298
art-gallery.santarosa.edu/current-exhibits
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Through May 3, Pulp • Paper • Book
This juried exhibition features works by book makers, papermakers, and printmakers, including all forms of pulp manipulation. Jurors: Barbara Kibbe: Quinn Keck.
282 South High St., Sebastopol
707-829-4797
www.sebarts.org
Sebastopol Gallery
Through May 30, Into the Light
*** Reception April 25, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Light-filled paintings by Katy Boggs are an exploration of light—how it shapes form, reveals color, and defines what we see. She is drawn to moments where light is felt as much as seen: filtering through dense leaves, towering in the crowns of trees, glinting off cresting waves, or softening into the quiet glow of a sunset.
150 N. Main St, Sebastopol
707-829-7200
https://www.sebastopolgallery.com
Sofie Contemporary Arts
1407 Lincoln Avenue, Calistoga
707-942-4231
www.sofiegallery.com
Sonoma State University, University Art Gallery
*** April 4, Art from the Heart, Silent Auction and party from 5 to 8 p.m.
Preview exhibition April 2 & 3, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
42nd Annual benefit and party, live music, refreshments, lots of art and artists.
April 23 through May 23, The 2026 BFA Exhibition
*** Opening Reception Thursday, April 23, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The BFA degree is distinguished from the BA by its rigorous, studio-intensive curriculum. The program requires an additional year of focused study, including advanced coursework in studio art, art history, and art theory. Often regarded as the degree of choice for students pursuing graduate or professional studies, the BFA fosters significant artistic development within a concentrated creative environment. For both students and faculty, this exhibition represents a culminating achievement—an opportunity to present a carefully curated selection of each artist’s strongest work in a professional gallery setting, exhibited alongside their peers.
1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park
707-664-2295
https://artgallery.sonoma.edu
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Through April 26, Maija Peeples-Bright: Life is Just a Bowl of Terriers
Maija Peeples-Bright is one of the few women artists associated with Northern California’s Funk Art Movement of the late 1960s and ’70s. Peeples-Bright’s wildly inventive practice comprises robust compositions bustling with animals of all kinds—her “beasties” as she calls them—forming surreal, imaginative landscapes in audacious impasto. Her zoological arrangements represent alternate realities, infusing exuberance and a sense of the absurd into impossible scenarios. Highly distinctive, her textural creature patterns revel in the extreme, often taking up every inch of the canvas, multiplying her beasties into dizzying arrangements. The exhibition features a retrospective look at Peeples-Bright’s career, from her early days of the Funk Movement to today.
551 Broadway, Sonoma
707-939-7862
www.svma.org
Studio LZ
429 1st Street, Suite 130, Petaluma
www.studiolz.net
Upstairs Art Gallery
Through April 26, The Poetic Landscape
*** Reception Saturday, April 4, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Karen Miller presents The Poetic Landscape, pastel paintings that convey Miller’s personal experience in connecting with the intrinsic beauty of natural places. In these pieces, color, fluid shapes and rhythmic design combine to create an uplifting mood – a true poetic interlude. Meet the artist: Miller will be hosting the Gallery on April 5 & 15 from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The Stairway Smallworks Showcase features Phyllis Rapp’s Magic Moments, a collection of watercolors that create an atmosphere which is both introspective and magical. Familiar domestic scenes are transformed as humans interact with animals and birds in floral settings. Meet the artist: Rapp will be hosting the Gallery on April 10 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
306 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-4214
www.Upstairsartgallery.net
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