Amid the wilds of Northern California, I’ve developed a heightened awareness of the coastal forest. My work is a rewilding—both of the wilderness outside and within. Rooted in drawing, my paintings reimagine the landscape into abstract ideograms. Using thinned, watery acrylics and oils, I pursue imagery with immediacy, often emerging as mystical characters. Through capturing these elements, I seek to preserve our instinctual essence, upholding fundamental values of truth and presence—as confident as the rock and ocean from which we were made.
Toby Hill (b. San Francisco, 1962) was raised in New York and is now based in Anderson Valley, Mendocino County, California. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California College of the Arts and studied under New Yorker cartoonist Sam Gross at the School of Visual Arts. Hill began his exhibition career in New York in the late 1980s before returning to northern California. Before fully transitioning from artisan to artist, he worked as an integral color wall plaster muralist and winemaker. Influenced by the Cobra School of painting, he has shown regularly in the California region since 2021.
CV
Lives and works in Philo, CA and San Francisco
Education
California College of the Arts, BFA, 1992
CSU, Chico, BA Painting, Drawing 1984
School of Visual Arts, NYC 1983
Exhibitions:
2025 (Re)Constructed Worlds, San Francisco Art Fair, Curated by Callie Jones & Julia Li
2024 Anywhere But Here, Medium Gallery Ukiah, CA, Group Exhibition.
2023 Bit by Bit, Gallery 60Six, San Francisco, CA. Pop Up Group Exhibition.
2023 First Person: Explorations in Printmaking, Mendocino College Gallery.
2022 Night Garden, Gallery 60Six, San Francisco, CA. Pop Up Group Exhibition.
2021 Unveilings Lansing Street Gallery, Mendocino, CA.
2008-2022 Fermentations, Winemaker, Philo, CA, Anderson Valley.
1997-2008 Speaking Walls, Colored Plaster Wall Art Installations, San Francisco, CA.
1996-2000 The Point, Hunters Point Shipyard, San Francisco, CA.
1992 Mondo Materials, Traveling Group Exhibition - Steelcase Design.
1988 Art Against Aids, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY. Group Exhibition.
1988 13 over 13, Sag Harbor, NY, Group Exhibition. Curated by Susan Rush. Review by Robert Long, East Hampton Star.
1988 20 under 30, Watermill Museum, Watermill NY, Group Exhibition. Curated by Susan Rush.
1988 20 under 30, Wunsch Art Center Glen Cove, NY. Group Exhibition. Review by Karen Lipson, New York Times.