Hughen/Starkweather's New Piece for Samuel Merritt University
- Oct 10, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 17, 2025
Visual artist, board member and Briarcombe Institute alumna Amanda Hughen, along with her collaborator Jennifer Starkweather, was featured on the front page of the SF Chronicle! The article focused on Hughen/Starkweather’s recently unveiled piece on the facade of the new Samuel Merritt University campus in downtown Oakland.
"Hughen/Starkweather’s 10 story painted waterways of Lake Merritt past present and future are layered with concrete molds of human cellular shapes alluding to the relationship between waterways, ecosystems, and human health. These repeated cellular forms ascend the facade and reference wings of birds and butterflies, and patterns of light on water’s surface. These are elements central to nearby Lake Merritt, a tidal marsh and the oldest wildlife refuge in the United States." (SF Chronicle)
Hughen/Starkweather’s work has also been shown a bit closer to the institute, at the Bolinas Museum, where their unique pieces mix painting and sculptural elements to investigate our need for, and destruction of, the world’s freshwater resources. Some of these pieces were offered at the Bolinas Museum Benefit Party last week.
The artists also presented and discussed their work during an exhibition at the St. Joseph’s Art Society. This kind of conversation around art and the natural world are an invaluable part of our culture and our lives, and continue to be a significant part of our work at Briarcombe.
It has been an honor work with Amanda, and to provide a space for her to explore, experiment, and express her artistic practice at the Briarcombe Institute. Hughen/Starkweather continue to push the boundaries of how we understand and represent the ways our built environment meets, and is intertwined with, water and the natural world.
