BAY LIFE 

Featuring artwork by 

Shrey Purohit

Bay Life is a love letter to the edge—where the land meets the water, where day turns into night, where city rhythm meets quiet reflection.

This series has been over a decade in the making. Since I first arrived as a tourist in the U.S. as a teenager, I’ve carried with me the memory of the Bay’s vast horizon. The scale, the distance, the layered light—these became visual anchors, returning again and again as I developed my voice as a painter.

Made between full-time jobs and after long days of curating, these works are an act of devotion. Painted at sunrise, at sunset, and in moments when the world slowed down enough to observe, Bay Life offers scenes of San Francisco in flux: piers glowing at golden hour, quiet boats drifting through morning fog, electric city streets reflecting burnt orange skies.

What ties them together, beyond location— is a sense of time, a longing for clarity, and a belief in beauty as resistance. In a year as heavy as 2025, I turned to the light on the water, the shadow under a bridge, the texture of tide marks on the beach—each painting a meditation on what it means to stay soft in hard times.

The materials are intentional. I’ve allowed the paint to move freely—drips, runs, and layers of transparent washes echo the natural movement of water and time. The result is a set of works that feel both grounded and impermanent—just like the city itself.

Bay Life invites you to pause. To see the city not as background noise but as a living, shifting landscape—one that holds joy, melancholy, wonder, and survival. It’s a reminder that even on the most difficult days, light still reflects back.

Artist Statement

Shrey Purohit (b. 1997, India) is a San Francisco-based painter whose work captures the poetry of urban life through richly layered cityscapes. Rooted in close observation and emotional memory, his paintings transform everyday scenes—fog-lined streets, glowing windows, shifting skylines—into quiet, luminous narratives.

Blending realism with perceptual nuance, Shrey’s palette distills light, weather, and atmosphere into compositions that feel both grounded and dreamlike. He is drawn to the overlooked: neighborhoods in transition, the subtle rhythm of residential streets, and the intimate scale of city living. In each painting, he seeks to hold onto moments of stillness and beauty amid a constantly changing urban environment.

Inspired by the visual language of plein air painting, cinema, and the layered histories of San Francisco, Shrey uses his brush to document resilience, impermanence, and the deep emotional ties we form with place. In addition to his painting practice, he curates exhibitions through ArtSpan and Ingleside Gallery, creating platforms that uplift emerging artists and deepen community engagement through the arts.