Randy Gaul’s INNER WORKINGS | Opening Night

Before an extraordinary world reaches the screen, someone has to imagine it. Randy Gaul has spent a career doing just that, contributing artwork to films including A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Despicable Me. His experience as a concept designer at Industrial Light & Magic is part of the creative journey behind Inner Workings, opening October 22 at 111 Minna Gallery.

Join Randy for an evening of original artwork, conversation, and discovery. Explore intricate creatures, imagined landscapes, and illuminated sculptures that reveal the personal imagination of an artist whose professional work helps bring cinematic stories to life.

These pieces have stories of their own. A tree root spotted on a walk inspires a forest inhabitant. A dream becomes a creature that might exist beneath the skin. A conversation with the gallery’s owner leads to a darkly comic holiday house built around its familiar red door. Across the exhibition, humor, unease, and wonder invite you to look closer and ask how these worlds began.

Opening the same evening and on display concurrently, Passion Projects SF: The Artist Behind the Effect features Joel Aron, Leigh Barbier, John Bell, Joe Ceballos, Jiri Jacknowitz, and Kim Smith. Their careers span visual effects, animation, model making, design, and post-production, with deep connections to Industrial Light & Magic and the Bay Area film community. Their paintings, drawings, and photographs offer another view of the creativity behind the screen.

Together, these distinct exhibitions create an occasion for the Bay Area’s artists, filmmakers, designers, students, collectors, and curious film fans to gather. Come meet Randy, discover the work, and connect with others who share your fascination with how an idea becomes an image, a character, or an entire world.

Thursday, October 22, 2026
5–10 PM
111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna Street, San Francisco
21+