Miriam C. and Ray Rice Artwork

You may be aware that the Miriam C. and Raymond Rice Papers, an archive of papers and films, was acquired by Special Collections at the UC Santa Cruz Library in 2022. Two years later, the gallery Lost Art Salon purchased the Rice family’s collection of artworks with the promise to restore and disseminate them through its brick-and-mortar and online galleries.

Lost Art Salon is a San Francisco-based gallery that specializes in rediscovering historically significant artists and curating fine art collections that reflect the major styles and movements of the Modern Era.

As of June 2026, artwork by both of the Rices is available for sale at:

Lost Art Salon
245 South Van Ness Ave
San Francisco 94103

WPA Artists: Depression-Era Realism to Abstract Surrealism
Presented by Rob Delamater, Gaetan Caron and Team
Thursday, June 11, 2026 at 6-7 pm  — free

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the United States did something extraordinary: it put artists to work. This talk explores how artists captured the stories of everyday Americans—past and present, urban and rural—and how their work helped shape a new vision and identity for the country.

Drawing from newly arrived historic Salon collections by Ray and Miriam Rice, Basil Hawkins, Ben Messick, and Eugene Zaikine, the talk traces this pivotal moment in American art—examining both those who officially worked for the WPA and those who worked in a related style—and follows how many of these artists later turned toward the avant-garde language of abstraction and surrealism in the postwar years.

It is important to RSVP for the talk, but if you can’t make it in person, it will be live on Lost Art Salon’s Instagram and posted to Instagram the next day. A few days later, it will be posted to YouTube.