Author: NIAD Art Center
In Memoriam: NIAD artist Erika Martinez
Dear NIAD Community, This week, we share with a heavy heart the news of Erika Martinez’s passing. A NIAD artist for 17 years, Erika was a pillar of NIAD’s community, and a treasure to her family, to whom we extend our deep condolences. Her many friends remember her as kind, loving, fierce in her joy and inimitable style, and intensely dedicated to her relationships, as well as her work as an artist. “Her mischievous streak was enviable”; “Her friendships remain so special and everlasting”; “I remember her hellos in the morning where she would say, ‘Hey, it’s me!’—and indeed it was.” These are just Read More …
Jean McElvane’s Top 20 Easter Favorites
NIAD artist Jean McElvane serves up another seasonal playlist! Jean says: Happy Easter, everyone. Top 20 favorites for Easter coming up. Enjoy. 1🐰 – (Easter Yeggs) 2🐰 – (I Want It Now) 3🐰 – (Veruca Salt Oompa Loompa Song) 4🐰 – (Veruca Salt Oompa Loompa Song in Reverse) 5🐰 – (A Family Circus Easter) 6🐰 – (M&M Easter Bunny Commercial 1) – 2 versions, this one I remember as a kid ‘cuz of the music. I hope it never goes away. 6🐰 – (M&M Easter Bunny Commercial 2) – This one has children singing in the background 7🐰 – (Cadbury Read More …
NIAD Online Exhibition // “Can’t Be Shook” selected by Alex Gartelmann
About the exhibition The invitation to curate this exhibition initially felt like an insurmountable task. The amount of work I felt thrilled by on a first look at the archive seemed impossible to winnow down. I immediately knew I didn’t want to use some contrived academic framework for decision making. I wanted to create an exhibition of works that I just couldn’t shake, a group of things that struck that deep internal chord which has no words or explanation. I decided that I would make an initial large list of things I was drawn to, and then revisit those lists repeatedly over several weeks, seeing what remained stuck in Read More …
Creepy Comix from the Michael Nuñez Vault, Part 1: “The hunger of the Wendigo”
You probably know his movie posters, and you might’ve seen his historical scenes, but even hardcore Michael Nuñez fans don’t know about his zines, chock full of the incredible detail, canny framing, and fantastical monsters we all know and love. You can find Michael’s work in SFMOMA’s Library/Archives, but we’re making it more accessible here, for the first time. Enjoy! When it was 12:00am it was time to get in and get some sleep. … but not before they sleep they decided to have some passion. Bu then… (Animal like scream)!! Want to find out what horrifying thing Daniel saw Read More …
NIAD Gallery Exhibition // “Superbloom,” organized by Erin McCluskey Wheeler
About the exhibition It’s not a superbloom year. It’s not one of those years where the rain fall gives us an explosion of colorful flowers in the desert. But it is spring. There are still median strips full of poppies and untended lots full of lupines and purple vetch. There are bright yellow dandelions growing despite everything. There are the plum trees blossoming then letting loose their purple leaves and then the cherry trees blooming and letting loose their green leaves. These moments of color, of unexpected brightness, bring me so much happiness and ground me to the earth. I Read More …
NIAD Online Exhibition // “DESIRE, DESIRE,” selected by Diego Leclery
About the exhibition Being brought up in a culture oriented towards consumption, self-gratification, and self-fulfillment, one learns not only what to desire but how to desire, where to situate one’s desire in relation to the self, all desire’s dimensions. The goal of this hegemonic cultural project is to eventually make one lose the sense of self beyond that desire, and be left with nothing but desire. “What I want” and “who I am” become one, and the cultural program, determining what these desires are, can control our sense of ourselves. There are many ways of dealing with this predicament, from Read More …
NIAD Online Exhibition // “Luxe, calme, et volupté,” selected by Lou Mo
About the exhibition Henri Matisse painted Luxe, calme, et volupté more than a hundred years ago. Today, the vibrantly coloured Fauvist painting keeps instilling a sense of warmth and repose. Luxury, peace and pleasure indeed. At the moment, many of us may not be feeling at ease. To state the obvious, there’s an unfinished pandemic and a war raging once again in Europe. These are difficult times and many futures seem possible. Times are trying. Change and anxiety cannot be avoided. Very often, the extra toiling accumulates upon the female and/or racialized body. Labor and care, both physical and emotional, are often Read More …
Off-Site Exhibition // Peter Harris in “Layers Upon Layers” at Archival Gallery, Sacramento
March 3-26, 2022 About the exhibition Layers Upon Layers is a curated ceramics show in celebration of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) regional event, held in Sacramento from March 3-26, 2022. Local ceramicist Shenny Cruces serves as curator and coordinator. Please contact the gallery directly for purchase inquiries. Artists in the Exhibition Peter Harris Jennifer Brazelton Gary Carlos Shenny Cruces Tomoko Nakazato Tiffany Schmierer Shannon Sullivan Sharon Virtue
NIAD Online Exhibition // “DreamForms” selected by Lauren Ari and Julio Del Rio
About the exhibition This online NIAD exhibition is in conjunction with DreamForms, curated by Roberto Martinez, currently at the Richmond Art Center. It represents the ceramic visions of Julio del Rio and (myself) Lauren Ari. I had the pleasure of being a painting instructor at NIAD where Julio Del Rio is a studio artist. I was inspired by the well of creativity, the open-heartedness and the community which is a sweet world unto itself. It has been a joy to go back and choose these works to share with you! “You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one Read More …
The Latest from NIAD: WIN WIN Thank You!
Dear NIAD Lovers: $47,000. Sometimes a number is so meaningful. This year, we asked our supporters to help us reach $40,000 at this year’s fundraiser, Win Win 10, to plant the seeds for NIAD’s next 40 years. You helped us sail past our goals, and into a new future. By some measures $47,000 may seem modest, but we’re already getting to work, purchasing new tables for the studio, upgrading computers and technology equipment, renovating NIAD’s building with key accessibility upgrades. In a continually growing nonprofit, $47,000 goes a long way toward anchoring our next decades in creating platforms for artist leadership, staff training, Read More …
NIAD Online Exhibition // “Auctionauts”
Auctions are unpredictable animals: they can get noisy, tense, wildly out of control. Add a dash of pandemic and a helping of Zoom, and you never quite know what you’re going to get. Lucky for you, there is a small grouping of highly collectible artworks from last weekend’s event that refused to be tamed by the auction format. These newly untethered works are collected in Auctionauts, and we’re making them available in a “buy it now” arrangement. (Endless thanks to the donating artists!) Browse at your leisure (no bidding necessary), but don’t wait too long—when they’re gone, they’re gone. Artists Read More …
NIAD Online Exhibition // “WIN WIN 10 Live Auction Sneak Preview”
About the Live Auction The WIN WIN 10 Live Auction features artworks donated by NIAD’s close friends, longtime studio artists, and supporting gallerists. These works are only available during WIN WIN 10’s Virtual Event, this Saturday March 5 from 2:00 to 3:30PM on zoom, so get your tickets today! Artists in the Live Auction Alicia McCarthy Marlon Mullen Sahar Khoury Maria Guzmán Capron Alice Wu Artsanda “Billy” White Sam Gant Janet Moore Chris Ballatyne Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo Jeremy Burleson
NIAD Online Exhibition // “Day or Night it looks like Night” organized by Liliana Herrera
About the exhibition The pieces in this exhibition were selected in a moment of uncertainty. The pandemic has affected each of us differently, but what can perhaps be agreed upon is that its longevity has worn on our collective morale. This was certainly the undercurrent of this grouping. Dorian Reid’s Day or Night it Looks Like Night, is a depiction of September 9, 2020, a day that those of us in the Bay Area remember all too well: the day we awoke to smoky red skies caused by surrounding wildfires. The ominous tones on the canvas continue to be relevant today. Read More …
NIAD Gallery Exhibition // “WIN WIN 10 Silent Auction Sneak Preview” organized by NIAD’s Exhibitions Team
About the exhibition More than fifty NIAD artists are featured in the WIN WIN 10 Silent Auction, currently open for bidding until the day of the live event. The Sneak Preview Exhibition is a salon-style installation that includes each and every piece of art included in the Silent Auction, hung closely together in a way that encourages conversations and highlights correspondences between each piece. The work in the exhibition represents the incredible breadth of art practices that NIAD artists maintain every day in the 23rd Street Studios. NIAD truly contains multitudes! NIAD’s Executive Director Amanda Eicher will be in the Read More …
NIAD Windows Exhibition // “6×6 x 6×6” organized by NIAD’s Exhibitions Team
About the exhibition Around about January, while the new year is still fresh, little square canvases start slowly piling up around the 23rd Street Studio like gorgeous stalagmites. Just before the stacks reach a tipping point, NIAD’s Exhibitions Team swoops in to arrange them in a tidy grid in the NIAD Windows. Each square – be it painting, photo, fiber, ceramic, sculpture, drawing – measures 6 inches by 6 inches. There is room for 48 of them in the Windows, but there’s nearly a hundred more, waiting to be hand-picked and shipped off to their forever homes to ultimately rest on the Read More …
NIAD Online Exhibition // “Eternal Idol” selected by Emily M. Harris
About Eternal Idol Eternal Idol, Rodin’s famous sculpture, was hewn in marble, plaster, and bronze. His repetition of form, motif, and emotion creates a complex awareness of this bundle of human desire, submission and adoration. To repeat renders the form repeatable. The red paint on the image painted by Guadalupe Soto adds a filter to the couple. The works selected for the online exhibition Eternal Idol together speak about everyday eternity, observing and repeating and tenderly attending to what we desire, submit to and adore. About Emily M. Harris Emily M. Harris is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist whose large-scale installations and intimate works Read More …