Author: NIAD Art Center

A two by three grid of six featured artworks in the "Color of Happiness" collection.

NIAD Holiday Gift Guide #2: “The Color of Happiness” collection by Rebecca Jantzen

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About “The Color of Happiness” collection “It was hard picking out [the collection] because there’s so many different styles and mediums. The happiness feeling is what they all have in common. People should buy art because it will make them feel happy!” About Rebecca Jantzen, the collector “I describe myself as visually impaired and learning disabled. I am a socially engaged artist who loves her art work. I love holidays and I like to make cards for special occasions. I like to draw things that brighten up my spirit and the day; images of peace, love and happiness. One of the reasons Read More …

NIAD Windows Exhibition: “Con Los Animales Estamos Conectados,” selected by Christo Oropeza

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About the exhibition:  I recently became a dog father of a small two-month-old puppy.  Over the months after his arrival, I have learned so much about myself through him: patience, being present in the moment, not holding people in time and space, and unconditional love.  I had no idea that this was the relationship that would be built between him and I, and it has rocked-my-socks off because of how much of a connection has and continues to develop.    Having worked with NIAD artists at SFMOMA’s Mini Mural Festival in the Summer of 2021, I was excited to do an Read More …

A collection of artworks featured in Samantha Kershner's "Mixed Media" Holiday Guide

NIAD Holiday Gift Guide #1: “Mixed Media” collection by Samantha Kershnar

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We are thrilled to kick off our NIAD Holiday Gift Guide series! Every week we’ll have a fresh collection of artwork from NIAD’s dazzlingly diverse inventory – paintings, afghan blankets, coloring books, planters, posters, necklaces, music, t-shirts, wallhangings, prints, greeting cards, zines, soft sculptures, ceramics, and more. And it’s all lovingly hand-picked by the art aficionados who know it best – NIAD studio artists and staff. Enjoy!   About the “Mixed Media” collection “Holidays bring family together. You remember people who aren’t with you. When you look at the gifts, they should make you think about the good times you Read More …

Online Exhibition: “Stories” selected by B. Wurtz

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About the Exhibition For this exhibition for NIAD I didn’t want to overthink the process. I decided to begin by going through all the available art and to notice things that kind of jumped out at me. I viewed everything one time and then went back a second time to select artworks. As I viewed the first group of selections I tried to see connections between the works. I noticed that there seemed to be a theme in many of the works that I would describe as being of a narrative nature. I am talking about implied narratives, nothing really Read More …

RSVP for Thirsty Tuesday

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Join us online from 6-7:00 PM PT, Tuesday November 9! NIAD Gallery Manager Julio Rodriguez will walk us through the November Windows Exhibition with curator and Director/Co-Founder of Incline Gallery Christo Oropeza. Tune in and you can meet friendly NIAD artists, studio facilitators, community members, and chat with the artists in the exhibition about their work! About Thirsty Thursday Hosted by Julio Rodriguez, NIAD’s Gallery Manager, Thirsty Thursday is our new event series bringing together artists and curators with interested people like you. Admission is free, but you must register to receive the Zoom link. 

Dorrie Reid’s “Evening With Jane Goodall”

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Yes, that’s NIAD Studio Artist Dorrie Reid participating in a Q&A session with Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace! Dorrie was invited to participate in the event by the Walt Disney Family Museum as part of a fundraiser for their arts and animation education programs. Anyone who knows Dorrie’s work – animals, advocacy, social and environmental justice are common themes – would agree that she and Dr. Goodall have much to talk about. Their interaction moved Dorrie to make a statement that she intends to send to Dr. Goodall: Dear Jane Read More …

Online Exhibition: “Memory” organized by Ling Shang

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About the Exhibition Memory can be buried deep in our mind. It emerges at a quiet moment, when looking through a window on a peaceful afternoon, or while mixing in a noisy crowd. Memory can come in colors, in detail, or totally abstract. Powerful, but impossible to describe in words.The selected works can be any part in our memories: those sweet, lonely, joyful, silly, bitter, innocent, or nonsensical moments. About the Organizer Born in Beijing, my understanding and sense on art come from the rich memories of the seemingly long past and my present life in lively everyday reality. My Read More …

A print of a person wearing a helmet an an armband that reads "police" about to bring their foot down on the face of a person lying on the sidewalk. A protest sign that reads "POLICE BRUTALITY" lies nearby, next to a vivid red brick wall.

Online Exhibition: “Edges of Attention” organized by Canela Art Gallery

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About the exhibition   We selected our favorite evocative works and put them into a virtual gallery.     There was so much amazing work to choose from, but we believe that these works in particular speak for themselves. Lastly, we also think these works exhibited together speak to this moment in America and how art represents what we give our attention to. * Seleccionamos nuestras obras evocadoras favoritas y las pusimos en una galería virtual. Había tantas obras para elegir, pero creemos que estas obras en particular hablan por sí mismas. Por último, también creemos que estas obras expuestas Read More …

An ink drawing of floating hearts surrounded by smaller hearts, large floating flowers with hearts on the petals, flowers surrounded by flowers, all shapes filled with thin washes of color, blotched here and there. Some are colored with pencil. The colors are varied and bright. The artist's signature is in the bottom right corner.

Online Exhibition: “A Firmament in the Midst of the Waters” organized by Jay Youngdahl

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About the exhibition   Viewers can learn much from the work of NIAD artists. Their work offers the viewer a recognition that life is often a jumble of color and form.  Things arise, and often not in a linear or scientific manner. In reviewing the NIAD catalog, a religious/spiritual theme emerges.  Based on the conception of the beginning of the world found in the Old Testament book of Genesis, out of a chaos a world is born. Let there be light. About the organizer Jay Youngdahl is an artist, writer, and activist. For the past few decades he has made his Read More …

NIAD Windows Exhibition: The Ultimate NIAD Hard-Core Horror Metal Art Show

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About the exhibition  “Bonfires burning brightPumpkin faces in the nightI remember Halloween … Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, HalloweenCandy apples and razor bladesLittle dead are soon in gravesI remember Halloween” -The Misfits About the organizer Alan Perez is an artist who is interested in the dark side. His work may not always be the nicest or the friendliest, but to be honest with you, he’s more interested in the darkness and mysteries of life.  From bands like Misfits to filmmakers like Tim Burton to writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Alan is very interested in popular culture’s ideas of the dark side, too. Read More …

A collage of pictures involving NIAD studio artist Deatra Colbert and her artwork.

From NIAD’s Director: Back to Studio!

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For 25 years, Deatra has had a truly legendary practice as a studio artist at NIAD.  Not only does Deatra work across mediums including fiber arts, printmaking, ceramics, drawing, and painting, she is a community connector.  And so it’s fitting that this year, she was one of the first artists to return to our 23rd Street studio to work in person. In the video below, she shares her personal approach to making sure life in the Virtual Studio and on-site at NIAD stay continuous. It’s all about friends – whether in the NIAD courtyard or studio, or on-screen in our Virtual Read More …

A screenprint portrait by NIAD studio artist Raven Harper in red ink of a female figure from the shoulders up. The words at the bottom of the print read "Rosa Parks".

Online Exhibition: “Super Powers” organized by Aubrey Ingmar Manson

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About the exhibition   As artists, we all have super powers. We can say what we feel and build worlds out of nothing. We can demand change and speak out about injustices. We can protest for our rights, freedoms, and share with others our views. It is the outside world viewed through the artist’s lens. Our powers are both inside and outside of us. Who among us will stand up for what they believe in? Who among us will help out? Who among us has a vision? Who among us desires change and progress? And who among us will do Read More …

A black ink drawing, smudged in some areas, with three crowded rows of bees filling the bottom half and three rough rows of winged figures in the top half, jostling each other for space.

Online Exhibition: Ravel, organized by Danny Volk

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About the exhibition   Ravel is an exhibition of two and three dimensional work that attracts with loose references leaving the mind to give up meaning in the pursuit of possibility. Recommended listening to accompany the viewing of the exhibition: Maurice Ravel’s Boléro. About the organizer Danny Volk received a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art from the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL) and a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Studies from Kent State University (Kent, OH). His recent exhibitions, screenings and performances include Mrs. Lincoln, What Did You Think of the Play at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (Milwaukee, WI), The News Gallery at SPACES (Cleveland, OH), The Read More …

an inky blue wash dilutes to a pale blue, shrouding a brilliantly red figure that gazes intensely at the viewer. The face of the figure is the same red as the body, which has no visible characteristics. Two blue eyes, a blue nose, an open red oval for a mouth. A bluish-green half-circle shape crowned with red dots is attached to the figure's cheek.

Online Exhibition: I See What You’re Feeling, organized by Daniel Krakauer

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About the exhibition   Have you ever met somebody whose emotions are so big they seem to fill up a room? These wonderful drawings remind me of those passionate people. Each subject fills their piece of paper with their emotions. Whether joyful, calm or anxious, their feelings permeate their faces, their bodies and even the spaces around them. Even when the backgrounds are empty, they are empty in ways that amplify the subjects’ inner states.  I don’t know these artists, so I can’t ask what they meant to say. But it’s art, so we each get to make up whatever Read More …

Thirsty Thursday Logo - a blue drop of water with "Th2" superimposed at the bottom and "Thirsty Thursday" underneath

RSVP for Thirsty Thursday – September 9

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Join us online from 6-7 PM PT, Thursday September! NIAD Gallery Manager Julio Rodriguez will waltz us through “Mis Figuras Favoritas,” the September Windows Exhibition featuring a lovely selection of new works on paper by NIAD studio artists and BFFs Carlota Rodriguez and Erica Martinez. Tune in and you can meet friendly NIAD artists, studio facilitators, community members, and chat with Erica or Carlota directly about their work! About the exhibition   This month, our Exhibitions Team has selected a collection of new works on paper by Carlota Rodriguez and Erika Martinez. Pre-pandemic, these two artists would usually sit close to Read More …

Three triangles are stacked on a background painted gray. These three triangles contain multiple other triangles, with bands of color and a blue or black border defining each triangle.

NIAD Windows Exhibition: Mis Figuras Favoritas – Carlota Rodriguez & Erika Martinez

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This month our Exhibitions Team has selected a collection of new works on paper by Carlota Rodriguez and Erika Martinez. Pre-pandemic, these two artists would usually sit close to each other when working in the studio, which would become apparent in their geometric abstractions. When NIAD moved to a Virtual Studio, Rodriguez and Martinez continued to create, though now only able to connect over Zoom. Despite the distance between them, a palpable connection continues in their artwork – a helpful reminder that what connects us transcends the space that separates us.   VIEW THE EXHIBITION RSVP FOR THIRSTY THURSDAY

A linocut print with a slightly rough right edge. the ink is fire-engine red with very lightly speckled patches of white paper showing through here and there. in the upper center of the page, the word YIELD in handdrawn letters is tightly enclosed by an upside-down triangle, with is in turn enclosed by another upside down triangle, with a third triangle tight around the second. The borders of the two outer triangles blend together here and there.

Online Exhibition: Yielding, organized by Ann Marguerite Tartsinis

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About the exhibition   To yield is to submit to pressure, to give way to an external force. It is also to produce or create something, the yield, from one’s own labor. The artworks brought together in this exhibition reflect the multiple ways matter can yield: Clay is molded and punctured by the sharp tip of the stylus, fabric gathers at the pull of the embroidery thread, and brushstrokes accumulate to reveal an overflowing mass of delineated forms on the page. While some of the artworks here physically represent how yielding is embedded in the very processes of their making, others Read More …

a face emerges from a canvas of exuberant brushstrokes - a cornflower blue muzzle, a lavender nose, yellow brows, skin in brown and magenta shades, surrounded by an aura of more magenta paint mixed with lavender and cornflower blue. the canvas is vertically oriented. the face is smiling.

Online Exhibition: 177 years, organized by Julia Goodman and Michael Hall

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About the exhibition   177 Years is a group show including multiple works by Lisa Blevens, Eddie Braught, Sylvia Fragoso, Peter Harris, Tre’von Silva, Jonathan Valdivias, Christian Vassell and Susan Wise. Cumulatively the artists have spent 177 years making art in the NIAD studio working with paint, textiles, ceramics and sound. Julia and Michael co-curated this show from home while their toddler was sleeping.  About the organizers Julia Goodman is known for her low and high relief handmade paper sculptures. Goodman’s innovative approach to papermaking holds strong throughlines with the history of rag paper as she gathers, sorts, tears, soaks and pulps fibers, transforming discarded bedsheets and Read More …

Special Exhibition: SFMOMA x NIAD MiNi Mural Gallery

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About the gallery The NIAD MiNi Gallery is a collection of work that showcases the diversity of NIAD’s studio artists in material and form, featuring the artists who contributed to the SFMOMA MiNi Mural Project. About the event From the SFMOMA website: In 1940, more than sixty-five artists made their creative processes public when they participated in Art in Action, an exhibition of live art making conceived by architect Timothy L. Pfleuger as part of the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. Among these artists was Diego Rivera, who during this time painted the mural Pan American Unity, which Read More …