Opening Reception for "FEELING LANGUAGE" at Kala Art Institute

NIAD is excited to co-present the exhibition FEELING LANGUAGE curated by Kate Laster and Julio Rodriguez with Kala Art Institute, featuring new works by over 30 artists, the majority from NIAD Art Center with additional artists from Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program, Creative Growth, and Creativity Explored. 

Song Workshop

At the reception, interdisciplinary musician and artist Abby Gregg will perform original music, talk about the connection between image-making and songwriting, and facilitate the creation of a collective song. Participants are encouraged to draw while listening. Through the improvised discovery of words, textures, and sounds, participants will combine sonic ideas and listen deeply with one another. Open to all ages. There will be a recorded mix of the collaborative song.

About FEELING LANGUAGE

FEELING LANGUAGE examines comfort and power in text, writing, reading, sharing and communications. In the words by the curators, “this show is all about comfort text: resilience in everyday words, writing, and reading. Expression can also be wordless, the use of line and color as new vocabulary, pushing a thought out onto a surface, making marks and continuously trying to communicate with the world. We tell stories to sustain ourselves and find each other. These messages embedded in art become an emotional telegram – a signal flare with a flame of memory trailing behind it. Feeling Language encompasses books, lists, slogans, language, gesture, touch and the trust given in sharing.”

Among the guest artists outside of these programs are: New York based visual storyteller and activist, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo; Mitsuko Brooks, artist and archivist also practicing in New York; interdisciplinary musician Abby Gregg, currently working in Atlanta; and educator and printmaker Alex Lukas in Santa Barbara. FEELING LANGUAGE also features guest artists who are based in the Bay: experimental printmaker and designer Negash Asegde; Steph Kudisch, an artist and queer researcher; Jer Garver, librarian and archival collagist; and Ocean Escalanti, poet and artist.

All of these artists’ practices embody yearning, text, and transmission of ideas.

ARTIST INFO

NIAD ARTISTS: 

Heather Copus, Luis Estrada, Shantae Robinson, Shana Harper, Rebecca Jantzen, Deatra Colbert Karen May, Halisi Noel-Johnson, Michael Nuñez, Dorian Reid, Peter Harris, Shawn Sanders, Jason Powell-Smith, Ann Meade, Nathan Lam

CREATIVITY EXPLORED ARTISTS:

John Patrick McKenzie, Doris Yen

COMMUNITY ARTS PROGRAM ARTISTS:

Gigot, Anthony Morrison

CREATIVE GROWTH ARTISTS:

Karen Ridge, Alex Schaffer

POSTHUMOUSLY INCLUDED:

Louie Spagnola (NIAD Artist), Mireya Betances (NIAD Artist), Sara Malpass (NIAD Artist), Cameron Kim (CAP Artist), Ronnie Goodman (CAP Artist)

GUEST ARTISTS:

Abby Gregg, Alex Lukas, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Negash Asegde, Steph Kudisch, Mitsuko Brooks, Ocean Escalanti, Jer Garver

Exhibition Dates: May 17 - August 9, 2025

Related Events

Closing Reception: Saturday, August 9, 12-4pm

About Kala

Kala is a non-profit arts organization and a vital community hub for artistic experimentation. Located in West Berkeley, Kala annually serves 175 artist-in-residence and offers exhibitions, art sales, public programs, and arts education including over 100 workshops open to the public in techniques ranging from etching to letterpress, screenprinting to professional practices.

Kala’s youth art programs reach 2,500 students in Alameda County public schools and through on-site programs including Camp Kala - a summer art camp, after school studio art, teen workshops, field trips, and more. With access to a wide array of traditional and digital equipment in the print studio, digital lab, darkroom, and sculpture lab, Kala fosters a fresh approach to artistic experimentation, as Kala artists investigate the interface of digital work, work made by hand, and everything in between.

Now in its 51st year, Kala has grown from its early days in a garage studio with a single etching press and a hot plate to its current 15,200 square foot  facility with studios, gallery, and community classroom space in the historic Heinz building and with artist housing across the street. Kala’s  mission remains the same: to be a thriving, creative hub for artists and to provide engaging, artistic public programming now and into the future. Learn more at kala.org.