NIAD artists work – with few exceptions – every weekday of the year. Since 1982, artists have persisted in activating NIAD’s Community, Studio, and Exhibitions programs – several of those first studio artists are still practicing at NIAD today. In general, this community’s continual, long-term search for what is sustainable leads us. What seems to work is to maintain creative dialogue – to navigate the tension between rage and hope, a held breath and the reminder to breathe, and to persist in building relationship between seemingly opposed feelings, tendencies, and perspectives. But we can’t do it alone, and we can’t Read More …

…Through this pandemic and its effects, we’re realizing that we have built so many structures and modes of behavior that are detrimental for many of us and the other species we share the planet with. In this selection, I tried to pick works from the collection that allude to transforming forces; whether it is a light connecting people and shadows, a blender creating a cacophony in its orbit or a beak devouring the mound nearby. View the show.

NIAD artist Jean McElvane explains, “The idea for this post came from just thinking about what shapes have in common. Here are my Top 20 favorites featuring ‘Shapes’.” Enjoy.

We know that many people are holding their breath for the events of next week – we are too. But at NIAD, we’re staying present and excited for everything that is coming to fruition TODAY. At Thirsty Thursday tonight at 6PM, Ed Rymsha and Michelle Hamilt from Fenwick & West LLP will talk with Shana Harper, one of NIAD’s longest practicing artists.  Shana is the first artist to take leadership by talking about her work at Thirsty Thursdays, and NIAD couldn’t be better represented.  We hope you’ll join us.  And tonight after Thirsty Thursday, Shana and other members of NIAD’s Read More …

NIAD Art Jean McElvane says, “Here are the top 20 favorites featuring water, air, and other similar features. The idea for this email came from the last list (to wake & yawn for), as spoken for the first video below.  And what the whole world (all living things) needs every day.” Enjoy.

About the exhibition pod mapping: a tool designed for accountability, care and restoring harm. microcosms of community in daily life + in the time of pandemics and revolutions. mutual aid between two, twenty, two hundred, two thousand, and more. (thank you Mia Mingus of the bay area transformative justice collective for developing this term.)  About the selector sam ho is an oakland-based artist from taiwan and peru. their practice encompasses painting, sculpture and graphic design. as a queer, non-binary artist of color, they have found their art home and chosen art family at CTRL+SHFT collective.  View the exhibition. (image: Christian Vassell Read More …

For more than five years, Bay Area based law firm Fenwick & West has partnered with NIAD to create a group exhibition of Art Center works in their five offices across the country. Tied into National Disability Employment Awareness Month, these shows traditionally took place in October. Always the exhibitions were a lively and lyrical selection of art — chosen by the law firm — with the sales directly supporting NIAD artists. Although the pandemic has changed many things in our lives, this now-annual exhibition is not one of them. From the vibrant self-portraits of Jonathan Valdivias to the Mexican Read More …

Let’s go a little bit deeper. This week is a quieter week at NIAD – settling into a new schedule in our Virtual Studio, getting into the swing of Thirsty Thursdays. These are moments that allow us to deepen practices and reflect more. NIAD artists in the Virtual Studio now have longer circles of practice, focused on areas of specific interest – like the intersection of Art and Justice, or Film and Art-Making. Our staff get to bring their own expertise more fully into creative conversations with artists and with you – if you’ve been to Thirsty Thursday, you’ve been in Read More …

“This week, I perused NIAD’s deep online catalogue with three of my favorite creatures lounging nearby: Columbo, Spooner, and Q–my housemates, who happen to be cats. This trio is a far cry from any cave lion, but they are without fail the most artful component of my home. Each one is well-composed and eye-catching, but is also no stranger to brutalism. They pose like odalisques and then jet into the night with an abstract flash. I could stop writing about everything else and focus only on their antics for the rest of my life and never run short of inspiration. Read More …

“The House That Jack Built” is an exhibition that explores the collection of artist’s works in the NIAD Art Center’s shop and the relationships that exist among them. The title of the show takes its name from the folk song This Is the House That Jack Built, which tells the story of a house, built by Jack, that indirectly links many other people and things through a domino effect of chain relationships, that all circle back and initiate from the house that jack built. This selection of artists and their work examines ideas of place, dwelling, and structures, both formally and metaphorically, and Read More …

NIAD artist Jean McElvane says, “It’s time to wake up.” For all you sleepyheads, there are a lot of reasons to wake up and Jean McElvane offers up a Top 20 of songs and animation that should help! Enjoy.

From Artforum: “The Whitney Biennial, widely considered the United States’ premier survey of contemporary art, has been postponed by a year due to the pandemic. Instead of next spring, the edition will now take place from April 2022 to August of that year, the Whitney Museum announced on Thursday. The museum, which reopened on September 3, plans to prioritize exhibitions delayed due to the pandemic, such as Salman Toor’s first solo exhibition (opening November 13), a midcareer survey for Julie Mehretu, an exhibition featuring the Kamoinge Workshop (opening November 21), and a highly anticipated Jasper Johns retrospective (pushed from September Read More …

Perhaps, you’ve been at the Art Center during one of Jonathan Velazquez’s amazing reinventions. For years, he’s recreated numerous Michael Jackson classic music video performances — beat by beat, move by move — from Thriller to Smooth Criminal. It is a fantastic experience. Jonathan is also a prolific builder of mimetic musical instruments (yes, the one above is made of cardboard, leather, tape and marker). And most amazingly of all he is also a truly unique musician. NIAD Sound Recordings is honored and delighted to release an EP of ballads performed by Jonathan Del Norte (the Velazquez musical moniker). This Read More …

Familiar faces.  When you attend Thirsty Thursday tonight (and we hope you will!), you might recognize Anthony Grant, since he’s been a friend of the center for some time.  Last year, Anthony organized a terrific exhibition, Ether Here Nor There, in our galleries, and spent time with us in person with an artist/curator’s talk and one of the first Thirsty Thursday events onsite.  Before that, he got to know us online, and we got to know his work too. It was the beginning of something great.  We do try to keep people around.  When someone comes to NIAD with a Read More …

“I miss you, I’d like to do something easy together like watch tv and drink big cups of water, take a deep breath and smell the way your house smells.” View the exhibition.

One word that comes up often, as NIAD works to define our role as a racial and social justice organization, is radical – meaning root-level. Our staff use this word to define the best in how we work, and to remind us, as a community, that when we question the ground in which we’ve been planted so long, we are moving toward greater unity. When we embrace the differences and the diversity it’s our honor and fortune to hold, we can learn from these resources, and reimagine how we are going to exist in a more just society and world. Read More …

Surrender to the warm current as it carries you away. In these chaotic and claustrophobic times, we are all in need of an escape route. Images of exotic landscapes and languid creatures, joyful snapshots of friends traversing imaginary topographies, and depictions of luscious plants bathed in sunlight now have more power than ever, providing us with a portal to fantastical serenity. This selection of works, many of which deftly entwine practices rooted in craft with artful ingenuity, offer portrayals of paradise, its inhabitants, and some of the necessities you might bring along on an idyllic excursion. The respite you desire Read More …

We often say, NIAD is a community – and NIAD is a family.  This past six months, we’ve learned how true that is.  Each Thursday at 4PM, family members and care providers come together to meet with NIAD staff and artists for an hour for our weekly Family Meeting.  The meeting offers a window into the Virtual Studio as well as NIAD’s activities as an organization.  Sometimes a facilitator offers a ‘movement moment’, we always check out the current Online Exhibition, and we share questions and answers about remote services and returning to our studio in Richmond. But because NIAD Read More …

These works address the perimeter. The outline of where I begin and end. The artworks etched out my relationship to what has and will surround me again, rather than the current white wall staring at me. View the exhibition.

Just in time for the holiday (in case you forgot, Labor Day is Monday!), Jean McElvane is back with another terrific musical playlist. As she explains, “The idea for this came from putting the dishes away. The first song (below) popped into my head as a joke.” Enjoy!