Events

NIAD artists in our courtyard working on sketches for SFMOMA's Mini Mural Festival. Top row: Luis Estrada, Esmeralda Silva, Miguel Chacon. Circle: Jonathan Valdivias. Bottom row: Julio Del Rio, Deatra Colbert, Christian Vassell's sketches.

Online Event: SFMOMA Mini Mural Festival Kickoff – June 24

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NIAD is one of three organizations commissioned by SFMOMA to contribute murals to its Mini Mural Festival this summer. During this special online kickoff event, Acción Latina, NIAD, and SOMA Pilipinas will discuss our organizations’ work and missions. Then, the artists will reveal their mural designs for the first time. Don’t miss this special preview! SFMOMA Mini Mural Festival Kickoff (online)Thursday, June 24th, 5:30 PM PTRSVP today! Image: NIAD artists in our courtyard working on sketches for SFMOMA’s Mini Mural Festival. Top row: Luis Estrada, Esmeralda Silva, Miguel Chacon. Circle: Jonathan Valdivias. Bottom row: Julio Del Rio, Deatra Colbert, Christian Vassell’s sketches.

Poster for Small Business Development Workshop for Richmond-Based Artists

Online Event: Small Business Development Workshop for Richmond-Based Artists – June 23

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NIAD and Richmond Main Street Initiative (RMSI) are excited to present an online Small Business Development Workshop for Richmond-Based Artists on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 from 1-2:30 PM PT. Demetri Broxton, Senior Director of Education at the Museum of the African Diaspora, will be the featured speaker. There’s no fee to attend the workshop, but you must register to receive the Zoom link.   Sign up today! This workshop is supported by the Richmond Arts and Culture Commission’s Neighborhood Public Art Program.

Untitled (D8628), Saul Alegria.

Online Exhibition: Perfect Memory, selected by Justin Clifford Rhody

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

About the exhibition “Our relationship with reality and life is that same relationship that exists between the satellite image and the actual earth.”  – Luigi Ghirri   “Our engagement with the picture, our questioning of it, shapes and defines the ways we draw meanings from it. Pictures tell stories only to the extent that we ask them to; and as our questions change, those stories do as well.”   – Martha A. Sandweiss About the selector Justin Clifford Rhody is an artist working in photography, filmmaking and sound. He currently lives in New Mexico with his partner and frequent collaborator Abigail Read More …

Untitled (D3615), Eddie Braught.

Online Exhibition: Group Chat, selected by Kate Rhoades & Katy Kondo

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

About the exhibition Since we’re curating this show as a duo, we were drawn to work that deals with collaboration and togetherness. In the last year as we’ve been isolated from our larger communities, we have also been deeply entangled with the few people in our bubble. In this exhibition we present works that were produced through collaboration with those long gone, like Karen May’s Untitled which responds to Man Ray’s Larmes (Tears). We also included works considering groups, like the stoic duck couple in Danny Thach’s Untitled. With our social spheres out of whack, these artists have given us new ways to think about being Read More …

Thirsty Thursday Logo

Online Event: Thirsty Thursday with Max Kauffman – June 10

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

Join us online from 6-7 PM on Thursday June 10! We’ll welcome Max Kauffman in conversation about curating this month’s NIAD Windows Exhibition, Adornment. Our guest speaker will share some insight on how they selected the artworks in the show, and quite possibly show and discuss their own artworks and practice. 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. 

Untitled (D9706), Karen May

Online Exhibition: Bookends, selected by Ellen Lake

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About the exhibition   Bookend (plural bookends) A heavy object or moveable support placed at one or both ends of a row of books for the purpose of keeping them upright. … one of two things occurring or located at either end of something else. For this exhibition the ceramic works of Ann Meade and Saul Alegria are the supports holding together a shelf full of treasures by NIAD artists.   About the selector Ellen Lake is an interdisciplinary artist living in Oakland, California. Her work experiments with technology, explores archives and collections, returns time and again to painting and process, and ranges Read More …

Quilt (F1343) by Ann Meade

Online Exhibition: Cat Waterfall: Artist of the Month Series, selected by Ann Meade

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

About the exhibition: “Lots of workshops and places have employee of the month, and so I thought it’d be great if NIAD had ‘Artist of the Month.’ That’s how I came up with the idea for this tradition. First I picked my quilt. It has baseball players and cats. The way I made it makes it go with the other pieces in this show. I went through the pages of my work and looked for the most colorful things.”  – Ann Meade We are thrilled to present the following collection based on an AOM installation directed by Ann Meade! Ann pitched Read More …

A vertical sheet of white paper with hand painted black text. The text fills the entire page and is stacked vertically with each word representing one layer of the stack. The text reads from top to bottom: “Purple Barbara horse white.” The only word split into two layers is Barbara, with the last two letters painted under the first 5, that is: “Barba” followed underneath by “ra”. There are a few splotches of black ink around the letters.

Online Exhibition: Purple Barbara, selected by Richard Zimmerman

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

About the Exhibition The works in this exhibition move fluidly between letters, lines, texts, figures, signs, symbols, and a multitude of other forms both abstract and representational. I was drawn to these works primarily for the artists’ use of line, space, and color. Upon sustained viewing of the works (alone and together), I was struck by the echoing forms and energies that emerged within and between the works in the exhibition. About the Selector Richard Zimmerman is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans various media, including sculpture, photography, sound, and drawing. His work explores the intersection of subjectivity and the Read More …

Thirsty Thursday Logo

Online Event: Thirsty Thursday with Make-and-Take Workshop

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Join us for Thirsty Thursday on May 13 from 6-7:30 PM PT for a virtual art-making workshop and conversation with the selected artists from the Art In Windows 2021 exhibition.  You’ll have the opportunity to meet and talk with all of the participating artists: Mireya Betances, Eddie Braught, Sarah Waite Chase, Deatra Colbert, Robin D. Lopez, Elmarise Owens, Esmeralda Silva, and Karin Turner. The first 25 people who RSVP (and live in the Bay Area) will receive a make-and-take art workshop kit. The kit includes some of materials the artists used to create their artwork. Planning to tune in from outside Read More …

New Windows Exhibition: Art In Windows, organized by NIAD + Richmond Main Street Initiative

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

About the exhibition Art In Windows, the annual storefront exhibitions program pioneered by Richmond Main Street Initiative, returns this year through a pilot collaboration with NIAD Art Center. Funded by the Richmond Arts and Culture Commission’s Neighborhood Public Arts Mini-Grant, the collaboration includes two exhibitions in Downtown Richmond windows, a free online opening reception (featuring participating artists and family-friendly workshop kits to accompany the exhibition), and a small business development workshop in June for up to 25 artists. In March, the Art in Windows call for artists resulted in 34 submissions from 26 artists. Running from May 1–22, 2021, Art In Read More …

A watercolor scene with two figures standing in front of a gingerbread castle surrounded by green trees, against a blue sky.

Online Exhibition: Forest Of Fantasy, selected by Bessie Kunath

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

About the exhibition This collection of objects and images meanders through the enchanted woods on a gothic quest steered by good and evil forces. The trees seem to come to life and the ground beneath is wrought with ancient Druidic wisdom. Go forth and may your travels be prosperous, meaningful and enlightening. About the selector Bessie Kunath (b. 1981, Orange, CA) is an artist and curator who lives in Cleveland, Ohio where she currently works as a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic. She has formerly worked at Creativity Explored in San Francisco and at ECF Art Centers in Los Angeles, CA. Read More …

Untitled (D0443) Yuka Kobayashi

Online exhibition: Warming, selected by Good Buy Supply

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About the exhibition Warming A selection of works that embrace imperfect elements and subtle beauty found in nature. We can envision the artists admiring the natural world and what they love about it. Each work is met with a delicate thoughtful touch that can transcend beyond the page. The same mindset can be found in making sustainable choices that better people and the planet.  About the selector Good Buy Supply is Philadelphia’s first retail store dedicated to plastic-free alternatives for everyday life. Located in the grand, independent business community of East Passyunk Avenue, Good Buy Supply boasts a large selection Read More …

Untitled (F0407) Susan Wise

Online Exhibition: Other Side Of The Rainbow, selected by Stephanie Hanor

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

About the exhibition After a year of shared, global trauma, in the multiple forms of a pandemic, systemic racism, economic and environmental disaster, and political turmoil, there is a small light at the end of the tunnel. While the future remains precarious and unknown, the works in this exhibition embrace the colors of the rainbow, conveying a sense of hope and optimism. Bright and expressive, these pieces are an antidote to the losses we have endured both individually and together. Their sunniness and cheerfulness raise one’s spirits and anticipates the promise of a better tomorrow. About the selector Stephanie Hanor is Read More …

Sara Malpass Untitled (D0696)

Online Exhibition: Words And Feeling, selected by Nicole Shaffer

Posted onAuthorNIAD Art Center

About the exhibition When going through the NIAD archives, I was struck by a number of works that pair text with image in ways that shift language and illustration from a familiar, functional use to something more expansive. I access a similar experience of forming unexpected and generative correlations when I observe my sensations through movement. For this online series, I selected works that opened up my thinking about language and sensory experience. About the selector Nicole is a current MFA candidate at San Francisco State University and has exhibited in Bay Area spaces such as Southern Exposure, Wolfman Books, Read More …

Saul Alegria Untitled (S2530)

NIAD Windows Exhibition: To Make Home, selected by Simon Tran and Kari Simonsen

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To Make Home is about how each of us holds a different idea of home—the city we grew up in, the people we love, a pet, the place we do laundry, or the space in which we make art. Home can mean a comforting place, a far away place, or a confusing place. Each of us carries a bit of home with us. For example, Simon Tran is influenced by the spices used in his mom’s Vietnamese cooking. Others view home as something to leave behind, such as jen stract whose art practice involves carrying mini clay washing machines with Read More …

Online Exhibition: Kiss—-Kiss, selected By Fanny Singer

Posted onAuthorAmanda Eicher

About the exhibition Maybe it’s just this strange moment in time—in which isolation has made physical intimacy of any variety seem so dear—but the idea of a kiss, of a hug, of a lengthy embrace (especially with an acquaintance, or, better yet, a stranger) has taken on mythological proportions. This selection of works plays on this longing for closeness, for the literal kiss—or kiss-kiss, or even kiss-kiss-kiss—of a greeting in parts of Europe, the Middle East and South America. But at the same time, it acknowledges that this lonely time isn’t over just yet. The ten works, therefore, are intended to be Read More …

Untitled (D7536), Christina Saavedra

Online Exhibition: True Identity, selected by Patricia Iglesias Peco

Posted onAuthorAmanda Eicher

About the exhibition Memory is the thread that weaves these portraits together. One of the most fascinating and intriguing aspects of our psyche, memory is constantly being measured in relation to the truth. How “accurately” do we remember something? But ultimately there is truth to our memories. Virginia Woolf writes: “Truth differs from accuracy; truth requires a merging of observation and imagination.” It is Virginia Woolf’s notion of truth — the remembered, heard, seen and interpreted — that these portraits embody.  About the selector Patricia Iglesias Peco was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After apprenticeships with Pablo Edelstein and Philip Read More …

Online Exhibition: Costume Store selected by Ari Banias

Posted onAuthorAmanda Eicher

About the exhibition Not exactly pretend, but the shimmering parallel worlds right beside this one. Inside it, even.  About the selector Ari Banias is a poet, and the author of Anybody (2016) and the forthcoming A Symmetry (W. W. Norton, 2021). His recent work appears in bæst, Hyperallergic, Kenyon Review, and The New Republic. Ari is currently an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts, and lives in Oakland.  Click to view the show.

Untitled (D4488) Jonathan Velasquez. marker on digital print 24 x 8” unique 2015

Online Exhibition: NIAD Windows: Win Win 9

Posted onAuthorAmanda Eicher

NIAD’s annual fundraiser, Win Win 9, is Saturday March 6, 2021. It’s called Win Win because everyone has a chance to take home fantastic art! Anyone who attends Win Win 9 can bid on silent auction and live auction artworks by artists from NIAD and the global art community. And everyone who purchases a ticket will receive one 6×6″ artwork created by a NIAD artist. This month’s Windows exhibition features a selection of  6 x 6″ canvases and Win Win 9 silent auction items. For the online Windows exhibition, we’ve curated a selection of artworks by each of the artists Read More …

Untitled (D8353) by Heather Copus

Online Exhibition: Draw Your Letters selected by Danny Floyd

Posted onAuthorAmanda Eicher

About the exhibition When I was in elementary school, we had to take handwriting as a class. The teacher would hand out lined newsprint and these special pens that were in an odd shape ostensibly to make them easier for small hands to hold and control. She would often say to us, “Be sure to WRITE your letters, class, not DRAW them.” I had absolutely no idea what she meant by this. It wasn’t until I was well into adulthood that, while writing one day, I became distracted by how my hand was moving and how the letters looked, always Read More …