Hacer Acma

Hacer Acma (b.1963) is an artist based in the Bay Area. She often begins by sourcing inspiration from the natural world. Her early works include hooked and tufted tapestries with butterfly motifs, and she has also embroidered atop printed fabric with metallic thread to create a sun-dappled, shimmering effect. 

Since joining NIAD Art Center in 2018, her practice has expanded from textiles to incorporate soft sculpture, ceramics, painting, and drawing. She describes the experience of working with new materials: “My first time working with clay: I rolled it on the table. I made an animal.” Her hand-built sculptures are based on 19th century scientific illustrations of rabbits, wildcats, and other forest fauna. Acma places these same reference images on a lightbox and draws colored pencil scenes where silhouettes flicker, dissolve into, and emerge from the surrounding landscape. Using this process, she recently embarked on a series of portraits based on photographs of her younger self.

Acma’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at Et al. Gallery in San Francisco, the Oakland Museum of California, and in “Changemakers,” a traveling exhibition hosted by public libraries in San Mateo, San Francisco, and San Jose.