Carlota Rodriguez

a graphic with "art mode" spelled in dark blocky letters

NIAD at Blu Dot // Art Mode Launch Event

Join us to celebrate the launch of Art Mode: a collection of incredible work from artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Blu Dot partnered with local nonprofit NIAD Art Center, as well as Brooklyn’s LAND Gallery and Austin’s SAGE Studio to bring you 16 unique pieces with all profits going back to the studios. Come check out the art, meet the inspiring artists behind them and enter for your chance to win one of the art prints. Light bites and drinks provided. Read More …

“Into the Brightness” Gallery Activation Hour at OMCA

During this Special Edition Gallery Activation Hour, NIAD artists featured in Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth & NIAD will be in the gallery discussing their art and process. NIAD artists Carlota Rodriguez, Esmeralda Silva and Mireya Betances will be participating. Read More …

a person holds a green heart

NIAD Windows // “Heart & Soul of Richmond”

“Walking down a narrow path, you’re surprised as you reach a clearing.This sudden openness makes you stop short and catch your breath as you begin to absorb the change in landscape.Works in a clearing beckon, inviting you to enter.Each artist composes forms evolving from intuitive, rather than predetermined, thinking. In these works, the initial pattern elements break down and fall away, creating an opportunity for something unknown to arise. Overlapping and unpredictable shapes and colors create conversations, inviting viewers to come closer, soften their gaze, release expectations. Through a variety of materials, these artworks attain a color energy using vibrant hues and textures. Optical vibrations and textures rumble as deeper looking opens to a clearing.” Read More …

pink watercolor squares stacked on top of each other on white paper

NIAD Main Gallery Exhibition // “a clearing”, organized by Mel Prest

“Walking down a narrow path, you’re surprised as you reach a clearing.This sudden openness makes you stop short and catch your breath as you begin to absorb the change in landscape.Works in a clearing beckon, inviting you to enter.Each artist composes forms evolving from intuitive, rather than predetermined, thinking. In these works, the initial pattern elements break down and fall away, creating an opportunity for something unknown to arise. Overlapping and unpredictable shapes and colors create conversations, inviting viewers to come closer, soften their gaze, release expectations. Through a variety of materials, these artworks attain a color energy using vibrant hues and textures. Optical vibrations and textures rumble as deeper looking opens to a clearing.” Read More …

painting of famous painters titled "Normal is Boring"

“Rainbow Cat Picnic” organized by Cynthia Ona Innis

About the Exhibition The title of this exhibition comes from a piece included in the show, Dorian Reid’s Rainbow Cat Picnic.  In Rainbow Cat Picnic, numerous cats are joyously picnic-ing under a big colorful rainbow in what looks to be a very festive occasion.  There may be rain but that rainbow safely covers the cats and their food bowls. The sun is just coming out and those cats are really having a good time! The mixed media works in this show are my Rainbow Cat Picnic–20+ pieces representing an inspiring and colorful excursion to a place of creative nourishment and a celebration as a Read More …

pink watercolor squares stacked on top of each other on white paper

April NIAD Opening Reception + Artist Talk // “a clearing”, organized by Mel Prest + “Danny Thach: Best Buddies” + “Heart & Soul of Richmond”

“Walking down a narrow path, you’re surprised as you reach a clearing.This sudden openness makes you stop short and catch your breath as you begin to absorb the change in landscape.Works in a clearing beckon, inviting you to enter.Each artist composes forms evolving from intuitive, rather than predetermined, thinking. In these works, the initial pattern elements break down and fall away, creating an opportunity for something unknown to arise. Overlapping and unpredictable shapes and colors create conversations, inviting viewers to come closer, soften their gaze, release expectations. Through a variety of materials, these artworks attain a color energy using vibrant hues and textures. Optical vibrations and textures rumble as deeper looking opens to a clearing.” Read More …

screenprint by Aletha Mederis

December NIAD Gallery Reception // “NIAD Ink: 35 Years of Prints” organized by Andres Cisneros-Galindo + “Luz y Luxe: A NIAD Holiday Shop”

Join the NIAD community to celebrate the exhibition “NIAD Ink: 35 Year of Prints,” an ambitious survey of print-based work by NIAD artists compiled by Andres Cisneros-Galindo, an artist, educator, activist, and facilitator who has worked with NIAD artists for almost 40 years. In NIAD Art Center’s galleries and studios, we’ll have an exhibition reception, cheerful winter food + drinks, an album release and music performance by NIAD artist Xiomara Rosales, a drum workshop by famed percussionist Peta Robles Izquierdo, and “Luz y Luxe,” a shop full of affordable contemporary art! Read More …

a white embroidered tshirt

NIAD Annex Exhibition // “Crossover”

Crossover is an apt title for this show, which will showcase the vibrant and newly-connected fiber art scenes of NIAD and Cedars. Crossover is a companion to the textile-centered exhibition Follow the String, on view at Marin MOCA. In preparation for this show, artists from both programs visited each other’s studios, and participated in a tee-shirt and doll making workshop at Marin MOCA. T-shirts and dolls from this workshop will be on view in NIAD and Marin MOCA. Read More …

colorful yarn ball bracelet

“Follow The String” at Marin MOCA

Curated by NIAD’s Emma Spertus and Julio Rodriguez with NIAD artists Felicia Griffin, Dorian Reid, and Kiesha White, the exhibition features artists from Cedars and NIAD, alongside artists from the broader Bay Area arts community. Follow the String showcases conventionally trained artists alongside artists with disabilities, blurring distinctions between “insider” and “outsider” art. Read More …

A portrait of a cat with red fur and an amused expression.

NIAD Online Exhibition // “I Belong To Myself” organized by Maria Seda-Reeder

Being an artist who helps bring new, radical ideas into the world is neither an easy nor simple task. So it takes a certain, special kind of magic—charisma, self-belief, instinct—to move through the world going against the grain, as innovative artists so often do. I’m honored to have the chance to put forth this small sampling of artists from NIAD, an organization that likewise is working at the forefront of contemporary art.  Read More …

NIAD Online Exhibition // “I Wanna See All My Friends At Once” organized by Cone Shaped Top

Looking through works from the roster of NIAD artists, ideas around bodies coming together under the unifying force of music for release, freedom, self-expression and camaraderie began to emerge. Balloons, dancing, fearless fashion, music, friendship, colorful people and spaces filled with lights, projections and disco balls; all themes that form the ethos of our space. These works highlight motifs and sentiments that conjure the feeling of bliss from celebrating life with chosen families through music. Read More …