Carlota Rodriguez

NIAD Gallery Exhibition // “Superbloom,” organized by Erin McCluskey Wheeler

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About the exhibition It’s not a superbloom year. It’s not one of those years where the rain fall gives us an explosion of colorful flowers in the desert. But it is spring. There are still median strips full of poppies and untended lots full of lupines and purple vetch. There are bright yellow dandelions growing despite everything. There are the plum trees blossoming then letting loose their purple leaves and then the cherry trees blooming and letting loose their green leaves. These moments of color, of unexpected brightness, bring me so much happiness and ground me to the earth. I Read More …

NIAD Online Exhibition // “Luxe, calme, et volupté,” selected by Lou Mo

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About the exhibition Henri Matisse painted Luxe, calme, et volupté more than a hundred years ago. Today, the vibrantly coloured Fauvist painting keeps instilling a sense of warmth and repose. Luxury, peace and pleasure indeed. At the moment, many of us may not be feeling at ease. To state the obvious, there’s an unfinished pandemic and a war raging once again in Europe. These are difficult times and many futures seem possible. Times are trying. Change and anxiety cannot be avoided.  Very often, the extra toiling accumulates upon the female and/or racialized body. Labor and care, both physical and emotional, are often Read More …

NIAD Online Exhibition // “Day or Night it looks like Night” organized by Liliana Herrera

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About the exhibition The pieces in this exhibition were selected in a moment of uncertainty. The pandemic has affected each of us differently, but what can perhaps be agreed upon is that its longevity has worn on our collective morale. This was certainly the undercurrent of this grouping.  Dorian Reid’s Day or Night it Looks Like Night, is a depiction of September 9, 2020, a day that those of us in the Bay Area remember all too well: the day we awoke to smoky red skies caused by surrounding wildfires. The ominous tones on the canvas continue to be relevant today.  Read More …

A 2x6 grid of 6x6 canvases created by NIAD artists for the WIN WIN 10 auction.

NIAD Windows Exhibition // “6×6 x 6×6” organized by NIAD’s Exhibitions Team

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About the exhibition Around about January, while the new year is still fresh, little square canvases start slowly piling up around the 23rd Street Studio like gorgeous stalagmites. Just before the stacks reach a tipping point, NIAD’s Exhibitions Team swoops in to arrange them in a tidy grid in the NIAD Windows.  Each square – be it painting, photo, fiber, ceramic, sculpture, drawing – measures 6 inches by 6 inches. There is room for 48 of them in the Windows, but there’s nearly a hundred more, waiting to be hand-picked and shipped off to their forever homes to ultimately rest on the Read More …

An arrangment of artworks related to the Win Win 10 fundraiser, organized in two rows of three, with the Win Win 10 logo in the middle of the bottom row.

Win Win 10 Sneak Preview, collected by Isabel Xilonen Ortiz (online exhibition)

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Our final NIAD Gift Guide of the season doubles as a sneak peek into what’s in store for you at Win Win 10, NIAD’s Annual Benefit Fundraiser coming up on Saturday March 5, 2022! Isabel X. Ortiz from NIAD’s fundraising team describes the NIAD artworks that inspired her Win Win 10 Sneak Preview collection… About the collection I curated this collection with all the game-lovers and risk-takers in mind. It’s for the artists who are pushing their own creative boundaries. It’s for the innovators who are thinking of their next passion project. It’s for the people who like to spice up their homes with Read More …

an arrangement of works by NIAD studio artists included in NIAD Holiday Gift Guide #5 - a red ceramic snake, a wrapped necklace, a watercolor of football helmets, a scarf, a weaving, a t shirt, a beaded necklace and a print

NIAD Holiday Gift Guide #5, collected by Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh

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About the collection Gift-giving can be so tricky! It can be hard to know if someone has an item already, if it will be useful, or if it’s something that maybe you like instead of the recipient.  When I choose a gift for someone, I try to focus on their interests or recent big events in their life  – did they just move into a new home? Are they always dressed to the nines? Do they love sending videos about cute animals?  I curated this shopping guide with those friends in mind, so whether you are buying a gift for your new Read More …

NIAD Holiday Gift Guide #3: “The Zindel Collection” collection by Bill

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About “The Zindel Collection” collection The items in this Holiday Gift Guide are perfect for your friend or family member who: 1. loves handsome dudes and fall colors. Mireya Betances, Two Dudes ceramic 13x7x2″ 2. admires intelligence, integrity, and dedication. Raven Harper, MLK T-shirt hand silk-screened, 100% cotton  3. dreams of living in a strawberry. Heather Hamann, Untitled  mixed media on paper 12×18″ 4. loves swamp creatures.  Saul Alegria, Untitled ceramic 13x10x2″ 5. loves alien swamp creatures.  Saul Alegria, Untitled acrylic on paper 30×22“ 6. likes laughing, and ponies on the freeway. Nathan Lam, Bad Traffic Sign  graphite on paper, Read More …

An ink drawing of floating hearts surrounded by smaller hearts, large floating flowers with hearts on the petals, flowers surrounded by flowers, all shapes filled with thin washes of color, blotched here and there. Some are colored with pencil. The colors are varied and bright. The artist's signature is in the bottom right corner.

Online Exhibition: “A Firmament in the Midst of the Waters” organized by Jay Youngdahl

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About the exhibition   Viewers can learn much from the work of NIAD artists. Their work offers the viewer a recognition that life is often a jumble of color and form.  Things arise, and often not in a linear or scientific manner. In reviewing the NIAD catalog, a religious/spiritual theme emerges.  Based on the conception of the beginning of the world found in the Old Testament book of Genesis, out of a chaos a world is born. Let there be light. About the organizer Jay Youngdahl is an artist, writer, and activist. For the past few decades he has made his Read More …

Thirsty Thursday Logo - a blue drop of water with "Th2" superimposed at the bottom and "Thirsty Thursday" underneath

RSVP for Thirsty Thursday – September 9

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Join us online from 6-7 PM PT, Thursday September! NIAD Gallery Manager Julio Rodriguez will waltz us through “Mis Figuras Favoritas,” the September Windows Exhibition featuring a lovely selection of new works on paper by NIAD studio artists and BFFs Carlota Rodriguez and Erica Martinez. Tune in and you can meet friendly NIAD artists, studio facilitators, community members, and chat with Erica or Carlota directly about their work! About the exhibition   This month, our Exhibitions Team has selected a collection of new works on paper by Carlota Rodriguez and Erika Martinez. Pre-pandemic, these two artists would usually sit close to Read More …

Three triangles are stacked on a background painted gray. These three triangles contain multiple other triangles, with bands of color and a blue or black border defining each triangle.

NIAD Windows Exhibition: Mis Figuras Favoritas – Carlota Rodriguez & Erika Martinez

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This month our Exhibitions Team has selected a collection of new works on paper by Carlota Rodriguez and Erika Martinez. Pre-pandemic, these two artists would usually sit close to each other when working in the studio, which would become apparent in their geometric abstractions. When NIAD moved to a Virtual Studio, Rodriguez and Martinez continued to create, though now only able to connect over Zoom. Despite the distance between them, a palpable connection continues in their artwork – a helpful reminder that what connects us transcends the space that separates us.   VIEW THE EXHIBITION RSVP FOR THIRSTY THURSDAY

A linocut print with a slightly rough right edge. the ink is fire-engine red with very lightly speckled patches of white paper showing through here and there. in the upper center of the page, the word YIELD in handdrawn letters is tightly enclosed by an upside-down triangle, with is in turn enclosed by another upside down triangle, with a third triangle tight around the second. The borders of the two outer triangles blend together here and there.

Online Exhibition: Yielding, organized by Ann Marguerite Tartsinis

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About the exhibition   To yield is to submit to pressure, to give way to an external force. It is also to produce or create something, the yield, from one’s own labor. The artworks brought together in this exhibition reflect the multiple ways matter can yield: Clay is molded and punctured by the sharp tip of the stylus, fabric gathers at the pull of the embroidery thread, and brushstrokes accumulate to reveal an overflowing mass of delineated forms on the page. While some of the artworks here physically represent how yielding is embedded in the very processes of their making, others Read More …

Untitled (D0897) by Julie MacDonald graphite on woven paper 13 x 19” unique 2019. Row after row of small squares, each divided into four bright triangles, stacked up across the picture plane to form an optical dance (perhaps more of a march?) of color.

Online Exhibition: Holding the Line, organized by jill moniz

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About the exhibition The works in this exhibition use the line to suggest form and meaning. Whether as a solid object or a mere suggestion, the line elicits connections beyond formalism, and resonates with transformative power. The synchronicity between what is made and what is felt enriches the experience with the visual languages offered here. Together, these works tell a story with line, color and form about the pleasure, diversity and complexity born from simple materials that should be required reading. About the organizer  jill moniz is an independent curator of visual narratives. She shares her vision of empowering visual Read More …

Untitled (F0407) Susan Wise

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

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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 …