NIAD Annex Gallery Exhibition // “The Way We Are, Now: NIAD Fashion Illustrations”

“The love for fashion spreads, and now the whole studio is thriving off of it,” exhibition curator Shantanice Swain explains.

“For me, fashion is about what you’re comfortable with. It can shift, and it can be anything — clothes, earrings, shoes, drawings. It’s a bold and courageous way of saying, ‘I am who I am today.’” Fashion has the power to affirm and transform: what we wear tells a story about who we are and who we might one day hope to become. Over the past year, artists were encouraged to experiment with materials and draw inspiration from personal histories, pop culture, and future fantasies. Presented here is a selection of works on paper that showcase vibrant and innovative adornments.  Read More …

Win Win 12: NIAD Art Center’s Annual Benefit Art Auction

Win Win, NIAD’s annual fundraiser and benefit auction, is around the corner! This year we’ll gather at NIAD on March 11 to celebrate our good fortune and our gratitude for the 40+ years of magic we have shared in NIAD’s studios. Our 23rd Street studio in Richmond will sparkle as we enjoy art, tacos, great live performances, cumbia cocktail hour, auctions and connecting with our community. Read More …

NIAD Annex Gallery Exhibition // “Sisters Shall Be: Raven & Shana Harper”

Raven and Shana Harper have dedicated themselves to their art practice for decades. During their time in the NIAD Studio, they have moved fluidly through different medium to create bodies of work that explore a wide breadth of themes. From flora and fauna, family, sisterhood, pop culture icons and civil rights leaders, this exhibition highlights the multi-disciplinary practices of Raven and Shana Harper. Read More …

Gallery Reception // Sisters Shall Be: Raven & Shana Harper

We didn’t always get along. We spent some years apart but when we both came to work at NIAD, our relationship grew deeper and stronger. Without my sister I don’t know what I would do. She’s my world. I am happy that we have a show together and I know it will be amazing and exciting.  Read More …

OMCA Vibrations of Awesomness // Films & Fashion

Join this playful, colorful, and lively event celebrating films and fashion created by the superstar artists of the wildly popular current exhibition, Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth & NIAD. Films showcasing vibrant textiles and wearable art from artists featured in the exhibition kick off the afternoon. Next up will be a live exhibition of fashions modeled by more than two dozen artists from these studios in an informal, salon-style presentation with music and fun! This program is part of OMCA’s Spotlight Sundays series that presents innovative and engaging programs the third Sunday of each month. Participating Read More …

“Picnic” // Billy White Solo Exhibition at SHRINE LA

Check out Billy White’s Picnic At Shine Los Angeles! Billy White loves picnics. For the artist, there is no better way to connect and celebrate almost anything than by gathering with family, friends and for Billy White, the childhood heroes that have inspired him as an artist. White repeatedly invites nostalgic icons such as Vincent van Gogh, Sallie Field, Eddie Murphy, Elvis, and Redd Foxx to make appearances in his art, and they are of course invited to his painted picnic, which is open to everyone. Picnics have interestingly become a pervasive theme in the drawings, paintings and sculptures created Read More …

NIAD Annex Gallery // “Danny Thach: Best Buddies”

Danny Thach: Best Buddies in the NIAD Annex Gallery   About Danny Thach: Danny Thach is a versatile artist stylistically and materially. He practices primarily in printmaking, painting, ceramics and fiber art. Rather than having a specific chosen medium, Thach likes all materials equally. A meticulous draftsman, his process is precise and methodical. He shares that he works in pencil first and paint second when working on a canvas painting. Screen printing is a focal point for Thach’s attention to detail, a process he uses to create his handmade t-shirts. Thach has been a prolific artist since childhood and has used Read More …

“Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth, & NIAD” at the Oakland Museum of California

In collaboration with three profound Bay Area institutions, Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth & NIAD celebrates myriad works from contemporary artists with developmental disabilities. From painting to sculpture to multimedia, these world-renowned artists are producing work of incredible power, exuberance, humor, complexity, and joy. Read More …

Win Win 11: NIAD Art Center’s Annual Benefit Art Auction

Win Win, NIAD’s annual fundraiser and benefit auction, is around the corner! This year we’ll gather at NIAD on March 11 to celebrate our good fortune and our gratitude for the 40+ years of magic we have shared in NIAD’s studios. Our 23rd Street studio in Richmond will sparkle as we enjoy art, tacos, great live performances, cumbia cocktail hour, auctions and connecting with our community. Read More …

“NIAD Holiday Shop: Luz y Luxe”

NIAD’s Exhibitions Team has been loading up the Annex Storefront with seasonal items and unique gifts: quilts, coloring posters and books, baskets, monographs, wall hangings, ornaments, hats and scarves, ceramic animals and more. Read More …

NIAD Gallery Exhibition // “Feeling Language,” organized by Kate Laster

This show is all about comfort text: resilience in everyday words, writing and reading. Expression can also be wordless, the use of line and color as new vocabulary, pushing a thought out onto a surface, making marks and continuously trying to communicate with the world.

We tell stories to sustain ourselves and find each other. These messages embedded in art become an emotional telegram– a signal flare with a flame of memory trailing behind it. “Feeling Language” is about books, lists, slogans, language, gesture, touch and the trust given in sharing. Read More …