Join us in NIAD’s Galleries for our new June exhibitions! Artists and exhibition organizers will be on hand for a lively discussion in the galleries, and light refreshments will be served. Come browse the exhibitions and check out NIAD’s art-filled studios. Read More …
This exhibition is about transcendent forms. I looked through all of NIAD’s archives to find works that conveyed something beyond this world, something magical, something that emanates a powerful force. In some cases, geometries tap into universal formulae, in others, abstract gestural strokes become vessels for cosmic frequencies from another dimension, forms that are reduced and simplified into symbols tho speak the divine names of the essences invoke those they cannot contain. I was looking for works that felt timeless, and, perhaps, even, beyond culture.
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 …
When Peter Harris is asked which of his ceramic pieces is his favorite, he says with conviction, “I love all of them.” This show is a celebration of “all of them.” The title is drawn from Michael Starofsky’s beautiful series of whale sculptures and pencil holders. Several of these artists are new to working in ceramics, and they are already establishing new forms and vibrant styles. Meanwhile, experienced NIAD ceramicists showcase their newest sculptures and functional ware. Whales and Pencil Holders presents this broad spectrum of subjects and inspiration—enjoy them all. Read More …
You probably know his movie posters, and you might’ve seen his historical scenes, but even hardcore Michael Nuñez fans don’t know about his zines, chock full of the incredible detail, canny framing, and fantastical monsters we all know and love. You can find Michael’s work in SFMOMA’s Library/Archives, but we’re making it more accessible here, for the first time. Enjoy! When it was 12:00am it was time to get in and get some sleep. … but not before they sleep they decided to have some passion. Bu then… (Animal like scream)!! Want to find out what horrifying thing Daniel saw Read More …
About the Exhibition What is expressed in this small selection of works emanates from tender voices; better equipped than most to express the one quality humankind probably needs the most in this moment: love. They make me think of canaries in a coal mine and, their message, an invitation to embrace our humanity. May all of us be inspired by their courage, honesty and capacity to feel. About the organizer Germán Herrera Human being. I am an artist interested in spirituality, communication and art as an extension of consciousness. Student of A Course in Miracles, I live in California with Read More …
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 …
We are thrilled to kick off our NIAD Holiday Gift Guide series! Every week we’ll have a fresh collection of artwork from NIAD’s dazzlingly diverse inventory – paintings, afghan blankets, coloring books, planters, posters, necklaces, music, t-shirts, wallhangings, prints, greeting cards, zines, soft sculptures, ceramics, and more. And it’s all lovingly hand-picked by the art aficionados who know it best – NIAD studio artists and staff. Enjoy! About the “Mixed Media” collection “Holidays bring family together. You remember people who aren’t with you. When you look at the gifts, they should make you think about the good times you Read More …
About the Exhibition For this exhibition for NIAD I didn’t want to overthink the process. I decided to begin by going through all the available art and to notice things that kind of jumped out at me. I viewed everything one time and then went back a second time to select artworks. As I viewed the first group of selections I tried to see connections between the works. I noticed that there seemed to be a theme in many of the works that I would describe as being of a narrative nature. I am talking about implied narratives, nothing really Read More …
About the Exhibition Memory can be buried deep in our mind. It emerges at a quiet moment, when looking through a window on a peaceful afternoon, or while mixing in a noisy crowd. Memory can come in colors, in detail, or totally abstract. Powerful, but impossible to describe in words.The selected works can be any part in our memories: those sweet, lonely, joyful, silly, bitter, innocent, or nonsensical moments. About the Organizer Born in Beijing, my understanding and sense on art come from the rich memories of the seemingly long past and my present life in lively everyday reality. My Read More …
About the exhibition We selected our favorite evocative works and put them into a virtual gallery. There was so much amazing work to choose from, but we believe that these works in particular speak for themselves. Lastly, we also think these works exhibited together speak to this moment in America and how art represents what we give our attention to. * Seleccionamos nuestras obras evocadoras favoritas y las pusimos en una galería virtual. Había tantas obras para elegir, pero creemos que estas obras en particular hablan por sí mismas. Por último, también creemos que estas obras expuestas Read More …
About the exhibition As artists, we all have super powers. We can say what we feel and build worlds out of nothing. We can demand change and speak out about injustices. We can protest for our rights, freedoms, and share with others our views. It is the outside world viewed through the artist’s lens. Our powers are both inside and outside of us. Who among us will stand up for what they believe in? Who among us will help out? Who among us has a vision? Who among us desires change and progress? And who among us will do Read More …
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 …
Join us online from 6-7 PM PT, Thursday August 12! We’ll welcome organizer Jessica Cadkin and guest artist Leigh Barbier in conversation about organizing this month’s NIAD Windows Exhibition, Picnic. You could have the opportunity to meet and talk with participating NIAD studio artists Saul Alegria, Jeremy Burleson, Jonathan Velazquez, Serena Scott, Shana Harper, Michael Nuñez, Michael Walker, Tre’von Silva and Hacer Acma. Leigh Barbier is a renowned San Francisco-based artist with a singular style. What are Leigh’s career highlights so far? “Working on dioramas for the California Academy of Sciences, being part of an all-girl team to make a Read More …
About the exhibition Ice cream trucks, pool parties, and picnics evoke images of summertime. This year in particular, picnics became an opportunity to reunite with friends and family after so many months of isolation. The summer ritual of gathering outside on blankets with baskets to share a meal, play games, and bask in the sun took on special meaning. So as this summer draws to a close, the artworks selected for this window exhibition are an expression of some of those things. About the organizer Jessica Cadkin was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in Napa, California. She received Read More …
About the exhibition Every SingSome SingAny SingThis Sing Or what we might call singinging, both to and away from alongongs. This online exhibition brings together a series of works from some of the artists at NIAD that harmonize with singing things, through fan culture, instrument studies, exploded gig posters from a pole on the studio table, scores and how songs move. About the selector Jesse Malmed is an artist and curator working in video, performance, text, occasional objects and their gaps and laps over and under.
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 …
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 …
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 …
View the show. About the exhibition In her essay “Joy,” Zadie Smith divulges that a source of her daily pleasure in life is, very simply, “other people’s faces.” Beyond the surface of appearance, Smith alludes to the private lives, anxieties, triumphs, and toils she imagines in others—strangers she passes on the street or sits beside on the bus, for instance. Her projections are fictions, but they are a continual exercise in empathy, imagination, and compassion nonetheless. I think of Smith’s essay often, passing days in the anonymity and excitement that life lived among others, in public space, can shape. Read More …