Author: NIAD Art Center

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 …

a cluster of hand-drawn words in a stylized serif font, slightly italicized. The words: coke, diet, chriss, kiss, paul, stanley, peter, malltts. Each word is a different color - green, red, blue, black or brown.

NIAD Online Exhibition // “DESIRE, DESIRE,” selected by Diego Leclery

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About the exhibition Being brought up in a culture oriented towards consumption, self-gratification, and self-fulfillment, one learns not only what to desire but how to desire, where to situate one’s desire in relation to the self, all desire’s dimensions. The goal of this hegemonic cultural project is to eventually make one lose the sense of self beyond that desire, and be left with nothing but desire. “What I want” and “who I am” become one, and the cultural program, determining what these desires are, can control our sense of ourselves. There are many ways of dealing with this predicament, from 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 …

Installation view of five Peter Harris ceramic pieces on pedestals.

Off-Site Exhibition // Peter Harris in “Layers Upon Layers” at Archival Gallery, Sacramento

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March 3-26, 2022 About the exhibition Layers Upon Layers is a curated ceramics show in celebration of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) regional event, held in Sacramento from March 3-26, 2022. Local ceramicist Shenny Cruces serves as curator and coordinator. Please contact the gallery directly for purchase inquiries. Artists in the Exhibition Peter Harris Jennifer Brazelton Gary Carlos Shenny Cruces Tomoko Nakazato Tiffany Schmierer Shannon Sullivan Sharon Virtue

NIAD Online Exhibition // “DreamForms” selected by Lauren Ari and Julio Del Rio

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About the exhibition This online NIAD exhibition is in conjunction with DreamForms, curated by Roberto Martinez, currently at the Richmond Art Center. It represents the ceramic visions of Julio del Rio and (myself) Lauren Ari.  I had the pleasure of being a painting instructor at NIAD where Julio Del Rio is a studio artist. I was inspired by the well of creativity, the open-heartedness and the community which is a sweet world unto itself.  It has been a joy to go back and choose these works to share with you!   “You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one Read More …

The Latest from NIAD: WIN WIN Thank You!

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Dear NIAD Lovers: $47,000. Sometimes a number is so meaningful.  This year, we asked our supporters to help us reach $40,000 at this year’s fundraiser, Win Win 10, to plant the seeds for NIAD’s next 40 years.  You helped us sail past our goals, and into a new future. By some measures $47,000 may seem modest, but we’re already getting to work, purchasing new tables for the studio, upgrading computers and technology equipment, renovating NIAD’s building with key accessibility upgrades. In a continually growing nonprofit, $47,000 goes a long way toward anchoring our next decades in creating platforms for artist leadership, staff training, Read More …

NIAD Online Exhibition // “Auctionauts”

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Auctions are unpredictable animals: they can get noisy, tense, wildly out of control. Add a dash of pandemic and a helping of Zoom, and you never quite know what you’re going to get. Lucky for you, there is a small grouping of highly collectible artworks from last weekend’s event that refused to be tamed by the auction format. These newly untethered works are collected in Auctionauts, and we’re making them available in a “buy it now” arrangement. (Endless thanks to the donating artists!) Browse at your leisure (no bidding necessary), but don’t wait too long—when they’re gone, they’re gone. Artists Read More …

NIAD Online Exhibition // “WIN WIN 10 Live Auction Sneak Preview”

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About the Live Auction The WIN WIN 10 Live Auction features artworks donated by NIAD’s close friends, longtime studio artists, and supporting gallerists. These works are only available during WIN WIN 10’s Virtual Event, this Saturday March 5 from 2:00 to 3:30PM on zoom, so get your tickets today! Artists in the Live Auction Alicia McCarthy Marlon Mullen Sahar Khoury Maria Guzmán Capron Alice Wu Artsanda “Billy” White Sam Gant Janet Moore Chris Ballatyne Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo Jeremy Burleson

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 …

two side by side photographs of NIAD's 23rd Street Galleries with artworks waiting to be hung in the WIN WIN 10 Silent Auction sneak preview exhibition.

NIAD Gallery Exhibition // “WIN WIN 10 Silent Auction Sneak Preview” organized by NIAD’s Exhibitions Team

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About the exhibition More than fifty NIAD artists are featured in the WIN WIN 10 Silent Auction, currently open for bidding until the day of the live event. The Sneak Preview Exhibition is a salon-style installation that includes each and every piece of art included in the Silent Auction, hung closely together in a way that encourages conversations and highlights correspondences between each piece. The work in the exhibition represents the incredible breadth of art practices that NIAD artists maintain every day in the 23rd Street Studios. NIAD truly contains multitudes! NIAD’s Executive Director Amanda Eicher will be in the 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 …

A manipulated image of Rodin's Eternal Idol by NIAD artist Lupe Soto - the sculpture of two figures covered with a translucent layer of red paint.

NIAD Online Exhibition // “Eternal Idol” selected by Emily M. Harris

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About Eternal Idol Eternal Idol, Rodin’s famous sculpture, was hewn in marble, plaster, and bronze. His repetition of form, motif, and emotion creates a complex awareness of this bundle of human desire, submission and adoration. To repeat renders the form repeatable. The red paint on the image painted by Guadalupe Soto adds a filter to the couple. The works selected for the online exhibition Eternal Idol together speak about everyday eternity, observing and repeating and tenderly attending to what we desire, submit to and adore.  About Emily M. Harris Emily M. Harris is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist whose large-scale installations and intimate works Read More …

NIAD Win Win 10 logo graphic

WIN WIN 10 Tickets On Sale!

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NIAD turns 40 this year, so we’re going BIG. NIAD is pulling out all the stops for our annual WIN WIN benefit to commemorate our 40th anniversary, and it wouldn’t be the same without you! It’s called “WIN WIN” because everyone has a chance to take home fantastic art and support NIAD artists. Please join us on Zoom for a fun afternoon of games, music and a live auction of extraordinary artwork donated by NIAD artists and artists in our vital network of supporters.  Following the Zoom event, NIAD lovers will come together (safely) for an in-person reception with music and paella Read More …

NIAD x Mills Building

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How monumental is this work by Peter Harris, beautifully installed in the turn-of-the-century Mills Building in downtown San Francisco! Danny Thach’s unapologetically contemporary aesthetic commands the space, and Lupe Soto’s series of manipulated sculptural images look right at home among the Roman travertine and black Belgian marble. If you should find yourself at the bottom of Bush Street between now and June 10, 2022, take a moment to stroll through the lobby and see these artists in a new light. Mant thanks to Kerri Hurtado and Artsource Consulting for collaborating with us on this exhibition! NIAD Artists in the Exhibition Peter Read More …

an acrylic painting on two joined canvases. a square on the left features thickly layered paint in reds, pinks, creamy white and a dash of yellow in the upper right corner. A rectangle with a light blue wooden frame attached features a similar pattern of round shapes, thickly painted, but in bright and drippy blues, pinks, and yellows, with a patch of the same creamy white in the lower left corner.

NIAD Online Exhibition // “Voice Inside” selected by Sunila Bajracharya

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About the exhibition We all hear voices. Some come from inside, and others come from outside. The truest voice is the voice coming from inside which only you can hear. We hear this voice day and night. It can be loud, or soft, or strong, or annoyed, or happy, or sad. When we let our inner voice out it can create different forms of art, sometimes in words, sometimes with color, sometimes in three dimensions, sometimes with only lines. This expression can vary every day depending on the hardness of materials, the stiffness of mind, and the softness of heart. Inner Read More …

Off-Site Exhibition // Julio Del Rio in “DreamForms” at the Richmond Art Center

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January 20 – March 22, 2022 About the exhibition Dreamforms is a look into the whimsical imaginations of two Richmond-based ceramicists, Lauren Ari and Julio del Rio.  Through a selection of works that include colorful ceramic figures and works on paper, this exhibition explores the intrinsic relationship between the imagined form and the material form.  Both Ari and del Rio approach ceramics as a medium that offers a magical ability to materialize dreams and imaginations into physical realities. Both artists adopt a multidisciplinary approach to their creative process and often take inspiration from their dreams, personal experiences, and imagined realities. Dreamforms highlights the Read More …

installation view of the Art of the African Diaspora at Richmond Art Center

Off-Site Exhibition // NIAD Artists in “Art of the African Diaspora 2022” at Richmond Art Center

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January 20 – March 19, 2022 About the exhibition Art of the African Diaspora, in partnership with Richmond Art Center, supports artists of African descent in the Bay Area through representation, professional development, and building a creative community. In 2022 we are celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition at Richmond Art Center! Over 100 artists of African descent will showcase their work at Richmond Art Center, as well as in open studios and satellite exhibitions at different venues across the Bay Area. NIAD Artists in the Exhibition Halisi Noel-Johnson Thomas Harden Raven Harper Kiesha White Shawna Read More …

A painting on white paper in four colors - yellow, red, indigo and grey. Yellow and red form thick half arches on the left side of the paper. Indigo forms a cloud in the middle and top right corner. Grey is a mass in the mid to lower right. Brushstrokes visible in all the forms.

NIAD Online Exhibition // “Murmuration” selected by Alisa Golden

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About the exhibition A murmuration is a flock of thousands moving together, a pattern through the sky, each bird attuned to its nearest neighbors. Made up of individual parts, the whole becomes greater and more powerful than when it stands alone. In the works presented here, individual parts are visible: pieced, gridded, grouped, and arranged with lines, letters, and fields of color. And from the thousands of works that fly together at NIAD, here is only a sample of pieces that somehow talk and listen to their nearest neighbors. A murmuration of applause to all. About the selector Alisa Golden writes, Read More …

A satirical print of a white male, wearing a blue uniform, smiling, holding up a blue hood with his raised right hand. The words "Trump equals" above the figure and "cobra commander" at the bottom are handwritten in black.

NIAD Online Exhibition // “Innersense” ushered by Germán Herrera

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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 …

an installation shot of Relics from the Future installed in NIAD Art Center's galleries.

In-Person Closing Reception February 12 // “Relics for the Future” curated by Jessica Snow

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Closing Reception Saturday February 12 1-4PM NIAD Art Center 551 23rd Street, Richmond About the exhibition Relics for the Future takes as its point of departure an imagined future in which the art created today is interpreted in an entirely new light. Will future generations look at works of art of the contemporary moment and assign meaning which was entirely unintended by today’s artists? Will they see our artwork as antidotes to archaic social networks that in fact isolated us more than connected us? The artwork of today may be seen as our most successful attempts at communication— odd idols, Read More …