“The subjects in Personal Take may be eclectic, but all are familiar. We see here a range of archetypes spanning superheroes, biblical scenes, robots, athletes, and dolls. Some works are named after historic artists or derived from iconic paintings. Others present imagery from childhood that remains embedded in our collective memory—a family of Bambi-esque deer by a lake, a lighthouse beneath a rainbow. Whether the reference is specific or general, no matter how simple or sophisticated the source material, the artist is always borrowing and translating. And each time the result is wholly their own.” (Gallerist’s note: This past summer, Read More …

“The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced 16 finalists for its closely watched SECA Art Award for 2019. The awards are the region’s most prestigious recognition for emerging artists. The finalists, all of whom work and live in the Bay Area, are Sadie Barnette, Craig Calderwood, Sofia Cordova, Brett Goodroad, Nicki Green, Kunlin He, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, Kenyatta AC Hinkle, Sahar Khoury, Dionne Lee, Marlon Mullen, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Clare Rojas, Davina Semo, Christine Wang and Karla Wozniak… Read the rest of the San Francisco Chronicle article here.

“As I selected work for this online exhibition, the word “field” kept coming into my mind. The multiple meanings of the word resonated with the pieces I was attracted to. As a visual artist and Art Therapist at LAND Gallery in Brooklyn, I have a dual relationship to working in the same field as the participants of programs like NIAD. From abstraction to representation, the work in this exhibit speaks to the field of being an artist, of painting, of color, space, time, and being a self-taught artist. “ View the show.

Why post this article on the website of an art center? Because one of our artists has a disability because of gun violence. “The gun issue is a good example. The NRA has spent decades cultivating passionate, single-issue voters—the panic buyers. And it has successfully linked ownership of firearms to Republican identity. “The NRA has framed gun rights really well,” says Scott Melzer, a sociologist at Michigan’s Albion College. “If you lose gun rights, then a tyrannical leftist government will tamp out every other right as well.” That framing appears to have been effective. For 25 years, the Pew Research Read More …

In case this missed this terrific piece (from Sept 2018) about Billy and his work:  “Coming to America at Shrine marks Billy White’s well-deserved inaugural solo exhibition in New York, offering an exuberant selection of recent work; the paintings and sculptures currently on view dynamically illustrate White’s definitive creative focus and sustained capacity for fearless reinvention. For over twenty years, White’s portraits have directly reflected his enduring personal fascinations and artistic influences, through numerous iterations of specific personalities borrowed from popular culture and art history.   Throughout this exhibition, the joy and wonder White finds through art-making is obvious and Read More …

“No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life,” wrote the thirty-year-old Nietzsche. “The true and durable path into and through experience,” Nobel-winning poet Seamus Heaney counseled the young more than a century later in his magnificent commencement address, “involves being true … to your own solitude, true to your own secret knowledge.” Every generation believes that it must battle unprecedented pressures of conformity; that it must fight harder than any previous generation to protect that secret knowledge from which our integrity of selfhood springs. Some of this belief stems Read More …

Hey, we have a plethora of recent additions of new artists working in the studio. Seen here, Serena Scott has been creating at the Art Center for a few months. As you can note in the photos, Serena is very focused on texts, lists and lettering. We usually begin posting work from new artists on our site after they have been actively working at NIAD for six or more months. So, keep an eye on our online store for Serena’s pieces.

Another terrific overhead photograph from NIAD volunteer RK Mickelson (he shot the image associated with yesterday’s post on Karen May). This time he’s captured Erica Martinez at work on a painting on canvas. Want to see more of Erica’s work? We’ve got you covered. It’s right here.

I love Karen May’s work. You will, too. Have a look.

“Singular is an exhibition curated by the creative team at SlingShot. As a creative team, we gravitate towards work that represents the power of (simple) gesture. Throughout Singular, there is one aspect of each piece that has impressed upon us a raw energy and expressive spirit.” View the show.

Thanks to you, the artists at NIAD have the opportunity to develop their career as an artist.   Being an artist is not easy. For anyone. It’s a risky career path. Most artists cannot support themselves by art sales. Many have another job or a source of income that pays the bills for necessary things like rent, food and, of course, art supplies.  Most of our staff are artists, so we understand the compulsion to choose a career basedon the desire to connect to others through something we create.   Space to work, art supplies and supportive mentors are here Read More …

True that. A recent work-in-progress from NIAD artist (and Golden State Warriors fan) Jason Powell-Smith. You can see more of his work here.

We’re delighted to announce that a selection of Marlon Mullen’s recent paintings will be seen in Adams & Ollman’s booth at NADA Miami. Alos in their booth will be works from Queen Nancy Bell, Peter Attie Besharo, Katherine Bradford, David Byrd, Ellen Lesperance, Dino Matt, Ryan McLaughlin, Bill Traylor, and Joseph Yoakum. If you’re attending, please be sure to stop by and see them. NADA Miami details.

From Artforum: “Robert Morris—the American artist who irreversibly transformed contemporary art as a founding practitioner of Minimalism—has died at age eighty-seven in Kingston, New York, from pneumonia, according to his wife, Lucile Michaels Morris. For over five decades, Morris flouted predictability through his experimentations in sculpture, dance, performances, installations, Land-, and process art. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1931, Morris studied painting at the Kansas City Art Institute before serving in the Army Corps of Engineers. He then went on to study philosophy at Reed College in the early 1950s. In 1959, Morris moved to New York City with Read More …

“FLUX gathers a diverse body of work incorporating traditional elements of art such as color, shape, line, and movement with the makers’ individuality and expression; the final compositions often reveal their processes and histories through raw visible construction and bold mark-making.  While they are threaded by a similar language, these fifteen artists approach their practices in exclusive and unique ways such as how Dorrie Reid uses color and gestural shapes to move the observer through a painting evocative of rolling hills passing on a long journey or Lisa Blevens’ intimate ceramics that conjure sensations of living, breathing forms growing and Read More …

In case you missed this insightful article in the New York Times: “I’m a documentary photographer who was raised in California and now lives in New York, and I sometimes feel I’ve already lived two lives — but not because of the changes in geography I’ve experienced. A little more than two years ago, when I was 23, I suffered a spinal cord injury while cliff diving on the Yuba River in Northern California. In a matter of seconds, I became disabled. I was mostly paralyzed from the waist down, and began using a wheelchair. The doctors could not guarantee Read More …

“The rate of diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder among children has nearly doubled in the past two decades. Rates of A.D.H.D. diagnoses also vary considerably across states, with nearly three times as many children getting the diagnosis in Kentucky (where one in five children are said to have the condition) as in Nevada. More than 5 percent of all children in the United States now take an A.D.H.D. medication. These facts raise the question of whether the disease is being overdiagnosed. Diagnosing A.D.H.D. is difficult. Unlike other childhood diseases — such as asthma, obesity and diabetes — the diagnosis Read More …

Ann Meade is an amazing ceramicist. Maybe you own one of her truly inspired psychedelically glazed cats. Maybe you don’t. If not, we’ll have special exhibition of Ann’s clayworks in our Holiday Lounge. More about Ann Meade.

Thoughts on the Facebook scandal and what community really means by our friend Mike Monteiro. (Mike will be organizing the show in our Main Gallery in March 2019): “A few years ago I gave a talk on the Facebook campus. Campus is the most important word in that sentence. Corporations don’t have offices anymore they have campuses. And that’s not an accident. The last time I was part of a campus I was in college. I have fond memories of that campus. I grew up there. I met my friends there. I ate there. I saw bands there. I fell Read More …

A selected few of our works are licensed on to some terrific products — like the pillow (seen above) with text from Sara Malpass. You might want to check them out.