Every day we must struggle to stay focused on saving this beautiful planet
Mural designed and painted by youth of the S.P.O.T.S (Supporting People’s Outlooks, Talents and Speech) class at Richmond Art Center
Everyday We Must Struggle To Stay Focused On Saving This Beautiful Planetis a mural designed and painted by youth artists at Richmond Arts Center. Students in the class brainstormed and collaborated on creating this piece that focuses on the changing climate, possible causes, and creative strategies to bettering ourselves and the environment. Each participant contributed images that reflect a polarizing question of our day, When will we prioritize our earth over man’s advancement?
In the mural from the right, going clockwise, you will see an upside down city, symbolizing the extreme opposite of a well adjusted humanity. A grave yard below the city with ghost rising represents our ancestors whose energy contributed to the present. The graveyard is a space of limbo questioning the consequences of decisions made in the past. In the background there is a mandala like light source shining onto a person with their fist up showing support to the center image of a monumental figure holding a floating earth above the head of a small girl. The small girl symbolizes knowledge and learned behaviors received from the elders. These figures bravely exist next to a burning tiger and a bleeding tree, symbols of a collapsing environment terminally affecting all our relations, i.e. people, animals, trees… As we look to the top left of the mural we see a flying bee, who according to the international conservation nonprofit Earthwatch Institute is the most important species on earth and a person in a meditative pose rising above these act as symbols of life and possible solutions to human made turmoil.
“Every day we must struggle to stay focused on saving this beautiful planet,” is a quote by activist , artist, and healer Jorge Guillermo Perez Molina.
Directed By Fredericko Alvarado, Assisted by Keena Romano
Please join on Saturday, August 28, 2pm via YouTube to celebrate the launch of this new mural and hear from the artists about their experiences creating it.
Pragmatic beginnings and unexpected moments in the work of three Bay Area Artists
An opossum trapped in the studio. A collection of keys in a junk drawer. A gallon of leftover joint compound. The artists in this exhibition show how inspiration from day jobs and home life can spur unexpected creativity. Taking materials, forms and encounters from their every-day, Laura Kamian McDermott, Steven Morales and Leslie Plato Smith use creative problem solving processes that start close to home.
Laura Kamian McDermott is a textile artist who uses labor-intensive techniques to make work that insists on the value of creative labor in an era that shows little respect for such a pursuit. Inherent in her work is the belief in the power of the handmade to address social ills, support mental and community health, and bring out some of humanity’s more positive traits. Through her woven, knitted, and embroidered techniques – meticulously studied and executed – she produces high-quality textiles. McDermott studied Painting at Reed College and Textiles at San Francisco State University. She was born in Oakland and currently resides in Richmond. www.lrkmcd.com, @laurakamianmcdermott
Richmond-based Steven Morales is a practicing architect whose creative interests also include photography and collage. Many of his collage works incorporate construction materials such as joint compound, wood and sheetrock along with paper and occasionally house paint. www.studiosmdesign.com
Oakland-based and educated at UC Santa Barbara, Tulane, and UC Berkeley, Leslie Plato Smith spent much of her career as Associate Vice-Chancellor of Governmental Relations for City College of San Francisco. Highlights from her career include receiving a national award for bringing together 60 different art departments to create 125 life size statues to visually show how budget cuts negatively impact students and to fight for public education, and exhibiting at the European Cultural Centre’s Venice Biennale exhibition. Plato Smith’s grandfather was born on the Choctaw Reservation and her orphaned grandmother was born to immigrant parents from Denmark and Sweden. Migration, immigration and resettlement are key themes that resonate through her creative practice and professional work. leslieplatosmith.com
Magia de zarigüeya
Comienzos pragmáticos y momentos inesperados en el trabajo de tres artistas del Área de la Bahía
Una zarigüeya atrapada en el estudio. Una colección de llaves en un cajón de basura. Un galón de compuesto para juntas sobrante. Los artistas de esta exposición muestran cómo la inspiración de los trabajos diurnos y la vida hogareña pueden estimular una creatividad inesperada. Tomando materiales, formas y encuentros de su día a día, Laura Kamian McDermott, Steven Morales y Leslie Plato Smith utilizan procesos creativos de solución de problemas que comienzan en casa.
Haga clic aquí para ver los horarios y las actualizaciones de la galería.
ARTISTAS
Laura Kamian McDermott es una artista textil que utiliza técnicas de trabajo intensivo para realizar trabajos que valoran el trabajo creativo en una era que muestra poco respeto por esto. Inherente a su trabajo es la creencia en el poder de lo hecho a mano para abordar los males sociales, apoyar la salud mental y comunitaria y resaltar algunos de los rasgos más positivos de la humanidad. A través de sus técnicas de tejido y bordado, meticulosamente estudiadas y ejecutadas, produce textiles de alta calidad. Laura estudió Pintura en Reed College y Textiles en San Francisco State University. Nació en Oakland y actualmente reside en Richmond. www.lrkmcd.com, @laurakamianmcdermott
Steven Morales, con sede en Richmond, es un arquitecto cuyos intereses creativos incluyen la fotografía y el collage. Muchos de sus trabajos de collage incorporan materiales de construcción como compuesto para juntas, madera y placas de yeso junto con papel y ocasionalmente pintura para casas. www.studiosmdesign.com
Leslie Plato Smith, con sede en Oakland y educada en UC Santa Barbara, Tulane y UC Berkeley, pasó gran parte de su carrera como Vicecanciller Asociada de Relaciones Gubernamentales del City College of San Francisco. Los aspectos más destacados de su carrera incluyen recibir un premio nacional por reunir a 60 departamentos de arte diferentes para crear 125 estatuas de tamaño natural para mostrar visualmente cómo los recortes presupuestarios afectan negativamente a los estudiantes; luchar por la educación pública; y exponer en la exposición Bienal de Venecia del Centro Cultural Europeo. El abuelo de Platón Smith nació en la reserva Choctaw y su abuela huérfana nació de padres inmigrantes de Dinamarca y Suecia. La migración, la inmigración y el reasentamiento son temas clave que resuenan a través de su práctica creativa y su trabajo profesional. leslieplatosmith.com
Images: (top) Laura Kamian McDermott, Jagged Skyline of Car Keys, Sand, 2021; (above l-r) Steven Morales, Untitled, 2021; Leslie Plato Smith, White Rabbit (from the Vulnerability series), 2020
This exhibition highlights the work of three artists – Saif Senussi Azzuz, Kim Champion, and Emily Van Engel – who use abstraction to express ideas related to land care. Employing approaches that range from personal to cultural to imagined, selected works here show how abstraction can be a powerful tool for exploring how we can situate ourselves within the land; a vital first step towards restoring and protecting it.
Saif Senussi Azzuz
Saif Senussi Azzuz is a Libyan-Yurok artist whose paintings explore the interconnected and dynamic practices of Indigenous land management. Created using acrylic, dye and enamel on canvas, his bold large-scale works use an abstracted visual language to show care of ancestral lands as a process that is characterized by constant change and activity (a stark contrast to the idea of an unchanging ‘pristine wilderness’). The titles for his pieces are conversational and often include Yurok language, further highlighting traditional and contemporary culture side-by-side, and asserting Yurok people’s deep, ongoing commitment to land stewardship.
Kim Champion
Bay Area artist Kim Champion’s series My Father’s Garden is a visual tribute to the connection she shares with her father and the importance of her family’s land. Drawing the flora she remembers from her father’s extensive Mississippi garden, Champion uses abstraction to blend different plants into one organic form. The connection between different elements in these beautiful drawings become a metaphor for a family’s bond with each other and with their land. In a similar way, Champion’s Quiet drawings are meditations on nature that use line and shape to nurture a deeper connection with the landscape.
Emily Van Engel
In her new series of paintings, Emily Van Engel searches for a future without crisis through assigning positive meaning to colors – lavender is peaceful and represents health, mauve is collaborative and represents democracy, and so on. While her past representational landscape work has literally exposed environmental exploitation through the use of the medium of pollution, in this new work Van Engel is more compassionate and visionary. The colors are uplifting and the fluid forms, including a repeated web pattern, represent the weaving together of disparate elements to create a structure that Van Engel describes as “what it feels like to support each other to create a society and environment in balance.”
Works from Home: Richmond Art Center Student Showcase
Online Exhibition Dates: August 23 – November 18, 2021
In-Person Exhibition Dates: September 16 – November 18, 2021*
We’re celebrating the achievements of our students over this past year with an exhibition showcase. This online and in-person exhibition features work made in our online classes by students of all ages and all experience levels.
CLICK HERE for information about visiting RAC, including our current gallery hours and COVID-19 prevention.
*In-person exhibition dates are subject to change based RAC’s reopening and Covid-19 health and safety guidelines
Online Exhibition
Top image: Andres Serrano, Untitled, or, ‘Endless Love’ on repeat for the millionth time (detail), 2021. This work was created in Teaching Artist Cristine Blanco’s class “Sculpture – Experimenting with Everyday Material”
Summer Rites Looking Out Through the Lens of Richmond Youth Photographers
In the Summer of 2021, Richmond Art Center held a youth photography class led by esteemed artist Simone Bailey, where a group of Richmond youth came together to learn the fundamentals of digital photography. During the six-week course, the student photographers pointed their lenses towards themselves and their surroundings, capturing an essence of a Richmond summer. This exhibition showcases a selection of photographs created and curated by the student photographers.
Artists: Laisha Luna Aguilar, Lizbeth Alvarez, Myleyby Mora, Nayla Sequeira Cuellar, Oswaldo Navarrete, Román Cortes
CLICK HERE to see our gallery hours during Fall 2021
Top image: Photo by Laisha Luna Aguilar
This project is generously supported by the California Arts Council.
Ritos de verano Mirando a través del lente de los fotógrafos juveniles de Richmond
Fechas de exposición: 9 de septiembre – 19 de noviembre de 2021
En el verano del 2021, el Richmond Art Center llevó a cabo una clase de fotografía para jóvenes dirigida por la estimada artista Simone Bailey, donde un grupo de jóvenes de Richmond se reunió para aprender los fundamentos de la fotografía digital. Durante el curso de seis semanas, los estudiantes de fotografía apuntaron sus lentes hacia ellos mismos y su entorno, capturando la esencia de un verano de Richmond. Esta exposición muestra una selección de fotografías creadas y comisariadas por los estudiantes de fotografía.
Artistas: Laisha Luna Aguilar, Lizbeth Alvarez, Myleyby Mora, Nayla Sequeira Cuellar, Oswaldo Navarrete, Román Cortes
HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para obtener información sobre los visitantes
Imagen superior: Foto por Laisha Luna Aguilar
Este proyecto cuenta con el generoso apoyo de el California Arts Council.
Time and Again is an exhibition centered on Rigo 23’s monumental sculptural tribute to Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Twelve feet tall, the sculpture sits at the center of the exhibition anchoring a narrative of Leonard Peltier’s 45-year long incarceration. For the first time, the sculpture is presented alongside photographs, letters, artwork, posters and ephemera from Rigo’s archive. By sharing these, the artist invites the visitors for an intimate and informal conversation, one that illuminates the artist’s more than two decade long journey – as well as present some of the historical context which helps understand Leonard Peltier’s ongoing cruel predicament.
About the Artist: Rigo 23 has exhibited his work internationally for over 30 years placing murals, paintings, sculptures, and tile work in public situations where viewers are encouraged to examine their relationship to their community, their role as unwitting advocates of public policy, and their place on a planet occupied by many other living things. His projects have included inter-communal collaborations with Native Tribes in North and South America; long-term partnerships with political prisoners; and alliances with underrepresented and disenfranchised individuals and communities. @rigo23studio @peltierstatue #freeleonardpeltier
*In-person exhibition dates are subject to change with new Covid-19 developments.. CLICK HERE to view our gallery hours before planning your visit to Richmond Art Center.
Tiempo y otra vez
Fechas de exposición: 9 de septiembre – 20 de noviembre de 2021*
Tiempo y otra vez es una exposición centrada en el monumental tributo escultórico de Rigo 23 al activista nativo americano Leonard Peltier. La escultura, de cuatro metros y medio de altura, se encuentra en el centro de la exposición y presenta una narrativa de los 45 años de encarcelamiento de Leonard Peltier. Por primera vez, la escultura se presenta junto con fotografías, cartas, obras de arte, carteles y efímeros del archivo de Rigo. Al compartirlos, el artista invita a los visitantes a una conversación íntima e informal, una que ilumina el viaje de más de dos décadas del artista, además de presentar parte del contexto histórico que ayuda a comprender el continuo y cruel predicamento de Leonard Peltier.
Acerca del artista: Rigo 23 ha exhibido su trabajo a nivel internacional durante más de 30 años colocando murales, pinturas, esculturas y azulejos en situaciones públicas donde se alienta a los espectadores a examinar su relación con su comunidad, su papel como defensores involuntarios de las políticas públicas y su lugar en un planeta ocupado por muchos otros seres vivos. Sus proyectos han incluido colaboraciones entre comunidades con tribus nativas en América del Norte y del Sur; asociaciones a largo plazo con presos políticos; y alianzas con personas y comunidades infrarrepresentadas y marginadas. @ rigo23studio @peltierstatue
* Las fechas de la exposición son sujetas a cambios con los nuevos desarrollos de Covid-19. HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para ver el horario de nuestra galería antes de planificar su visita al Centro de Arte de Richmond.
Join us online on Thursday, August 5 at 7pm as photographer Robin D. López (Shots from Richmond) will speak with three artists about their recent mural projects in Richmond: Deontá Allen, Rebeca Garcia-González, and David Solnit.
Presented here in conjunction with the talk are photos and video by Lopez documenting the artists’ work.
Deontá Allen is a Richmond-based artist who paints on canvas and apparel, and creates large-scale public murals. He is self-taught and his abstract style incorporates a signature color palette with iconic imagery from popular culture. In June of 2020, Allen in collaboration with Richmond Revolution and the community painted “Black Lives Matter” in large yellow letters on the street in downtown Richmond. Allen works for the East Bay Regional Park District and as part of the organization’s Diversity Committee which organized a successful petition calling for EBRPD to commemorate Juneteenth. www.deontaallen.com, @dallenart
Rebeca Garcia-González is a Richmond painter who grew up in a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. After earning a BFA at the University of Puerto Rico with a focus on printmaking, she came to San Francisco in 1985 to pursue a graduate degree at the San Francisco Art Institute, but studied graphic design and education instead. Working within the public school system helped me develop an awareness of various US social movements, among them, immigrant rights, marriage equality, and racial justice. In 2016, after working as program manager in a couple of non-profits she became a full-time working artist and since then has been involved in public art. rebecasart.com, @rebecathepainter
Robin D. López is a Richmond freelance photographer, who aims to produce visuals that represent the voices and cultures of our communities. Other work also specializes in nature/wildlife and urban ecology. López has been actively engaged in the Richmond/San Pablo community throughout the past decade, having been a lifelong resident dedicated towards empowering and inspiring the next generation of change agents. López is currently working on his doctoral degree at the University of California, Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, and has been a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab since 2012. www.shotsfromrichmond.com, @shotsfromrichmond
David Solnit is an East Bay Area artist and arts organizer who uses the arts to help win positive change and to protect our people and planet. He collaborates with communities and movements using: giant puppetry, street-pavement murals, guerrilla projections, 300 foot banners, theater pageants, occupying a McDonalds roof to support striking workers, and painting a giant modified-with-skull Chevron logo directly in front of Chevron’s refinery gate. He collaborates with fast food workers, Indigenous water protectors, public school teachers unions, health care workers, climate justice groups, and farmworkers. Art Builds for Climate Justice and a Better World (Facebook Group)
VIDEO
Video by Shots from Richmond. Music by Mark Anthony Nawman and Shots from Richmond.
ABOUT RAC LIVE
This series of four online monthly zoom talks highlights the work of Richmond artists and their peers. Recognizing that the Covid-19 pandemic has severely limited opportunities for artists to present their work, RAC LIVE utilizes virtual platforms to show how artists are showing up, naming this moment and moving forward.
This Artists’ Talk and Online Exhibition are part of RAC LIVE, a project supported by a 2021 Neighborhood Public Art Mini-Grant from the Richmond Arts and Culture Commission.
In 1971, I organized an exhibition called California Girls at Richmond Art Center in Richmond, California. At the time I was curator there, but shortly after the opening of that show on February 11, I was forced to resign.
This year is the 50th anniversary of California Girls and I am organizing California Girls 2. Because of the coronavirus pandemic it is an online exhibition. The original title was suggested by Janet Webb, an LA artist in the exhibition. It is based on the song by the Beach Boys from the 1960s. The original exhibition included women from Los Angeles and San Francisco. California Girls 2 includes women only from the Bay Area.
There are a dozen women in this show. Two sculptors, three photographers, and seven painters. They are all older than 50. The original California Girls were all under 50, mostly in their twenties and did not include any photographers. In 1971 photography was not recognized as art as much as it is today and was not exhibited in the same exhibitions as painting and sculpture.
The women in this show are important artists.
– Tom Marioni
CLICK HERE to read a new interview with Tom Marioni by Shaelyn Hanes.
ARTWORKS
Catherine Wagner, Artemis/Diana, From Rome Works, 2014
Archival pigment print (edition 3 of 3), 45" x 60”
Courtesy of Jessica Silverman Gallery and Gallery Luisotti
Diane Roby, Untitled, 2019
Watercolor on paper, 10" x 15"
Courtesy of the Artist
Cheryl Meeker, Untitled, 2021
Watercolor and acrylic on found paper, 11" x 17"
Courtesy of the Artist
Frances Valesco, Legends and Legacies #1, 2021
Mixed print on paper (archival pigment, toned cyanotype), 15" x 11"
Courtesy of the Artist
Diane Andrews Hall, Robin with Red Squares, 2012
Oil on wood, 20" x 20"
Courtesy of the Artist and Rena Bransten Gallery
Flicka McGurrin, Herd Community Green, from MOO series, 2020/2021
Oil on canvas, 84" x 60"
Courtesy of the Artist
Gay Outlaw, New Crate Wave, 2010-2020
Cast paper, inkjet on rice paper, wheat paste, cardboard, wood, "91 x 52.5 x 52.5”
Courtesy of the Artist
Mary Ijichi, Assemblage #3, 2020
Mixed media, 12" x 12"
Courtesy of Brian Gross Fine Art and the Artist. Photo by Kaz Tsuruta
Mildred Howard, Movement IV: Sonata in Eight Notes, 2021
Glass bottles, wood, glue, 26" x 25" x 22"
Courtesy of the Artist and Franklin Parrasch Gallery
Mitra N Forouhar, Untitled, 2019
Acrylic on canvas, 14" x 11"
Courtesy of the Artist
Three artists – Elishes Cavness, Tiffany Conway and Marva – will discuss their journey through the Covid-19 pandemic in a special online artists talk on Thursday, June 24, 7pm to 8pm. These three Richmond artists have studios very close to each other, and over the past eighteen months have developed a special bond. As Cavness says, “We are a unique three. We’ve supported each other. We’ve been in contact. We created a community of three.”
Presented here in conjunction with the artists’ talk is an online exhibition that represents the artists’ journey through the pandemic from beginning to middle to end in sight. Cavness, Conway and Marva will use the lens of this artwork to discuss their experiences as both creatives and caregivers during the artists’ talk.
Elishes Cavness: Elishes became emersed in the craft of telling stories and exploring African heritage through art. Through this exploration, he searches for his ancestors’ origins while highlighting the adornments of each tribe he reflects in his paintings. This lead to his first solo exhibition, Adornment, at Contra Costa College Gallery. Elishes has had several shows and now curates the Bridge Gallery, where he emphasizes that all voices and points of view are essential to the advancement of art, not just the mainstream. www.instagram.com/tiny_ass_studios_da_art
Tiffany Conway: Raised in the Bay Area, Tiffany Conway grew her creativity from life experiences. The textures found in Conway’s pieces represent the skin and the scars of life coupling color as language. Even though her work displays the beauty of others, what lies behind that initial layer are parts of her personal story of evolution. Her mission is to heal women through her paintings by displaying them as seen, heard, soft and resilient. In 2020 Conway won an Artistic Achievement Award for her work in Art of the African Diaspora. She had her first solo exhibitions at Bridge ArtSpace and Shoh Gallery in 2021. www.projectgetfree.com, www.instagram.com/projectgetfree
Marva: Marva is a ceramic artist who creates figurative sculptures based on African history and culture. She says of her work, “With African features there are so many ways to show them. They are so expressive and those of African descent I hope can relate to the clay sculptures by seeing themselves or others in them. The hair is always combed in ways to show the texture of it, the lips and nose are full and very sensual. The skin coloring rich with the colors of the earth.” Marva also works as a curator, and recently has organized exhibitions at CoBiz Richmond, Bridge ArtSpace. She is on the steering committee that organizes the annual event Art of the African Diaspora. www.instagram.com/marvaric
ABOUT RAC LIVE
This series of four online monthly zoom talks highlights the work of Richmond artists and their peers. Recognizing that the Covid-19 pandemic has severely limited opportunities for artists to present their work, RAC LIVE utilizes virtual platforms to show how artists are showing up, naming this moment and moving forward.
This Artists’ Talk and Online Exhibition are part of RAC LIVE, a project supported by a 2021 Neighborhood Public Art Mini-Grant from the Richmond Arts and Culture Commission.
Online Exhibition: Monday, May 10 – Friday, June 11, 2021
Join us for a special event on Thursday, June 10, 7pm to 8pm bringing together three artists – Shari Arai DeBoer, Manon Wada, Irene Wibawa – to discuss intersecting themes within their creative practice. While working in different media, scale and modes for investigation, the artists’ work is interconnected through their consideration of family stories, nature and resilience during these challenging times.
DeBoer, Wada and Wibawa met as members of Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA). Irene Wibawa and Shari Arai DeBoer live in the East Bay, while Manon Wada resides in New York. This Artists’ Talk represents an opportunity for communion through an exchange of ideas and reflection on past and current works after a year of social distancing.
Note: Due to an unexpected occurrence this Artists’ Talk is now happening on Thursday, June 10, 7-8pm (it was previously scheduled for 5/27).
Presented here in conjunction with the Artists’ Talk is an online exhibition of recent and past works by the artists.
ONLINE EXHIBITION
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Shari Arai DeBoer is a visual artist. Born and raised in the East Bay she now lives in El Sobrante, on Chochenyo Ohlone lands. In her work she examines wonders of the natural world, the minutiae of everyday life and stories inspired by her Japanese American family history. sharideboer.com
Manon Wada is an artist and poet currently based in Brooklyn/Canarsie Munsee Lenape territory and lived in San Francisco/Muwekma Ohlone Ramaytush territory for many years. Her art practice primarily takes form as sculptural installations and collaboratively in socially engaged projects. www.mbwada.com, www.herstorycensus.com, www.ritesofpassageproject.org/2020vision
Irene Wibawa is a multidisciplinary artist in visual and performance art, and a plant and insect enthusiast. She is ethnic Chinese, born in Indonesia, has lived in the US since 1983, and currently resides in Richmond on Chochenyo Ohlone territory, with her cat Pebbles. irenewibawa.com
ABOUT RAC LIVE
This series of four online monthly zoom talks highlights the work of Richmond artists and their peers. Recognizing that the Covid-19 pandemic has severely limited opportunities for artists to present their work, RAC LIVE utilizes virtual platforms to show how artists are showing up, naming this moment and moving forward.
This Artists’ Talk and Online Exhibition are part of RAC LIVE, a project supported by a 2021 Neighborhood Public Art Mini-Grant from the Richmond Arts and Culture Commission.
Top image details (l-r): Irene Wibawa, Excavation 18, Reprinted images, fern, found wooden box, light; Shari Arai DeBoer, Camera at Manzanar, Watercolor; Manon Wada, inSITE, Carved earth, found candles
