Exhibition: April 5 – June 3, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 15, 12pm-2pm | More info…
Earth Day / Fencelines Installation: Saturday, April 22, 10am-4pm | More info…
Spring Family Day: Saturday, April 29, 12pm-3pm | More info… NEW EVENT Community Forum – Response to Stolen Artwork: Saturday, June 3, 12pm-2pm | More info…
Closing Reception: Saturday, June 3, 2pm-4pm | More info…
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Fencelines is a community-based participatory art project that invites local folk to reflect on the circumstances of environmental injustice in Richmond, CA. This exhibition presents messages by individual community members responding to the refinery landscape in Richmond, together making up a kind of collective monument. Centered around portraits of community participants, the show aims to amplify the work of local environmental justice organizations and provide opportunities for visitor participation and discourse.
Central to the Fencelines project is a public art installation along a city-owned fence bordering the Chevron refinery and the North Richmond residential neighborhood immediately downwind of it. Painted slats will be installed along the fence, topped with ribbons to animate the direction of the wind. Designed to amplify the voices of the local community, the project team have been offering painted fence slats for community members to inscribe their stories and messages through a series of workshops held at Richmond Art Center and during neighborhood events beginning in Summer 2022. These words and messages are the heart of this work, documenting the impact of the petroleum industry on many lives, and together forming a collective monument to resilience.
“We are here, we want to be seen, and we are lending our hand to make all of these initiatives work to end pollution of our communities.”
–Princess Robinson, Community Organizer and Fencelines Project Co-Creator
Co-created by Graham L.P., Princess Robinson, Gita Khandagle, and members of the Richmond Community
The Fencelines team is made up of local artists and organizers, inviting participation from community members and working in partnership with the Richmond Our Power Coalition to envision a just and regenerative future.
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This project is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.
Exhibition: January 18 – March 18, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 21, 2pm-4pm
Remembrance Project Workshop: Saturday, January 28, 2pm-4pm | More info…
Stitching Stolen Lives: Book Talk With Sara Trail: Saturday, March 4, 1pm-2:30pm | More info…
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Social Justice Sewing Academy presents The Remembrance Project, a cloth memorial of activist art banners commemorating the many people who have lost their lives to systems of inequity and racist structures. These banners have been created collectively by volunteers across the country to help educate and inform communities about the human impact of systemic violence.
The Remembrance Project banners are displayed by local and national organizations to express solidarity in the fight for social justice and remembrance of those lost to violence. The project remembers those lost to: authority violence (officer-involved shooting, police brutality, etc.), community violence (victims of gang violence, neighborhood or family, drive-by shooting, etc.), racial violence (hate crimes, racially motivated, etc.), and sexual and gender-based violence (violence against LGBTQ+, domestic violence, “missing, murdered Indigenous women,” etc.).
A collection of banners from The Remembrance Project are displayed at Richmond Art Center in remembrance of our community members who have been lost to violence.
Exhibition: January 18 – March 18, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 21, 2pm-4pm | More info…
Ancestor Wheel Workshop / Artist Talk: Saturday, February 18, 12pm-2pm | More info…
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Connected Always is an exhibition by Santa Rosa-based artist Amanda Ayala, who presents a series of new works that explore the extensive generational connections we have with our ancestors. As part of her ongoing Ancestor Wheel project, Ayala’s work adopts circular patterns to visualize the magnitude of seven generations.
Connected Always is a slow reflection on the process of knowing, appreciating and acting in full relation with our ancestors and their complete goodness.
Amanda Ayala is an interdisciplinary Xicana Indigenous visual artist and maker who centers people targeted by oppression and acknowledges their brilliance. Amanda leads and facilitates workshops that combine artist liberation and social justice for people of all ages. She creates within community as a way to heal and transform society. linktr.ee/xicanaollin
I bring my Ancestor Wheel Project that explores inter-generational experiences and the importance of ancestral connection to heal from harm. I believe that our community can expand our understanding of our ancestral impacts and take on challenges that we face to understand the powerful impact we make now and on the generations to come.
Exhibition at Richmond Art Center: January 18 – March 18, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, January 21, 2pm-4pm | More info… Artistic Achievement Awardee Talk: Saturday, January 21, 12:30pm-1:30pm | More info… Featured Speakers Event: Monetta White and Key Jo Lee: Saturday, January 28, 12:30pm-2pm | More info… Closing Party: Saturday, March 18, 2pm-4pm | More info…
Open Studios: Feb 25-26, Mar 4-5, Mar 11-12, 2023 Satellite Exhibitions: Throughout January, February, March and April
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804 Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Art of the African Diaspora is the longest running event of its kind in the Bay Area. The showcase exhibition at Richmond Art Center features work by over 120 artists of African descent. This exhibition is accompanied by open studios and satellite exhibitions throughout the Bay Area.
Every year an esteemed Bay Area arts professional selects three participating AOTAD artists to receive Artistic Achievement Awards. Awardees have their artwork featured in the following year’s exhibition. The featured awardee artists in 2023 are Derrick Bell, Cynthia Brannvall, and Pryce Jones.
Art of the African Diaspora originated from a salon for African American artists known as Colors of Black that was organized in 1989 by artist and professor Marie Johnson Calloway. In 1996 artists Jan Hart-Schuyers and Rae Louise Hayward established the exhibition The Art of Living Black at Richmond Art Center. Today the exhibition is called Art of the African Diaspora to incorporate a broader vision, and is run by a steering committee of participating artists.
Pick up a copy of the Art of the African Diaspora print catalog at Richmond Art Center for more info (available Jan 2023).
2023 Participating Artists: Abi Mustapha, Ajuan Mance, Akeem Raheem, Alana McCarthy, Alix Magloire, Alyssa Channelle, Angela Douglas, Anna W. Edwards, Arthur Norcome, Ashlei Reign, Ashley Grajeda, Asual/kwahuumba, Atiba Sylvia Thomas, Bahiya Spaulding, Beautiful Beads, Bernadette Robertson, Bernard Illustrations, Bertrell Smith, Brianna Mills, Candi Farlice, Carla Golder, Carrie Lee McClish, Celise, Charles Curtis Blackwell, Cherisse, Christian Vassell, Chuck Harlins, Claude Lockhart Clark, ColorBlynd by Noni, Cynthia Brannvall, Daniel White, Deatra Colbert, Derrick Bell, Diamela, Doitshā Lexington, Donna Bradley, Donna Gatson, Dorian Reid, Douglas Doss, Duane M Conliffe, Elishes Cavness III, Elmarise Owens, Ester M. Armstrong, Evelyn Davis, Fan Lee Warren, Felicia Griffin, Floyd Brown, Fredrick S. Franklin, Gene Dominique, Halisi Noel-Johnson, Hilda C. Robinson, Iconic Vinyl Art, Irene Bee Kain, J. B. Broussard, J. Inez, JaeMe Bereal, Janet Barnes, Janet M. Sheard, Jason Powell-Smith, Jazmyne, JIBCA, Jim Dennis, Jimmie Evins, Joanne Johnson (Karimu), Joseph Robinson, Julie Atkinson, Justice Renaissance, Kara Fortune, Karen Jeffrey-Anthony, Karen Smith, Metal Smith, karin turner karinsArt, Kelvin Curry, Kevin E. Myrick, Kim Champion, Kimberly V Johnson, Latisha Baker, Laura A. Johnson, Lawrence H Buford, Leon Kennedy Folkart, LHolley, Lorraine Bonner, Louise Schine, Malik Seneferu, Marva, Melanin Buford, Michael Roosevelt, Michelle Tompkins, Mychal Gabriel, Nannette Y Harris-Jones, NoPrints, Nyya Lark, Olubori Babaoye, Onyi Timms, Osaze Seneferu, Ozell Hudson Jr, Patricia McClain Patterson, Paula Vaughan, Pete Dent, Pryce Jones, Raven Harper, Raymond L. Haywood, Remarkable Art, Renata Gray, Riquelle, Ron Calime, S Beaubrun, Sahai, Saida Hogan Nassirruddin, Shanju, Shawn Sanders, Shawna Kinard, Shonna McDaniels, Stacy Mootoo, Stephanie Anne Johnson, Stephen Bruce, TheArthur Wright, Tiffany Conway, Tomye: Living Artist, Val Kai, Valerie Brown-Troutt, Vaughn Filmore, Virginia Jourdan, Wanda Sabir, Will Johnson, Xan Blood Walker, Xioneida Ruiz, Yolanda Cotton Turner, Yolanda Holley, Yolanda ThaSun Patton, Z K Martin, Zoë Boston, and Zwanda
2022 Artistic Achievement Awardees: Derrick Bell, Cynthia Brannvall, Pryce Jones (artwork featured in 2023)
2023 Artistic Achievement Awardees: Stacy Mootoo, J. B. Broussard, Valerie Brown-Troutt (artwork to be featured in 2024)
Top image: Cynthia Brannvall, Fulfillment, 2021, Photograph of the artists father, historical, contemporary, and satellite maps printed on rice paper and beeswax on wood panel, 20″ x 16″
Exhibition: September 28 – November 17, 2022
Opening Reception and Artist Walk Through: Saturday, October 1, 12pm-2pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Melanin: Color, Composition and Connection is a solo exhibition of new work by Daniel White, who presents a series of abstract paintings that bring to the foreground geometric forms, lines and color that reveal the intricacies of melanin and its power of connection.
White creates large works that are composed of smaller paintings that live both as individual pieces and as connected parts. The composition of these paintings serve as a metaphor to the importance of one within the whole, emphasizing that if you take a singular piece away the whole becomes a mystery. On view for the first time is White’s most recent creation, Monuments of Peace in a Universe of Discord, a monumental painting composed of 100 small painted panels that together render an abstracted image of our relationship to the microscopic molecule that gives us color.
This exhibition invites the viewer to simultaneously look inwards, outwards and towards each other and reflect on the pigments that make up our world. Historically, color has shown to have the power to fragment and create differences between us, yet White’s paintings suggest that melanin has the power to bring us together in our common bonds. Through his abstracted compositions, White encourages us to challenge our perceptions and interpretations of color and in the process find connections that join us together beyond our degrees of melanin.
Daniel White grew up in Kansas City, Missouri where he attended Kansas City Art Institute but did not finish his degree. He was determined to complete his education and enrolled in San Francisco Art Institute 20 years later, earning a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in 2001, majoring in painting. White’s work runs the gamut from super realistic fine art portraits, abstract paintings, photography and writing. His current work is influenced by Josef Albers, Mark Rothko, Jacob Lawrence, J. M. W. Turner, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.
This exhibition is part of the Art of the African Diaspora: Luminaries series, and is generously funded by the East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation.
Art of the African Diaspora: Luminaries
Luminaries is a series of four solo exhibitions that shine a spotlight on the remarkable work of four artists – Diamela Cutiño, J.B. Broussard, Donna Gatson and Daniel White – who have participated in Art of the African Diaspora but who have maintained an inconspicuous public image throughout their storied artistic careers. The four exhibitions will be presented in the West Gallery throughout 2022, as part of the 25th anniversary of Art of the African Diaspora.
Exhibition: September 14 – November 17, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 17, 12pm-2pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Art of the African Diaspora, New Visions assembles a group of four Bay Area artists whose work is on the cutting edge of their disciplines. The selected artists – Kim Champion, Tiffany Conway, Ashara Ekundayo and Bertrell Smith – are all within the first ten years of publicly showing their artwork, are at a critical juncture in their careers as fine artists, and have shown work in the Art of the African Diaspora exhibition in the past two years. These four artists employ painting, photography, collage, and vibrant color palettes to engage viewers in their unique expressions of the experience of the fullness and vibrancy of Black expression. Though the four artists work in different mediums and approaches to creating their artworks, New Visions places the works in dialogue with one another to demonstrate the diversity of artwork coming from emerging Black artists in the Bay Area.
New Visions is organized by Oakland-based artist, educator, and independent curator Demetri Broxton.
Top Image: Tiffany Conway, Your Soul Knows the Way, 2019
Exhibition: September 14 – November 17, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 17, 12pm-2pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
De Fantasías y Realidades is an exhibition of work by Oakland-based artist, Daniel Camacho, who presents a selection of large-scale portable murals, paper mache sculptures, and paintings he has created over the last 25 years. Together, these works represent Daniel’s unique approach of fusing elements of Mexican popular culture with the social and political experiences of his community, blending them into images that blur lines between reality and fantasy.
Daniel captures the social and mystical realities of everyday people in his community. In particular, Daniel paints the immigrant experience, our political struggles, and of the culture that holds us together. These realities are depicted in Daniel’s portable murals, often illustrated through expressive faces with eyes that command a strong gaze towards our shared struggles. Through these vibrant images, Daniel allows a personal encounter with the fantasies and realities that have defined his own lived experience and that mirror the lived experience of people in his community.
Daniel blends social and magical realism to create a defining imagery that opens up a world of dualities. Masks, rituals, the sun, the moon, and vivid flowers are important motifs that transcends us into a world of color and fantasy. The subject of these works navigate a space between reality and fantasy, life and death, good and evil, and suggest our own transformations from one to the other.
Through his work, Daniel captures the experiences of everyday people, their struggles, accomplishments and joys. His work is a mirror that reflects the deep cultural symbolisms, rituals and beliefs that we carry with us as we walk through the realities of this world.
About the Artist: Daniel Camacho is a Mexican born, Oakland-based visual artist and muralist who, for the past 30 years, has worked in public schools, libraries, and community organizations in the SF Bay Area and beyond. Daniel’s work explores themes of social justice, celebration and empowerment of culture.
Español
De Fantasías y Realidades
Fechas de exposición: September 14 – November 17, 2022
Recepción de apertura: Saturday, September 17, 12pm-2pm
Horario de la galería: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
De Fantasías y Realidades es una exhibición del artista Daniel Camacho que nos presenta una selección de murales móviles, esculturas de papel maché y pinturas que ha creado durante los últimos 25 años. Juntas, estas obras representan como el artista rescata elementos de la cultura popular mexicana y las mezcla con las experiencias sociales y políticas de la comunidad, haci creando imágenes que difuminan las líneas entre la fantasía y la realidad.
Daniel captura las realidades sociales y místicas de la gente común en su comunidad. En particular, Daniel pinta las realidades de la experiencia inmigrante, de las luchas políticas y de la cultura que nos mantiene unidos. Estas realidades están representadas en los murales móviles que Camacho pinta, ilustrados en rostros con ojos profundos que dominan una mirada hacia nuestras luchas compartidas. A través de estas imágenes llenas de color y cultura, Camacho nos permite un encuentro personal con sus fantasías y sus realidades que han definido su experiencia vivida y que a la misma vez reflejan la experiencia vivida de las personas de su comunidad.
Daniel combina el realismo social con el mágico para crear imágenes que abren un mundo de dualidades. Las máscaras, los rituales, la luna, el sol, y las flores vívidas son simbolos importantes que nos trascienden a un mundo de color y fantasía. Las obras en la exposición navegan un espacio entre la realidad y la fantasía, la vida y la muerte, el bien y el mal, y hacen sugerencia a nuestras propias transformaciones de uno al otro.
A través de su trabajo, Daniel captura las experiencias de la gente común, sus luchas, logros y alegrías. Su obra es un espejo que refleja una imagen de los profundos simbolismos culturales, rituales y creencias que llevamos con nosotros mientras caminamos por las realidades de este mundo.
Sobre el artista: Daniel Camacho es un artista visual y muralista mexicano que a vivido en Oakland los últimos 30 años, ha trabajado en escuelas públicas, bibliotecas y organizaciones comunitarias en el Área de la Bahía de SF y más allá. El trabajo de Daniel explora temas de justicia social, celebración y empoderamiento de la cultura.
Top Image: Daniel Camacho, De Fantasias y Realidades, 2022. Oil pastel on paper
Rhythm and Rust History, Heritage, Honor told through the Object
Exhibition: August 3 – September 17, 2022 Reception and Artist Walk Through: Saturday, August 20, 12pm-2pm Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm Location: Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
In her solo exhibition, Rhythm and Rust, artist Donna Gatson presents a series of assemblages she has created using vintage objects to compose sculptural notes that speak to her heritage, thoughts and inspirations as a Black woman.
Gatson uses the object as her medium, assembling parts and pieces to create a rhythm that conjures up ancestral memories. In her alchemy, Gatson combines objects that were once used as tools to dehumanize such as ledgers, chains, and cuffs with treasured family heirlooms imbued with generational strength and resilience. In this process Gatson forms assemblages that have the power to transmute historical reality, where objects that were once used to dehumanize become a source of humanity.
Using old victrola parts, violin bodies and the sounds of Ella Fitzgerald, Gatson welcomes us into her ancestral memory and leads us through a series of assemblages that tell the legends of family heroes that surmounted the realities of slavery and the Jim Crow south. We are then brought around to a collection of oracles made of doll heads that serve as a reminder of the work that still needs to be done to maintain our humanity. Lastly Gatson presents us with a collection of Freedom cuffs created of reclaimed copper as manifestation of the prayers, hopes and dreams of Gatson’s enslaved ancestors.
Donna Gatson is primarily a self taught emerging artist. She was born and raised on the Monterey Peninsula with deep ties to the South and Southwest. Driven by an uncontrollable urge to create art, she uses the mediums of watercolor, graphite pencil, metal and found objects. Her work ranges from Black Country Folk art, to a style she refers to as “Afro/Deco Cubism”. Gatson is also one of the few African American jewelry silversmiths in the country. She was taught traditional Native silversmithing by renowned Hopi silversmith Gerald Lomaventema on the Hopi reservation. Gatson takes the traditional techniques she learned and uses them to create her own Afro, Asian, Anasazi influenced designs in silver and copper jewelry.
This exhibition is part of the Art of the African Diaspora: Luminaries series, and is generously funded by the East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation.
Art of the African Diaspora: Luminaries
Luminaries is a series of four solo exhibitions that shine a spotlight on the remarkable work of four artists – Diamela Cutiño, J.B. Broussard, Donna Gatson and Daniel W. White – who have participated in Art of the African Diaspora but who have maintained an inconspicuous public image throughout their storied artistic careers. The four exhibitions will be presented in the West Gallery throughout 2022, as part of the 25th anniversary of Art of the African Diaspora.
Exhibition: September 14 – November 17, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 17, 12pm-2pm Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
From the Pueblo, For the Pueblo is a culminating exhibition featuring the work of Richmond Art Center’s Artists-in-Residence, Liberación Gráfica.
Liberación Gráfica is a screen print collective whose art practice is rooted in the Chicanx art tradition of revolutionary community print workshops. Throughout their residency, Liberación Gráfica worked alongside youth and community members to create prints that uplift community voices, and raise awareness of the struggles and resilience of the people of Richmond.
This exhibition presents the work that Liberación Gráfica collectively created during their residency. This includes a collection of striking silkscreen prints created for community events that speak to key issues like environmental justice, food sovereignty, and the prison industrial complex. The exhibition also includes prints made by Richmond youth who participated in Liberación Gráfica’s summer class which explored empowering topics of identity, culture, and ancestral knowledge. Staying true to the concept that there is no liberation without community, Liberación Gráfica has also invited artists in the community to join them in presenting work that together opens up conversations around ideas of liberation.
Throughout their time at Richmond Art Center, Liberación Gráfica has embodied the role of the activist-artist championed by the Chicanx Art Movement. In this exhibition, Liberación Gráfica makes a strong connection to their artistic lineage and affirms that the role of the Chicanx artist is to serve the people by creating art that helps in the liberation of the people.
From the Pueblo, For the Pueblo is the work From the People, For the People!
About the Collective: Liberación Gráfica is a community-based art collective whose mission is to provide opportunities for self and community expressions through silkscreen printing. The collective is made up of Richmond-based artists, teachers, and community organizers: Eddy Chacon, Lisette Vera, Daniel Cervantes and Francisco Rojas. Liberación Gráfica was established in 2019 and since has worked towards teaching youth the process of silkscreen printing through a social justice lens with the intention to bridge gaps between communities of color and bring awareness to social injustices faced by the Richmond community.
This exhibition was made possible with the support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Favianna Rodriguez, Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong (Twin Walls Mural Company), Keena Azania Romano, Leslie Dime Lopez, Vanessa Agana Espinoza Solari, and Yazmin Shi Shi Madriz
Exhibition: June 22 – August 20, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 18, 2pm-4pm Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm Location: Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Together we are strong. And in a troubled world collective care is our best protection.
This exhibition brings together a group of women artists who are at the forefront in activating public consciousness through muralism and printmaking. At the center are works that illustrate the healing and protective power that resides in the act of collective care.
On display are two large scale portable murals: one painted by Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong from Twin Walls Mural Company titled Protectors of the Sacred, Power: A Prayer for Buffalo Nation; and the other painted by Keena Romano, Leslie Dime Lopez, Vanessa Agana Espinoza Solari and Yazmin Shi Shi Madriz titled Portals thru Powerful Prayers. Complementing these two murals are a series of collages and prints by Favianna Rodriguez that speak to our relationship with food and plants through rituals of self and collective care.
These works were created during the pandemic and stemmed out of a dire need to share responsibility for each others’ well-being. As we cautiously walk out of this pandemic, the artists’ work serve as a reminder of the need to continue embracing each other, especially as the pandemic made clear that issues in accessing affordable housing, health care, environmental protections, immigrant rights, and indigenous land sovereignty are deep struggles we remain in.
The title of the exhibition borrows from Favianna Rodriguez’ series “Collective Care is Our Best Protection” created during the pandemic as a “call for communities to care for each other and develop strong and autonomous support systems of mutual aid.”
