ANNOUNCING: Summer Exhibitions at Richmond Art Center
July 3 – August 17, 2024 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 29, 1pm-3pm Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804 Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm Exhibitions and events are all free and no rsvp is necessary
Richmond, CA: Artists living and working in Richmond, as well as incarcerated artists, will present their artwork at Richmond Art Center in two new exhibitions opening this summer
In the Main Gallery, San Quentin Prison Arts Project and Philadelphia Mural Arts present The View from Here, an exhibition featuring artwork by incarcerated artists from San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and Philadelphia’s State Correctional Institution Phoenix who participated in a creative exchange over the past year. The theme – The View from Here – emerged from the artists’ communications, exploring life inside prison and the realms where their minds wander beyond its gates.
APanel Discussion and Paint Day featuring alumni and facilitators from both prison arts programs will be held on Saturday, July 13 starting at 11am. Following a panel discussion, former program participant Eddie Ramirez will showcase his mural painting technique – community members are invited to join in the process!
Also opening at Richmond Art Center this summer is the Richmond Open Studios Preview Exhibition. In its second year, this event will bring together nearly fifty artists in Richmond who are opening their studios to the public during the weekend of August 17-18. The Preview Exhibition offers visitors an advance showing of work by participating artists, allowing them to plan their self-guided tours throughout different Richmond neighborhoods in August. Richmond artists are also being hosted at ar.ti.fact Gallery, NIAD Art Center, and Richmond Art Center. Richmond Open Studios is an independent project of the Visual Artists of Richmond, an all-volunteer, fiscally-sponsored group based in Richmond.
An Opening Reception for both The View from Here and the Open Studios Preview Exhibition will be held on Saturday, June 29, from 1pm to 3pm. All are welcome to attend.
Richmond Art Center is located at 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm. Admission is free.
About Richmond Art Center: Richmond Art Center has been sharing art and creating with the community since 1936. Our programs encompass classes, exhibitions and events at our facility in downtown Richmond, as well as off-site activities that bring free, high-quality art making experiences to WCCUSD schools and community partners. richmondartcenter.org
Top image: Jeffrey A. Isom, Bridge to Freedom, 2023, Oil on canvas board, San Quentin
Important Parking Notification during RPAL’s Juneteenth Carnival
RPAL’s Juneteenth Carnival
Set-Up through Deinstall: Monday, June 9, 12am (midnight) – Monday, June 17, 5pm
Carnival: Friday, June 14, 5pm – Sunday, June 16, 11pm
Starting Sunday, June 9 at 12am (midnight) through Monday, June 17, 5pm the City parking lot opposite Richmond Art Center (on the 400 block of 25th Street between Barrett and Nevin Avenues) will be reserved for the Juneteenth Carnival being sponsored by the Richmond Police Activities League. As a result students and visitors to Richmond Art Center during this period may need to find alternative parking.
PARKING OPTIONS:
There are City parking lots adjacent to 1st Northern California Credit Union or across from Richmond Library
Residential street parking on the other side of Barrett Avenue from RAC might be the best option
For information about the Juneteenth Carnival Celebration call Richmond PAL at 510-621-1221 or visit their website at www.rpal.org
Point Molate Artist Talk and butohBuddies Performance
Saturday, February 24, 2024, 1pm
This video highlights the Point Molate artist discussion, facilitated by ARTSCCC Executive Director Jenny E. Balisle, followed by a performance by the butohBuddies.
Artists: Rebeca García-González, Irene Wibawa, Tony Tamayo
butohBuddies: Ruth Ichinaga, Kiyono Kishi, Lipton Mah, Nina Moore, and Irene Wibawa
The Richmond Artist Residency offers one community-responsive artist a dedicated studio for 8 months, $8,000 artist stipend, opportunities to teach, exhibit, take classes, and develop strategies for community-based arts programming.
Your Guide to This Summer’s Not-To-Miss Visual Art
By Sarah Hotchkiss | May 13, 2024
[Excerpt]
Every year, it’s a struggle to whittle this list down to a select few. There’s simply so much happening in art spaces across the Bay Area. For 2024, I’ve plotted out an ideal summer, full of inventive gallery shows, exciting museum exhibitions and local artists getting the attention they deserve, all in venues spread across the region.
…
Keith Andrews, ‘Fishing from a Hole in a Wall,’ 2023; Acrylic on parachute cloth. (Philadelphia Mural Arts at SCI Phoenix)
Over the past year, incarcerated artists at San Quentin and Philadelphia’s State Correctional Institution (SCI) Phoenix have exchanged letters — but not through ordinary means. Using their arts programs (the William James Foundation and Philadelphia Mural Arts) as intermediaries, letters were scanned, emailed and printed out to facilitate a creative exchange. The results in this group show includes both imagined and literal views (of daily prison life, of a landscape seen through bars), alongside some of those letters. Art can transport us to other places and into others’ experiences, the show argues, but that is true for both the makers and viewers of that work.
Last week in the “Women in Ceramics” class, students drew inspiration from the renowned artist Toshiko Takaezu. They created hollow orbs using Takaezu’s technique of paddling large closed-form pots until they achieved a “rounder than round” shape.
Further emulating Takaezu’s approach, the students then suspended their work in hammocks outside in the courtyard. (Local sculptor John Roeder’s statue looked on.)
Takaezu said of her work, “People ask, why are you doing the same thing? So I usually try to tell them I’m trying to get a perfect piece. And what is a perfect piece? And if I had it would I know it? And I’m sure I’ve gotten some that are perfect, and yet I don’t want to admit that because then I would stop. So I keep on saying “I’m going to make a perfect piece.” And that’s what I’m striving for.”
Thank you, Toshiko Takaezu, for inspiring us to keep striving also.
“Women in Ceramics” is taught by artist Colleen Garland @colleenandclay. There are a few spots left in Garland’s “Evening Handbuilding” class starting on June 13.
