ARTIST STATEMENT: I’m Laura Mitsu, a self-taught abstract artist based in Oakland. My work is an intuitive expression of emotion and a journey of self-discovery, where curiosity and experimentation guide my creative process, often leading to joyful, unexpected outcomes. Many of my paintings are paired with original poems that explore themes of self-love, self-acceptance, connection,…
Ace Makerspace
At Ace Makerspace, making is for everyone! We’re an Oakland-based non-profit that brings together people of diverse skill levels to create, learn and solve life’s challenges with an amazing array of tools, technology, and beginner accessible education. We take an equitable approach to developing resources that support a wide range of making and learning for…
Matthew Myers
Matthew Myers is an abstract painter and graphic designer living and working in Oakland California. At a time of upheaval and change in technology and how we interact and create art I have found myself drawn to how oil painting and the interplay of color, light, material, and texture can react and interact with the…
Jenn Doyle Crane
About Jenn Doyle Crane is an artist, curator, and creative entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jenn studied painting and printmaking at Ringling School of Art and Design and the NY Studio Program under the New School. She has worked at the Guggenheim and Brooklyn museum, as well as the San Francisco Arts Commission,…
Sheilby Macena
Sheilby Macena is a Haitian-American photographer, born in Florida and currently residing in Oakland, California. Her interest in photography, particularly portraiture, was sparked by her own family albums and the contrast between her family’s life in Haiti and her own in the United States. Her background and personal experiences have played a significant role in…
Kierra Shadé Stanley
BIO Kierra Shadé is an Oakland-based artist who creates energetic, vibrant abstract work that sparks imagination and evokes personal emotional experiences. Born in South Carolina, 1991, as a bi-racial woman, many of her paintings explore contrast, transformative moments, reclamation of self and power, and expressions of the feminine. While masterfully using color, fluid form and…
Mokhtar Paki
Mokhtar lives in the Bay Area and works as a visual artist and an art teacher. Hi murals notably Sinbad Voyage in central Berkeley is one of his latest epic works. Mokhtar creates and shows his his works at his studio Firehouse Art Collective regularly. His Daily Sketches, reflecting social, cultural and political environment has been…
Karen Kramer
Every day I am inspired by observing the natural world, whether it is the intricacy of a leafy branch, the texture and lines of a mountain rock, or a bold color in the sky. I see endless contradictions within the same landscape: light/dark; arid/wet; sharp/soft; living/dying. I feel compelled to examine this harmonious paradox in…
Bushra Gill
Bio Bushra Gill finds order within the chaos of everyday life through art. She was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and emigrated to Houston, Texas, with her family as a small child. Drawn to art from a young age, she graduated from Pratt Institute in 1994 with a BFA in sculpture. She has been awarded residencies…
Trina Anderson
I’m a painter and printmaker based in Oakland, California, where I’ve made my home for more than three decades. However, my roots trace back to an early age where I grew up on the shores of a Minnesota lake. This blend of urban life and a deep connection to nature shapes my artistic journey and…
Bruce Pizzichillo & Dari Gordon
Bruce Pizzichillo and Dari Gordon are internationally known artists who have been producing their unique glass artwork in their Oakland studio since 1980. They create large, colorful, award-winning handblown glass vases, sculptural vessels, bowls, lighting, and jewelry, as well as intriguing glass and mixed media sculptures and wall art. Their work has been exhibited nationwide as well…
Kathryn Rile
Kathryn Rile is a ceramic artist living in Oakland, California. Using functional ceramics reminds people to connect with their immediate experience through the tactile sensations of interacting with a handmade piece of art upon which the maker has left the residue of her gesture. Clay uniquely preserves the intimacy of the artist’s gesture. The hand…
Katie Seifert
Katie Seifert is an American painter based in Oakland, CA. In her work, Seifert explores moments where we teeter on the edge of transformation. Often depicting evocative scenes drawn from her real life as a labor & birth doula as well as abstracted scenes of nature, she creates works that represent moments of intensity and…
Fernanda Martinez
Fernanda Martínez is an Oakland based painter and muralist; In her work, she incorporates nature elements as themes, organic shapes, bold textures, and deconstructed patterns to develop intrinsic narratives. Recently her practice expanded to sculptures, where she experiments with different materials to translate her distinguishable shapes and mastery in color into delightful 3D pieces. With…
rwb2art by Richard W. Brown, II
Bio: Richard W. Brown, II (rwb2art) was born in Williamsport, PA and moved to the Bay Area in 2008. Richard’s childhood love of drawing and painting was put on hold for a couple decades while he focused on his music hobby and his copywriting profession. A 2024 job layoff afforded him the time and mental…
Jánaka
My creative work takes shape through different media, watercolors, drawings, photography, graphic design. Janaka is my artistic-spiritual name. I was born and raised in Mexico City but I have been living in the US for the last 32 years. Now I am based in Oakland, California.
Marsha Balian
Mixed media artist Marsha Balian admits to difficulty following instructions (unless she really has to). She is self-taught and frequently invents her own techniques. Her work has a strong narrative quality and incorporates found objects combined with drawing and painting. Since invention doesn’t require strict adherence to rules, her art avoids what might be literal…
Kim Cardoso
I am a loud person who makes quiet art. I savor the craft-like method of encaustic painting in a meditative exploration of landscape and emotion. Relating to my formal training as a metalsmith and working with my hands as a midwife, I love the physicality of wax, pigments, hand tools, and fire. I know my…