Gestural Expressions
2026-08-08, 2026-07-25 | Slate Contemporary Gallery, 5510 College Ave, Oakland, 94618, United States
SLATE Contemporary Gallery presents “Gestural Expressions”, an exhibition which brings together five accomplished women artists working in gestural abstraction: Maria Burtis, Amy Donaldson, Nicole Mueller, Karen Silve, and Joanne Fox. This exhibition not only revisits the legacy of Abstract Expressionism, but also reimagines its future through the work of five artists whose voices continue to broaden and enrich the field.
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 8, 4–6pm⁠
Join us with three of the exhibiting artists for an evening celebrating the show, featuring specialty drinks from Rue de Rêve (@ruedereveaperitifs), a local women-owned apéritif producer.⁠
⁠
Artist Walkthrough: Saturday, July 25, 4–5pm⁠
Explore the exhibition with artist Nicole Mueller for an intimate look into her process and perspective.⁠
⁠
Gestural Expressions is on view at SLATE from July 15–August 29, 2026.⁠

Broad Strokes ~ The Art of Brian Clark aka Les Toil ~ Opening Reception
2026-08-08 12:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Grand Gallery, 560 2nd Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Brian Clarke aka Les Toil, grew up in Berkeley, CA. Surrounded by Big Daddy Roth model cars, the Fantastic Four, MAD Magazine, The Jackson Five and Bruce Lee the very forces that became the foundational threads shaping his work.
You can see those threads in his new show Broad Strokes this August at the Grand Gallery.
Meet Les Toil at the:
Artist Reception
August 8th 12Noon -4pm
The Grand Gallery
560 2nd St. Oakland

The Sight of Sound ~ Opening Reception
2026-07-11 14:00 - 17:00 | Studios 11, 560 2nd St Oakland, California, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Group show curated by Eric Murphy with Work by Pete Escovedo. Eric Murphy, George Bernard III, Cairo McCockran, and Monica Faith Walker. July 1-31, 2026 at Studios 11, 560 Second Street, Oakland, CA

Exhibition Opening & Artists' Reception - Everything Must Go
2026-07-11 14:00 - 16:00 | Manna Gallery, 473 25th St., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Celebrate the official opening of Everything Must Go at Manna Gallery. Meet participating artists, connect with fellow art enthusiasts, and explore an exhibition that transforms the familiar language of clearance sales into a thoughtful meditation on change, memory, and new beginnings. Juried by Lisa Solomon, this dynamic group show brings together nearly forty Bay Area artists whose works invite reflection on the objects, experiences, and emotions that shape our lives. Refreshments will be served as we welcome the community to this exciting exhibition.
Everything Must Go Juried Group Show
Artists: Norman Aragones, Malachi Arthur, Jordan Benton, Laurie Caird, Madelyn Covey, Dana DeKalb, Eden Evans, Elizabeth Evans, Shelley Gardner, Elena Godina, Monica Guillory, Corrine Hatt, Rachel Katz, Kathryn Kenworth, Sarah Klein, Suzy Kopf, Faridah Laffan, Jenifer Lake, Patricia Liverman, Heath Massey, Colin McAllister, Erin McCluskey Wheeler, Manuel Rodriguez, John Rogers, Tammi Salas, John Sheridan, Maureen Shields, Renetta Sitoy, Jamie Smith, Hannah Claire Somerville, Jennifer Sturgill, Michelle Sweeney-Fillmore, Sarah Travis Buck, Yana Verba, Amy Vidra, Bill Ward, Martin Webb, Jia Wilson, and Alexander Yoshikawa
July 11 – August 8, 2026
Exhibition Opening & Artists’ Reception: Saturday, July 11, 2-4 pm
First Friday Oakland Art Walk: August 7, 5-8 pm
Closing Event / Exhibition Awards: Saturday, August 8, 3-5 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 12-5 pm, First Fridays, 5-8 pm & by appt

Fragments of Belonging: Artists’ Reception at GearBox Gallery
2026-07-11 13:00 - 16:00 | Gearbox Gallery, 770 West Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join us Saturday, July 11th from 1 – 4pm for the celebration of Gearbox Gallery artist Dalit Fresco and guest artist Jan Blythe’s exhibition, Fragments of Belonging at GearBox Gallery.
GearBox Gallery is located in the Art Building at 770 West Grand Avenue in Oakland. There’s always plenty of free parking on Grand.

"SECOND FRIDAY" OPENING -- July-August Multi-Artist Show
2026-07-10 18:00 - 21:00 | Art@Archer, 431 13th Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
We hope you can join us for the delayed opening (due to the holiday) of our current multi-artist show. Come by to see their work and talk to the artists. Each has his/her own style and medium to show you.
The artists are:
Vida Karamooz
MacArthur Nelson
Melva Spigner
Refreshments will be available.

Opening Reception for Society of Artists & Makers Student Show
2026-07-09 18:00 - 21:00 | Werkshack, 481 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join us for the opening reception!
The Student Show is a celebration of East Bay community college art classes. Some artists are showing work for the very first time and others are decades into their careers. All work is made by students currently enrolled at College of Alameda, Berkeley City College, Merritt College, and/or Laney College. Mediums include painting, printmaking, mixed media sculpture, ceramics, and more will be on view from July 3 – August 29.
Artists: Abby Hilling, Angela Kaewsuriya Roberts, Ava Gulassa, Cassia Artanegara, Christi Showers-Evans, Debbie Lin Grow, Diana Castillo, Donald Diggs, Emmet Bush, Gabriela Zambrano, Hilda Wang, kiki reitano, Liam Cunningham, Malena, Moss, Penny Flood, Ping Gong, Rania Siddique, Rena Tom, Ruth Charlotte Kneass, Sam Cadigan, Sarai Cobos, V. Hendrix Oppenhimer

Rebirth Through Time ~ Pete Escovedo Opening Reception
2026-07-09 17:00 - 20:00 | The Grand Gallery, 560 2nd Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Pen and Ink drawings and paintings by Pete Escovedo. July 1-31st, 2026. The Grand Gallery, 560 Second Street, Oakland.
Come celebrate with Pete for his 91st birthday on Thursday July 9th 5-8pm. A remarkably talented musician and accomplished visual artist, the art show co-insides with Pete’s Jazz show at Yoshi’s in Oakland!

Emily Shepard: In Flux | Opening Reception
2026-06-27 15:00 - 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Emily Shepard, “Pouring In,” 2026, 71” x 79”, photo by Sibila Savage
Emily Shepard’s large-scale abstract paintings pull viewers into an immersive, otherworldly space — one of shifting depths, interacting layers, and arched forms that float like portals above restless water. Working on unstretched canvas, she builds richly textured surfaces through gestural mark-making, watery drips, and stitched canvas shapes. Indecipherable loops of script speak to rhythm, breath, and cycles.
Shepard’s work is mirrored by her practice as a year round swimmer in the San Francisco Bay: moving her body through cold water, attuned to tides and currents, releasing into the hypnotic push and pull. Her painting practice and bay swimming share the need for focused attention, awareness of sensation, and internal states. Each artwork, like each swim, is a search for wholeness, presence, and embodied learning.
Bio:
Emily Shepard is a Bay Area painter, born in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned her MFA with distinction from the California College of the Arts where she received the Barclay Simpson Award. She has shown her work locally and nationally, including the Crocker–Kingsley Exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Currently she has three pieces on exhibit in “Voices without Boundaries” at the Sasse Museum of Art in Pomona, CA. Shepard is a Kipaipai Fellow and member of the artist-run gallery, Mercury 20 in Oakland, CA. Her work is included in private and corporate collections. Shepard swims year round without a wetsuit in the San Francisco Bay. The practice of cold-water swimming focuses her senses, challenges her will, and informs her art.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, July 3, 5 – 9 pm
Artists’ Closing Reception and Talk: Saturday, July 25, 3 – 5 pm

Pat O’Connor: Reclaimed | Opening Reception
2026-06-27 15:00 - 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Pat O’Connor, “Entanglements,” 2026, 4′ x 3′ x 2″, salvaged cardboard acrylic paint
Pat O’Connor’s work has long explored the intersection of object, time, and narrative. Beginning with paper pulp castings over structures at a former World War II naval base, O’Connor developed a sustained interest in materials marked by history. In her exhibit, Reclaimed, she is drawn to surfaces shaped by wear, weather, and works with cardboard salvaged from the streets, recycling bins, and packaging. Through folding, layering, stitching, printing, and painting, she transforms these fragments and other seemingly incongruent materials into richly layered assemblages. Guided by shifts in patina and form, O’Connor builds surfaces dense with histories, lush harmonies, and active surfaces. Cardboard, humble and impermanent, originates from trees. O’Connor links the material back to the natural world. In some works, she introduces imagery of branches and tree forms, creating both calm and unsettling dialogues between the material’s fragile present and its living origin. In a culture shaped by disposability, O’Connor elevates overlooked materials, inviting viewers to sense the stories embedded in ordinary things as well as imagine ways the industrial and natural worlds might endure together.
Bio:
Pat O’Connor is an artist whose practice spans drawing, painting, assemblage, and site-responsive sculpture. Her work has been exhibited widely, most recently at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, Transmission Gallery in Oakland, the Sasse Museum of Art in Pomona, California, and O’Hanlon Center for the Arts in Mill Valley. Her pieces are held in public and private collections, including a public commission at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Pat received her BA in Painting and Drawing from UC Davis and pursued graduate study in textile arts at San Francisco State University. Honors include a San Francisco Foundation Grant, the Robert Rauschenberg-hosted Power of Art Award from the Lab School of Washington, D.C., and the Arts Educator of the Year Award from the San Francisco Unified School District. O’Connor has taught widely at notable institutions, including San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley Extension, and the de Young Museum.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, July 3, 5 – 9 pm
Artists’ Closing Reception and Talk: Saturday, July 25, 3 – 5 pm

Opening Reception @UpTelArts
2026-06-26 18:00 - 21:00 | UpTelArts, 1729 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Opening reception on June 26 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM for a special pop up exhibition at UpTelArts. The exhibition will feature works by two artists, Brian Kieling and Lanning Stern.

Opening Reception: June 26, 6-9pm
Gallery Hours: June 27 and 28, 2-8pm

Location:
UpTelArt
1729 Telegraph Ave
Suite A, third floor
Oakland, CA

Instagram: @UpTelArt

ACT LIKE YOU'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE, SOLO WORKS BY AMOL RAY
2026-06-13 18:00 - 21:00 | Dear John, 3807 Macarthur Blvd, Oakland, CA, 94619, United States
Join us for the opening reception of Act Like You’ve Been Here Before, a solo exhibition from Oakland-based artist Amol Ray exploring memory, mythology, nostalgia, and the strange art of surviving modern life.
Drawing from Hindu philosophy, childhood memories, internet culture, and found materials, Amol transforms discarded objects, toys, comics, and everyday artifacts into a living mythology, where gods coexist with memes and spiritual lessons hide inside pop culture references.
This body of work asks what happens when we revisit old stories. It’s not to relive them, but to understand them differently.
Expect an evening of art, conversation, food, drinks, and a curated pop-up experience as we celebrate the opening of this playful, poignant, and deeply human collection.
Come curious. Leave changed. Or at least slightly confused in a good way.

Jen Garrido: (Un)tethered
2026-06-13, 2026-06-05 - 2026-07-11 | Slate Contemporary Gallery, 5510 College Ave, Oakland, 94618, United States
SLATE is proud to present “(Un)tethered,” a solo exhibition by Jen Garrido. Featuring ten new paintings, marked by layered textures, fluid forms, and varied painterly techniques, this exhibition continues Garrido’s exploration of abstract painting through an evolving visual language. Suggesting atmosphere and imagined place, the works embody shifting environments and abstract spaces that resist fixed interpretation while remaining deeply grounded in sensation and feeling.
A Los Angeles native, Garrido lives and works in San Francisco. She holds an MFA from Mills College and has presented solo exhibitions across the United States, with her work included in galleries and collections throughout the U.S. and Canada.
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, June 13, 4–6pm
Exhibition runs Friday, June 5–Saturday, July 11, 2026
Open Tues – Sat 11am-5pm
SLATE Contemporary Gallery
5510 College Ave, Oakland, CA

Wham! Bam! Queer!
2026-06-12 18:00 - 20:00 | East Bay Creative Lab, 558 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94610, United States
An exhibition portraying different perspectives of queer identities: black and brown people, gender non-conforming, femme, masculine, lesbian, gay, and all other members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The exhibition also showcases queer livelihoods depicted through histories of significant moments that define resilience, as well as zines about ways to fight back in our current social climate. Animals and characters represent the many facets of queer people and identities. Queer people are not a monolith, and their stories are unique and nuanced, transcending stereotypes. “We are here! We are queer! We make comics, zines, and illustrations that uplift, empower, and celebrate our communities.”

Opening Reception: Process Makes Practice
2026-06-05 18:00 - 21:00 | Oakland Photo Workshop, 312 8th St, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Joins us for an opening reception for Practice Makes Perfect; Work from the Teaching Artists of the East Bay Open Collective. There will be refreshments, music by the Cat Man of West Oakland, and some incredible work by our roster of instructors!
Practice Makes Process features the work of the teaching artists of the East Bay Photo Collective. Showcasing diverse photographic approaches, this exhibition explores the intersection of creative practice, artistic process, and shared learning. Featuring Joffrey Baylon, Jaya Bhat, Sakara Birdsong, Kimberley Campisano, Juliayn Coleman, Vincent Donovan, Brenna Hansen, Chrissy Huhn, Phillip Krayna, Jyoti Liggin, Ziru Mo, Jenny Sampson, Bob Shonkoff, Sophie Stoerkel, Kelly Sullivan, Beatrice Thornton, Najee Tobin, & Jan Watten.

First Friday Reception — Multi-Artist Exhibition – May-June
2026-06-05 18:00 - 21:00 | Art@Archer, 431 13th Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Five Bay Area artists bring their art and their unique styles to you. Meet the artists; view their work.
Dalit Fresco
Leon Kennedy
Christie Langley
Murray Nelson
Suying Zhang
Refreshments will be provided.

“Positively Cynical” recent work by Ryan Tesluk
2026-06-05 17:00 - 2026-08-01 17:00 | FM Gallery, 483 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Ryan Tesluk’s art provides viewers with honest, unadulterated content that triggers a
plethora of emotions. While many individuals may be uncomfortable with what they see, the fact that some may feel such discomfort when looking at his paintings means Tesluk is doing
something right.
More soon!
June 5th – August 1st, 2026
Receptions: First Friday, June 5th, 5-10pm
Receptions: First Friday, July 3rd, 5-10pm
Hours:
Saturdays 1-5pm
Every first Friday of the month 5-9pm
otherwise by appointment

East Bay Open Studios
2026-06-05 11:00 - 2026-06-14 17:00 | The Grand Gallery, 560 2nd Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
See Local Art at The Grand Gallery and our neighbor Gallery Studios11, 560 Second Street, Oakland, near beautiful Jack London Square. Saturday and Sunday June 6,7,13 & 14th Saturday hours 11-7pm Sunday hours 11-5pm
Featuring emerging Artist Qi Han.

In Your Own Time: Leyla Pekmen + Julien Laporte
2026-06-04 13:00 - 2026-08-01 17:00 | Johansson Projects, 2300 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Johansson Projects presents In Your Own Time, a two-person exhibition featuring Turkish painter and sculptor Leyla Pekmen and French painter Julien Laporte. Known for their vivid compositions that illustrate the emotional landscape of their respective regions, both artists consciously embrace the beauty of their surroundings. Steeped in the history of local painting traditions, Pekmen and Laporte reject three-dimensionality, creating narratives through the interplay of color, line, and form.
Leyla Pekmen’s storybook-like compositions are influenced by Ottoman miniature paintings. Originating in the 15th century to narrate the conquests of the ruling class, Pekmen instead opts for scenes of contemporary gathering and recreation. Her jovial paintings examine moments of rest and play that allow space for resilience while living under oppressive systems.
In Pekmen’s work, an idyllic world of larger-than-life flora, gentle waterfalls, and warm oceans ensconces tiny figures. Engaged in activities such as swimming, strolling, and lounging, the figures occupy an infinite, peaceful present. They are lovingly watched over and diligently protected by grand features of the landscape.
Julien Laporte’s sun-dappled paintings of the Mediterranean channel the enduring vitality of the coastal landscape and its interaction with the built environment, both as an ecosystem and as a source of artistic inspiration. Drawing on the vibrant and expressive tradition of the Fauves, Laporte’s work demonstrates an ecological and historical sensitivity to the region, centering on experiential and energetic engagement with the natural world.
Laporte’s thick brushstrokes and unrestrained color palette command attention, inviting the viewer to feel and see the landscape anew. Reducing form to pattern and shape, expressively rendered trees intermingle with flatly colored architectural features. Void of human figuration, Laporte’s immersive landscapes capture moments of stillness along coastal paths, through open windows, along curving stairwells, and at cliff edges.
In Your Own Time will run Thursday, June 4, to Saturday, August 1, 2026. An opening reception will be held Friday, June 5 from 5-8 pm.

GearBox Gallery Artists’ Reception: The Hidden Treasures of Stan Chan
2026-05-30 13:00 - 16:00 | Gearbox Gallery, 770 West Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Saturday May 30th from 1 – 4pm
Please join GearBox Gallery in celebrating the opening of 2026’s Inner Room Gallery winner Stan Chan: The Hidden Treasures of Stan Chan. All are welcome.
Running concurrently with The Hidden Treasures of Stan Chan, is Field Notes with Joy Every and Linda Ellinwood. Artists’ reception is on Saturday, May 30th from 1 – 4pm

GearBox Gallery Artists’ Reception: Field Notes – Linda Ellinwood / Joy Every
2026-05-30 13:00 - 16:00 | Gearbox Gallery, 770 West Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Saturday May 30th from 1 – 4pm
Please join GearBox Gallery in celebrating the opening of Field Notes with GearBox Gallery artists Linda Ellinwood and Joy Every. All are welcome.
Running concurrently to Field Notes is the 2026 Inner Room Gallery winner, Stan Chan with The Hidden Treasures of Stan Chan. Artists’ reception on Saturday, May 30th from 1 – 4pm

The Hidden Treasures of Stan Chan, GearBox Gallery
2026-05-28 12:00 - 2026-07-03 17:00 | Gearbox Gallery, 770 West Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
The Hidden Treasures of Stan Chan
May 26 – July 3 2026
Artist’s Reception: Saturday, May 30 1 – 4pm
Artist’s Talk: Saturday, June 13, 2pm with a reading by author Joanne Furio. This show is running Concurrently with Field notes
Gearbox Gallery is pleased to present the 2026 Inner Room juried show winner, Stan Chan. Chan’s installation of artifacts, writings and drawings creates an immersive experience that delves into a personal story of remembrance from his childhood in Oakland. This visual reading of objects and colorful bits gives the viewer a glimpse into our local past through the art of Stan Chan.
Chan says, “Growing up in East Oakland my immigrant parents were able to buy a house in the 1950s. It was a Victorian house and it was my shelter from the outside world. When I was a kid, I dug holes in the walls and in my mattress where I hid my treasures and through the years things accumulated in the nooks and crannies of the house.” It is from these memories that Chan’s installation of treasure boxes and colorful collages emerge.
Stan Chan, is an artist living in San Francisco with deep roots in Oakland. Receiving his MA from CCAC, Chan has shown in many solo and group shows locally and nationally including the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

Opening Reception and Artist Talk – Gustave Carlson: New American Stillness
2026-05-16 15:00 - 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Gustave Carlson, “Inverness Midday”, 2026, photo courtesy of the artist
New American Stillness by Gustave Carlson explores the quiet psychological presence of the contemporary American landscape. Focusing on ordinary architecture—coastal houses, open lawns, interiors, still lifes, and expansive skies—these paintings place absence at the center of experience. Rather than narrative, Carlson emphasizes observation, structure, and atmosphere. Buildings act as anchors within broad fields of light and color, suggesting both stability and solitude. Subtle tonal shifts allow spaces to feel at once specific and timeless, inviting viewers to consider how shadow, memory, and perception shape place. While Edward Hopper often conveys psychological isolation and Fairfield Porter captures domestic intimacy, Carlson draws from both to explore architecture as a perceptual construct rather than a narrative stage. In these restrained scenes, stillness is not emptiness but presence—an invitation to look longer and see more. His work suggests that the contemporary American landscape, when closely observed, continues to offer moments of quiet depth and reflection.
Bio:
Gustave Carlson is an architect and principal of Gustave Carlson Design in Berkeley, California, and a painter exploring the quiet tension between architecture, light, and lived space. He is the author of Pacific Modern Houses of Northern California (ORO Editions, 2018), a widely acclaimed survey of regional modernism. His award-winning architectural work has received international recognition and appears in Elle Decor, Dwell, Wallpaper, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Carlson holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and studied painting there under Color Field painter Adele Alsop. He has attended residencies at Edgewood Farm at Castle Hill in Truro, Massachusetts, and Studio Faire in Nérac, France. His paintings have earned honors including Best in Show at the Greenwich Art Society and have been exhibited at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Tiburon Library Gallery, Greenwich Art Society, and Mercury 20 Gallery. His work is held in private collections.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, June 5, 5 – 9 pm

Artists’ Reception – Familiar Strangers
2026-05-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Manna Gallery, 473 25th St., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join Manna Gallery in celebrating the opening of Familiar Strangers, a group exhibition featuring Devynn Barnes, Madelyn Covey, Monica Guillory, Pamela Mooney, Jillian Shea, Julianne Sterling, and Deirdre White. Meet the artists and be among the first to experience this thoughtful exploration of memory, identity, and image through contemporary figurative painting. The reception offers an opportunity to connect, ask questions, and engage with the work in a lively, informal setting.
May 16 – June 20, 2026
Artists’ Reception: Saturday, May 16, 2-4 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 12-5 pm & First Fridays, 5-8 pm
Devynn Barnes is an Oakland-based painter, visual artist, and archivist. Through her multi-disciplinary work, she transforms archival fragments into portals of Afro-surreal conjure, restoring suppressed Black queer presence and imagining landscapes of collective homecoming. Barnes invites viewers to confront their own narratives, encouraging a collective awakening, communal (melanated) homecoming, and admittance to our interconnected archives.
Monica Guillory paints from vintage photographs, transforming fleeting moments of intimacy and joy into layered compositions that mirror the fragility and emotional elasticity of memory—where figures emerge, dissolve, and persist through time.
Madelyn Covey paints portraits of friends and family that examine the performance of identity within intimate, domestic spaces. Working on found wallpaper, she builds visual relationships between subject and surface, creating textured reflections on connection, care, and the subtle ways we inhabit our roles.
Pamela Mooney reconfigures found imagery into compositions that are at once familiar and disorienting. Through distortion, color disruption, and chance, her work challenges viewers to unravel embedded meanings while considering the impact our cultural narratives have on the possibilities of the future.
Jillian Shea captures nightlife scenes as sites of tension and agency, where visibility and performance collide. Her paintings reframe femme presence as active and resistant, emphasizing camaraderie and autonomy within spaces shaped by the dynamics of looking and being looked at.
Julianne Wallace Sterling’s recent paintings are inspired by photos she took on vacation with her family. These photos are of cherished memories and travels with loved ones. These paintings begin in an atmospheric location but quickly dive into magical imaginings of place through light, floral design, and shadow. Sterling’s work is fundamentally portraiture, but she has been exploring the figure in the complexity of cityscapes.
Deirdre White constructs poetic, often unsteady worlds drawn from memory, landscape, and imagination. Her paintings weave personal and collective narratives of life in the American West, where grief, wonder, and resilience coexist within scenes of quiet upheaval.

WAXWORK
2026-05-09 13:00 - 16:00 | Studios 11, 560 2nd St Oakland, California, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
WAXWORK- Experimental mono-prints and drawings on paper with cold wax by Denise Owen.
May1-31, 2026 Reception Saturday May 9, 1-4pm
Studios11 near beautiful Jack London Square, 560 2nd Street, Oakland, CA

Opening Reception and Artist Talk – Abby Zhang: Private Weather
2026-05-08 12:00 - 2026-06-13 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Image: Abby Zhang, “Caution! Wet Floor”, 2025, Acrylic and oil on canvas, photo courtesy of the artist
Private Weather brings together a new group of paintings by Abby Zhang that explores how thought, feeling, and visual memory take form in space. Built through improvisation, revision, and accumulation, these works move between structure and instability, allowing images to emerge without fully settling. Meaning develops through relation: between marks, between paintings, and between the work and the room. The exhibition treats painting as both image and atmosphere, creating a space charged by tension, proximity, and change. Private Weather points to an inner climate made visible, where perception stays open and everything remains slightly in motion.
Bio:
Abby Zhang is a Bay Area–based painter whose work explores memory, perception, and psychological atmosphere through layered, semi-abstract images. She received her MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute in 2021, recently participated as a resident artist at Art Bias, completed a residency at Kala Art Institute and Vermont Studio Center, and has been selected for an upcoming residency at the Torrance Art Museum this summer.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, June 5, 5 – 9 pm

Wandering Stars: Young Artists’ Portrait Show
2026-04-25 10:00 - 2026-05-22 16:00 | East Bay Creative Lab, 558 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94610, United States
An exhibition showcasing OUSD High School students’ artwork. There are four schools represented in this show, which are: Fremont High, Skyline High, Oakland High, Oakland International, and Madison Park Academy.
Identity, home, and the power of unapologetic presence run through this youth portrait exhibition. OUSD artists worked in photography, digital media, collage, and painting—using symbols, brush strokes, color, texture, and imagination to portray what it means to be Oakland.
The evidence is in the details: facial expressions that don’t perform for anyone, the way they hold their loved ones, the specific choices that make each portrait theirs.
Representation matters here. These young artists are about to graduate, about to enter a world outside high school. But first, they’re making visible what they know about themselves—their beauty, their identity, the fact of who they are.
Wandering Stars is a celebration of beauty, selfhood, and identity. These artists don’t wait to be seen. They make themselves visible.

“Dreamscapes” art by Daisuke Okamoto + Brenda Cibrian
2026-04-03 17:00 - 2026-05-31 17:00 | FM Gallery, 483 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Artist Statement: Daisuke Okamoto
Daisuke Okamoto’s work, “OKAINA IMAGE” is an elaborate and involved system of ink line drawings representing identity and transformation, exploring the cycle of life in the complex, biomorphic narratives of the organic.
Daisuke Okamoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, and currently works and resides in Los Angeles, California. Okamoto’s art is heavily influenced by science fiction and psychedelic culture. Given his intense passion for repetitive line drawing, Okamoto has been known to work over a year on a single piece.
Okamoto partnered with Microsoft on a Microsoft Surface Pro 8 and made a mural for the ad campaign in 2022. And he has also done collaborative projects with PBS KCET in Southern California.
Okamoto’s murals are in CA, TX, NV, OR, UT, MI, NY in the United States, Tokyo Japan, and Berlin Germany.
Artist statement: Brenda Cibrian
Through paintings and murals I seek to make art that uplifts and creates connection within ourselves and with the world around us. My work starts with a feeling first then subject matter, I then add in playful elements with a whimsical visual flair. I use surreal colors, combine imagery that is in and out of focus, with graphical, symbolic shapes to tie compositions together. I like to explore themes of identity, introspection, core memories and nostalgia. Nature, abstract shapes and people are recurring elements in my art and my influences come from my Mexican American upbringing in South Central as well as early 2000s internet culture.
April 3rd – May 30th, 2026
Receptions: First Friday, April 3rd, 5-10pm
Receptions: First Friday, May 1st, 5-10pm
Hours:
Saturdays 1-5pm
Every first Friday of the month 5-9pm
otherwise by appointment
