Force of Nature
2025-07-03 12:00 - 2025-08-09 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Gearbox Gallery, 770 West Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Force of Nature
Featuring: Tamera Avery and TaVee McAllister Lee
Dates: July 3 – August 9, 2025
Artists’ Reception: Saturday, July 12, 1-4pm
Artists’ Talk: Saturday, July 26th at 2pm
First Friday: August 1st, 5-8pm
GearBox Gallery
770 West Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94612
Contact: info@gearboxgallery.com
Homepage

(510) 290-9660‬
Gallery Hours: Thursdays-Saturdays, 12-5 pm and First Fridays, 5-8 pm, Closed July 4th
In Force of Nature, we are invited to traverse the rich terrains of storytelling through the striking combination of Tamera Avery’s large-scale oil paintings and TaVee McAllister Lee’s delicate torn paper constructions. While Avery’s bold and expansive works—one measuring an impressive 78” x 112” — command attention with their solitary figures and enigmatic interactions with the natural world, Lee’s constructions offer a contrasting fragility, appearing to hover lightly on the wall, subdued color emerging in their delicately cast shadows. With an underpinning of fairy tale, archetypes and legends, both artists veer toward existential concerns.
Avery’s attention has focused recently on the pervasive habitat loss of Earth’s largest carbon sinks, the Black Forest being one of them. The source of so much folklore, this vast stretch of mixed forest has been precipitously dying, with long-term studies pointing to human driven climate change as a key factor. Exploring this territory, Avery’s process starts with collage, combining widely sourced imagery with her own photo subjects into heroic yet ominous scenarios. Ultimately painted at near-life scale the work balances between hope and an ever-advancing potential for destruction. A youth stands alone in the still heart of the woods, an adolescent girl toting toys wanders into the forest, coyote slinks away from a young man conjuring in the ruins, each engaging the viewer on a direct visceral level as one considers the paintings in person.
At first appearing to be virtual toss-aways, Lee’s “collages of a free nature” challenge traditional notions of installation art. While they lack the grandiosity often associated with installations, these delicate compositions reveal a deeper, more serious presence upon closer inspection. Pinned directly to the wall, their poetic placement of advertising imagery and aspirational messaging, layered with visions of harsher reality, provoke an examination of uncomfortable truths while finding beauty in vulnerability. Difficult to see in photos, subtle coloration emerges in the shadows, allowing for a more intimate experience if one stands with the work a bit.
Together Avery and Lee create a dialogue that encourages engagement with the natural world in all its complexities. “Force of Nature” is not just an exhibition; it is a call to action—a reminder of our capacity to nurture and protect the delicate balance of life that surrounds us, ultimately asking us to reflect, question, and participate in the ongoing narrative of our planet.
About the artists:
Tamera Avery lives and works in San Francisco and has exhibited widely across California, with recent solo exhibitions at the Triton Museum of Art in 2024 in Santa Clara, CA, and at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA, in 2025. Her work has also been shown in the De Young Museum of Art in San Francisco, 2023 and 2020, and was selected for the esteemed Crocker Kingsley Exhibition in 2019, Roseville, CA. After an early career at the intersection of business and fashion, she turned to painting full-time, working with key artist-mentors at the San Francisco Art Institute and UC Berkeley Extension school. She is represented by Andra Norris Gallery in Burlingame, California. (1107 Burlingame Ave, Burlingame, CA – 650-235-9775)
TaVee McAllister Lee grew up in Oklahoma, with a stint in Laos as a little girl. After earning a BFA in painting and printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, working as a painter for many years. She now explores more esoteric and unconventional work in her art practice. With a recent solo exhibition at Transmission Gallery in Oakland, CA, Lee has shown in numerous two person and group exhibitions in the Bay Area. In a tandem art career, she has been the juror, curator or on the curatorial team for more than 150 Bay Area exhibitions, including exhibitions at the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, and the LL Horton, Jr. Art Gallery at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, among others.
Reception:
All are welcome to join us for this Opening Reception celebrating a decade of presenting contemporary art in Oakland. Stop in anytime Saturday, July 12th, 1-4pm to greet the artists and enjoy the light refreshments. Plenty of free street parking on Grand and in the nearby neighborhood.
Artists’ Talk:
Avery and Lee will discuss their figurative and narrative approach to their work, the themes in the work on view and their art practices in a talk starting at 2 pm on Saturday, July 26th, welcoming questions from the audience. All are welcome to join us for this free event, open to the public

Dalar Alahverdi: Almost Real
2025-07-18 12:00 - 2025-08-23 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Almost Real explores how personal and collective traumas are often abstracted, minimized, or erased. History tends to reduce people to numbers— counted, filed, and forgotten — while the weight of loss, displacement, and survival remains unrecorded. Through figuration and abstraction, Dalar Alahverdi questions how reality is shaped or dismissed by collective perception. Is it enough that something happened, or must it also be seen and acknowledged to exist in the world’s memory? Or perhaps reality isn’t just what happened, but what’s allowed to be known.
This series of interactive mixed media works invites viewers to engage actively with these questions. By shifting perspective or using blacklight to reveal invisible ink, they uncover what lies beneath the surface—narratives otherwise unseen. In this act of discovery, witnessing becomes personal.
Almost Real asks us to look again—to notice what’s overlooked and recognize stories hovering at the edge of visibility, waiting to be seen, felt, and remembered.
Bio:
Dalar Alahverdi is a mixed media artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work is deeply interactive, inviting viewers to engage directly with each piece to uncover hidden layers of meaning. Rooted in themes of human rights, collective trauma, and immigration, her art offers a powerful narrative on the complexities of personal and shared histories. Alahverdi holds an MA in Art Education from California State University, Long Beach, an MFA from Yerevan State Academy of Arts in Armenia, and a BFA from the University of Tehran in Iran. She actively exhibits her work both in the United States and internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Armenia International Art Exposition, and The Drawing Room, San Francisco.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 19, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: August 1, 5 – 9 pm
Image: Dalar Alahverdi, Carried and Carrying, Mixed Media, 24″ x 30″ Photo courtesy of the artist

Patricia Guthrie: Not Your Grandmother’s Quilts
2025-07-18 12:00 - 2025-08-23 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
“A tradition is kept alive by something being added to it.” Henry James
Quilt making is a traditional women’s craft. For Not Your Grandmother’s Quilts, Patricia Guthrie’s interest is focused on lines. Many quilters, particularly traditional ones, rely on patterns with predetermined straight lines. Instead, Guthrie uses patterned lines in a totally different way – she does not use patterns and straight lines. For this show, Guthrie’s quilts were made using curved lines with no patterns. And while traditional quilters often use fabric remnants, Guthrie’s quilts are made with fabric selected for their color and texture. Each quilt is unique. Nevertheless, she uses elements from traditional quilt-making when creating her abstract quilts. Among other similarities, both traditional quilts and Guthrie’s are sandwiches; they contain a top layer, a middle filling (cotton or wool), and a bottom layer. The layers are held together, or quilted, by hand or by machine stitching.
Bio:
After retiring from work as a professor and department chair of Human Development and Women’s Studies at Cal State East Bay in Hayward, Patricia Guthrie decided to actively engage in some form of visual arts. She began taking community-based art classes – drawing, photography, quilt making, and designing and printing fabric. Quilt making and all its aspects has since become her passion. Guthrie hopes her quilts encourage viewers to move beyond art that is merely pleasing to the eye to seek a deeper meaning. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally including Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, New York; International Quilt Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Tuch + Technik Museum, Neumünster, Germany.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 19, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: August 1, 5 – 9 pm
Image: Patricia Guthrie, Rolling Color, 2015, Textile, 79” x 77”, photo credit: Beverly Tucker

Sara Lisch and Mary Curtis Ratcliff: Emotional Landscapes/Internal Atmospheres
2025-07-18 12:00 - 2025-08-23 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Emotional Landscapes / Internal Atmospheres brings together the figurative collage work of artists Sara Lisch and Mary Curtis Ratcliff, whose distinct yet complementary practices explore their inner worlds. Lisch’s work delves into intimacy, identity, and layered emotional landscapes and spiritual currents held in the body. Through vibrant fragments of paper and color, her figures emerge as expressive forms that speak to vulnerability and strength. Ratcliff’s pieces blend delicate figure drawings with photographic backgrounds, placing the human form in surreal, atmospheric settings. Her work evokes a sense of movement, reflection, and internal atmosphere—bridging the physical and ephemeral. Though stylistically different, both artists explore how memory, feeling, and physical presence shape the stories they tell through the figure. Together, their work creates a dynamic visual conversation, offering viewers an invitation to engage with the poetic, personal, and layered experience of being human.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 19, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: August 1, 5 – 9 pm
Image:
left: Mary Curtis Ratcliff, Mt. Hood Nude, 2025, 16″ x 12″, Colored pencil on digital print, photo credit: Tony Maltose
right: Sara Lisch, The Shape of a Prayer, 2025, 30″ x 40″, mixed media, photo credit Sara Lisch

TRACE: New Paintings by Hannah Franco
2025-07-19 - 2025-08-23 | Slate Contemporary Gallery, 473 25th Street, Oakland, 94612, United States
ARTIST’S EXHIBITION STATEMENT
TRACES is an exploration of where we place our attention and how that attention is valued. Descended from the visual narrative ofwomen’s craft and quilting, my visual language exposes the ways societal pressures change our forms and shape our lives over generations. The shapes are constructed and combined, layer-by-layer, in an attempt to fit into a structure, and then broken down again to exposewhat is essential. This process mirrors the navigation of my dyslexic experience — constantly assembling meaning while finding alternative pathways when conventional systems fail to accommodate divergent ways of processing the world. The layers reveal the labor of adaptation, the quiet work of translating one’s inner language into forms that society might recognize and value. Every trace leaves a lasting mark on the work, regardless of its subtlety, just as every experience leaves a mark on our lives. Theaccumulated weight of being measured against standards that weren’t designed for diﬀerent minds or genders creates its own visualvocabulary. Past struggles with systems that demand conformity become present textures—some rough, some worn smooth byrepetition, all bearing witness to the persistence required to make space for oneself. Through the making and unmaking of these shapes I investigate which of the traces bind the forms, and which liberate them. The paintings ask: What happens when we stop trying to fit into prescribed structures and instead honor the intelligence of our own processes? In the breaking down and rebuilding, in the patient reworking of elements that refuse to behave as expected, lies both the evidence of our labor and the assertion of our inherent value. – Hannah Franco, June 2025
EVENTS, EXHIBITION HOURS & LOCATION:
Artist’s reception Saturday, July 19th, 3–5pm / Late hours for First Friday on August 1st, open 12-8pm
Open Saturdays 12-5pm and weekdays by appointment, July 19–August 23, 2025, 473 25th Street, Oakland, CA
FOR MORE INFORMATION: info@slateart.net / 510-652-4085

Rachel Major: Surroundings
2025-07-26 - 2025-09-06 | Manna Gallery, 473 25th St., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Manna Gallery is pleased to present Surroundings, the first solo exhibition of paintings by Rachel Major. Created through a process of dripping paint onto canvas or wood, Major’s layered surfaces explore texture, color, and the balance between control and chance. This series is inspired by her daily encounters with the landscape surrounding her home in San Francisco’s Richmond District—a quiet, often foggy neighborhood bordered by Golden Gate Park to the south, the Presidio to the north, and Ocean Beach to the west. Her paintings reflect the shifting moods of this coastal environment, particularly the ever-changing view of the San Francisco Bay, the Headlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge as they emerge and recede through the mist. The act of covering and revealing in her work echoes the landscape’s own rhythms. Surroundings is a meditation on place, perception, and the quiet wonder of noticing the world around us.
July 26 – September 6, 2025
Artist Reception: Saturday, August 2, 2-4 pm
Artist Q&A: Saturday, August 30, 2:30 pm
First Fridays: Aug 1 & Sept 5, 5-8 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 12-5 pm & First Fridays, 5-8 pm
Image: Rachel Major, Golden Gate, acrylic on canvas, 10”x 10”, 2025

Nemo Gould: Friend or Faux
2025-07-31 12:00 - 2025-09-06 17:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Artist’s Talk: Saturday, August 23rd starting at 4 pm, all are welcome to attend.
Transmission Gallery is pleased to present Friend or Faux, a solo exhibition of work by Nemo Gould. Imbued with an inventive sense of humor, Gould’s kinetic sculpture invites interactive engagement and a sharp recognition of its eclectic origins. Obsolete industrial parts, abandoned machinery, gears, dials and housings achieve new presence deftly remade with electronics and wiring in pieces like Parallax and Counter Intuitive.
Consider Aura: completed in 2022, materials include a gas arc lamp enclosure, telephone dynamo, panel meter, fuel gauges, numeric indicator lamps, door plate, dough mixing blade, magnifying lenses, pot handles, wood, steel, and brass precisely fitted together. With a good turn of the crank, Aura lights up with a lovely thought-glow despite the frowny face. Other pieces respond with sound or motion.

Entrance to the Void: pinhole studies by Anastasia Shubina and Timofey Glinin
2025-07-31 12:00 - 2025-09-06 17:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Entrance to the Void is a pinhole photography series created across the Bay Area, New York, and Boston. Using one of the oldest photographic techniques—capturing images through a tiny pinhole without a lens—the project engages with the ephemeral and the invisible with ten 4″ x 6″ images from the series on view, each printed on shimmering silver paper.
Timofey Glinin and Anastasia Shubina are photographers and film directors based in San Francisco. Specializing in documentary and fine art photography and film, their work has been featured in over 100 exhibitions and festivals across the globe.
See the work in a special artists’ showcase in the Laundry Room at Transmission through September 9th.

Core Memories from "Old Photographs" -- Paintings by Gaila P. Turner
2025-08-01 10:00 - 2025-09-13 14:00 | Art@Archer, 431 13th Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Oakland artist, Gaila P. Turner, turns three generations of old family photographs into a vibrant and exciting exhibition. She takes old grey, black and white, and Polaroid images and brings them to life in this one-person show. She is only here for six weeks; see it now.
In addition to First Friday exhibitions on August 1 and September 5, Gaila will be hosting two artist talks — August 16 and August 30.
See you there!

If These Eyes Could Talk
2025-08-01 18:00 - 2025-09-14 15:00 | Oakland Photo Workshop, 312 8th St, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
If These Eyes Could Talk is a love letter to the moments our words fail us. It is an ode to what we’ve grown up on, what gets us attuned to our communities, our desire for peace from the noisy metropolis, and quiet observations. The artists here are a reflection of these things. It is my belief that as lens-based artists we say more visually than any sentence we put together. If These Eyes Could Talk the point would be simultaneously complex and simple. I hope that as you take yourself through the ‘words’ of these artists, you find elements of comfort, familiarity and wonder the way that I do.
Featuring the work of Bradley Fowl, Justin Wilson, Keelan Sungalo-Valdez, and Sean Keelan

STATE OF THE UNION
2025-08-02 12:00 - 2025-08-31 17:00 | The Grand Gallery, 560 2nd Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
UMA Gallery presents STATE OF THE UNION – featuring Re Tech, Diane Komater and Paulette Traverso. Pop Up Group Show.
Opening Reception Saturday August 2, 2-5pm
At the Grand Gallery, 560 Second Street, Oakland

Abstraction NOW!
2025-08-14 12:00 - 2025-09-13 17:00, 2025-08-16 13:00 - 16:00 | Gearbox Gallery, 770 West Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Abstraction NOW!
GearBox Gallery’s 11th Annual Northern California Juried Exhibition
Dates: August 14 – September 13
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 16, 1-4pm
First Friday: September 5, 5-8pm
Juror’s Talk: Saturday, September 6 at 2pm
GearBox Gallery proudly presents ABSTRACTION NOW!, our 11th Annual Juried
Exhibition. Each year we invite a guest juror to select work from the greater Bay Area
and beyond to show in this highly anticipated annual exhibition. This year’s exhibition
focuses on the depiction of Abstraction in 2025, juried by SFMOMA Curatorial Assistant
of painting and sculpture, Auriel Garza.
The exhibition was open to Northern California Artists working in all mediums with work
by thirty-seven artists selected for the in-person exhibition at GearBox Gallery. In
addition to showing their work in Abstraction Now!, two artists will be awarded future
exhibition opportunities at Gearbox Gallery.
All are welcome to join us for the Artists’ Reception, Saturday, August 16th from 1-4pm.
Greet the artists, check out the exhibition and enjoy the light refreshments, with free
street parking nearby.
Juror Auriel Garza will discuss her thoughts on the exhibition theme and the selection
process on Saturday, September 6th, starting at 2 pm. Please join us, and bring your
questions!
Abstraction NOW!

https://gearboxgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Abstraction-NOW-Logo-Crop.webp
About the Juror
Auriel Garza is an art historian, writer, educator, and artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She currently works for SFMOMA, where she supports the research, development, documentation, and interpretation of the permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, and accessions of the Painting and Sculpture Department.
Auriel has helped organize and curate over thirty modern and contemporary art exhibitions. She is a co-author of the publications: Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, Telling Tales: Contemporary Narrative Photography, and Raul Gonzalez: Doing Work. Her writings have been published in PATRON magazine, Fort Worth Weekly and the Dallas Morning News.
Auriel has supported curatorial projects in several museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum o one Arts, Houston, the Dallas Museum o Art, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach and the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.

Artist Talk -- Core Memories from "Old Photographs"
2025-08-16 13:00 - 14:30 | Art@Archer, 431 13th Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Oakland artist Gaila P. Turner will be talking about the stories and process behind her colorful exhibition based on old family photos. She took photographs that were black and white, or grey or even Polaroid and transformed them into striking images.
Join us for an exploration of one family’s history.

Artist's Reception “Social Distancing ~ Five Years On” by Kristen Jensen
2025-08-16 13:00 - 17:00 | Studios 11, 560 2nd St Oakland, California, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
“Social Distancing – Five Years On” brings together, for the first time, a collection of works painted during the height of te pandemic. These paintings reflect our shared experience – capturing the uncertainty, stillness, isolation, grief, resilience, and unexpected beauty of those unprecedented times.

UMA Gallery presents: STATE OF THE UNION - featuring ReTech, Diane Komater and Paulette Traverso. Pop Up Group Show
2025-08-19 18:30 - 20:00 | The Grand Gallery, 560 2nd Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Join us for an informal conversation with artists Paulette Traverso and Diane Komater as they share their work in State of the Union, a pop-up exhibition exploring creativity in turbulent times. Discover how their art responds to a world in flux and sparks dialogue about resilience, humor, and hope.
Also joining the discussion is Nancy Latham from Indivisible East Bay. learn how you can get involved.
In times of upheaval, art becomes both mirror and megaphone.

Mini Vintage Pop-up
2025-08-23 12:00 - 16:00 | The Grand Gallery, 560 2nd Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
L’s Closet, Unkle Morty & Twinflames Vintage, showing clothing, jewelry, accessories, novelties, collectibles and oddities.
In front of The Grand Gallery, Saturday August 23rd.

Artist's Talk - Nemo Gould: Friend or Faux
2025-08-23 16:00 - 17:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Please join us for an Artist’s Talk, August 23rd, starting at 4pm!
Artist Nemo Gould will discuss his kinetic sculpture in Friend or Faux, on view at Transmission Gallery through September 6th. All are welcome! Free street parking along West Grand Ave and the nearby neighborhood.
Transmission Gallery is pleased to present Friend or Faux, a solo exhibition of work by Nemo Gould. Imbued with an inventive sense of humor, Gould’s kinetic sculpture invites interactive engagement and a sharp recognition of its eclectic origins. Obsolete industrial parts, abandoned machinery, gears, dials and housings achieve new presence deftly remade with electronics and wiring in pieces like Parallax and Counter Intuitive.
Consider Aura: completed in 2022, materials include a gas arc lamp enclosure, telephone dynamo, panel meter, fuel gauges, numeric indicator lamps, door plate, dough mixing blade, magnifying lenses, pot handles, wood, steel, and brass precisely fitted together. With a good turn of the crank, Aura lights up with a lively thought-glow despite the frowny face. Other pieces respond with sound or motion, come check them out IRL.

Jessica Cadkin: Eyelid Movies
2025-08-29 12:00 - 2025-10-04 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Jessica Cadkin keeps a dream log. For her show, Eyelid Movies, her written notes inspired the creation of seven pillows: amalgamations of recurring themes and imagery that frequently emerged from her subconscious. Through a blend of embroidery and appliqué, and a combination of material such as artificial flowers, plastic birds, sequins, fringe, and tiny pom-poms, Cadkin mirrors the surreal and seemingly non-sequitur paths that dreams take. On the reverse of these pieces, Cadkin incorporates a combination of donated and vintage hand embroidered pillowcases. The hand-stitched pillow cases carry deep cultural resonance, symbolizing a girl’s dowry, family heritage, and domestic craft. While working with the used pillow cases, Cadkin often wondered at who slept on them, and the dreams they may have had.
Bio:
Jessica Cadkin is an Oakland-based artist, born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in Napa, California. She received a BA in Sculpture and Painting from San Francisco State University. Her work has appeared in group shows internationally and throughout California including the de Young Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, di Rosa Preserve, Bateman Foundation Gallery of Nature, Bedford Gallery, Tryst Alternative Art Fair (Los Angeles), Root Division, and the Berkeley Art Center. Cadkin has completed artist residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ragdale, and her work has been featured in numerous publications including KQED Arts, the Daily Californian, Oakland Art Murmur, and Artweek.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 30, 3 – 5 pm
Artists’ Talks: Saturday, September 13, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: September 5, October 3, 5 – 9 pm
Image: Jessica Cadkin, Amalgamation – Flora, 2025, Mixed Media, approx. 12″ x 12″, Photo by Tony Molatore

Monika Mayer: Full Circle
2025-08-29 12:00 - 2025-10-04 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Full Circle grew out of a deeply personal time of uncertainty, loss, and healing. While facing complex health challenges, Monika Mayer started a daily art practice that became an important creative outlet – a space for reflection, meditation, and a way to express what words could not. Around the same time, her son, a Division 1 soccer player, faced a career-ending injury, and both of her parents-in-law passed away. These events led her to explore themes of identity, transformation, and healing. Inspired by nature and her own experiences, Mayer’s work encompasses painting, fiber sculpture, felting, printmaking, and mixed media. She uses discarded objects and materials, giving new life to inner tubes, soccer balls, and plastic bags. This act of transformation mirrors her emotional and physical metamorphosis. Circles and repeating patterns suggest growth and the natural rhythms of life. By presenting familiar materials in unfamiliar ways, Mayer invites viewers into a space of ambiguity—encouraging them to pause, look closely, and consider what lies beneath the surface.
Bio:
Monika Mayer is a mixed media artist who lives and works in Berkeley. She grew up on a farm in Germany where she was exposed to a rich tradition of textile craft and making from a young age. She often incorporates traditional textile techniques such as knitting or sewing in unusual ways to give her artwork color and bring it to life. Her approach is experimental, her creative process intuitive and iterative, layering techniques to create organic textures and dimensions. Her use of found and recycled materials reflects a commitment to sustainable, circular design. Mayer’s work is held in private collections in the U.S. and Germany and has been exhibited nationally, including at Tryst Alternative Art Fair (Los Angeles), Tiburon Library Gallery, College of Marin (Kentfield), Kala Art Gallery (Berkeley) and Mercury 20 Gallery (Oakland). She has been an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute and will return to Kala as an alumni in 2025.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 30, 3 – 5 pm
Artists’ Talks: Saturday, September 13, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: September 5, October 3, 5 – 9 pm
Image: Monika Mayer, detail Going for Gold # 2, 2024, Deconstructed soccer ball, acrylic paint, 25″ x 20″ x 4″, photo courtesy of the artist

Gustave Carson, Emily Shepard, Elizabeth Sher: Sensing Place
2025-08-29 12:00 - 2025-10-04 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Gustave Carlson, Elizabeth Sher, and Emily Shepard each trace the contours of place — not just where we live, but how we feel, remember, and imagine it. Their work reveals place as shelter and question — a map of memory and a mirror of change. Carlson’s layered paintings of cottages conjure architecture, home, light and shadow, weaving nostalgia with the quiet rhythms of neighborhood. Sher’s On the Block series channels her unease about climate change, piecing together collaged “blocks” of repurposed paint chips and painted panels that echo the fragility of home and the earth. Shepard turns inward, crafting intimate landscapes of awareness through marks and threads — lines that map, connect, and hold. Together, their works invite viewers to sense place as a layered experience of body, memory, and imagination.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 30, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: September 5, October 3, 5 – 9 pm
Image ​​Left to Right: Emily Shepard, detail Aqueous Logic, 2025, Mixed Media on panel, 12″ x 12”, Elizabeth Sher, detail Fire on the Block, 2025, Mixed Media on Canvas, 16″ x 20″ x 2”, Gustave Carlson, detail Beach Cottage, Truro MA, 2025, Acrylic and Graphite on wood panel, 16” x 16”, all photos courtesy of the artists

Artist Talk -- Gaila P. Turner -- Core Memories from "Old Photographs
2025-08-30 13:00 - 14:30 | Art@Archer, 431 13th Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Oakland artist, Gaila P. Turner, will be on hand to talk about the stories behind her pictures. This exhibition was developed from photographs Gaila inherited from family members. They may have been black and white, greyed, or even polaroid. She transformed them into art and wants to share those memories with you.
Refreshments will be served.

Artist Q&A: Rachel Major – Surroundings
2025-08-30 14:00 - 16:00 | Manna Gallery, 473 25th St., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Surroundings is a meditation on place, perception, and the quiet wonder of noticing the world around us, and the first solo exhibition of paintings by Rachel Major. Created through a process of dripping paint onto canvas or wood, Major’s layered surfaces explore texture, color, and the balance between control and chance. Her paintings reflect the shifting moods of the ever-changing view of the San Francisco Bay, the Headlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge as they emerge and recede through the mist. The act of covering and revealing in her work echoes the landscape’s own rhythms.
Rachel Major (she/her) is from Toronto, Canada. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and earned her MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA. Major has been a member of GearBox Gallery in Oakland, CA, since 2021. In her work, Major explores the complex relationship with food through various media, including sculpture, painting, and photography. Currently, she is focusing on creating paintings by dripping paint onto canvas to examine themes of covering up, exposing, and control. Her work has been exhibited across Canada, France, and the United States. Major also works with the San Francisco Art Education Project (SFArtsED) and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), teaching art to children in public schools.
Artist Q&A at 2:30 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 12-5 pm and First Fridays, 5-8 pm

Opening Reception – Jessica Cadkin: Eyelid Movies
2025-08-30 15:00 - 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Jessica Cadkin keeps a dream log. For her show, Eyelid Movies, her written notes inspired the creation of seven pillows: amalgamations of recurring themes and imagery that frequently emerged from her subconscious. Through a blend of embroidery and appliqué, and a combination of material such as artificial flowers, plastic birds, sequins, fringe, and tiny pom-poms, Cadkin mirrors the surreal and seemingly non-sequitur paths that dreams take. On the reverse of these pieces, Cadkin incorporates a combination of donated and vintage hand embroidered pillowcases. The hand-stitched pillow cases carry deep cultural resonance, symbolizing a girl’s dowry, family heritage, and domestic craft. While working with the used pillow cases, Cadkin often wondered at who slept on them, and the dreams they may have had.
Bio:
Jessica Cadkin is an Oakland-based artist, born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in Napa, California. She received a BA in Sculpture and Painting from San Francisco State University. Her work has appeared in group shows internationally and throughout California including the de Young Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, di Rosa Preserve, Bateman Foundation Gallery of Nature, Bedford Gallery, Tryst Alternative Art Fair (Los Angeles), Root Division, and the Berkeley Art Center. Cadkin has completed artist residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ragdale, and her work has been featured in numerous publications including KQED Arts, the Daily Californian, Oakland Art Murmur, and Artweek.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Artists’ Talks: Saturday, September 13, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: September 5, October 3, 5 – 9 pm
Image: Jessica Cadkin, Amalgamation – Little Friends, 2025, Mixed Media, approx. 12″ x 12″, Photo by Tony Molatore

Opening Reception – Monika Mayer: Full Circle
2025-08-30 15:00 - 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Full Circle grew out of a deeply personal time of uncertainty, loss, and healing. While facing complex health challenges, Monika Mayer started a daily art practice that became an important creative outlet – a space for reflection, meditation, and a way to express what words could not. Around the same time, her son, a Division 1 soccer player, faced a career-ending injury, and both of her parents-in-law passed away. These events led her to explore themes of identity, transformation, and healing. Inspired by nature and her own experiences, Mayer’s work encompasses painting, fiber sculpture, felting, printmaking, and mixed media. She uses discarded objects and materials, giving new life to inner tubes, soccer balls, and plastic bags. This act of transformation mirrors her emotional and physical metamorphosis. Circles and repeating patterns suggest growth and the natural rhythms of life. By presenting familiar materials in unfamiliar ways, Mayer invites viewers into a space of ambiguity—encouraging them to pause, look closely, and consider what lies beneath the surface.
Bio:
Monika Mayer is a mixed media artist who lives and works in Berkeley. She grew up on a farm in Germany where she was exposed to a rich tradition of textile craft and making from a young age. She often incorporates traditional textile techniques such as knitting or sewing in unusual ways to give her artwork color and bring it to life. Her approach is experimental, her creative process intuitive and iterative, layering techniques to create organic textures and dimensions. Her use of found and recycled materials reflects a commitment to sustainable, circular design. Mayer’s work is held in private collections in the U.S. and Germany and has been exhibited nationally, including at Tryst Alternative Art Fair (Los Angeles), Tiburon Library Gallery, College of Marin (Kentfield), Kala Art Gallery (Berkeley) and Mercury 20 Gallery (Oakland). She has been an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute and will return to Kala as an alumni in 2025.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Artists’ Talks: Saturday, September 13, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: September 5, October 3, 5 – 9 pm
Image: Monika Mayer, Flow # 60 – Entangled, 2025, Acrylic, coffee and ink on canvas, 22” x 28” x 1.5”, Photo courtesy of the artist

Opening Reception - PINT SIZE 3
2025-09-04 08:00 - 17:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Pleas join us for this lively and fun opening reception! All are welcome. Come out to greet the artists, check out the more than 250 pieces of small scale artwork in the show and enjoy the light refreshments outside on our lovely deck.
Perfectly sized to fit into practically any collection, or even start one, there’s something for nearly everyone to enjoy whether they’re in the collecting mood or not.
Pint Size 3 is our third national call for entries for small scale artworks. Last time we showed work by well over a hundred artists and with work on view by about 175 artists this time, with work coming in from Arizona to New Jersey, Texas to Tennessee, Oregon to Florida and, of course, California. It’s an expansive exhibition including small scale sculpture, painting, collage, and assemblage works of all kinds – minimal, maximal, thoughtful, inspiring, free spirited and so much fun!
The exhibition includes both 2 and 3D pieces, 7×7 inches and smaller for 2D and 8x7x7 inches for 3D work including bronze, aluminum, ceramic, concrete, glass, cardboard, plaster, resin, potatoes, watercolor, acrylic and oil painting, collage, graphite drawings, photography, relief prints, lithographs and assemblage of all kinds – fur, nails, rhinestones, gum balls and more!
Check out our website for full the full list artists.

Full Circle: a solo exhibition by Holly Wong
2025-09-05 - 2025-10-11 | Slate Contemporary Gallery, 473 25th Street, Oakland, 94612, United States
Full Circle features a new series of collaged paintings on shaped aluminum and wood panel, as well as mixed media drawings on paper that explore the process of healing through a spiritual lens. Companion works in the exhibition include wall-based fiber and LED light installations and a heat molded acrylic assemblage. This exhibition brings together the diverse methods of Wong’s practice in a mid-career survey of her work.
The show’s title references Wong’s personal journey through trauma and her process of rewriting her history through a newly empowered self. The work examines the story of Wong’s own healing through mining of her memories in the surface pattern of the work. In the process of making each piece, she delves into a visual world where she repairs psychological wounds by painting, drawing and sewing over and around them, creating wholeness from disparate parts. It is a visual process of coming full circle and making whole.

Open on First Friday – Friend or Faux
2025-09-05 12:00 - 20:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Transmission Gallery will be open till 8 PM Sept 5th for First Friday!
Come out to see Nemo Gould’s solo exhibition of interactive sculpture in Friend or Faux.
Beautifully crafted and imbued with an inventive sense of humor, these pieces light up, tilt and whir or buzz with sound. Push a button or trunk a crank to activate them – come by to check them out in person!
Can’t make it on First Friday? The last day to see the work is Saturday, Sept 6th, 12-5 pm.
Also on view is “Entrance to the Void,” a special Artists’ Showcase of pinhole photography. Ethereal and dreamy, these 4 x 6 inch images are printed on shimmering silver paper and come framed in black.

Open on First Friday - Entrance to the Void
2025-09-05 12:00 - 20:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Transmission Gallery will be open till 8 PM Sept 5th for First Friday! Stop by to check out Entrance to the Void, a sweet suite of 4 x 6 inch pinhole photography images by Anastasia Shubina and Timofey Glinin (@glish.group) in our special Artists’ Showcase. Ethereal and dreamy, these 4 x 6 inch images are printed on shimmering silver paper and come framed in black.
Also on view is Nemo Gould’s solo exhibition of interactive sculpture in Friend or Faux. Beautifully crafted and imbued with an inventive sense of humor, these pieces light up, tilt and whir or buzz with sound. Push a button or trunk a crank to activate them, come by to check them out in person!
Can’t make it on First Friday? The last day to see the work is Saturday, Sept 6th, 12-5 pm.

Open First Friday: Surroundings – Rachel Major
2025-09-05 17:00 - 20:00 | Manna Gallery, 473 25th St., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Come check out our summer show, Surroundings by Rachel Major. Created through a process of dripping paint onto canvas or wood, Major’s layered surfaces explore texture, color, and the balance between control and chance. This series is inspired by her daily encounters with the landscape surrounding her home in San Francisco’s Richmond District—a quiet, often foggy neighborhood bordered by Golden Gate Park to the south, the Presidio to the north, and Ocean Beach to the west. Her paintings reflect the shifting moods of this coastal environment, particularly the ever-changing view of the San Francisco Bay, the Headlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge as they emerge and recede through the mist. The act of covering and revealing in her work echoes the landscape’s own rhythms. Surroundings is a meditation on place, perception, and the quiet wonder of noticing the world around us.
July 26 – September 6, 2025
Artist Reception: Saturday, August 2, 2-4 pm
Artist Q&A: Saturday, August 30, 2:30 pm
First Fridays: Aug 1 & Sept 5, 5-8 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 12-5 pm & First Fridays, 5-8 pm
