Society of Artists & Makers Student Show
2026-07-03 17:00 - 2026-08-29 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Werkshack, 481 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
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
Gallery Hours:
Saturdays 1 to 5pm (& by appointment)
Opening Reception: Thursday July 9th, 6 – 9pm
Closing Reception: Saturday August 29th, 1 – 5pm
Oakland Art Murmur; First Fridays: Friday, July 3rd & Friday, August 7th, 5 – 9pm

M. Mark Bauer: THE, THE
2026-07-09 12:00 - 2026-07-25 17:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Through July 25th
Artist’s Talk
Saturday, July 18th, starting at 1 pm
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 12 – 5 pm
Transmission Gallery is pleased to present M. Mark Bauer’s work in THE, THE, on view through July 25th in the Small Space.
What the ?
What does it mean? Where DO we stand?
​Mixed messages, absurd scenarios, improbable unrealities – M. Mark Bauer wades into dynamic narratives and an onslaught of incomprehensible untruths, pervasive and invasive, redirecting the course of events and outcome potentials at hand. Mesmerizing rhythmic patterns groove in undulating serenity as wildly complex scenarios unfold in the eight canvases on view. Hybrid creatures and colorful characters cavort in a surreal concoction that speaks to the consequences of our collective insanity on each other and the natural world while sly humor entertains with bursts of sudden recognition. The Artist observes as Eye-hook, Snake Tongue, Bo Peep and a Sheep and The Big Bad Wolf join in this precisely executed spectacle of chaos.

Cate White: World Raw
2026-07-09 12:00 - 2026-08-01 17:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
At Transmission Gallery through August 1st, 2026
(closed July 4th)
All are welcome, please join us for Cate White Artist’s Talk:
Saturday, July 11th, starting at 4 pm
Gallery hours: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 12 – 5 pm
Cate White brings fiercely powerful work to World Raw, consisting of paintings and sculptures selected from the last twelve years.
Cate White’s Statement:
These works inhabit a world where personal memory, dreams, political reality, religion, banal culture, and archetypal myth have not yet been separately categorized. Images translate from one story into another, remixing contexts until they lose their fixed meanings. Armageddon arrives as a vaguely sinister faceless shmoo. The devil wears flip-flops with socks instead of cloven hooves. Horror and hilarity trade masks. The miraculous and the absurd share the same language. The sacred, psychological, traumatic, mythic, domestic, and comic all stand on equal groundless ground.
Over the years, the work has delivered images of confinement and escape: caves, cells, thresholds, thrashing, illuminated openings. But the way to liberation is never clear, and running beneath the work is an undercurrent of grief—for failed transformations, lost certainties, and the perpetual distance between desire and fulfillment. The sacred and ridiculous are merged. Enlightenment appears as a spray-painted glow.
The process of painting is a tightrope act between intention and accident, structure and impulse. Both order and chaos can become prisons. I am searching for a third place: moments of bewilderment, play, revelation, or recognition. Rather than offering a coherent narrative, these works invoke a raw world, unfinished and alive, where meaning is in the making.

Fragments of Belonging at GearBox Gallery
2026-07-09 12:00 - 2026-08-15 17:00 | Gearbox Gallery, 770 West Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
GearBox Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of paintings by Dalit Fresco and sculpture by Jan Blythe in this two person show, Fragments of Belonging. July 9 – August 15th. Blythe and Fresco share a similar journey of immigration, the experience of which is ingrained in the process as well as the imagery of their work. Whether it’s personal items compiled into cultural forms or from memories carried across great distances, past or present.
Dalit’s paintings draw personal memories from both real and imagined occurrences, translating them into undeniable emotional views. Her investigations move from inward outward, and from the specific towards wholeness. There is a longing that is inherently seeking cover, shelter, and solid ground.
Jan is unearthing similar longings by compiling, assembling, and weaving with both personal and found objects. These materials are seemingly mundane yet gain a new life, form and meaning under her hands. The dialogue between the painted surfaces and the objects is synchronized in a shared language, rhythm, and symbol.
Gearbox Gallery is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 12 – 5pm

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!

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

"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.

Everything Must Go - Juried Group Show
2026-07-11 - 2026-08-08 | Manna Gallery, 473 25th St., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Juror: Lisa Solomon
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
Manna Gallery is excited to present Everything Must Go, our first juried group exhibition featuring artists from the greater Bay Area. Juried by acclaimed artist and educator Lisa Solomon, the exhibition takes its title from the familiar language of clearance sales, using it as a lens to explore impermanence, change, loss, and renewal. Through diverse approaches and media, participating artists examine what we hold onto, what we leave behind, and how acts of letting go can create space for transformation and new beginnings.
July 11 – August 8, 2026
Preview: Friday, July 3, 5-8 pm (Gallery closed on July 4th)
Exhibition Opening & Artists’ Reception: Saturday, July 11, 2-4 pm
First Friday Oakland Art Walk: August 7, 5-8 pm
Juror’s Talk & Awards: Saturday, August 8, 3-5 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 12-5 pm, First Fridays, 5-8 pm & by appt

Wham! Bam! Zine Fair
2026-07-11 11:00 - 15:00 | East Bay Creative Lab, 558 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94610, United States
Wham! Bam! Zine Fair is a market celebrating artists, creators, and comic illustrators. There will be 14 artists/creators vending at the event.
Come check out amazing zines, comics, and more at the Zine Fair. The Fair is a part of the “Wham! Bam! Queer!” art exhibition on view in the gallery. Please stop by the gallery located inside East Bay Creative Lab to view the queer comic/zine show.

Artist’s Talk – Cate White: World Raw
2026-07-11 12:00 - 17:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Saturday, July 11th, starting at 4 pm
All are welcome! Please join us for Cate White’s Talk for World Raw, her solo show now on view now at Transmission Gallery.
Cate White brings fiercely powerful work to World Raw, consisting of paintings and sculptures selected from the last twelve years. Come hear more about the work from Cate in person!
“Over the years, the work has delivered images of confinement and escape: caves, cells, thresholds, thrashing, illuminated openings. But the way to liberation is never clear, and running beneath the work is an undercurrent of grief—for failed transformations, lost certainties, and the perpetual distance between desire and fulfillment. The sacred and ridiculous are merged. Enlightenment appears as a spray-painted glow.” ~ Cate White

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.

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

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

Gestural Expressions
2026-07-17 - 2026-08-29, 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.⁠
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Artist Walkthrough: Saturday, July 25, 4–5pm⁠
Explore the exhibition with artist Nicole Mueller for an intimate look into her process and perspective.⁠
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Gestural Expressions is on view at SLATE from July 15–August 29, 2026.⁠

Urban Sketch Workshop with Cathy Raingarden
2026-07-18 11:00 - 13:00 | The Grand Gallery, 560 2nd Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
We will meet at The Grand Gallery at 11am – Class is geared for all levels and is presented in easy bite sized lessons.
Arrive a few minutes earlier if you’d like to purchase a watercolor kit and pens. Wear comfortable clothing and walking shoes. Bring water and snacks. We will be sketching around Jack London. Sign up for class by clicking on the link below.
Class Fee: $55
Optional Materials Fee: $25
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGoF1lm2sLXuyI41JCsCdK8f8uYmUz0RR5EqLA3-3swO-nRw/viewform?usp=dialog

National Craft Open Studios Weekend
2026-07-18 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-07-19 12:00 - 17:00 | Werkshack, 481 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
National Craft Open Studios Weekend is presented by the American Craft Council and launches as part of Craft in America’s Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026.
This is a first-of-its-kind, nationwide celebration inviting the public into the creative spaces of craft artists across the country.

Artist's Talk - M. Mark Bauer: THE, THE
2026-07-18 13:00 - 14:00 | Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Artist’s Talk
Saturday, July 18th, starting at 1 pm
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 12 – 5 pm
Great to see in person, these paintings are not fast-read paintings. Check out a few details on our website, come in for the full experience. For a complete explanation, if that’s even possible, please join us Saturday, July 18th, to hear from M. Mark Bauer about his work, starting at 1 pm.
What the ?
What does it mean? Where DO we stand?
​Mixed messages, absurd scenarios, improbable unrealities – M. Mark Bauer wades into dynamic narratives and an onslaught of incomprehensible untruths, pervasive and invasive, redirecting the course of events and outcome potentials at hand. Mesmerizing rhythmic patterns groove in undulating serenity as wildly complex scenarios unfold in the eight canvases on view. Hybrid creatures and colorful characters cavort in a surreal concoction that speaks to the consequences of our collective insanity on each other and the natural world while sly humor entertains with bursts of sudden recognition. The Artist observes as Eye-hook, Snake Tongue, Bo Peep and a Sheep and The Big Bad Wolf join in this precisely executed spectacle of chaos.

Cyanotype Printing Workshop
2026-07-25 12:00 - 14:00 | Dictée Art & Exhibitions, 2117 11th Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94606, United States
Master the art of sun printing! Create two 8×10 Prussian us foliage and lace in this hands-on 2-hour workshop with Aidan Jung
Instructor: Aidan Jung
Description: Discover the magic of the historic cyanotype process—one of the earliest forms of photography—while creating your own striking Prussian blue prints. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to coat paper with light-sensitive chemicals, arrange organic and textured materials like foliage and lace, and expose their compositions using sunlight or UV light.
Through guided experimentation, you’ll explore the expressive possibilities of photograms and leave with two finished 8×10 prints. No prior experience is necessary—this workshop is designed for beginners and creatives of all backgrounds.
Materials: All materials are provided. Participants are also encouraged to bring small objects with interesting silhouettes—such as leaves, lace, or personal items—if they’d like to incorporate their own materials into the process.

Pat O’Connor: Reclaimed | Closing Reception and Talk
2026-07-25 15:00 - 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Pat O’Connor, “Winter Sun and Shadow,” 2026, 48” x 36” x 2”, salvaged cardboard, acrylic paint, birch board
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)
Artists’ Opening Reception: Saturday, June 27, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, July 3, 5 – 9 pm

Emily Shepard: In Flux | Closing Reception and Talk
2026-07-25 15:00 - 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Emily Shepard, “Conversant,” 2026, 32” x 71”, photo courtesy of the artist
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)
Artists’ Opening Reception: Saturday, June 27, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, July 3, 5 – 9 pm

Jessica Cadkin & Michael Lynch: The End
2026-07-31 12:00 - 2026-09-05 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Michael Lynch, The Final Act 1, 2026, 12″ x 15″ gouache on wood panel, photo courtesy of the artist
A few days after her uncle’s death, Jessica Cadkin was out walking when she noticed a crow cawing at her. It followed her for several blocks, seeming to want her attention. Only when she stopped and looked up at it did the crow alight on a nearby light post. They quietly stared at one another for a few minutes before it flew away. Crows appear prominently in mythology across cultures. In Native American traditions they are not only tricksters and wise guys, but protectors. In some Asian myths they represent the divine; while in Norse lore, Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) serve as the eyes and ears of the god Odin. In Hindu belief, crows act as messengers of the dead, bridging the living and the spiritual worlds. Drawing on these associations as well as her own personal encounter with a crow shortly after a family member’s death, Cadkin’s sculpture, Eulogy, reflects on memory, loss, and connection.
Michael Lynch’s work often arises from his keen interest in art, natural science, and physics. The paintings of birds striking windows, The Final Act 1, 2, and 3, are based on photographs of the keratin and oil from powder down feathers transferred onto the glass at the moment of impact. They represent just three of the more than one billion fatal bird-window collisions in the United States each year. The Short Story of the Owl and the Rabbit is a reconstruction of a memory from a scene Lynch encountered over 50 years ago, one he always wished he had a way to record. Lynch often seeks to bring to life the stories and events in nature that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Bios:
Jessica Cadkin was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up 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 Northern California including the de Young Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, di Rosa Preserve, Bateman Foundation Gallery of Nature, Bedford Gallery, Root Division, and the Berkeley Art Center. Cadkin joined Mercury Twenty Gallery in 2020, this is her fifth show with the gallery.
Michael Lynch is a self-described artistic engineer. Over the course of the last 55 years, he has had several distinct careers. He began as a cabinet and furniture maker, followed by 30 years in the film special effects industry, most of which were in the Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) model shop. During this period, he earned more than 30 film credits and worked on countless commercials. Lynch then shifted his focus for a decade, contracting with the U.S. Department of Defense to design and fabricate prototype parachute systems and combat trauma trainers for the military and NATO. Retired since 2023, Lynch now spends his workweek in the studio in Sausalito, CA. Much of the work he produces lies at the intersection of art, natural history, and physics. His work often tells a story or records events that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)﻿
Artists’ Opening Reception: Saturday, August 15, 3 – 5 pm
Artist Talks: Saturday, August 29, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, August 7, September 4, 5 – 9 pm

Monika Mayer: LINKED
2026-07-31 12:00 - 2026-09-05 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Monika Mayer, Flow # 60 – Entangled, 2025, acrylic, coffee and ink on canvas, 22″ x 28″, photo: Dana Davis
Monika Mayer’s new body of work is inspired by the rocky shoreline along the California coast, shaped by the tides. At low tide, hidden worlds are revealed: clusters of mussels and barnacles clinging together, surviving by holding on to each other. By gathering together, they create shared conditions that protect them from crashing waves and harsh weather. Their strength comes from connection.
Working with gathered and repurposed materials including inner tubes and deconstructed soccer balls, Mayer builds sculptural forms through layering and accumulation. Discarded and overlooked, these pieces grow into organism-like clusters linked with zip ties and staples and are given new life. Her paintings extend this language through layered coffee, paint, and ink, echoing the coastal environment’s organic patterns and rhythms. By presenting familiar objects in unfamiliar ways, Mayer invites viewers into a space of ambiguity, encouraging them to pause, look closely, and consider what lies beneath the surface. These works reflect on resilience, not as something we achieve alone, but as something we build together.
Bio:
Monika Mayer is a multidisciplinary artist born in Germany and based in Berkeley, CA. Largely self-taught, she began developing a daily art practice during the COVID-19 lockdown, allowing her to deepen her focus and commitment. She holds a BA in Social Education from the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany and a MA in Educational Leadership from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. Mayer has been a member of Mercury 20 Gallery since 2023, and is an alumna of the Kala Artist-in-Residency program in Berkeley, CA. Her work is held in private collections in the U.S. and Germany and has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Tryst International Art Fair in Los Angeles, Kala Art Gallery, and in the UK as a shortlisted artist for the International Football Art Prize.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)﻿
Artists’ Opening Reception: Saturday, August 15, 3 – 5 pm
Artist Talks: Saturday, August 29, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, August 7, September 4, 5 – 9 pm

Cade Salamanca: The Final Push
2026-07-31 12:00 - 2026-09-05 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Cade Salamanca, Come As You Are, 2026, mixed media, 36″ x 36″ x 2″, photo courtesy of the artist
The Final Push marks a pivotal chapter in Cade Salamanca’s artistic and personal journey. In 2026, Salamanca embraced a new name—an act of self-definition that became a powerful affirmation of identity and a catalyst for creative transformation. Freed from expectations that once constrained her, her work has entered a period of greater clarity, confidence, and emotional depth.
This body of work explores the liberation that emerges when authenticity is fully embraced. The introduction of wire mesh and draped chains began as formal material investigations but evolved into potent metaphors for the protective barriers Salamanca had constructed around herself over time. Fragmented mesh and suspended chains symbolize the dismantling of fear, self-doubt, and inherited expectations, revealing a renewed sense of freedom and possibility. Alongside 12 paintings, Salamanca will debut six double exposure self portraits that mark the beginning of a new practice with Film Photography on a Canon AE-1 Program. Both deeply personal and universally resonant, The Final Push is a celebration of self-acceptance, courage, and transformation—a declaration of identity expressed without apology and an invitation to witness the power of becoming fully seen.
Bio:
The Final Push marks Cade Salamanca’s second solo exhibition with Mercury 20 Gallery. Throughout her artistic journey, Salamanca has explored diverse mediums including ceramics and photography. After experimenting with different painting styles, she developed a distinctive voice that combines techniques she has honed over the years—from smooth color transitions to rich textured layers.Salamanca’s work has been shown at the Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City; Made In California 2024, Brea Gallery, in La Brea, CA; Reflections of Us (Juror Sergio Gomez), Warnes Contemporary, in Brooklyn, NY; Metal Haus Gallery, in San Francisco, CA; and others.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)﻿
Artists’ Opening Reception: Saturday, August 15, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, August 7, September 4, 5 – 9 pm

Rainey Straus: re(COMPOSING)
2026-07-31 12:00 - 2026-09-05 17:00 | Mercury 20 Gallery, 475 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Rainey Straus, re(Composing), 2026, site specific Installation: cast paper and bioplastic, dimensions variable, photo courtesy of the artist
Rainey Straus’s work begins with walking, listening, and close attention to the living world. Created for Mercury 20, re(Composing) turns that attention toward fungi, following the ways matter breaks down, gathers, and becomes something else. The installation takes decomposers as a starting point: organisms that are also composers, transforming one kind of matter into another. Straus’s materials follow this logic. Paper is shredded, pulped, and cast over found, downed wood, echoing the way paper wasps chew wood fiber into shelter. Lacing through these casts are bioplastic forms, spun like spider silk until gesture becomes structure. By working with already fallen wood, Straus treats the tree not as an ending but as part of an ongoing cycle of transformation. The work invites attention to other intelligences: the pathfinding of slime molds, mycelial networks, and forms of sensing beyond human perception. Rather than representing ecological change, re(Composing) takes part in it: paper returns to pulp, pulp takes the impression of wood, and matter reorganizes itself into temporary form: fragile, provisional, and alive to what comes next.
Bio:
Rainey Straus is the award winner from Mercury 20’s 2026 exhibition, Mapping Time, awarded by juror Minoosh Zomorodinia. Straus is a Bay Area interdisciplinary artist whose work grows from fieldwork into sculpture, installation, painting, and cyanotype. After working as a Bay Area tech designer, she returned to artmaking in response to ecological urgency. Solo exhibitions include Spinning Time into Form, Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA and The Old Growth Project at MarinMOCA. Her work has appeared in Bodies and Borders: Ecologies of Consent with Women Eco Artists Dialog, Forest Unseen at Petaluma Arts Center, The New Geologic Epoch with Ecoartspace, and exhibitions at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and the San Jose Museum of Art. Straus has held residencies at BigCi Residence in Australia, Lucid Art Foundation, and Morris Graves Foundation. Her work has been featured in Dark Mountain Journal, Sculpture Magazine, Rhizome, San Francisco Chronicle, and Point Reyes National Seashore Association. She holds a BFA from State University of New York (SUNY) Purchase and an MFA from California College of the Arts.
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)﻿
Artists’ Opening Reception: Saturday, August 15, 3 – 5 pm
Artist Talks: Saturday, August 29, 3 – 5 pm
﻿Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, August 7, September 4, 5 – 9 pm

Andrew Catanese Solo Exhibition | I Watched Your Leaves Grow Silver in the Wind
2026-08-06 12:00 - 2026-09-27 17:00 | Johansson Projects, 2300 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Johansson Projects presents I Watched Your Leaves Grow Silver in the Wind, an exhibition featuring paintings by Andrew Catanese. The exhibition explores ecologies of recollection, as Catanese channels connections among places and individuals, particularly those who linger only in memory.
For Catanese, painting is a narrative medium that moves across time and space, reshaping how we see the everyday world. Their canvases feature landscapes, shifting weather, animals, and spectral figures, each serving as a portal to distinct moments and memories the artist calls “slips” in time and place. Painting becomes a bridge to people and environs that have been lost, abandoned, or rediscovered. Gazes, where they appear, are slant, unfocused. Animals sulk through forests, searching, unaware that they are being watched. Full figures, with backs turned, are ensconced in brambles, alienating them from the viewer. Imbued with distance and uncertainty, Catanese’s lush compositions swim in windswept, haunting ambiguity.
A mysterious and quiet spirituality permeates the work, suggesting something just beyond reach. Catanese’s expressive use of color deepens the atmosphere, intensifying the sense of connection and longing throughout the exhibition. Amid today’s uncertainty and division, Catanese’s paintings remind us of our deep-rooted desire for kinship. These poetic works encourage reflection and uncover the bonds that persist, even in the most turbulent times.
I Watched Your Leaves Grow Silver in the Wind will run from August 6 to September 27, 2026.

First Friday Oakland Art Walk
2026-08-07 17:00 - 20:00 | Manna Gallery, 473 25th St., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join Manna Gallery for Oakland’s celebrated First Friday Art Walk and experience Everything Must Go as part of the city’s vibrant arts scene. Explore the exhibition during extended evening hours, connect with fellow art lovers, and discover the diverse perspectives of Bay Area artists responding to themes of release, transition, and renewal. Whether you’re revisiting the show or seeing it for the first time, First Friday offers a lively opportunity to engage with the artwork and the creative energy of Oakland’s Uptown Arts District.
Everything Must Go Juried Group Show
Juror: Lisa Solomon
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
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
Manna Gallery, established in 2010, is an art space in Oakland’s Uptown Arts District dedicated to showcasing the work of local and regional artists. As a long-time partner and venue of Oakland Art Murmur—a 501(c)(3) organization that connects Bay Area artists and collectors through free public programs, exhibitions, and events—Manna fosters a vibrant and supportive community for artists and art lovers alike. Through diverse and engaging exhibitions, the gallery celebrates Oakland’s dynamic visual arts scene and seeks to inspire and enrich the community.
Follow us on instagram: @mannagalleryoakland

First Friday Art Walk - Society of Artists and Makers Student Show
2026-08-07 17:00 - 21:00 | Werkshack, 481 25th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
The Society of Artists and Makers is a club created by community college art students in the East Bay. The club was founded in Spring 2026 following the decision to demolish the Laney Tower Building, and as a result, decommission the June Steingart Art Gallery (aka the Laney Art Gallery).
Goals of the club include increasing accessibility around showcasing art, fostering community among students outside of class, and responding to the ongoing loss of art spaces in the Bay Area.
The werkshack Student Show is the inaugural show of The Society of Artists and Makers. Some artists are showing work for the very first time and others are decades into their careers. All work is made by current students enrolled at College of Alameda, Berkeley City College, Merritt College, and Laney College. Mediums including 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

FIRST FRIDAY RECEPTION -- July-August Multi-Artist Show
2026-08-07 18:00 - 21:00 | Art@Archer, 431 13th Street, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Join us on this First Friday to celebrate the art of three local artists. Different styles. Different mediums. Makes for a very interesting show. Come and talk to the artists about their work and their passion.
Vida Karamooz
MacArthur Nelson
Melva Spigner
Refreshments will be served.
