You are invited to help sponsor our upcoming exhibitions for the Winter/Spring 2025 season opening on February 8, 2025.

THE HARMON & HARRIET KELLEY COLLECTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART: WORKS ON PAPER will be mounted in the Fig Garden, Duncan, and Hallowell Galleries

This traveling exhibition is organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA, and is supported by Measure P Project Funding 2024. The 65 works in this exhibition date from the late 1800s to 2002 and represent just a fraction of what is contained in the Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of San Antonio,

Texas. David Driskell, esteemed art historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland at College Park, calls the Kelley Collection “one of the finest that has been assembled tracing the history of African American art.” Included in the exhibition are drawings, etchings, lithographs, watercolors, pastels, acrylics, gouaches, linoleum, and color screen prints by such noted artists as Ron Adams, Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Margaret Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Eldzier Cortor, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Henry Ossawa

Tanner, Charles White, and many other outstanding lesser-known artists.

PIXELS: MICHALE AZGOUR'S IMAGES AS MYTHOLOGY and MICHAEL F. ROHDE'S SYNOPSIS: HANDWOVEN TAPESTRY FACES In the Lobby and Concourse Gallery, a two-person exhibition

PIXELS explores pixellating recognizable imagery including each artist’s visual manipulation of famous paintings and/or portraiture. The Michael Azgour paintings in this exhibition are part of an ongoing body of figurative works that incorporate hard-edge geometric abstractions (or “pixels”) with expressive representational paint application. The viewer is invited to engage with the works and in doing so

to take part in completing the work. For textile artist, Michael Rohde, his approach in pixellating the photorealist portraits is to recognize the grid imposed by the loom. For him, this leads to an examination of the minimum bits of information that can suggest a recognizable image. In the exhibited, selected tapestries, Rohde’s faces fall into three broad, but interrelated categories: individuals who in thought and practice have served as role models who we might wish we could emulate; some recognizable people from the world of artistic expression; and painted faces of tribal icons. 

TONY NATSOULOUS: ARTIST HEROS In the Contemporary Gallery

Sacramento-based Funk Art ceramicist Tony Natsoulas presents larger-than-life. hand-built clay portraits of ARTIST HEROES. This exhibition is a tribute to individuals whose actions embody the essence of heroism in its truest form. Through the art of sculpting, Natsoulas has immortalized remarkable figures who have dedicated their lives to making a positive impact on the world. From the trailblazing Annie Lennox and the benevolent Carlos Santana to the courageous Josephine Baker, each person featured in this collection embodies the spirit of heroism through their philanthropic endeavors and unwavering advocacy for social justice.

Additionally, the artist includes representations of his personal heroes, such as the iconic Marx Brothers, the indomitable Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame, the witty EddieIzzard, and the vibrant Carmen Miranda. This solo show; is a visual narrative celebrating the profound influence of these exceptional individuals who inspire us all to strive for a better world.

ART OF THE WORD: ONCE UPON A BOOK FEATURING  THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF GRACE LIN continues its 12-month run in the Moradian Gallery

It is the 2024/25 Any Given Child exhibition Once Upon a Book illustrated and co-authored by Grace Lin. Tapping into her Taiwanese heritage, most of Grace Lin’s books have an Asian-American focus but with universal themes. In Once Upon a Book, the main character, Alice, is tired of winter and decides to escape by reading one of her favorite books. But our heroine Alice took her escape a step further than just picking up a book and curling up in a comfy chair to read. Using her imagination, she steps inside the book and becomes a part of the story and the wonderful environments within the pages, her body merging with the visuals. At the end, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, she found that there was “no place like home” when she rejoined her family in the cozy and familiar warm kitchen for dinner.

The book emphasizes the power of books to help one experience other places outside your reality, to give your imagination wings, and to take you into a world you may otherwise never experience. Once Upon a Book emphasizes the power and wonder of reading and books.