Power Trip

Anna Trinh @annahtrnhh

Anna Trinh explores whimsically dark narratives through miniatures, stop animation, and motion design. Born in San Jose, CA, Anna made her way to Oakland, CA to begin her journey as an artist at California College of the Arts. From there, she found herself working on the set of Phil Tippett’s Mad God, and continues to collaborate with fellow stop motion folk in the Bay. Using fabrication techniques found in practical effects in conjunction with post production software like After Effects, she brings to life objects you would only expect to find in a fevered dream.

Statement: My work is inspired by thoughts, feelings, or dreams that linger on. Some of these things leave an impression on me like a handprint in memory foam, and they don’t go away quite as quickly as I’d like. As a visual artist, I don’t know how to put these “impressions” in the right words, so I try to physically re-create them with little sprinkles of dark humor. Whether it’d be a series of haunted little furniture to describe a deep sense of loss or a bird house produced by a night of sleep accompanied by COVID, if they stick long enough in the corners of my mind it’s guaranteed you’ll find them on my desk. There isn’t a sense of obligation to bring all my ideas to life, but if I can find an excuse to try a new material or technique, it makes it more fun to figure out. My fascination for science, animals, and history can be found sprinkled amongst my pieces.

Carolyn Jean Martin @carolynjeanmartin

Carolyn Jean Martin is an artist and educator. Her multi-media practice explores how identity is constructed and understood within the social lenses of nationality, ethnicity and race, and how these are sustained and transformed through movements of the diaspora. Her artwork has appeared in solo and group exhibitions in China, Canada, and various locations in the United States. Carolyn received an MFA in painting and an MA in the History and Theory of Contemporary Art from the San Francisco Art Institute. She completed her PhD in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts as a David Driskell Fellow. Her dissertation, The Historical Presence and Vernacular Traditions of Black Women Artists Since 1980 received the 2024 Ted Coons Dissertation Prize.

Statement: “The destructive character knows only one watchword: make room. And only one activity: clearing away.” Walter Benjamin, A Destructive Character, 1931. A constant cycle of creation and destruction permeates my work as it reflects Benjamin’s cheerful and rejuvenating aspects of destruction. I am interested in superficial surface beauty and the conditions of value placed upon it, but also the ability to make a mark that disrupts and alters it to reveal what lies underneath the surface. In truth, I am fascinated with the traces that destruction leaves behind and the indication of the past existing within the present.

Ezra Li Eismont @Ezralico

Ezra Li Eismont is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working on the Mendocino coast in Northern California, with primary emphasis on painting and sound. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Crafts (BFA 1997), he has been an active member of the Bay area art and music communities since the mid nineties, lending his artistic flavor to many bay area music albums and flyer art over the past decades. He worked as a billboard painter for I.C.U. for many years, producing hand painted advertisements nationally, as well as ghost painting murals for other established artists such as Sol Lewitt and Barry McGee.

Statement: "Power comes from within" -inspirational quote These small works on paper are my meditations on personal power, an exploration of my own personal inner spaces. I am interested in ideas of measurement, and documenting the pathways and movement of spirit within the physical realm.Geometry is a way of knowing, a series of models which help to explain the universe and our place within it. Understanding the patterns of the universe ultimately lend to us better understanding our selves. “Abuse of power comes as no surprise” -Jenny Holzer From 1980 -1993 the state of Israel banned the exhibition of all Political artwork, and expressly banned the exhibition of a single work of art which contained the four colors of the Palestinian flag (Red,White,Black and Green) These became known as “The Forbidden Colors"

Joel Taylor Murnan @joelmurnan

Joel Taylor Murnan (b. 1997 Grass Valley, CA) pursued his education at the San Francisco Art Institute and obtained a B.F.A. in Sculpture from California College of the Arts. Currently, he is a M.F.A candidate at the University of California, Davis. Most recently, Murnan was selected as an Artist in Residence for Tropical Lab 2024 in Singapore, showcasing his work in a collective exhibition. Murnan’s work explores themes of land and control, drawing inspiration from his childhood memories of a pastoral landscape. Murnan’s sculptures capture the mood of the terrain, utilizing diverse mediums that offer a unique perspective on our relationship with the land.

Statement: The monster in nearly every culture symbolizes collective uncertainty and shapes our perception of the landscape. These sculptures channel the monster or Daemon, as the manifestation of our temporality through elements such as rotting wood, forgotten mechanical tools, and pieces of discarded trash. Daemons represent the unknown, marking boundaries and defining our relationship with land and ecology. Monsters are represented on medieval maps as symbols of uncharted territories, asserting control over unknown lands. My work uses monsters as metaphors to examine global and personal relationships with land, distilling feelings of scarcity, limitation, and a desire for ecological balance. Modern ecology is intertwined with human intervention. As catastrophic as these realities may seem, there is an odd beauty in the integration of manufactured elements within the wild. The landscape fluctuates like a dance of particles—a continuous flow of energies and forms in constant motion dissolving and reforming. In my work, found objects are joined together. These components unite and become endowed with life, like a Golem. Monsters are potent symbols of our ecological fragility; they signal a call to action. My research explores the interconnectedness with the landscapes we inhabit, examining both our fears and hopes of the world around us.

John Colle Rogers @raccoonicorn17

John Colle Rogers is an artist and blacksmith living in Oakland, CA. With a BA in Japanese Studies from Earlham College (Richmond, IN) and and MFA from Oakland's CCAC, he has a great breadth of knowledge which informs both his artistic and professional metalworking practices. He owns a Cold War bunker in North Dakota, which he has turned into an art studio.

Statement: I make work which is a mix of critique and indulgence of the uses and abuses of power. I blend satire and fine craftsmanship, metaphor and metalworking in my work. I use decommissioned firearms, guitar pedals, hand-forged elements, and military equipment to make my "Critters of Chaos" -- snarky little personalities which encapsulate our fascination with the more highly vibrational energies in our universe. I've used firearms to make art as well, shooting metal boxes and plates to solidify kinetic instances...

Ken Kalman @kenkalman

ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS Ken Kalman, “Points of Interest”, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2013 Ken Kalman, A Historical Narrative: A Survey Through Objects and Collectables, Dominican University, San Marco Gallery, San Raphael, CA 2012 Ken Kalman, OK Harris Gallery, New York, New York 2012 Ken Kalman, Metal, Wood, Paper, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2009 Animal, Insects and Mapworks, Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA 2008 Crockett Contemporary Art, Crockett, CA 2006 “Native”, Lindsay Wildlife Museum, sculptures by Ken Kalman, Walnut Creek, CA 2002 Transamerica Two, San Francisco, California 1995 AirTouch Communications, Walnut Creek, California 1995 Gensler and Associates Architects, San Francisco, California 1994 Reed Whipple Cultural Center, Las Vegas, Nevada 1993 GROUP EXHIBITIONS Birds, Birds, and More Birds, Museum of Northern California Arts, Chico, CA 2025 California Jewish Open, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA 2024 Surreal Insectica and the Goo Goo Zoo, Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA 2024 California Jewish Open, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA 2024 Sanchez Art Center, Left Coast Annual, Pacifica, CA 2023 Transmission Gallery, Lamps and Other Useful Items, Oakland, CA 2022 Gualala Arts Center, On The Move: Migration/Emigration/ Immigration, Gualala, CA 2022 Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA 2022 Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, “Cartography Exhibition”, Auburn, NY 2014

Statement: Humans are territorial creatures with a strong need for self-preservation. We are also storytellers and historians who map and catalogue geographic, political, and real estate boundaries. The fact that maps tell only a temporary tale is what makes them most interesting to me. Modern weapons have evolved from the simplest tools of early man, and many of them are stunning examples of fine machinery and craftsmanship. My interest of guns and maps come from a study in military history, a respect for human invention and an occasional glimpse of mortality. The guns I make are covered with paper maps (vintage and contemporary) and these maps reflect something of the time, place, and purpose of the gun. The connections between the map and the gun range from geography alone to the civilizations, tribes and populations that were destroyed by that particular weapon. The sculptures are made of aluminum sheet and rods, rivets, screws, and paper. They are non-functioning and include rifles, semi automatic guns, and pistols. Ken Kalman- Emeryville, California 2025

Lisa Solomon @lisasolomon

Lisa Solomon is a studio artist that moonlights as a college professor and illustrator/graphic designer. Profoundly interested in the idea of hybridization (sparked from her Hapa heritage), Solomon's mixed-media works and large installations revolve thematically around domesticity, craft, and personal histories. She often fuses "wrong" things together--recontextualizing their original purposes, and incorporating materials that question the line between ART and CRAFT. She also is focused on bridging the gaps between being creative, living creatively, and making a living as a creative.She received her BA in art from UC Berkeley and her MFA from Mills College. She has exhibited and works with galleries both nationally and internationally, is in numerous private and public collections, and is continually tweeking artworks in her backyard studio. She resides in Oakland, California with her husband, a teenager, two kitties, a three legged pit-bull, a dachshund mutt and many, many spools of thread. She is the author of - A Field Guide To Color - a workshop work-a-long watercolor journal on color theory and the follow up The Color Meditation Deck, a historical book on Crayola crayons, Knot Thread Stitch, the Illustrator for 20 Ways to Draw a Chair and Draw 500 Everyday Things. She is also an instructor on CreativeBug.

Statement: Many years ago I was given a set of targets that had been shot.These targets sat in my drawers for a long time. The violence of the bullet holes frightened me immensely. One day it occurred to me that I should just mend them - that would counteract the horror and make them a beautiful object yet again.I decided to mend each target using a different colorway and different embroidery stitch. I long ago finished mending that original set, but with the never ending gun violence in this country I thought it was time to re-visit the series. I actually asked John Colle Rogers to shoot at another set of targets I was able to procure. I wish it was as easy to manifest gun reform as it is to make these bullet holes something less scary.

Nemo Gould @nemomatic

Self-described “Chairman of the Hoard” Nemo Gould is a master accumulator, of both materials and building techniques alike. His Oakland studio is a veritable museum of old objects and technology which he blends into his signature style of kinetic sculpture. His work pushes the limits of found object art and challenges the viewer to experience art through interaction and experience. Gould received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1998, and his MFA in sculpture from U.C. Berkeley in 2000. His work is featured in museums and collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Statement: The first step in found object art is the act of forgetting, letting go of your presumptions. It is the tension between an object’s intended purpose and the potential of its physical and conceptual properties that is at the core of my work. The gathering and sorting of parts becomes as much a creative act as their eventual assembly. As my parts collection grows, so too does the web of possible connections between each object or image. My task is to find the signal in the noise of a runaway consumer culture and glean its essential truths, and communicate through my own lens through satire, conflict and humor.

Renée Gertler @renee.gertler

Renée Gertler was born in Santa Barbara, California to a Hungarian father and Dutch Mother she lives in Berkeley, California. Her drawings and sculptures explore ideas around metaphysical, psychological and emotional landscapes. She holds a BFA and MFA in Sculpture from The California College of Arts. She studied landscape architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate Studies of Design breifly. Her sculptures and installations have been exhibited at Southern Exposure, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, Et. al, and The Marin Moca. She has been awarded a Danish Arts Council Grant and artist residencies at the John Michael Kohler Arts/ Industry program, Spaces, Cleveland Ohio, Vermont Studio Center, Pilchuck School of Glass Emerging Artists Fellowship, The Macdowell Colony and Kala Art Institute.

Statement: This body of work is informed by my study of Cymatics and the pioneering efforts of Hans Jenny. My interest in Cymatics was sparked by working in a studio previously occupied by Viola Frey, whose energy and practices have profoundly influenced my creative process over the past seven years. Cymatics illustrates vibration and wave phenomena, and through this lens, I have developed sculptures and drawings that reflect these concepts. An ongoing exploration of my sculptures is inspired by Judy Chicago's observation that 80 percent of all public sculpture is phallic. In response, I aim to create sculptures that exist between traditional sculpture and architectural models representing the feminine. This collection examines themes of holding, receiving, and reflecting, inviting a conversation around alternative representations of femininity in art and occupying space.

Spike Milliken @spike_milliken

I live in San Francisco, walk to my studio and spend most of everyday there. That's sums it up. Everything else is seasoning.

Statement: The goal is to make things that are slightly more beautiful than sad. Ideally I make Inviting work that is enjoyable to enter and more enjoyable to leave.

Tara k Daly @ghertie

Tara Daly is a Bay Area artist who makes sculptures, paintings and textiles in material driven processes that explore power, collapse and connection.  She has exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Richmond Arts Center, Museum of Craft and Design, Contemporary Craft Center among other non-profit art centers and galleries nationally.

Statement: I make textiles, paintings, and ceramic sculptures. The diversity of my approaches to art making are tributaries to a river of sense making in a deluge of apocalypse. I sculpt objects that reflect breakdown, and I weave pieces that are about beauty and balance. My sculptures are born from the terror of falling apart, and my textiles and paintings are attempts at mending and repair. Feminism and craft practices are touchstones in my practice. Research into Ecological Worldviews, Systems Thinking, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge also informs my work.

Vincent Avalos @vincentavalos22

1961 Born in Los Angeles California into a Chicano Longshoreman family. Upon my mother remarrying we relocated to Andover Massachusetts when I was fifteen. After high school I entered the Art Institute of Boston where I graduated with honors. I continued to make art while earning a living as a laborer, cabinet maker, finish carpenter, framer, casual longshoreman, and taxi driver. I was a fabricator for Artist John Okulick, then became an art preparator at La County Museum of Art where I learned mount making and earthquake mitigation. I was then hired as the mount maker for the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco where I work to this day. Working at the Asian Art Museum has given me the means to create art without the pressures of the market or cultural zeitgeist. I became a father in 2010 and moved to Richmond in 2013 from Oakland. I continue to make art collaborating in community projects and showing at galleries such as ACCI and Art works Downtown in San Rafael.

Statement: The only thing I have going for me as an artist is a compulsion to entertain a muse. I have no better way of describing the influence. Something enters my brain and it needs to get made. I have no choice but to obey it and besides my kid it is the thing that gives me life. I don't think its meaning is any greater than any other meaning. The thrill comes from the transformation of an abstraction into something that feels exciting to me in an interactive space. For a minute I was making interactive sculpture, another minute I had to paint dramatic trees.... another.... I never know until it hits me and then I just follow it.

Yvette Molina @yvettemolina.studio

Yvette Molina is a Mexican-American artist focused on the relationship between justice and caring. Her multidisciplinary work includes public engagement, painting, processional banners, performance, comics, costumes, action figures, and collage. Learning and incorporating traditional techniques is significant to her practice as a means of connecting to history, culture, and embodied forms of ancestral knowledge. Ongoing projects include New Pantheon, a series of reimagined, hybrid gods born to confront the world’s challenges, Big Bang Votive, a large-scale installation and communal storytelling project centered on love and delight, and Freedom Beings, a portrait series depicting the myriad ways humans remain self-expressed through play while sharing and caring for one another. Yvette has exhibited across the US and internationally at venues such as the American Embassies in Uruguay and Latvia, the Stockholm Fringe Festival, Tang Teaching Museum, Brattleboro Museum, The Newark Museum of Art, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Spring Break Art Show, NADA Art Fair and the Legion of Honor and de Young Museums of California as an AIR awardee. Other residency fellowships include the Vermont Studio Center, Jentel Foundation, UC Berkeley Worth Ryder Gallery, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation. Born in Kansas City, Yvette currently splits her time between Oakland, CA and Brooklyn, NY.

Statement: I am a Mexican-American artist exploring themes of justice and love. I believe the role of the artist is vital in shaping the world. To this end, I use my artwork as a tool for community building, generative conflict, and healing. My approach is multidisciplinary with a growing emphasis on public engagement. My projects are often site-specific and include everything from performance, processional banners, costumes, and comics, to painting, installation, and sculpture. Handicraft materials and methods are prominent in my work both for their sensual beauty, but also as a means of privileging what has at times been deemed a lesser form of creative expression. Learning and incorporating traditional techniques is a way for me to connect to history, culture, and deeper forms of ancestral knowledge. I have trained in gilding and egg tempera painting as well as Byzantine and Russian Prosopone iconology. In recent years I have been applying these devotional painting techniques onto scavenged cardboard as part of a long running examination of our throw-away society and who and what gets included in our circles of care. Ongoing projects include New Pantheon, a series of reimagined, hybrid gods born to confront the world’s challenges, Big Bang Votive, a communal storytelling project where participants are invited to share a personal story of love or delight and Freedom Beings, a portrait series depicting the myriad ways humans remain self-expressed through play while sharing and caring for one another.

John Rogers and Gemma Szusterman @raccoonicorn17 and @gemmaszusterman