The Canvas Can Do Miracles, Just You Wait and See

Annie Duncan @annieduncan_

Born in San Francisco, Duncan earned an MFA from California College of the Arts in 2023 and a BA from Vassar College in 2019. She has participated in several residencies, including Lighthouse Works (Fishers Island, NY) and Anderson Ranch (Snowmass, CO). Her work has been exhibited in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, and Seoul, and has been featured in publications including Art News, Colossal, Variable West, and Artsy.

Statement: Annie Duncan is a ceramic sculptor and painter whose larger-than-life work explores femininity, material symbolism, and art historical references. In her work, oversized flowers, beauty products, and personal objects are juxtaposed to create narratives that are both poignant and playful, mirroring the conflicting emotions found in everyday life. Her colorful ceramics draw from the illusionism of trompe-l’oeil painting, the visual language of cartoons, and the aesthetics of digital consumer culture.

Courtney Knight @goodknightyou

Courtney Knight (b. 1991, Spokane, WA) studied Illustration at the Art Institute of Boston in Boston, MA and lives/works in Oakland, CA. She explores playfulness, movement, cartoons and surreal landscapes. Chronic daydreamer, narrative driven, always drawing. Entangling ceramics with painting and drawing, Knight is inspired by the historical practice of making vessels that shared stories, and enjoys creating clay comix. Her work is loose, raw, and colorful always trying to capture the fleeting moments, to keep the same energy of a sketchbook page. She is currently keeping a growing personal practice while being a Ceramics Instructor in SF and a Studio Facilitator at Creative Growth Art Center and NIAD. Knight has shown with YBCA, SF, Good Mother Studio, SF, Court Tree Collective, Brooklyn, NY, Chefas Projects, Portland, OR and Fisk Gallery, Portland, OR.

Statement: I choose to not except this reality. I see a world of vast landscapes ~dreamscapes Orbs of all thoughts floating up, you are flattened, pulled through the crack of your window and being taken to the source of all life… grass people welcome you as you lounge with the dew -you achieved it: you became a butterfly bouncing in a meadow at noon

Erik Bender @round2ricky

Erik Bender is an artist living and working in Oakland, CA. He received a BA in Art Practice from University of California Berkeley and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at various galleries including Et Al gallery in San Francisco,CA, pt.2 Gallery in Oakland, CA as well as Goodmother Gallery, Tlaloc Studios and Franchise Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

Statement: Bender’s work intersects drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking processes to create works that perpetuate a discrete visual and material vocabulary. His structural compositions house forms inspired by the strangeness and magic of both the natural and unnatural worlds— energetically transmuting them into mysterious hybrid images that exist in a constant state of emergence—an amalgam of loose figuration and abstract symbolism.

Esteban Raheem Abdul Raheem Samayoa @wulffvnky

Gabriel Kasor @gabekasor

Based in Oakland from San Diego, California

Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán @hectorfmunoz

Bio After completing his foundation year at Parsons School of Design and studying painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, Hector paused his formal education due to a bipolar diagnosis and financial hardship. He continued to work outside institutional settings, developing his practice and exhibiting locally. His first solo exhibition, Tocando Tierra, was presented at Room 3557 Gallery (Los Angeles). Selected group exhibitions include Marin MOCA (Marin), Berkeley Historical Society Museum (Berkeley), Personal Space (Vallejo), Charlie James Gallery (Los Angeles), Watts Towers Art Center (Los Angeles), Bureau Gallery (New York), Good Mother Studios (Oakland), Pt. 2 Gallery (Oakland), and the RISD Museum (Providence, RI). Hector published the artist book Brown Eyes from Russell Street with Sming Sming Books, now archived in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Research Library. His work has been featured in 48 Hills, Berkeley Times, Overstandard, Juxtapoz, Mousse Magazine, and New American Paintings. He was a finalist for the Headlands Center for the Arts Tournesol Award and nominated for the SFMOMA SECA Award in 2023. In 2024, Hector entered the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is currently in his second year. He is also a facilitator at Creative Growth Art Center and is based in Oakland, California.

Statement: Artist Statement Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán (b. 1999) is a disabled, first-generation Chicano painter from South Berkeley, California, born and raised in the Bay Area. His work is rooted in the stories of working-class Mexican American communities, particularly those in the Bay Area, whose lives are rarely represented in contemporary art spaces. Muñoz-Guzmán’s paintings and mixed-media works draw from both personal and collective histories, merging lived experience with broader Chicano and Mexican artistic traditions. Beginning with intimate collages composed of family photographs, Mesoamerican/Catholic imagery, and found materials, he builds complex compositions that layer memory, heritage, and place. What began as a resourceful approach to art-making—due to limited access to traditional supplies—has evolved into a defining element of his practice. His materials, surfaces, and subject matter honor his family’s history and the communities that shaped him. His use of saturated color reflects the vibrancy of his South Berkeley upbringing as well as the warmth of his family’s ancestral home in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico. The work carries a matter-of-fact directness akin to social realism while embracing tenderness and care for its subjects, whether they depict community gatherings, agricultural labor, or states of mind shaped by depression and resilience. His life journey deeply informs Muñoz-Guzmán’s visual language.

Ian Jethmal @artblows

Bay Area painter

Statement: Painter

Jack Graydon @123.fake.street

Jack Graydon (b. 1989) received a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) in Portland, Oregon, and lives/works in Oakland, California. Working mainly in painting and sculpture, Graydon’s work has a strong groundwork in drawing, focusing on iconographic forms derived from cartoons, art history, drawing from observation, psychedelic imagery, and folk art. Abstract letterforms, flora and fauna, cartoon characters ripple across his canvases abstracted and blended into dreamlike landscapes. Graydon’s work has been exhibited at Goodmother Studio, Oakland, CA; Stellarhighway, Brooklyn, NY; Chefas Projects, Portland, OR; Pollyanna Gallery, Kingston, NY; Kamp Gallery, Portland, OR; and Moth Belly Gallery, San Francisco, CA. He has been a resident at the american institute of thoughts and feelings, Tucson, AZ and Mural Harbor, Linz, Austria.

Statement: Blow up your life, move to the desert, live with your dog in a trailer, quit drinking, take psychedelics, run naked through the saguaros, find new ways to paint. Move to the metropolis, learn the enemy from the inside, study. Escape the city, go home, be warm, see the stars, swim, touch grass, be with family, look for something to call your own.

jerry a.j. @jerry.a.j

Jerry A.J. is a Oakland based painter and gallery owner.

Joseph Blake @0ddfather

Joseph Blake is an installation artist working in printmedia. He lives in Oakland and runs a gallery out of his house with his roommate Joel Lithgow. It's called This is a House Gallery.

Statement: You take another hit and start blacking out. As your mind slips your grasp you make out an uncanny murmur: “The better to prepare you for strange truth… Let me explain those shapes you see ahead… They are not towers but giants.”

Landon Pointer @Shenronsixfive

Landon Pointer (b.1999) is an Oakland-based painter pushing the boundaries of traditional art, exploring the intricacies of human relationships. Focused on the nuanced connections between youth and adulthood, his canvas reflects the interplay of elements like sports, color, culture, and personal relationships. Inspired by the multi-dimensional components shaping the human experience, Landon constructs immersive worlds where memories unfold with vibrant clarity. Childhood experiences of a nomadic lifestyle, driven by poverty and racism, provide the foundation for themes of race and social inequalities subtly woven into his art. Reflecting on diverse facets of life, Landon finds solace in his artistic practice, turning each painting into a journey of insights and personal growth. His multimedia approach incorporates acrylics, oils, wax, sage, and aerosol, creating a rich and layered expression of his artistic vision.

Statement: In my life, I always found a way, I found a canvas, i found an outlet, and now, my mission is to echo the beats of resilience and creativity for kids coming from lower-class families. Raised in the struggle, my single mom fought to survive, sculpting our own path where none existed. Art wasn't just a passion; it became my lifeline, breaking barriers I never knew could crumble. I want every kid, regardless of their circumstances, to believe that dreams can rise from the most unexpected places. Museums and galleries, once distant realms, should be spaces where they see reflections of themselves, not as outsiders, but as creators. Growing up in a diverse yet poverty-stricken circle, I understand the power of overcoming adversity. I hope to inspire the youth to embrace the kaleidoscope of their own stories, finding strength and creativity in the face of adversity. I’d like to create a world where every child, no matter where they start, knows that their asq dreams are valid, their stories are heard, and art isn't just a luxury but a language that transcends boundaries. Love, Landon

Maia Cardea @maiacardea

Mariana Varela @oneslowdance_

Maya Djiji @mayadjiji

Michael Diamond @m.ichaeldiamond

Michael Diamond, born in Los Angeles, graduated from the California College of the Arts in 2018 with a focus on painting. He has been living in Oakland for the past decade. Recently, he has shifted his artistic exploration towards sculpture, particularly in the medium of paper mache and stained glass. His recent venture into paper mache sculpture explores the reinterpretation of personal narratives through everyday objects, integrating designs, motifs, and structures that reflect the histories embedded in urban artifacts.

Statement: My paintings speak on my experience walking in the city, pulling formal elements of color, textures, and patterns from the nuances of urban landscapes. I find myself ruminating on the histories that objects hold, combining designs, motifs, and structures to think about how my personal story can be reinterpreted through everyday objects.

Michelle Roman @michelleroman

Quinn Girard @quinnlucasgirard

Thomas Lewis @im_linkedin

Multi media artist living and working in San Francisco.

Statement: My work is rooted in the south and has strong ties to my home state of North Carolina.

Good Mother Studio @goodmotherstudio