Participating artists include:

Melissa Wang

Mauricio Bustos

Alicia Cardell

Rachel H. Gallegos

Kristi Holohan

Jessica Kovan

Debbie Bamberger

Alex Sodari

Zoe Mosko

Danessa Mayo

Avital Meshi

By Debbie Bamberger

Mixed media in a book

8" x 11.5"

— Artist Statement —

Debbie Bamberger is a nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood in Oakland. She discovered art journaling four years ago and now makes art in journals every day. She also makes zines and tiny one-inch art pieces. Debbie is passionate about racial justice, reproductive justice and restorative justice, and expresses these themes in her art journals. She lives in Berkeley with her spouse and two teen sons.

At the Legacy Museum was literally done in the cafe of The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, which was an absolutely devastating, crucial experience. I flew to Montgomery in March, a week before quarantine started, to meet up with a group from Glide Church that was on a Civil Rights trip to Alabama. The Legacy Museum is also referred to as the Lynching Museum, as it is a memorial to the years of senseless lynchings in our country. It is very painful to be there, and I needed to process, which I do through art journaling.

By Debbie Bamberger

Mixed media in a book

10" x 11"

— Artist Statement —

Debbie Bamberger is a nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood in Oakland. She discovered art journaling four years ago and now makes art in journals every day. She also makes zines and tiny one-inch art pieces. Debbie is passionate about racial justice, reproductive justice and restorative justice, and expresses these themes in her art journals. She lives in Berkeley with her spouse and two teen sons.

At the Legacy Museum was literally done in the cafe of The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, which was an absolutely devastating, crucial experience. I flew to Montgomery in March, a week before quarantine started, to meet up with a group from Glide Church that was on a Civil Rights trip to Alabama. The Legacy Museum is also referred to as the Lynching Museum, as it is a memorial to the years of senseless lynchings in our country. It is very painful to be there, and I needed to process, which I do through art journaling.

By Alicia Cardell

2020

Ink+Digital

6" x 8"

— Artist Statement —

I am an Taiwanese-American Illustrator, Printmaker, and Ceramicist from the Bay Area, California. My handmade work is a space for me to understand my personal trauma in order to break down generational trauma. To challenge conditioned mentalities we have internalized by disempowering them and empowering our Higher Selves. Even though I advocate for Vulnerability, Emotional Growth, and Collective Healing; by no means have I mastered the practice. For me, my work is a place to just practice.

By Alicia Cardell

2019

Screenprint

10 x 6.5"

— Artist Statement —

I am an Taiwanese-American Illustrator, Printmaker, and Ceramicist from the Bay Area, California. My handmade work is a space for me to understand my personal trauma in order to break down generational trauma. To challenge conditioned mentalities we have internalized by disempowering them and empowering our Higher Selves. Even though I advocate for Vulnerability, Emotional Growth, and Collective Healing; by no means have I mastered the practice. For me, my work is a place to just practice.

By Alicia Cardell

2019

Screenprint

10 x 6.5"

— Artist Statement —

I am an Taiwanese-American Illustrator, Printmaker, and Ceramicist from the Bay Area, California. My handmade work is a space for me to understand my personal trauma in order to break down generational trauma. To challenge conditioned mentalities we have internalized by disempowering them and empowering our Higher Selves. Even though I advocate for Vulnerability, Emotional Growth, and Collective Healing; by no means have I mastered the practice. For me, my work is a place to just practice.

By Alex Sodari

Acrylic paint on canvas scrap

2020

— Artist Statement —

This painting imagines a different interpretation of the Greek god Atlas. The traditionally male god has been reimagined as a Black woman holding up a globe which has been reversed from modern depiction, with Africa in the northern hemisphere and Europe in the southern. The concept for this image arose as I was considering the less perceptible biases built into the world around us, and became fixated on the accepted map as an emblem of eurocentricity and even colonialism. This piece is intended as both a celebration of the strength of Black women and also to consider a new map by which we can create the future.

Alex Sodari is a Mexican American artist based in Oakland, Ca. He is the editor of the @LazerZine, current RPSC Zine Director, and cofounder of the @MissionArtandComicExpo. When he isn't painting or drawing, Alex works as a bookseller in Berkeley and has recently taken up gardening in his backyard. Find more of his work at www.alexsodari.com

By Avital Meshi

Interactive AI performance

— Artist statement —

Face recognition algorithms are becoming increasingly prevalent in our environment. They are embedded in products and services we use on a daily basis. Mostly we are not even aware that we are being watched and analyzed by these algorithms. Recent studies demonstrate that many face recognition algorithms reflect social disparities and biases which are encoded into the algorithms and may harshly impact people’s lives. This is especially true for people who come from minority and underrepresented groups. However, it is important to remember that these systems are not ‘things-of-themselves’; there is no reason for them to be outside of our reach. We are able to intermingle with these systems so that we better understand their underlying mechanisms. This entanglement with the machine as seen in Deconstructing Whiteness ditches the ‘White’ and ‘Non-white’ dichotomy in favor of a flow of probabilities which are meant to resist, confuse and sabotage the machinic vision and its underlying structural racism.

Deconstructing Whiteness is an interactive performance which examines the visibility of race in general, and ‘whiteness’ in particular, through the lens of AI technology. The artist examines her own appearance through this technology by using an off-the-shelf AI software. During the performance she changes her facial expressions and hair style and is able to greatly modify the confidence level by which the machine recognizes her as ‘White’. This performative engagement reveals some underlying racial constructs which compose the visibility of whiteness as it is recognized by the machine. It also demonstrates our ability to act upon the machine and exercise our own agency when we are confronted with this technology. With that said, it is important to examine who is able to trick the machine and who is not able to do that. Above all it becomes clear that it is essential for us as individuals to better understand the coupling between our bodies and the information that AI systems produce.

By Kristi Holohan

Gouache and pen

(a maquette for a mural painted in her community)

— Artist Statement —

Kristi Holohan is an artist & organizer based in Oakland, California. Her work in visual Arts focuses on community, healing, resource-sharing, environmental appreciation, and advocacy for an equitable society. She works through a lens of oppression/liberation framework through radical mindful inclusion and Restorative Practices. Her work is often illustrative and figurative while she crosses a variety of media.

By Jessica T. Kovan

2D Mixed media: cardboard, acrylic paints, charcoal

— Artist Statement —

Jessica is a mixed media artist. Drawing inspiration from the world around her, she explores the intersection of art, nature, the environment, and human decision making. Her work is personal, expressive and focused on making the spirit of the times visual.

Sudden Gladness pays homage to the strength of the human spirit in the midst of being incarcerated. It was inspired by a poem sent to me by a close friend in prison who found delight in the bluebird singing outside his window. Walls and barriers and fences can be built but the human spirit will prevail.

The title was inspired by poet Jack Gilbert who wrote: "We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world...We must admit there will be music despite everything."

By Mauricio Bustos (Engineer, @mbustosorg), Abi Mustapha (Graphic Artist)

— Artist Statement —

In reaction to police violence and racism, a group of Bay Area artists and creators have collaborated to create Neon Voices, large-scale, modular display with potent anti-racism statements and images. The artworks incorporate LED lighting and effects for high-visibility impact. In collaboration with community members, the artists plan to install the artwork on prominent Bay Area buildings and open spaces. The first installation is a “BLACK LIVES MATTER” sign featuring a striking graphic designed by local Oakland artist, Abi Mustapha. This sign is currently on display at the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity building in Emeryville and is visible from I-580 to thousands of cars daily.

Mauricio Bustos, a lighting sculptor and engineer from Oakland, conceived of the Neon Voices project as a way to use art to express his feelings about George Floyd's murder and other violence against people of color. He is collaborating with an experienced group of Bay Area artists and makers, unified in their commitment to end police violence against people of color and to root out systemic racism and injustice in our society.

This installation will live atop the City Line Building until the end of September, 2020.

By Mauricio Bustos (Engineer, @mbustosorg), Abi Mustapha (Graphic Artist)

— Artist Statement —

In reaction to police violence and racism, a group of Bay Area artists and creators have collaborated to create Neon Voices, large-scale, modular display with potent anti-racism statements and images. The artworks incorporate LED lighting and effects for high-visibility impact. In collaboration with community members, the artists plan to install the artwork on prominent Bay Area buildings and open spaces. The first installation is a “BLACK LIVES MATTER” sign featuring a striking graphic designed by local Oakland artist, Abi Mustapha. This sign is currently on display at the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity building in Emeryville and is visible from I-580 to thousands of cars daily.

Mauricio Bustos, a lighting sculptor and engineer from Oakland, conceived of the Neon Voices project as a way to use art to express his feelings about George Floyd's murder and other violence against people of color. He is collaborating with an experienced group of Bay Area artists and makers, unified in their commitment to end police violence against people of color and to root out systemic racism and injustice in our society.

This installation will live atop the City Line Building until the end of September, 2020.

By Mauricio Bustos (Engineer, @mbustosorg), Abi Mustapha (Graphic Artist)

— Artist Statement —

In reaction to police violence and racism, a group of Bay Area artists and creators have collaborated to create Neon Voices, large-scale, modular display with potent anti-racism statements and images. The artworks incorporate LED lighting and effects for high-visibility impact. In collaboration with community members, the artists plan to install the artwork on prominent Bay Area buildings and open spaces. The first installation is a “BLACK LIVES MATTER” sign featuring a striking graphic designed by local Oakland artist, Abi Mustapha. This sign is currently on display at the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity building in Emeryville and is visible from I-580 to thousands of cars daily.

Mauricio Bustos, a lighting sculptor and engineer from Oakland, conceived of the Neon Voices project as a way to use art to express his feelings about George Floyd's murder and other violence against people of color. He is collaborating with an experienced group of Bay Area artists and makers, unified in their commitment to end police violence against people of color and to root out systemic racism and injustice in our society.

This installation will live atop the City Line Building until the end of September, 2020.

By Mauricio Bustos (Engineer, @mbustosorg), Abi Mustapha (Graphic Artist)

— Artist Statement —

In reaction to police violence and racism, a group of Bay Area artists and creators have collaborated to create Neon Voices, large-scale, modular display with potent anti-racism statements and images. The artworks incorporate LED lighting and effects for high-visibility impact. In collaboration with community members, the artists plan to install the artwork on prominent Bay Area buildings and open spaces. The first installation is a “BLACK LIVES MATTER” sign featuring a striking graphic designed by local Oakland artist, Abi Mustapha. This sign is currently on display at the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity building in Emeryville and is visible from I-580 to thousands of cars daily.

Mauricio Bustos, a lighting sculptor and engineer from Oakland, conceived of the Neon Voices project as a way to use art to express his feelings about George Floyd's murder and other violence against people of color. He is collaborating with an experienced group of Bay Area artists and makers, unified in their commitment to end police violence against people of color and to root out systemic racism and injustice in our society.

This installation will live atop the City Line Building until the end of September, 2020.

By Rachel Gellegos

— Artist Statement —

I am a student from San Francisco State University, majoring in Comparative and World Literature. Black and brown struggles of race and discrimination -with a focal view on sacredness, ancestry, and indigenousness- are my main interest in the academy, as well as literary representations of 'otherness.' I am Mexican- American, very proud of my indigenous and African roots. I profoundly believe we must change and transcend as a society for the bettering of new generations to come, moving away from Capitalism, racism, and sexism

By Danessa Mayo

30"x40"

Acrylic on canvas

2020

— Artist Statement —

About the painting:

Part of the Protea Project by DANESSA.

This artwork is dedicated to the memory of Breonna Taylor and all the self-identifying women who have been victims of police brutality. The lack of activism and social coverage on their cases compared to males is unjust. This is my way of shining a light and refocusing on them, letting them take up all the space they deserve. The King Protea flower symbolizes her life's everlasting beauty, dedicated to helping others with her work, immortalized forever in this rough and unfinished state.

The Protea Project is a series of artworks that focus on the decolonization of fine art. While exploring topics related to civil rights and social injustice among BIPOC, it also uplifts the symbols, traditions, and heritage of BIPOC communities.

An important artwork that highlights the need for change.

Born in the Philippines and having spent part of her childhood in Singapore and Los Angeles, Danessa considers many places to be her home. Art and Psychology have always been the two driving forces of curiosity that propel her work. Danessa completed a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Sciences and a minor in Studio Art at the University of California, Irvine in 2009, and went on to pursue her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Loma Linda University and graduated in 2015. Together, her areas of expertise create a collaborative conversation between the process of art-making and the healing arts. She currently lives and works in Northern California.

By Melissa Wang (Artist/Art Director, @melissawangstudio) & Devin Ariel (Photographer/Creative Director, @devinarielphotography )

Material(s) and size: An interactive art photoshoot with 18 glass spheres (6" x 6" x 6" each), paint, metallic paper, water

Models: Tavy Tornado @tavytornado, Kimmie Barbosa @porqueyounogrowup, Devin Ariel @mahogany_gyal

— Artist Statement —

Melissa Wang's installation titled "Assemblages" (July 2020) borrows its title from anthropologist Anne Lowenhaupt Tsing; an assemblage occurs when gatherings become happenings. In it, “one must attend to its separate ways of being at the same time as watching how they come together in sporadic but consequential coordinations.” After ecological disaster, life emerges - and so on.

Melissa is a self-taught artist. She studied writing at the University of California, San Diego and received her M.A. in English from the University of California, Davis. She taught and researched science-fiction as a PhD candidate at UC Davis before segueing into tech. In late 2019, she quit her job to pursue art-making as a means of inspiring social and ecological liberation. Since then, she has participated in shows at the Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Kala Art Institute, and the De Young Museum. Her artwork has been published in The Decolonization Project and can be found in private and corporate collections. Currently, she is a studio artist at Root Division in San Francisco.

Some context: The original info on "Assemblages" was generic to encompass another project - so it does not touch on the specific critical intervention that Ariel and I were aspiring for - which is an expansion of femininity and the feminine experience in imperialized spaces. As RPS's open call, "Towards Justice," asked for visionary alternatives, I wanted to provide some clarifying verbiage on how we wanted more than just a "post-racial" landscape; we wanted to imagine joy, strength and love alongside / in spite of precarity.

~

Echo’s Garden is a call and response to Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus’s Garden. Gayatri Spivak critiques Echo’s absence from cultural history and attributes this to the broader practice of erasing the Other from Western knowledge systems. My work speculates on erasure, drawing inspiration from Ovid's Metamorphosis - Echo’s death is marked by her words echoing across a pond. Using paint, water and mirror paper foil, I create opaque and organic permutations; ripple-like patterns discontinuously emerge and re-emerge. Originally intended as a solo installation, I redesigned Echo’s Garden with a local team of creatives and friends into an interactive art photoshoot. It features womxn of color to explore their representation as both cipher and shorthand for the Other. Beyond fantasies of a post-racial landscape (where all “colors” are represented), what alternative ontologies for subjects (and objects) thriving in precarity exist? In landscapes that deny our presence (the State Park with its historical ties to BIPOC harassment and extermination), what does it mean to enter and play?

https://www.melissawangart.com/installations

By Melissa Wang (Artist/Art Director, @melissawangstudio) & Devin Ariel (Photographer/Creative Director, @devinarielphotography )

Material(s) and size: An interactive art photoshoot with 18 glass spheres (6" x 6" x 6" each), paint, metallic paper, water

Models: Tavy Tornado @tavytornado, Kimmie Barbosa @porqueyounogrowup, Devin Ariel @mahogany_gyal

— Artist Statement —

Melissa Wang's installation titled "Assemblages" (July 2020) borrows its title from anthropologist Anne Lowenhaupt Tsing; an assemblage occurs when gatherings become happenings. In it, “one must attend to its separate ways of being at the same time as watching how they come together in sporadic but consequential coordinations.” After ecological disaster, life emerges - and so on.

Melissa is a self-taught artist. She studied writing at the University of California, San Diego and received her M.A. in English from the University of California, Davis. She taught and researched science-fiction as a PhD candidate at UC Davis before segueing into tech. In late 2019, she quit her job to pursue art-making as a means of inspiring social and ecological liberation. Since then, she has participated in shows at the Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Kala Art Institute, and the De Young Museum. Her artwork has been published in The Decolonization Project and can be found in private and corporate collections. Currently, she is a studio artist at Root Division in San Francisco.

Some context: The original info on "Assemblages" was generic to encompass another project - so it does not touch on the specific critical intervention that Ariel and I were aspiring for - which is an expansion of femininity and the feminine experience in imperialized spaces. As RPS's open call, "Towards Justice," asked for visionary alternatives, I wanted to provide some clarifying verbiage on how we wanted more than just a "post-racial" landscape; we wanted to imagine joy, strength and love alongside / in spite of precarity.

~

Echo’s Garden is a call and response to Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus’s Garden. Gayatri Spivak critiques Echo’s absence from cultural history and attributes this to the broader practice of erasing the Other from Western knowledge systems. My work speculates on erasure, drawing inspiration from Ovid's Metamorphosis - Echo’s death is marked by her words echoing across a pond. Using paint, water and mirror paper foil, I create opaque and organic permutations; ripple-like patterns discontinuously emerge and re-emerge. Originally intended as a solo installation, I redesigned Echo’s Garden with a local team of creatives and friends into an interactive art photoshoot. It features womxn of color to explore their representation as both cipher and shorthand for the Other. Beyond fantasies of a post-racial landscape (where all “colors” are represented), what alternative ontologies for subjects (and objects) thriving in precarity exist? In landscapes that deny our presence (the State Park with its historical ties to BIPOC harassment and extermination), what does it mean to enter and play?

https://www.melissawangart.com/installations

By Melissa Wang (Artist/Art Director, @melissawangstudio) & Devin Ariel (Photographer/Creative Director, @devinarielphotography )

Material(s) and size: An interactive art photoshoot with 18 glass spheres (6" x 6" x 6" each), paint, metallic paper, water

Models: Tavy Tornado @tavytornado, Kimmie Barbosa @porqueyounogrowup, Devin Ariel @mahogany_gyal

— Artist Statement —

Melissa Wang's installation titled "Assemblages" (July 2020) borrows its title from anthropologist Anne Lowenhaupt Tsing; an assemblage occurs when gatherings become happenings. In it, “one must attend to its separate ways of being at the same time as watching how they come together in sporadic but consequential coordinations.” After ecological disaster, life emerges - and so on.

Melissa is a self-taught artist. She studied writing at the University of California, San Diego and received her M.A. in English from the University of California, Davis. She taught and researched science-fiction as a PhD candidate at UC Davis before segueing into tech. In late 2019, she quit her job to pursue art-making as a means of inspiring social and ecological liberation. Since then, she has participated in shows at the Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Kala Art Institute, and the De Young Museum. Her artwork has been published in The Decolonization Project and can be found in private and corporate collections. Currently, she is a studio artist at Root Division in San Francisco.

Some context: The original info on "Assemblages" was generic to encompass another project - so it does not touch on the specific critical intervention that Ariel and I were aspiring for - which is an expansion of femininity and the feminine experience in imperialized spaces. As RPS's open call, "Towards Justice," asked for visionary alternatives, I wanted to provide some clarifying verbiage on how we wanted more than just a "post-racial" landscape; we wanted to imagine joy, strength and love alongside / in spite of precarity.

~

Echo’s Garden is a call and response to Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus’s Garden. Gayatri Spivak critiques Echo’s absence from cultural history and attributes this to the broader practice of erasing the Other from Western knowledge systems. My work speculates on erasure, drawing inspiration from Ovid's Metamorphosis - Echo’s death is marked by her words echoing across a pond. Using paint, water and mirror paper foil, I create opaque and organic permutations; ripple-like patterns discontinuously emerge and re-emerge. Originally intended as a solo installation, I redesigned Echo’s Garden with a local team of creatives and friends into an interactive art photoshoot. It features womxn of color to explore their representation as both cipher and shorthand for the Other. Beyond fantasies of a post-racial landscape (where all “colors” are represented), what alternative ontologies for subjects (and objects) thriving in precarity exist? In landscapes that deny our presence (the State Park with its historical ties to BIPOC harassment and extermination), what does it mean to enter and play?

https://www.melissawangart.com/installations

By Zoe Mosko

Fused glass and paper

Triptych - each 8 x 8 inches

— Artist Statement —

My art is my passion, fueled by love and compassion. The transformative properties of glass are a metaphor for life’s ever-changing, uncertain landscape.

I am grateful during this shelter-in-place to have my own studio and for all the teachers who have guided me. I volunteer in a program (The Beat Within) inside California’s juvenile halls, which encourages locked up, mostly black and brown teens to express their voices through writing and art.

The line drawing in “Juvenile Hall Buddhas” was created by one of the teens. To me it looks like the Buddha. I reproduced it twice in glass: once to symbolize freedom and once to symbolize incarceration. “Resist” is a prayer flag and a call to action.

By Zoe Mosko

Fused glass and paper

8 x 8 inches

— Artist Statement —

My art is my passion, fueled by love and compassion. The transformative properties of glass are a metaphor for life’s ever-changing, uncertain landscape.

I am grateful during this shelter-in-place to have my own studio and for all the teachers who have guided me. I volunteer in a program (The Beat Within) inside California’s juvenile halls, which encourages locked up, mostly black and brown teens to express their voices through writing and art.

The line drawing in “Juvenile Hall Buddhas” was created by one of the teens. To me it looks like the Buddha. I reproduced it twice in glass: once to symbolize freedom and once to symbolize incarceration. “Resist” is a prayer flag and a call to action.

By Zoe Mosko

Fused glass and wood

10 x 36 inches

— Artist Statement —

My art is my passion, fueled by love and compassion. The transformative properties of glass are a metaphor for life’s ever-changing, uncertain landscape.

I am grateful during this shelter-in-place to have my own studio and for all the teachers who have guided me. I volunteer in a program (The Beat Within) inside California’s juvenile halls, which encourages locked up, mostly black and brown teens to express their voices through writing and art.

The line drawing in “Juvenile Hall Buddhas” was created by one of the teens. To me it looks like the Buddha. I reproduced it twice in glass: once to symbolize freedom and once to symbolize incarceration. “Resist” is a prayer flag and a call to action.