Feeling Language
Kala Gallery is excited to co-present the exhibition Feeling Language curated by Kate Laster and Julio Rodriguez with NIAD Art Center, featuring new works by over 30 artists, the majority from NIAD Art Center with additional artists from Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program), Creative Growth, and Creativity Explored.
Feeling Language examines comfort and power in text, writing, reading, sharing and communications. In the words by the curators, “this show is all about comfort text: resilience in everyday words, writing, and reading. Expression can also be wordless, the use of line and color as new vocabulary, pushing a thought out onto a surface, making marks and continuously trying to communicate with the world. We tell stories to sustain ourselves and find each other. These messages embedded in art become an emotional telegram – a signal flare with a flame of memory trailing behind it. Feeling Language encompasses books, lists, slogans, language, gesture, touch and the trust given in sharing.”
Among the guest artists outside of these programs are: New York based visual storyteller and activist, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo; Mitsuko Brooks, artist & archivist also practicing in New York; interdisciplinary musician Abby Gregg, currently working in Atlanta; and educator & printmaker Alex Lukas in Santa Barbara. FEELING LANGUAGE also features guest artists who are based in the Bay: experimental printmaker & designer Negash Asegde; Steph Kudisch, an artist & queer researcher; Jer Garver, librarian & archival collagist; and Ocean Escalanti, poet and artist.
All of these artists’ practices embody yearning, text, and transmission of ideas.
At the opening reception on May 17, there will be a community workshop, SONG NEST: collaborative visual songwriting with Abby Gregg at 1 pm.
Interdisciplinary musician and artist Abby Gregg will perform original music, talk about the connection between image-making and songwriting, and facilitate the creation of a collective song. Participants are encouraged to draw while listening. Through the improvised discovery of words, textures, and sounds, participants will combine sonic ideas and listen deeply with one another. Open to all ages. There will be a recorded mix of the collaborative song.
About NIAD Center:
Founded in Richmond, California in 1982, NIAD Art Center promotes creative expression, independence, dignity and community integration by, with, and for people with disabilities.NIAD has since expanded into an in-person and virtual program supporting more than 75 artists who exhibit their work at galleries, museums and fairs worldwide. Working alongside artist facilitators and support staff, NIAD artists sustain vital art practices and take an active role in the development of their careers as professional artists—careers that can span decades.
Originally National Institute for Artists with Disabilities (now known as Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development), NIAD is one of the nation’s first progressive art studios. Along with sister studios Creativity Explored and Creative Growth, NIAD Art Center was dreamed into being by Florence Ludins-Katz and Dr. Elias Katz as a studio and exhibition space for disabled artists to create, display, and sell their artwork. Everyone at NIAD contributes to a creative community where each artist’s voice is valued and heard.
Today, NIAD artists enjoy representation by established contemporary art galleries and are included in the permanent collections of museums around the world. For all its international acclaim, the NIAD community remains deeply rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area. Together, NIAD artists and staff continue to redefine contemporary art.
Poster Design by Design by Negash Asegde & Kate Laster
