Art
Over 500 people showed up for songs, dances, and storytelling during the Ohlone Basket Welcoming Celebration held in the gardens of the Oakland Museum of California on Saturday. The museum offered free admission all day for the event honoring Ohlone artist and scholar Linda Yamane for her crafting a ceremonial Ohlone basket, the first of its kind to be made in almost 250 years.
In a group show at the Compound Gallery & Studios titled “The Artist as Storyteller,” artist and curator Alison O.K. Frost has assembled a collection of works that tell viewers stories, leaving them to interpret what the artists mean to say. Multi-paneled pieces marry words and images in a way that is simultaneously familiar and abstract.
It’s about dedication, focus, bravery, heart and a willingness to leave it all on the stage for the audience to absorb and learn from—that is what the young poets who participated in the 15th Annual Brave New Voices Grand Slam Finals said about the competition that took place on Saturday night at the Fox Theater in Oakland.
On Thursday, the Oakland Superheroes Mural Project, an initiative by the Oakland-based nonprofit Attitudinal Healing Connection (AHC) to revitalize and add beauty to some of the city’s blighted areas, launched the first in a series of six planned street murals under the bridge on San Pablo Avenue and 35th Street.
Genevieve Brazelton, co-founder of 200 Yards, wants photographers to take a closer look at North Oakland. The premise of the project is simple: Draw a 200-yard radius around an alternative gallery or other landmark and invite photographers to cover that area with a hyperlocal focus and submit their work. The cream of the crop from the show’s Oakland version, which has the majestic oak tree as the center of its radius, will be displayed in a show at Oakland City Hall during the Art & Soul festival.
Despite not attending art school, Derek McDonald’s art has permeated much of the local visual landscape, from gold leafed yacht names in the Emeryville Marina to local bar placards to the vintage signs at Oakland’s Fairyland park for children. At his West Berkeley studio, Golden West Sign Arts, McDonald stays true to the tradition of sign painting without any digital assistance.
This Saturday, a group of Oakland based-artists will stage the East Bay’s first literary pub crawl, a beast-themed, multiple-venue festival featuring performances, recitals and readings by at least 166 authors, poets and musical groups across 25 locations in Oakland.
On Wednesday, participants in the new Warriors for Peace program will present their video productions and narratives at a showcase to be held in Oakland, marking the end of 32 weeks of hands-on training in the production of short video narratives and interviewing skills that have enabled young men of color from the Bay Area to tell stories based on their life experiences.
It’s Sunday afternoon at the Macarthur B. Arthur Gallery in North Oakland as Saskia Levy-Sheon chooses songs on her laptop to play as background music. It’s the last day of her gallery show. As she does this, a local resident who only gives his name as Pierre comes in and takes a look around the exhibit. “Man this is beautiful!” Pierre exclaims as he examines the photographs and artwork arranged neatly around the gallery. “It’s about time somebody started represented…