The Oakland Museum of California has become a favorite for us. This visit they had an exhibit called “Into the Brightness” featuring work by artists with developmental disabilities via three studios founded by Florence and Elias Katz - Creativity Explored, Creative Growth, and NAID (Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development). The promotional material said that several of the artists showing in the exhibit had since developed contracts with galleries and a few have published books. The energy in the space was great and the videos of the artists at work showed a lot of joy, laughter, and dancing.
This blog program sometimes makes its own decisions about the order of photos displayed. In some of the multiple images below, you have to scroll to see all the works and their info.
Camille Holvoet told a heart-breaking story of her time at “Napa” (I assume Napa State- a psychiatric hospital) and the constraints placed on her drawing while in foster care and later when hospitalized. The greater range of media and expression is apparent in her later work after she was released.
This one especially interested LInda since it seems a cousin to some of her images in her reccent Urban Constructions show:
Apologies to the artist below for the weird reflections on the glass, but I liked the painting so much, I decided to include it anyway:
Some pieces were videos
And these two collaborative murals:
We finished our visit with lunch at the museum cafe - a pleasant, airy space where you can take your food out into the garden, though we stayed inside because it was a little hot outside. I had a beautiful salad with blueberries, beets, goat cheese and greens. Linda had the “best fried chicken sandwich” Both excellent.
