Indie Art Gallery Opening Reception & Live Music (SF)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Don’t miss the opening night with two performances by SoMa-based musician, Rachel Lastimosa! The opening is free and open to the public.
Foundation will focus on the concepts of home and community, and their relationship with one another. Is home a place, an idea, or a coterie? The exhibition is about the idea of shelter in its many forms. The foundation is the core and the base of the home. Shelter is also one of the foundational basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid. We are asking artists and the audience to question these concepts and explore what home truly means beyond cliché idioms.
We will bring in a local nonprofit, Hospitality House, and devote a section of the gallery to local artists who experienced or are experiencing homelessness. Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program (CAP) is the City’s only free fine arts studio and gallery space for low-income and homeless artists, celebrating art as a vehicle for social change. Local artists hone their skills through tailored workshops, with frequent opportunities to create and exhibit their work to a growing citywide audience and keep 100% of the proceeds from art sales making CAP a unique social enterprise, celebrating the work of art – as a viable economic asset. We provide free art supplies to low-income neighborhood artists, establish opportunities to sell artwork through exhibitions and art markets, and increase artistic skills through art workshops. Additionally, Heron Arts is providing a stipend to all participating CAP artists to honor their time and efforts in the creation of artworks for the purpose of this exhibition.
HOSPITALITY HOUSE
Fighting for the Soul of the City
Hospitality House is a progressive, community-based organization in San Francisco’s Tenderloin Neighborhood, Sixth Street Corridor, and Mid-Market Area. We build community strength by advocating policies and rendering services which foster self-sufficiency, celebrate cultural enrichment, and promote racial equity. Hospitality House is committed to rebuilding lives, celebrating creativity, and strengthening community for low-income residents in the heart of San Francisco.
Hospitality House began in 1967 as a simple drop-in space offering safe refuge for homeless LGBTQ youth. As poverty and homelessness emerged as national crises, Hospitality House evolved into an anchor institution serving housed and unhoused low-income residents with a commitment to racial and economic justice.
AARON GLASSON
Artist and creative director Aaron Glasson was born in Auckland, New Zealand and now lives in San Diego, California. His diverse portfolio consists of interactive installations, vibrant murals, paintings, illustration, and films. His work explores such themes as our relationship to the natural environment, community empowerment and education, indigenous knowledge, the subconscious, and the unseen.
Glasson’s studio work and installations have been exhibited throughout the world most notably at Spoke Art Gallery, Ship in the Woods, MOTAT, & LeBasse. He has painted murals in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Mexico, and Grenada. His work has been featured in such publications as Juxtapoz Magazine, Lucky Peach, Hi-Fructose Magazine, and the Huffington Post.
Aaron Glasson is also the creative director of PangeaSeed, an international organization collaborating with members of the art, science, and environmental activist communities to raise awareness and education surrounding the conservation and preservation of threatened marine species and ecosystems. PangeaSeed’s Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans project has produced over 300 murals promoting ocean conservation since its creation in 2013.
For the past three years, a focus of Glasson’s work has been the exploration of public art to invigorate environmental conservation and social justice efforts. Not only as a beautification tool but as a way to educate and empower communities. He hopes to further this exploration into other forms of public art such as immersive installations and interactive art workshops for youth. He sees public art as a powerful and transformative method to improve our urban landscapes, greater eco-systems, collective experiences, creativity, and knowledge.
FAITH XLVII
Liberty Du, who is widely recognized as Faith XLVII, is a South African Multi-Disciplinary Artist.
Her journey into art began on the streets of South Africa in 1997, as a young graffiti writer taking on the name Faith47 (the number being a reference to her grandmothers numerological theorem). In 2006, Liberty began on a nomadic journey which has brought her to create works in 39 countries.
Her evolution from street artist to a multi-disciplinary artist has created a fluid yet solid bridge into the contemporary art world. This explorative approach has led her to develop a broad range of artwork. Ranging from immersive new media installations, hand-sewn wall tapestries, to sculptural bronze works investigating hierarchies of power, paintings, and various explorations into printmaking.
The thread of Liberty’s practice can be traced from abandoned structures, landmark 20 story buildings to museums and galleries all the way through to intimate site-specific installations.
One can observe in Liberty’s approach evidence of her own personal quest, which in turn brings to the forefront much larger concerns of universal social and political complexities. Through the use of these various mediums, Liberty finds a unique series of poetic tones that lend their voice to her expression. There is a longing for a deeper connection to nature, and a resurrection of the divine feminine. There is too the active investigation and questioning of the human condition, its deviant histories and our own inherent existential search.
This all serves to imbue her narratives the ebb and flow between pain and contemplation, imploring us to examine our place in the world.
Today, her artwork can be found in the several private and public collections including: Universal Studios in Los Angeles, Lighthouse Properties in Philadelphia and the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation in South Africa. She has shown at the Calais Museum of Fine Art and the Bernard Magrez Foundation in France, Mana Contemporary and the Brooklyn Museum, both in the USA.
SAYLEM CELESTE
Saylem Celeste {they/them} is a Black + Indigenous, non-binary, femme Reparations Alchemist raised and based in Waawiyatanong, also known as Detroit, Mi.They create images and objects that communicate the living relationship between the experiences of Queer, Black/Indigenous, Femme identifying folks and ideas of home and heritage. They are currently practicing the Black folk tradition of quilting in tandem with a sustainable fibers practice in order to cultivate healing, restoration, and aid to those in need of care.
SALOMEE SOUAG
Salomée Souag is a muralist, designer and creative from Switzerland who holds her Peruvian and Algerian ancestors closer to her heart, her community and her work. She currently lives in Portland & prides herself in her multi-cultural identity and encourages others to step outside of the box society has created for them.
Salomée (AKA Chroma) has shifted from the corporate advertising world to fully immersing herself in the push for a revolution. In her consistent and continuous evolution and artistic practice, she curates revolutionary work to give power to the people, the youth and artists. By taking up space in all forms, whether through projection mapping and large scale painting, wheat pasting and installations, or workshops for bipoc artists and the next generation, Souag’s bold and powerful work encourages everyone to break down boundaries and borders, and to imagine expression.
“Art and design are able to change perspectives; one wall at a time, one poster at a time, one message at a time. Expression is a weapon for change, we the creatives can fight all that is of hatred in the world. The system wants us to be oppressed and complacent, to not question everything. With art we are able to fight against that by bringing all perspectives to the surface and creating a culture that pushes for equality and justice.”
ANGELA SUMMERS
“Angela Summers received her BA from American River College in Sacramento and is currently making art and living in San Francisco. She works in painting, collage and sculpture.
She uses bright colors and bold patterns to explore nature and the classical female form.
Process and community are central to Angela’s art practice at Hospitality House, as seen in the spirit, time and energy she puts into her art work and her dedicated volunteering work in the studio. “”I love to create colorful and sensual artwork that transcends sexuality and moves into beautiful ambiguity.”
BETTY TRUKILLO
CHARLES BLACKWELL
“As a young man, Charles Blackwell’s visual art studies at Sacramento City College were cut short afte a tragic accident which damaged his eyesight. “My blindness, in a sense, gives me originality,” says artist Blackwell of his lively, jazz-inspired paintings. This painting depicts The Great Migration, the movement of six million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest and West that occurred between 1916 and 1970.
Charles has won numerous service awards for his volunteer work and advocacy for the arts. He has shown in over 55 exhibitions nationally, has had several of his plays performed, written 5 books, presented talks at colleges and universities, been published in magazines & journals, recited his poetry at open mic nights across the Bay Area including the Beat Museum in North Beach, has appeared on radio and has been given awards and prizes for his art and community work…to name but a few of his achievements. Blackwell holds a degree in Sociology with a minor in Studio Art from Cal State Chico.
Charles currently lives in Oakland and makes art at Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program in San Francisco.”
COREY CURTIS
“A house and a tree for you and me, if only we could agree, what a dream it would be from sea to shiny sea”. Corey makes art at Hospitalty House’s Community Art Program and wishes for his art to uplift people.
EUNICE NELSON
“My Little Incense Holder Cabins are a Winter Fantasy of Long Ago, A Nostalgic Day Trip to the Hinterlands, sans the Snow Boots & Anti- Freeze! Making them makes me feel connected to my mother.”
PHILLIP CHANIN AKA GLITTER MOONBEAM
Philip Chanin explores a beautifully personal relationship to lipreading with their paintings of faces painted from their imagination. Using the glitter/acrylic encaustic medium, Philip dreams in color to share their glittery ‘abstract portraiture’ with the world. When asked how this piece related to the theme they replied “Home is people who care for you.”
JO SMITH
““My Body is Home” is a mixed media piece telling my story of being unhoused. I arrived at this knowing that my body is home when I felt displaced at being unhoused. Connecting with my body brought me a sense of place no mater where I was. Through intuitive layers of paint, paper + botanical motifs I invite you into my garden to show the relationship between my body and the earth body. Refresh yourself at the pond as a reminder that like water, art is life-giving. This is why I create.”
LAURA CAMPOS
Laura Campos is an internationally exhibited artist and activist. She has led mural projects with Syrian refugees in Greece and disabled children in Mexico. Recently she created an installation on a boat while living in Amsterdam. The painting included in this exhibit was commissioned for the cover of a book of poetry and is inspired by synchronicity and connection to universal energy.
ROSA ADAMS
Rosa is a Connecticut transplant who is a practicing animator. She loves to travel, write and eat cookies. Rosa is making a huge transition in her life. It’s going to be a long year for her.
BRIAN BOURASSA AKA TREE
“This image is inspired by an individual from Tel Aviv, Israel. His name is Razi Wahabi. I’ve been browsing his profile on Instagram over the last year. I doubt he even knows I exist. I’ve only heard him say two words this entire time: Wow and Moo. When he takes the time to write about an important issue he feels passionate about. It’s very moving. You can imagine that living in that area can be heavily charged, so he doesn’t talk politics often.
Although Razi’s essence is there, so is this other being that comes to visit me from another realm wearing various disguises. The portrait is a union or group of four; a quartet. Razi, Vincent (Van Gough) in texture and color, with a suggestion that his ear has been cut off. The monkey present in this drawing is because sometimes Razi feels he should have been born as one. I like the idea of space and time travel and have always been a fan of the Planet of The Apes, so Razi has become a Hybrid of that entire idea.
I’ve been doing a lot of meditation and when I draw I can feel, hear, smell and sometimes see the presence of other beings around me. They have been entering my portraits lately. I feel that this is an important turn for me, because I’m creating something that is very charged which can include many other dimensional beings. The final piece is like a paper doll with many layers and wearing different faces and clothing. I feel Instagram is the new version of ‘Blue Boy Magazine’ which the men in the past have been referred to as paper dolls.
I say “at home weekenders” because during the isolation of staying at home because of COVID-19, I spent a lot of time seeing what people were doing at home via social media”

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