ART SPEAKS: Voices of Feeling Language – Closing Reception & Artist Panel Discussion

ART SPEAKS: Voices of Feeling Language
Closing event: Saturday,  August 9, 1-4 pm
Artist Panel Discussion:  1:30-2:30 pm

Curators Julio Rodriguez & Kate Laster in conversation with artists about text, collaboration with history, and activism.

This closing event for Feeling Language will include a Q&A as well as in depth discussion with Bay Area artists; experimental printmaker and designer Negash Asegde, sculptural collagist Gigot from Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program, as well as New York based artist and archivist Mitsuko Brooks. NIAD artists Shana Harper and Nathan Lam will talk about their practice and connection to image and slogan. Please join us for a celebration of art, protest, grief and Feeling Language.

Gigot (he/him) Starting as an aspiring graphic designer, Gigot began working with wood as a reaction against the computerized world of art and design. He embraced the tangible world of 3-dimensional forms and their ability to express more passion through frozen motion. His portraits and figurines are anything but dead and lifeless; instead, they capture the feeling of
historical and contemporary times. Gigot has been involved with Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program for over ten years.

Negash Asegde (he/him) is an artist and designer based in the Bay Area. Born and raised in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, he left a computer science and music theory degree to study New Media
art at SFAI. After a stint in the hardware tech scene, he earned an MFA in Interaction Design at CCA, researching how Machine Learning shapes the creative field and the future of computer
vision at large. His current practice interweaves printmaking, sculpture and the web. He was a recent artist-in-residence for the Black (Space) Residency located at Minnesota Street Project
Studios and is part of But Whole Press, a design studio and printing press based in San Francisco.

Mitsuko 三津子 Brooks (she/her) is a 1.5 generation artist and archivist of mixed settler Japanese and European descent currently living and working in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, New
York). Mitsuko was born on Misawa Air Base (Japan). She received her MFA in Painting & Drawing from UCLA, BFA from Cooper Union and MLIS & Certificate in Archives and
Preservation of Cultural Materials from Queens College (CUNY). Her work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic and others. She participated in residencies at The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s (LMCC) Arts Center, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) SHIFT and The Wassaic Project. Brooks received grants from The Foundation
for Contemporary Arts and The Sally Van Der Lier Fellowship. She has exhibited at Sikkema Jenkins, MoMA PS1 and The Brattleboro Museum. Brooks’ zines and mail art collages are in
permanent collections at Smithsonian’s Archive of American Art, Canada’s Artexte Information Centre and others.

Nathan Lam (he/him) is a Bay Area artist who joined NIAD Art Center in 2019. His practice spans drawing, painting, and printmaking. Bouncing between realism and comic format, Lam
employs his sharp wit and dark humor to challenge social norms. Recent group exhibitions include those at Sonoma State University Art Gallery, Eddie Rhodes Gallery, and the OMCA.
Lam’s work was recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Loan Collection at the University of California, Berkeley.

Shana Harper (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist who joined NIAD Art Center in 2005. Working with printmaking, textiles, and ceramics, she has created works inspired by nature and
her loved ones. Harper has exhibited in galleries around the Bay Area, including the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, Eddie Rhodes Gallery, the Oakland Museum of California, Mills College Art
Museum, and ACCI Gallery. Her work was acquired for the permanent collection of the OMCA.

Kate Laster (She/They) is an artist, educator & critical historian. Born in Anchorage (Dena’ina land), Alaska, Laster received a BA at Evergreen State College in 2015 and in 2019 she received
a MA+MFA in History & Theory of Contemporary Art and Studio Art with an emphasis in Printmaking at SFAI. She teaches at San Francisco Center for the Book, has been a studio
assistant at Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program and currently works at NIAD as a studio facilitator & personal support specialist. She has been an artist-in-residence at many
Califonian programs such as: In Cahoots, Chalk Hill, Open Windows Cooperative as well as Vermont Studio Center, Cisco Home of the Brave in Utah, and Pillow Fort Art Center in New York.
Their work has recently been featured in Hyperallergic, Hey Alma and KQED.. Laster’s artist books are represented by Booklyn.

Julio Rodriguez (he/him) is a visual artist and curator born and raised in the Bay Area. Rodriguez received a BA in Studio Art/ Art History at San Francisco State University and has
been accepted into the Maria Manetti Shrem Studio Art MFA program at UC Davis starting Fall 2025. He has exhibited in group shows at local venues like Richmond Art Center, Root Division,
and Personal Space. His first solo exhibition opened at Incline Gallery in 2024. He has been commissioned for murals in the East Bay and San Francisco. Rodriguez began working in the
Exhibitions department at NIAD Art Center in 2016 and has led the Gallery Programming since 2021.

Event Details

Date: August 9, 2025

Time: 12:00 pm–4:00 pm

Kala Gallery
2990 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702
510-841-7000