Join curator Maymanah Farhat for a curatorial tour of To Oakland with Love, a Pro Arts’ exhibition at AGENCY @ The Loom. She will discuss the curatorial theme of the show, the importance of textile and fiber arts, particularly as they are used by artists to express solidarity, love, and advocacy for BIPOC communities, and how whimsy, beauty, and outward joy are equally powerful.

The event will be the final public viewing of the exhibition, which closes the following week. Masks required. Socially distancing will be observed.

About the exhibition:

To Oakland with Love takes Paulo Freire’s idea that self-determination and liberation struggles

are acts of love (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1968) as a starting point for exploring how artists

are finding new ways to address urgent social and political issues. Writing on the necessity of

liberation struggles, Freire argued that any fight against oppression could only be done through

praxis, or the “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.” At the center of the exhibition are works that rely on the tactile nature and space-defining potential of textile and fiber art as a means of reclaiming and intervening in public space. Many of the included artists emphasize the often-overlooked experiences of communities, including systemic racism and classism, gender-based violence, and the difficulties of migration in works that address viewers with affirmations of belonging, survival, regeneration, and defiance.

Featured artists: Featured artists: Daniel Drennan ElAwar, Yosef Gebre, Melanie Griffin, Lahib Jaddo, Ian Jethmal, Dulce Soledad Ibarra, Suzanne Klotz, Adia Millet, Esteban Ramón Pérez, Don Porcella, Akili Simba, Nadia Shihab, Nailah Taman, Marshall Trammell/Music Research Strategies, Binta Ayofemi, and Christine Wong Yap.

Featured image:

Esteban Ramón Pérez Start Spangled (2019)

Leather, fabric, found objects

Courtesy of the artist