Hidden Histories

Artists: 

Yukako Ezoe, juggles ideas and materials and puzzle them into one piece of art. Her process involves spontaneity.  Originating from references to traditional Japanese art and nature field studies, her artistic process involves patching the refuse of contemporary consumer culture to reconstruct personal narratives.  Yuka received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005. Currently she teaches painting and Mural making at Precita Eyes in the Mission District of San Francisco. See www.yukakoezoe.com

Patrick Piazza lives and works in San Francisco California.  He holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute where he focused primarily on Photography.  He is also a printmaker and is one of the founding members of the SF Print Collective.  His first forays into Public Art Intervention began in the year 2000 with political posters that the Print Collective wheat pasted in the streets of his Mission neighborhood.  His photographs and prints have been exhibited locally and internationally.  He speaks Spanish and his travels and experiences in Latin America are a major influence on his work.
See www.sfprintcollective.com

The Counter Narrative Society: (a.k.a Mabel Negrete) Chilean-born and resident to the United States since 1988, is a San Francisco based-artist working in the fields of multidisciplinary art and education. Ranging from participatory live art, installations to community art, her work deals with the ever-changing social realism and local context generated by our sense of place and identity. She is a BFA recipient from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited at various venues in San Francisco and abroad such as at the World Affairs Council, de Young Museum, Galeria de la Raza, and Primo Piano LivinGallery - Italy. As an educator, she has participated with City Studio of the San Francisco Art Institute, Southern Exposure’s Artists in Education, and the Mission Science Workshop. She is also a founding member and co-director of the artist organization Hypersea and a recipient of the community art grants, by the Zellerbach Family Foundation and the W. A. Gerbode.
See www.mabelnegrete.com

Francisco Hernandez is an elementary teacher with a strong interest in environmental history. Of Cuban decent but born in Miami, Florida, he was raised primarily in Puerto Rico. He first moved to the Bay Area in 1983. Francisco studied environmental biology and geography at UC Davis. He has been researching the history of the Islais Creek watershed for the better part of a decade. He has made several experimental films and writes in the online blog Local Foods SF. This will be his first gallery installation.


Amber Hasselbring is an artist practicing in San Francisco. Since earning a BFA in Photography from Maine College of Art in 2002, Amber has begun an artwork addressing her concerns about the Colorado River Watershed. Recent collaborations include an artwork entitled Sound Exchange with Amy Stacey Curtis and Renaming Bush Street with Jerome Grand. Renaming Bush Street is currently on display at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Gallery 400. Over the past three years, Amber has developed several large-scale collaborative artworks: I STAND in 2004, Art on BART in 2005, the Angel Island ART & ECOLOGY Festival in 2006 and this year, McLaren  Park EARTH DAY. These public artworks have connected people in their communities, and gradually this work leads to lasting environmental changes. See www.art-eco.org.

Curators:

Victoria Restler is an artist and educator. She studied art and anthropology at Williams College and received a post-baccalaureate certificate in installation art from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005. Through travel, teaching and education administration, she is building skills in the field of global experiential education.In 2005 she helped to design and lead the Global Youth Media and Arts Program (MAP), an inter-disciplinary course in art and global education with San Francisco nonprofit, World Savvy. She has run this program for two years with great success in the Bay Area and will be expanding the MAP to New York City in fall 2007. 

Joshua Short is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work focuses on integrating art into public life and the urban environment. He is a conceptual artist and interventionist, frequently incorporating social and political content into his work—from bio-waste to border-crossings. Josh has shown his artwork at Intersection for the Arts, Balazo Gallery, Galeria de la Raza and the 16th Street BART station. He is a founding director of the artist coalition Hypersea and a black belt in karate. See www.joshuashort.com