Susan R. Kirshenbaum
Founder
Susan R. Kirshenbaum is a San Francisco-based figurative artist whose expressive, gestural work reflects a fresh, contemporary perspective on the female form that captures a moment and reflects an intimacy with her subjects. Kirshenbaum was encouraged early in life to pursue art. She grew up in a family of visual artists who started an art school, the Ivy School of Professional Art, in Pittsburgh, PA where she studied and worked throughout her life.
Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen
Founding Member
A San Francisco-born curator, consultant, and project-based artist, I have about 20 years of in-depth experience in the performing and visual arts. Inspired by “productive discomfort” and a multiplicity of identities, my curatorial focus is on projects that push boundaries of scale, scope, medium, venue, and dialogue, and my cross-discipline personal work engages symbols, identity, communication, and the unseen.
Lonnie Graham
Founding Member
Lonnie Graham, a Pew Fellow and Penn State Professor is former director of Photography at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh, PA, where he developed innovative projects cited as a National Model for Arts Education.He created the “African/American Garden Project,” a cultural exchange between urban mothers and Kenyan farmers. Graham was cited as Artist of the Year and presented the Governor’s Award by Governor Rendell. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts/Pew Charitable Trust Travel Grant for travel to Ghana and is a four time Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship recipient. His book “A Conversation with the World,” was published by Datz press in Seoul, Korea.Exhibitions include the Goethe Institute, Accra Ghana; Christchurch, New Zealand, La Maison de Etat-Unis, Paris, France, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.His TEDx talk is titled “Art as Tradition in Modern Culture.”
Rell Rushin
Rell uses oil, acrylic, and fiber to relay her personal experiences and respond to subjects such as beauty standards, daydreaming, and the representation of Black people in global mass media. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Rell is a graduate of both Rogers CAPA and Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts Voice department.
Na Omi Judy Shintani
Na Omi Judy Shintani’s art focuses on remembrance, connection, and storytelling. She makes assemblages, produces installations, creates performances, and facilitates social engagement activities to generate visual stories that bring vital issues to light. She offers participants ways to become art collaborators by interacting with her work and inviting feedback.
As a Japanese American Artist, she has focused much of her art career on researching and creating works that give voice to internee memories and hidden stories about this time.
She has exhibited in California, Washington, and New Mexico, and has been an artist in residence at Santa Fe Art Institute, Creativity Explored for Disabled Adults, and with ISKME’s Big Idea Fest. Shintani was nominated for a Joan Mitchell emerging artist grant.
Nimisha Doongarwal
As an artist, Nimisha aims to inspire viewers to work towards dismantling systems of inequality. Her art serves as a platform for change, amplifying marginalized voices and experiences. Ultimately, celebrating the resilience and triumphs of women and marginalized communities. Seeing people from the heart, not just the eyes, allowing us to appreciate their stories and experiences.
Nimisha’s works have been featured in publications and magazines such as Forbes, Maake magazine, Artmarket magazine and has exhibited in museums and galleries including the De Young Museum, UCSF Women’s Hospital, Studio Shop Gallery, Gallery Route One, San Francisco International Airport, San Mateo City Hall, San Mateo Library, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Museum of Northern California and Brown University.
Stephan McLeroy
Stephan McLeroy (he/him) is a San Francisco Bay Area born writer based in Columbus Ohio focusing on the intersectionities of ethnicity, race, history, gender and sexuality. Frustrated about the lack of mixed-race representation in speculative fiction, Stephan began writing fantastical stories centered around a mixed kid perspective. He’s an EAP Fellowship Alumni and currently works as a strategic and grant management consultant focused on equitable pathways for aid to communities in need.
Emeritus Members
Christopher M. Tandy
Christopher M Tandy is a Queer Northern California self-taught artist and educator. Identifying as an anti-disciplinary artist, they adopt methods for creating and thinking that are rooted in Queerness and stem from a rejection of being defined by discipline and/or output. Their practice and process are fluid, like the mercurial Queer space in the world around us. Using technology and traditional media in innovative ways, Tandy shares their vision, where, in fleeting moments, the veil thins, time blurs and mysteries are revealed. Their work serves as an invitation into this ephemeral world, giving us opportunity to discover new types of thought, language, connection, and understanding.
Samira Shaheen
I’m an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on painting. Painting to me is a reflection of my experience in the world For me, the process is to use the language of art, the juxtaposition of color, and lines. My work can be abstract, representational or three dimensional, painted in oil, acrylic or watercolor. My multicultural background, activism and many travels inspire my art. Using memory and my emotional response I begin to map and explore these ideas as well as exploring the self in relation to the human condition: how societal morals, prejudices and our aggression toward each other affect us.
Angela Tirrell
I founded a mural company 34 years ago in New York City after brief study of decorative painting in London, and after six years of administrating and fundraising in the visual and performing arts. I’ve been drawn since childhood towards becoming a fine artist, covered wall after wall in murals in my apartment and gave myself two years to prove I could support the lifestyle. Since then, I’ve painted figurative murals across the United States. In 1997 I painted a first large abstract piece in response to the death of a parent and instantly knew that my artistic purpose had shifted. Today, textural abstract painting characterizes the predominance of my creation.
The Invisibility Collective 