12/10/2022 – Opening Reception and Performances

Join The Invisibility Collective and Radian Gallery to celebrate the opening of the collective’s second bi-annual invitational group exhibition.

Local artists will be present for the opening reception on Saturday, December 10, 3–6pm, including performances, readings, and offerings by Na Omi Judy Shintani, Vin Seaman, and Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen.

Thresholds of Liminality includes works in various media that explore those unwitnessed or imperceptible states and experiences of transformation and include The Invisibility Collective members Susan R. Kirshenbaum, Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen, Samira Shaheen, Christopher M. Tandy, and invited artists Joseph Abbati, Vin Seaman, Allan Rosenfield, Rell Rushin, Na Omi Judy Shintani, and Leif Larson.

Press Release—Thresholds of Liminality

Thresholds of Liminality
The Invisibility Collective Bi-Annual Invitational Exhibition
December 10, 2022 – January 28, 2023
Radian Gallery, 440 Brannan St, San Francisco

Liminal: a sensory threshold, barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response.

Liminality: a liminal state of transition between one stage and the next, especially between major stages in one’s life.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—The Invisibility Collective and Radian Gallery are pleased to present their second bi-annual invitational group exhibition: Thresholds of Liminality. Works in various media explore those unwitnessed or imperceptible states and experiences of transformation. Artists include The Invisibility Collective members Susan R. Kirshenbaum, Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen, Samira Shaheen, Christopher M. Tandy, and invited artists Joseph Abbati, Vin Seaman, Allan Rosenfield, Rell Rushin, Na Omi Judy Shintani, and Leif Larson.

The Invisibility Collective is a multi-generational collaborative group of nationally acclaimed artists, curators, and social activists exploring the deep experiences and complexity of the concept of Invisibility. Formed during shelter-in-place as a way to connect and share deep discussion from different perspectives, to date, members of the collective are located in the USA, with concentrations in the SF Bay Area and Pennsylvania. In 2020, The Invisibility Collective and Radian Gallery presented their first invitational exhibition: Seen × Unseen. In their second exhibition: Thresholds of Liminality, artists explore the un- or under-perceived process of transition and the moments at which something might happen, cease to happen, take effect, or become true. Acting as revealers, guides, mapmakers, documenters, whisperers, and companions, the artists in this exhibition bear witness to these thresholds, centering experiences whose great meaning is undetectable by those not within the experience of transition.

Thresholds of Liminality on view at Radian Gallery December 10, 2022 to January 28, 2023. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, December 10, 2022, from 3 to 6pm, and a closing happy hour is scheduled for Friday, January 27, 2023, from 4 to 6pm. Additional performances and events will be held throughout the exhibition. For more information, visit radiangallery.com and theinvisibilitycollective.com.

Collective Members, Invisibility Projects, News & Updates

Press: SF Chronicle

Two new reports reveal just how much our society fails independent arts workers

We must reinvent how we value and protect broad swaths of the labor market if we are to emerge from this pandemic—by Lily Janiak for San Francisco Chronicle, March 2021

Interview with collective member Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen and photographed at Radian Gallery on the last day of Seen x Unseen.

Invisibility Projects, News & Updates

News: Seen × Unseen Opens Dec 5th

Seen × Unseen
December 5–30, 2020 at Radian Gallery
Reception Saturday, December 5, 2020 at 12 PM PST

The Invisibility Collective and invited guest artists assemble an exhibition that is the culmination of months of virtual “COVID conversations” from the West Coast to the East Coast of the USA. Looking at various ways that people express their feelings about the intersection of being seen and not seen. In Seen × Unseen, the Collective explore the many aspects of what it means to be invisible and present ways of becoming more aware of how this status affects us. Each of the collective’s members have asked questions about their experiences with invisibility and have invited a guest artist to broaden the conversation into our wider community. Together and individually we are exploring this intersection of being seen and unseen.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Collective Members:
Lonnie Graham
Susan R. Kirshenbaum
Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen
Samira Shaheen
Angela Tirrell

Invited Artists:
Mary Graham
Sophia Green
Rell Rushin
Sawyer Rose
John Stone
Christopher M. Tandy (Courtesy of Glass Rice Gallery, SF)
Nancy Willis

For more information, email Susan at srkirshenbaum@gmail.com

REGISTER on Eventbrite for a time to visit on Opening day, Saturday, Dec 5 from noon – 6pm. Visits to the gallery are by appointment. There will be art talks and additional events. Check back!

Artist & Project Highlights, Collective Members, Invisibility Projects, News & Updates, Research, Testimonies

Welcome to The Athenaeum

Named for the sanctuary of Athena frequented by poets and scholars, this virtual reading room (magazine, blog, etc.) is a repository for news, research, projects, artists, and testimonies on the wide topic of Invisibility.

News & Updates

Announcing The Invisibility Collective

The Invisibility Collective is a collaborative group of nationally acclaimed artists, curators, and social activists exploring the deep experiences and complexity of the concept of Invisibility.

To date, members of the collective are located in the USA, with concentrations in the SF Bay Area and Pennsylvania. The Invisible Collective founding collaborators are: Susan R. Kirshenbaum (founder), Lonnie Graham, Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen, Samira Shaheen, and Angela Tirrell.

History

The Invisibility Project was founded by San Francisco-based artist Susan R. Kirshenbaum—initially conceived as a curatorial project in late 2019 exploring the invisibility and aging. During “sheltering in place” in the midst of the first months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Kirshenbaum decided to expand upon her project to honor the multi-faceted breadth of the concept of “invisibility” and invited a handful of nationally-acclaimed artists, curators, and social activists with a variety of backgrounds to form a collaborative group known as The Invisible Collective.

The Invisibility Project makes use of this site, multi-media art exhibitions and installations, a series of conversations, and workshops to alert the public and to convey the many facets of invisibility and to reflect a shift from the unseen to the seen

Created while sheltering in place means working virtually for the time being. Eventually we want to expand into a large-scale physical exposition with pavilions where we create and experience our new version of the classic “Family of Man (People)”. We are starting small, with individual projects, but we have big plans.

During the course of these projects we believe we can expand our reach and increase our impact by teaming up with established artistic and cultural institutions. If your non-profit organization has an interest in being a part of our program please contact us.