This exhibition is the first in a series highlighting contemporary Bay Area artists in our collection. Drawing on personal experiences, history, pop culture, and craft, the 12 featured artists approach art making as acts of resistance. They tell stories that question the traditional lines of art, history, and identity. In one work, National Anthem (2019), Kota Ezawa deconstructs the image of Colin Kaepernick taking a knee into more than 200 individual watercolors. In another, FBI Drawings, Legal Ritual (2021), Sadie Barnette transforms her Black Panther father’s 500-page FBI file into a personalized record of repression and protest. The works on display, exploring themes of reclamation, resilience, subversion, and family, are drawn from the 2022 Svane Family Foundation gift of 42 works by 30 local artists.

Featured artists: Sadie Barnette, Demetri Broxton, Sydney Cain, Woody De Othello (Osher Sculpture Garden), Kota Ezawa, Angela Hennessy, Liz Hernandez, David Huffman, Koak, Rashaad Newsome, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Muzae Sesay