Mixed Media Artist Categories

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Pilar Agüero-Esparza

Visual Artist: Mixed Media, Print Maker, Sculptor, Textile

Born in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Pilar Agüero-Esparza was exposed to the potential of materials and the love of the hand-made working with her parents in their shoe repair shop. She received a BA in Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and MFA from San Jose State University. Pilar has been an active artist, arts educator and arts administrator in the Bay Area exhibiting her work in numerous institutions including the San Jose Museum of Art, Triton Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Santa Cruz Museum, MACLA, Palo Alto Art Center, Galeria de la Raza, and the De Young Museum. Her public art commissions include a series of murals in the main reading area of the Biblioteca Latinoamericana Branch Library in San Jose.

Renee Billingslea

Visual Artist: Mixed Media, Photographer

Renee Billingslea is a visual artist whose art practice is a “call for action.” Her artwork addresses profound issues of race, racial violence, trauma, and white privilege. Billingslea’s process most often begins with historical photographs or hidden stories that direct her toward research, which she uses to inform the construction of objects and non-traditional photographs. Billingslea earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Southern Oregon State University and a Masters of Fine Art from San Jose State University. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art and Art History at Santa Clara University, where she teaches photography.

Deborah Kennedy

Visual Artist: Mixed Media

Deborah Kennedy has exhibited in California and Europe in numerous solo and group shows. She is currently exhibiting in two shows including the Triton Museum’s 2009 Statewide Drawing and Print Competition and Exhibition. Recently, she received an award in the Indoor Sculpture Exhibition at the Santa Clara City Hall. In 2007, she exhibited in completed her fourth public artwork, Solar Sight, for Sunnyside Park in San Francisco. Kennedy presented an installation, The March of Eco-folly, at the Thacher Gallery in San Francisco in 2007. In 1999, she completed a solo exhibition, Nature Speaks, in the de Saisset Museum of Santa Clara University. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including a three-year California Arts Council grant to work with at-risk youth on graffiti murals and an Artist’s Fellowship for Installation Arts from the Arts Council of Santa Clara County, in San Jose, California. Kennedy has presented at eco-art conferences and also teaches art and art history classes at the college and university level. Deborah Kennedy’s artwork consists of conceptually-based installations and objects in galleries, museums and public spaces. Her work begin with questions, such as: What new ways of thinking can help us solve our environmental problems? Can we reform our technological systems so they operate in a bio-compatible manner? How is exposure to toxic chemicals affecting the health of human and animal populations? Questions, such as these, focusing on social and environmental dilemmas are the starting point of her work. These questions propel her investigations. Today, the majority of her research is web-based, where she tracks rapidly advancing scientific research on endocrine disruptors, the amphibian decline and other areas of concern. This research informs her choice of images, materials, and methods. Therefore, her creative process and artwork are characterized by an on-going state of inquiry, extensive research, and a balance between concept and form. Kennedy says, “I want to work at the growing edge, where we as a global community are struggling to create new visions that will help solve our environmental problems. My hope is that these new perceptions will help us change how we think about ourselves and our role in the world. Then, perhaps, we can begin to change our behaviors as individuals and larger communities.”

Marianne Lettieri

Visual Artist: 3D, Mixed Media, Sculptor, Textile

Marianne Lettieri creates art from commonplace objects that people have used over time and no longer find desirable or necessary. Her mixed media constructions explore the process by which relics of the past illuminate and inform current contexts. Marianne is an artist-in-residence at the Cubberley Artists Studio Program, sponsored by the City of Palo Alto. Marianne is on the leadership team of Doing Good Well, a national initiative to empower next generation female arts and culture leaders. She is on the board of directors of Council for The Arts, Palo Alto and Mid-Peninsula Area (CAPA).

Victoria May

Educator; Visual Artist: Mixed Media

As a mixed media artist, Victoria’s work results in objects and installations that integrate contrasting materials and methods, creating a “different perspective between one’s surroundings and ordinary materials”. Victoria was an artist in residence in 2012 at Jentel Artist Residency Program (Banner, WY) and has also been honored with a Rydell Fellowship in 2010. Victoria serves as a guest lecturer and panelist, and presents gallery talks at local arts nonprofit organizations, and share her inspiration through teaching photography and book arts at several local universities and arts organizations. She received her B.A. in Design from University of California, Los Angeles, and M.F.A. from San Jose State University. STATEMENT: An interest in tension and dichotomy fuels my artwork. Continually I attempt to merge the delicate with the strong, to seduce and repel, to obscure and reveal, and to combine the hand and the machine. A conceptual tension arises between beauty and darkness in my work, alluding to the fundamental struggles inherent in the human condition. Using the framework of cultural constructs, such as abstraction, codification, circumscription, my work highlights the absurdity they often impose. By pitting the organic or visceral against the institutional, I seek to reveal a dark humor or tender fragility in the seeming contortions that often underpin our lives. I often rely on raw materials and found objects to function as would text or imagery, allowing the history, function, metaphorical value and/or sensibility of each element to contribute to the work’s intent, along with my own investment of labor. Meticulous handwork transforms humble materials into the precious, mirroring how our own ephemeral lives become precious through our own personal toils.

Fanny Retsek

Visual Artist: Mixed Media

Fanny Retsek combines printmaking with drawing, collage and stitching. Some of her pieces use the multiple of print to create larger-scale installations. Her work focuses on animal rights, species decline, and the cohabitation of humans and wild animals. She exhibits internationally and her prints are included in the collections of Fine Art Museums, San Francisco, Oakland Museum of Art, and the Corcoran in Washington DC. Her work has received honors, including an award from the curator of prints and drawings at the Chicago Art Institute. She received her MFA from San Jose State University. In addition to her own studio art practice, Fanny has worked as a professional master printer collaborating with artists on print projects. She is the Adult Studios Program Director at the Palo Alto Art Center.

George Rivera

Visual Artist: Mixed Media, Painter

George Rivera, M.A., is the former museum of art Executive Director & Senior Curator, at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara. Rivera was with the Triton Museum of Art since 1985, before stepping down from his position in July 2013. Prior to the Triton, Rivera was the Executive Director & Curator of the San Jose Art League from 1982-1985. Rivera received his academic training in art for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from San Jose State University. Since 1977 he has organized and curated over 375 exhibitions including local, state, national and international projects, collaborating with small and major national museums, galleries and private collections. This includes developing, organizing and overseeing in-house curated exhibitions that toured nationally in both museums and art centers. As a juror of art Rivera has served as a solo juror or as a member of a panel of jurors for over 400 (1978 to the present) exhibitions and competitions of local, regional, statewide, national and international art programs, projects, fellowships, artist-in-residency programs and competitions. He is an Associate Faculty Instructor of Art at Mission College in Santa Clara (1986 to the present) where he has taught drawing, design, color, life drawing, museum and gallery studies, air-brush painting and oil, acrylic and watercolor painting. He was an Art Instructor of life drawing, figure and portrait painting at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto (1998-2008). Rivera teaches a life drawing/portrait and figure class throughout the year at the Triton Museum of Art School. In 2005 he began instructing a class at De Anza College in Cupertino for a course entitled Art Exhibition Analysis where he meets his students throughout the Bay Area at museums, art galleries and artist studios to discuss contemporary art. Currently an Extension Instructor of curatorial/art history studies for the University of California at Berkeley extension program (1996-2000, 2007 to the present), Rivera presents lectures of Bay Area Art history from 1945 to today throughout the region. Since 1979 he has taught art studio, art appreciation and introduction to the arts/art history classes at San Jose State University, San Jose Art League, Pacific Art league, UC Berkeley Extension, DeAnza College, Triton Museum of Art School and Mission College. Committed to giving back to the art community, Rivera participates year-round in artist critiques to individual artists, students and art groups/clubs/associations and organizations, portfolio reviews and career counseling. As an artist, Rivera has been included in over 100 exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally. Since 1974 his drawings, mixed media and paintings have been presented at art centers, galleries and museums. His work have been represented by art galleries including the Group 21 Gallery, Los Gatos; Freeman Gallery, Palo Alto; Branner-Spangenberg Gallery, Palo Alto; Sperling Gallery, San Jose; the Pope Gallery, Santa Cruz; Ebert Gallery, San Francisco; Michael Himovitz Gallery, Sacramento; d.p. Fong Galleries, San Jose; Washington Square/Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, and now currently with the Sandra Lee Art Gallery, San Francisco. Locally his drawings and paintings have been presented at the San Jose Museum of Art; the De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University; the Art Museum of Los Gatos; the Euphrat Museum of Art, De Anza College, Cupertino; the Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara; National Steinbeck Center, Salinas, CA.; Villa Montalvo Center for the Arts, Saratoga; Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Fremont; Union Art Gallery San Jose State University, ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose; WORKS/San Jose, MACLA San Jose, the San Jose Art Center, Michael Rosenthal Gallery, San Francisco, among others. In 2012 there was a 30 year survey of his paintings and drawings at the Art Museum of Los Gatos. This solo exhibition featured a publication with an introduction and essays by art historians Preston Metcalf and Helayna Thickpenny and by Catherine Politopulus, Curator of Art at the Art Museum of Los Gatos. In 2013 Rivera will be in multiple two person exhibitions with his wife Kristin Lindseth Rivera at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA. and the Sandra Lee Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Rivera and his wife Kristin contribute works of art to art auctions, fund-raisers and gallery/museum events throughout the year in support of community art programs throughout the Greater Bay Area. Since 1978 he has produced numerous commissioned portraits of many of this region’s community leaders as well as general portraits and commissioned work. Rivera has been a recipient of numerous awards in the field of art, art education, curating, arts administration and community service, including annual recognition in the 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th and current editions of Who’s Who in American Art, and in 2005 was selected annually into Who’s Who in America 60th and 61st edition. Twice he has been nominated by peers and colleagues for the prestigious Fleishhacker Foundation Artist Award. In 2013 Rivera was honored with the 2013 Artist Laureate Award Legacy Laureate from the Arts Council Silicon Valley. He also received a Proclamation from the City of Santa Clara in recognition of this award. As an arts writer his works have been published throughout the Bay Area including museum/gallery publications, catalogs and brochures, and he was an art reviewer and contributing editor for Artistwriter publication. Rivera also served as a host of INSIDE ART! A South Bay televised art program produced by award-winning and exhibiting artist Sandra Beard that was presented on public television community access channels throughout the area focusing the art of the South Bay Area region. This program featured artists, alternative art spaces and art programs from throughout the South Bay Area. Besides his activities as an art administrator, instructor of art, faculty member and artist Rivera has and continues to serve on numerous art/community boards and advisory board/committees for non-profit organizations and educational programs throughout the Bay Area. Both Kristin and George share their knowledge and experience in assisting artists, art clubs and community art programs throughout the region.

Brian Taylor

Visual Artist: Mixed Media, Photographer

Brian Taylor was born in Tucson, Arizona. He received his B.A. Degree in Visual Arts from the University of California at San Diego, an M.A. from Stanford University, and his M.F.A. from the University of New Mexico. Brian is known for his innovative explorations of alternative photographic processes including historic 19th Century printing techniques, mixed media, and hand made books. He has been a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Polaroid Corporation. His work has been exhibited nationally and abroad in numerous solo and group shows and is included in the permanent collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. His work has been published in American Photographer, Photo Asia, Exploring Color Photography, Photographic Possibilities, and Artworks. Brian has taught photography workshops for over 20 years at institutions including the Friends of Photography, the University of California at Santa Cruz and Berkeley, Stanford University, Photo Alliance, and f/295 at Carnegie Mellon. Brian is currently Professor of Photography in the Department of Art and Art History at California State University, San Jose.

Truong Tran

Educator; Literary Arts: Poet; Visual Artist: Mixed Media

Truong Tran (born 1969) is a Vietnamese-American poet, visual artist, and teacher. His collection dust and conscience (2002) won the San Francisco Poetry Center Book Prize, and in 2003, he served as Writer in Residence for Intersection for the Arts. Tran currently lives in San Francisco, where he teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University, and is Writer in Residence at the San Francisco School of the Arts. Artist Statement: Day In The Life … On days when I am not working as a poet and teacher, I try to wake up early. I empty my oversized messenger bag of books and papers and the previous day’s half-eaten lunch. I place the strap over my left shoulder, with the bag firmly secured to my back. I begin to walk. I walk for as long as it takes to fill the bag with stuff: branches, findings from the local thrift stores, choice items left in boxes on sidewalks and, if I’m lucky, something I’ve never seen before. Once the bag is filled, I return home, empty the contents from the bag, creating mounds of what some might consider piles of junk. I see them as source materials and the beginnings to my art making process. I am committed to using these recycled materials as an environmentally conscious artist but also as an artist who strives to make art accessible through both its practice and use of materials. Quite frankly, I get a kick out of forcing these disparate objects to come together, compromising and accommodating one another in their process of becoming something new, something beautiful. I refer to what I do as art making because I do not paint, draw or sculpt in a traditional or learned consideration of artistic craft. My craft is founded in the doing. I glue things together. I make things fit. I dip things in wax. I cut. I build. I weave. I think. I fill things up with paint using ketchup bottles. I stare at things in hopes that these things will talk back to me. This is what I do. It makes me happy. It allows me to lose myself in the process of doing. It makes me sad. It allows me to find myself in the process of seeing. I insist on it being called art at the end of the day.

Stan Welsh

Educator; Visual Artist: Ceramist, Mixed Media, Sculptor

Stan Welsh was born and raised in Southern California in the town of Claremont. He currently has a home and studio on three acres of property in the coastal mountains of Santa Cruz California. For the past 20 years Stan has been a professor at San Jose State University in the School of Art and Design where he is currently the Graduate Coordinator. Welsh has been honored with the Meritorious Performance Teaching Award, and has received arts grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The California Arts Council and the Arts Council Silicon Valley 2005 Fellowship Award. His work has been recently collected by the San Jose Museum, Ca. the Santa Cruz Museum, Ca. and the Daum Museum, Missouri.

Gail Wight

Visual Artist: 3D, Ceramist, Mixed Media, Painter, Photographer, Print Maker

Gail Wight’s work primarily focuses on experimental media, including photography, video, interactive media, and printmaking. Her exhibition record includes nearly two dozen solo exhibits throughout North America and Great Britain. Her work has been collected by numerous institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Yale University, the San Jose Museum of Art, and Centro Andaluz de Art Contemporaneo in Spain. Among her many artist residencies are western Australia’s Symbiotica, Art & Archaeology at Stonehenge, the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, and San Francisco’s Exploratorium. She has taught in the Art Practice program at Stanford University since 2003. Wight holds an MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute where she was a Javits Fellow, and a BFA from the Studio for Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art. Information about her work has been published in Art and Science Now and Information Art by Stephen Wilson, Art in the Age of Technoscience by Ingeborg Reichle, Evocative Objects by Sherry Turkle, and Kunst nach der Wissenschaft by Susanne Witzgall, among other publications.

Flo Oy Wong

Visual Artist: 3D, Mixed Media

My art is symbolic of this country’s multiple canons. My work is significant because it inserts little-known chronicles into the cultural landscape. Influenced by the contemporary artists, Faith Ringgold, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Joseph Cornell, I make art that speaks of personal, family, community, cultural, and historical stories. To retrieve these narratives I interview people that I find heroic in order to explore disquieting matters that transform me and viewers to a place of healing, connecting, and understanding. I use cloth rice sacks, sequins, beads, old suitcases, scanned photographs, magazine text, Chinese funeral paper, flags of the United States, needle, and thread to create my mixed-media installations. In acknowledgement of my identity as an American of Chinese descent I frequently use Chinese and English text in my work. Featured on KQED’s Spark: http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=4392

Shannon Wright

Visual Artist: 3D, Architecture, Mixed Media, Sculptor

Shannon Wright is a sculptor and installation artist based in San José, California. She earned her BFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and her MFA in Time Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wright is an Associate Professor and the Coordinator of the Spatial Art Program at San José State University. She is represented by ADA Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. Wright’s recent exhibition venues include the Dallas Art Fair; Untitled Miami Beach; Mulherin + Pollard Projects, New York City; ADA Gallery, Richmond, Virginia; and Scope Art Fairs in New York, Miami and London Wright was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and grew up primarily in Sydney, Australia. Her formative years as an artist were spent among the iron trestle bridges and abandoned turn-of-the-last-century hydroelectric power plants and foundries of Richmond, Virginia. She considers this environment to be the single biggest influence on all the artwork she has made since college.

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