meet our emerging artists
Shreya Shankar
2727 Art Gallery & Studios
Shreya Shankar’s practice is where ancestral forms and futurisms meet across the mediums of design, place-keeping, production, policy, myth-making and meaning-making.
Their work engages collective memory and the radical imagination, seamlessly prototyping across diverse mediums and forms to create functional ritual sculptural art objects, sets, and visual art.
nadir wright
The Grand Gallery
Nadir Wright is a visual artist based in Oakland, California, whose acrylic and mixed media work explores color, whimsy, emotion, and alternate realities. Their layered compositions feature human-like characters and fantastical landscapes that challenge perceptions and invite imaginative freedom. Nadir’s process is rooted in sketching and intuition, often shaped by time spent near Bay Area waters with his partner and dog.
Sheilby macena
1018 4th Avenue, Oakland, #202
Sheilby Macena is a Haitian-American photographer and visual storyteller based in Oakland, California. Rooted in the traditions of her family’s photo albums and the contrast between her upbringing in the United States and her family's life in Haiti, her practice explores themes of memory, identity, and belonging. Through photography—particularly portraiture—she seeks to preserve, reimagine, and reclaim narratives within the Black diaspora.
ren chanel patrick
Ace Makerspace
Ren Chanel Patrick is a Bay Area-based multidisciplinary artist working primarily in fiber and installation. Originally trained in visual storytelling through comics and photography, their work weaves together narrative, historical research, and textile traditions. Rooted in a positive obsession, their current work employs embroidery as a form of painterly expression to question the boundaries between art and craft, as well as the relationship between the fragmented and the whole.
Ngoc nguyen
Gray Loft Gallery
Ngoc Nguyen is a gay Vietnamese American multidisciplinary artist based in Alameda. Working primarily in painting, he blends representation and abstraction through portraiture and figurative imagery to explore themes of identity, intimacy, and belonging. His practice centers on uplifting LGBTIQ AAPI experiences and creating spaces of visibility and empathy for marginalized voices. Through his work, Ngoc seeks to foster healing and connection by reclaiming narratives that celebrate community and the complexity of human experience.
laurie caird
Mighty Mighty Studios
Laurie Caird is an Oakland-based artist and designer. Her work explores our relationship to time, celebrating the Japanese concept of ichigo ichie – cherishing the present moment, as it will never be replicated – as well as themes of connection to nature, humanity, and joy through food. Caird enjoys collaborating with the materials she uses, responding to the behaviors of watercolor and paper in a way that amplifies their unique characteristics.
guillermo navarette davis
2727 art gallery & studio
Guillermo Navarrete Davis is a self-taught painter born and raised in Santiago de Chile, and has lived in the Bay Area since 1998. Davis uses an ancient technique of mixing colors by painting the oils over wet layers on the canvas. As an indigenous Latino who has always been drawn to marginalized peoples, his work focuses on their often overlooked stories. The realism, the purity, and the sincerity of the sentiment expressed in the faces of his subjects are his source of inspiration. Davis’ paintings reflect life's realities; suffering, love, struggle, joy, loneliness, tenderness and vulnerability.
about our emerging artist program
Oakland Art Murmur is proud to introduce the Emerging Artist Program as part of our biannual East Bay Open Studios. The new Emerging Artist Program reflects Oakland Art Murmur’s commitment to cultivating creativity, diversity, and inclusivity within the East Bay’s vibrant arts community. The program is designed to support emerging visual artists who are at the beginning of their careers and have limited experience exhibiting and selling their work.
Through the pilot phase of the program, we aim to reduce barriers to entry and provide critical resources that empower new artists to grow and thrive. Up to ten emerging artists will receive a discounted or waived participation fee (depending on their need), ensuring greater accessibility to East Bay Open Studios. Additionally, they will be featured prominently in marketing campaigns and materials, connecting them with audiences and collectors across the region. Participants will also have access to professional development opportunities designed to support their growth as artists.
By creating opportunities for emerging artists to showcase their talent and connect with the local arts community, this program reflects Oakland Art Murmur’s mission to support and strengthen artistic vibrancy in the East Bay. After the successful launch of our pilot program, we hope to expand this program to provide even greater support for emerging artists and deepen its impact on the community.
Studio of Meghan Shimeck