The K Gallery at Rhythmix Cultural Works filled quickly on Saturday night, January 17, when Art Comes From Art, Comes From Art opened to the public. The show offers a delightful reminder that the people who care for art are often artists themselves.
Rhythmix opened its doors almost 20 years ago and is known for its performances, classes, youth programs, and community-centered visual art exhibitions. The only Alameda organization dedicated to presenting multicultural arts, Rhythmix centers around those who have been historically underrepresented in the art world and beyond.
The Art Comes From Art exhibition offered a rare opportunity for locals to admire work by artists who, by day, are staff members at two of San Francisco’s most recognizable institutions—the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum. The exhibition’s title echoes “Art Comes from Art,” the 2025 Wayne Thiebaud exhibition at the Legion of Honor, and nods to Thiebaud’s belief that all art exists in dialogue with what has come before.
The exhibition highlights seven artists whose lives as museum workers and artists collide. Each artist presented at least one new work directly inspired by the museums themselves. Inspired by their consistent proximity to historical and modern creativity, these staff members create artworks in diverse media, including acrylic paint, glass bead embroidery, and pencil.
The exhibition’s opening night drew so many visitors that the gallery felt comfortably full—impressive on a night when the San Francisco 49ers took on the Seattle Seahawks in a playoff game. The gallery was populated by artists, museum colleagues, Alameda neighbors, and first-time visitors. It was exciting to recognize artists based on their bio photos, and free snacks and drinks helped to set a relaxed tone.
An informal video discussion played during the reception, inviting visitors to learn more about the artists’ methods. The artists spoke about spending time in close proximity to canonical works and discussed how institutional life fuels creativity. For example, Sam Piro said in the exhibit film that he was “really inspired by the landscape paintings in both museums” and added that he included drawings of the Legion of Honor, both inside and outside, in his art.
The works on view reflect a wide range of media. Daniele Erville’s collages treat natural forms as metaphors for interior emotions, while David Manzanares Tafolla’s paintings center on pre-Columbian iconography.
Nancy Jean Guerrero works with intricate beadwork to explore personal encounters with repulsion, beauty, privacy, and obsession.
Natalie Jeng’s jewel-toned oil paintings bring humor to scenes drawn from everyday life. Jeng’s paintings of donuts and cakes drew in many visitors, and several paintings were already marked as sold.
Many of the works feel excitingly modern. Sam Piro’s ink work channels calligraphy and martial traditions into a contemporary visual language, and David Wong draws inspiration from fantasy and science fiction art as well as comic book art.
For language lovers, Coralie Loon’s meeting place: ekphrastic poems by a museum worker, a poetry micro-chapbook, was also available for purchase. Loon wrote poems inspired by pieces of art in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s collection, calling this “a really fun challenge” to engage with art “in a more meaningful, personal way.”
For those who missed opening night, there is still time to see Art Comes From Art, Comes From Art. The exhibition runs through Sunday, February 22; gallery hours on February 8, 15, and 22 are noon to 3 pm. Admission is free.
Vivian Delchamps Wolf (English PhD, UCLA, 2022) is a professor of English at Dominican University of California and a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. She is also a disability justice advocate, ballroom dancer, cat lover, and board game enthusiast. Contact her via [email protected] Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Vivan-Delchamps-Wolf.
