Winter Solstice reminds us to move towards Lightness.
Lightness, as Italo Calvino impresses upon us in his remarkable series of lectures, Six Memos for the Next Millennium, is an agility of perception and awareness that we choose what and how to look at, play with, and represent any given thing. We like to think of Calvino’s Lightness as an intentional focus towards the positive and joyful. “Be light like a bird, not like a feather” is how French poet Paul Valéry stated it.
2025 has been a year which has given us lots to reflect upon, and the desire to lean into as much Lightness as possible. We have spent most of our time volunteering to help create a multidisciplinary Arts center in our town of Redwood City. The Center for Creativity (CfC) opened in May. Now, in December, we are wrapping up the development, curation, and facilitation of four two-month exhibition cycles for six exhibition spaces within the Center. With exhibition programming close to filled for 2026, we are pleased to pass the exhibitions torch to the next team. We feel fortunate to have mingled with so many artists in our region via the CfC project.
Here’s a few things ahead:
On the Table: Navigating Being
This Kent & Nan collaborative exhibition will feature a new configuration of Table of Traits, along with new works on paper, and conceptual works addressing personal identity.
Mission College
Vargas Gallery in the Gillmor Center
3000 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, California
January 26–March 5, 2026
Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 11, from 2:30–4
MAP
finding, seeking
A solo show of Nanette’s recent mixed media monoprints.
Pigment and serigraphy on Rives BFK, 36” x 24”
Morris Graves Museum of Art
636 F Street, Eureka, California
January 14–February 22, 2026
MAP
Entanglements
This month Nanette published the fourth Entanglements anthology which features her August residency cohort from In Cahoots Residency in Petaluma, California. The publication includes four conversations with printmakers: Macy Chadwick, Rebecca Gilbert, Christopher Hartshorne, and Sophie Loubere.
You can also read these conversations online at Whirligig.
Entanglements is featured in the exhibition Entangled Lineage by invitation of conceptual artist C.K. Itamura.
The San Francisco Arts Education Project @ Minnesota Street Projects
1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
The exhibition runs through January 31.
MAP
Publication in Taper (electronic literature)
Nanette’s 2025 elit work Redlined is featured in the online publication Taper. One of the interesting things about Taper is that all works must be under 2k in file size!
CODEX 2026
We look forward to exhibiting at the CODEX Book Fair in Oakland in February 7–10.
This Winter Solstice day which is followed by the longest night of the year, we are wishing you Lightness, whatever you conceive or need for it to be, and a Happy, Healthy, and Joyful year ahead.
With gratitude and smiles,
Kent & Nanette