Friends,
Another 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 concept. “Be light like a bird, not like a feather” is how French poet Paul Valéry stated it.
2025 has been challenging on multiple fronts, a year which has given us the desire to lean into as much Lightness as possible. It has also been a year filled with many positive outcomes.
We have spent much of the year 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. We pass the exhibitions torch to the next team, with exhibition programming close to filled for 2026. We feel fortunate to have mingled with so many artists in our region via the CfC project.
We enter 2026 with a desire to embrace positive light and those who emanate it. 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 works on paper/monoprints.
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.
New elit work by Nanette (electronic literature)
Nanette’s new 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 with the longest night of the year, we are wishing you Lightness, whatever you conceive or need for it to be.
With gratitude and smiles,
Kent & Nanette