We are excited to publish two new Whirligig Interviews this month.
Deborah Shea is a pastel artist, muralist, and fiber artist working primarily in vibrant floral imagery. Read our conversation here.
Chit Chat, pastel on board, 26″ x 52″ by Deborah Shea
Katherine Bazak is a classical figurative painter. She was interviewed by playwright Sharmon Hilfinger. Read Sharmon’s conversation with Katherine here.
San Gregorio, Oil on canvas, 50″ x 62″ by Katherine Bazak
Silicon Valley Open Studios
We are participating in SVOS at our studio complex in San Carlos. Our studio is on the second floor #203. Come say hi! 35+ artists will be participating at this location.
May 9 & 10, 11–5 each day
Art Bias 1700 Industrial Avenue, San Carlos, California MAP
O Say Can You See . . . the Soul of Our Nation
We have work in this traveling exhibition, including two social practice projects.
The Center for Creativity at the Historic Hotel Sequoia 800 Main Street, Redwood City, California July 2–August 30, 2026 Reception: Friday, July 3, 5–7pm
Matrix, A Printmaking Exhibition Olive Hyde Art Gallery 123 Washington Blvd. Fremont, California Thursday, June 11–Saturday, August 1, 2026 Reception: Friday, June 26, 7–9
Hybrid Print: An Exhibition of Printmaking and Artists Books
Riverside Renaissance Center for the Arts Millville, New Jersey May 15–July 11, 2026 Produced by the American Color Print Society
Being Here, artist book by Nanette Wylde
Nanette is pleased to receive a smidgen of attention from the electronic literature community for two recent elit works: Redlined is shortlisted for a New Media Writing Prize in the Social Good category, hosted by Bournemouth University in the UK. Dreamscapes is included in the Electronic Literature Organization’s New Media Festival, hosted by the University of Central Florida.
Nanette is also pleased to be part of Art Without Borders, an art sale benefitting the Multicultural Institute. She has donated work, along with 100+ other artists, to help support our immigrant community.
Gallery Hours Thursdays–Sundays, 5–7pm 617 1st Street Benicia, California ny2cagallery.com
Four new monoprint series are among the works exhibited.
In the Realm, pigment and serigraphy on Rives BFK, 36″ x 24″ With underwater photography by Todd GieselerThe Adoration, oil based monotype and serigraphy on Rives BFK, 30″ x 22″Ascend, oil based monotype and serigraphy on Rives BFK, 30″ x 22″
NY2CA Gallery is pleased to present In the Realm, a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist, writer, and cultural worker Nanette Wylde. Wylde will be exhibiting works on paper (monoprints) and handmade artist books (artwork which takes book form). In the Realm considers relationships that humans enact with and upon the natural world through Wylde’s distinctive, hybrid media approach.
Wylde’s work is deeply rooted in using narrative as a lens to explore the complexities of human perception, societal constructs, and environmental consciousness. With a background in Behavioral Science and an MFA in Interactive Multimedia and Printmaking, her artistic practice blends research with creative expression, offering thought-provoking insights into the systems and stories that shape our world.
A Professor Emeritus of Art and Art History at California State University, Chico, Wylde has exhibited widely. Her artist books, prints, and electronic works are held in major international collections. She is a co-founder of PreNeo Press, a conceptual space dedicated to fostering creative projects that celebrate the Art Life.
The exhibition will open with a reception at NY2CA Gallery on March 22, 5–7pm, featuring music by Karl Hartmann, where visitors will have the opportunity to meet the artist and gain insight into her process.
About The Rhinoceros Project Sewing Circle
The Rhinoceros Project is a socially engaged art collective that creates platforms for contemplative artmaking, thought community sewing circles, papermaking happenings, absurdity, and wonder.
On March 30, from 1–4pm, The Rhinoceros Project will offer a community sewing circle at NY2CA Gallery in Benicia. During our sewing circles, visitors are invited to sit and sew with us, while engaging in conversation and community. These events are free and open to everyone and all ages. All materials are provided. For this event, we will be sewing a monumental map of the path of the Francisican Missionaries, from Mexico City to Sonoma, considering California history and what it means to us today.
Jan Rindfleisch: 1942–2025
Jan Rindfleisch’s exhibition card for her 1979 MFA show at the Helen Euphrat Gallery.
We are saddened to share the passing of Jan Rindfleisch. Jan probably contributed more to the the Arts and artists of the Bay Area than any other person in the region’s history. She fostered an inclusive and community focused exhibition agenda, founded the Euphrat Museum at DeAnza College in Cupertino, and published on the works of numerous regional artists. As a curator she provided many artists with their first significant exhibition.
Curators Kathryn Funk and Bill Gould wanted to produce a monograph of Jan’s work for her 2023 solo exhibition at Artik in San Jose. Jan insisted the book be community focused, and thus Building Together was produced. This book, again, highlights community engagement and collaboration, the major theme of Jan’s career. The printed copies arrived just four weeks before her passing. She was so pleased.
There is so much to say and remember about Jan Rindfleisch. She will be missed.
Jan Rindfleisch was an artist, educator, writer, curator, and cultural worker. She was the executive director of the Euphrat Museum at De Anza College in Cupertino for 32 years. During that time, Rindfleisch laid the groundwork for an engaged and inclusive museum environment by continuously tapping the diverse local voices of Silicon Valley. Rindfleisch continued her work as a community builder with Roots and Offshoots: Silicon Valley’s Arts Community, a history of the art of the greater South Bay area from the post-Mission era artifacts of the Ohlone peoples to the artists and activists that have made the western/southern half of the Bay Area the rich and vibrant scene it is today.
Rindfleisch had a BA in Physics from Purdue University and an MFA from San José State University. Her awards include: Silicon Valley Business Journal Women of Influence (2014); San José City Hall Exhibits Committee (2006–2013); The ABBY Awards (2010); Silicon Valley Arts & Business Awards; Arts Leadership Award; Santa Clara County Woman of Achievement, (1989); Leadership Vision Award in the Arts, Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce (1993); Civic Service Award, City of Cupertino, Cultural Arts, and the Asian Heritage Council Arts Award (1988). In addition to her development of the Euphrat Museum, she was a founding member of WORKS/San José
You can read Nanette’s 2017 interview with Jan here.
Our friend Katherine Bazak interviews her longtime friend, Bay Area playwright and author, Sharmon Hilfinger for Whirligig, Nanette’s online platform for interviews with creative entities. Read this enticing conversation to gain insight about the writing life and regional live theater here.
First Sundays Open Studio at Art Bias Sunday, August 6, 12–4pm
We will present Meaning Maker as part of our hallway art on display outside our Art Bias studio #215. Meaning Maker is a conceptual art project designed for personal self reflection. Five editions of Meaning Maker will be featured this month, free for the taking by Art Bias visitors. Popcorn will be served.
Hand Bookbinders of California, Annual Members’ Exhibition August 7–October 1, 2023
Arion Press Gallery 1802 Hays Street, the Presidio, San Francisco, California Opening Reception: Saturday, August 12, 2:00–4:00pm. Hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine served with friends and literary eye candy! Gallery Walk-through: Thursday, August 17, 5:30–7:00pm
Kent Manske, Corpus Animare Volumes I, II, & III, artist books
We are showing four photographs from a new body of work titled: Encyclopedic: Weathered Volumes. Kent is also exhibiting his artist books, Corpus Animare Volumes I, II, & III.
Spark Gallery 900 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, Colorado in the Santa Fe Arts District
Westward Bound II is organized by Abecedarian Artists’ Books and asks the question What is The American West? Virtually every part of the United States except the Eastern Seaboard has been “the West” at some point in American history, linked in popular imagination with the last frontier of American settlement. For purposes of this exhibition, The American West refers to that vast stretch of plains, mountains, and deserts west of the Mississippi River. Kent and Nanette’s collaborative book Foodies: Seven West Coast Foodie Vignettes, and Kent’s book San Francisco Bay are on exhibit. The gallery is also featuring a separate exhibition of books by our artist friends Alicia Bailey and Rhiannon Alpers.
Kent will exhibit new works from three print series: Conditions narrate states of being and coping strategies. Nests is a series of one-of-a-kind experimental prints. Cells explores imaginary living organisms and microbiome.
Nanette will exhibit four images from On Longing, a series of 50 unique monoprints completed this last summer. Each print is a mandala which contemplates and celebrates the natural world. The series takes its name from Susan Stewart’s book: On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. The Art Party is discussed in the Mercury News, where Nan’s work is also featured.
Photo of the studio while the On Longing series was still in-progress, Spring 2016.
Meaning Maker is 10!
Of course, we are trying to make sense of the upcoming November election. Thus we have created a new and improved version of Meaning Maker U.S. Presidential Elections Edition. Download your free copy at the Meaning Maker website, and distribute as you will.
This Summer we hand-delivered Art Viewing Experience Edition and U.S. Presidential Elections Edition to two significant events in Europe: The 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany; and the opening of the Tate Modern Switch House in London. Other European museum and gallery locations which experienced bursts of Meaning Makers include: Brussels, Paris, Dresden and Prague.
Don Drake and Kate Jordahl invited Kent to write the afterword for Kate’s True North Editions, one poem book, no. 6, featuring Don’s poem, End. The book launch for one poem books no. 5 and no. 6 will be at Don Drake’s Studio, Dreaming Mind, on Saturday, October 8th from 2 – 4 pm. There will be readings! 5664 Sun Ridge Court in Castro Valley, CA.
Kent is also showing inAl-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: In Defense of Culture at the San Francisco Main Library, Skylight Gallery, 100 Larkin Street, from September 17 – January 1, 2017.
The Future, an artists’ book collaboration between Nanette and Nora Raggio, will be showing the month of October in Words|Matter, Chicago.
Nanette’s Storyland v2 was invited for exhibition in Shapeshifting Texts, International Conference on Digital Media and Textuality in Bremen, Germany. Her print, Propagare, was exhibited at the Graphic Arts Workshop, Scuola Internaziale di Grafica in Venice, Italy; and she received a juror’s award for her needle felted book, Between Us Two, at The Art of the Book, Sebastopol Center for Art in Sebastopol, California.
Our collaborative photo book, CSI: Las Vegas, was included in 23 Sandy Gallery’s summertime Wanderlust exhibition and subsequently acquired by UCLA’s Fine Arts Library.
On another note, we’ve decided to take an extended leave from facebook. We still want to hear about your Art Adventures, however. Our individual emails are the best way to let us know what you are doing. We continue to engage with instagram: @kent.manske @nanwylde
The busy spring bees have us both showing books and prints in a handful of exhibitions. We are also excited to cross-pollinate our social practices with an upcoming Meaning Maker intervention.
We celebrated Dada’s 100th anniversary with a poetry reading : Nothing is Here, DaDa is its Name
Branner Spangenberg Gallery, Redwood City, California.
Curator: Michael Paulker.
Closing & Dada Performance: Sunday, May 1, 4pm.
Wanderlust 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon. Curator: Laura Russell. May 27 -Â July 30, 2016.
Wanderlust is a German word made from wandern which means walking and lust which translates as desire. We are showing CSI: Las Vegas in this exhibition.
LOOK! BOOK ARTSÂ
Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg, California.
Curator: C.K.Itamura.
April 14 – May 22, 2016.
Closing Tea & Salon: Sunday, May 22, 2 – 4pm.
March 5 – May 15, 2016
Museum of Contemporary Crafts &Â Multnomah County Library, both in Portland, Oregon.
Beau Beausoleil’s curatorial project which responds to the bombing of the booksellers’ street in Bagdad continues to inform, inspire and activate us.
Meaning Maker
We will be distributing our Control and U.S. Presidential Elections editions of Meaning Maker at:Â Open Engagement 2016 POWER, April 28Â -Â May 1. This social practice conference is headquartered at the Oakland Museum of California and includes many additional sites throughout the Bay Area.
In early April, Nanette and Nora Raggio showed their book, The Future, in Space Jam at The Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City. Nanette is exhibiting in The Illustrated Accordion at The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 6 – 27.
YAY! Here’s cheers to all of the springy art abounding in our universe.
We are launching a new Meaning Maker edition: Control, in the exhibition Character Profile at Root Division
Curated by Jon Fischer
3175 17th Street at Van Ness
San Francisco
Exhibition Dates: July 10 – 27, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 13, 7 – 10p
We hope you can visit the exhibition, but if not you can visit the Meaning Maker website and download all of the Meaning Maker editions to experience in the privacy of your own home.
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Nanette’s book On Judgment: the book of bully created for An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street will be exhibited in New York City at: Columbia University Libraries
Butler Library
535 West 114th St.
July 16-September 21, 2013
This is an amazing project curated by Beau Beausoleil and Sarah Bodman. It involves 260+ artists and their responses to the bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street, a historic location for booksellers, tea houses and the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community, in 2007.
This exhibition is traveling for the next few years and may come to a venue near you. You can also see images of most of the books on this project website: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/mutanmain12.htm
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Nanette will be exhibiting a new augmented reality project, In Other Words, commissioned by TheatreWorks for their New Works Festival at Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, California, Aug. 10 – 18.
Nanette also co-curated a small exhibition of interactive online works in the Digital Humanities with festival director Tom Bruett.
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Both Kent and Nanette are included in the upcoming 500 Handmade Books, Volume Two, Published by Lark Books and curated by Julie Chen. This book is due to be available in September.
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Nanette’s online project: haikU is published in the Rio Grande Review Digital Edition, University of Texas at El Paso. Editors: Scott Rettberg, Leonardo Flores and Juan Pablo Plata.
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In June, the Earth • Science • Art exhibition curated by Lisa Hochstein last year traveled to USGS headquarters in Reston, Virginia.
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We are developing a web presence and network for Bay Area printmakers and print studios. We will provide you more info on this later. For now: Please email us contact information for Bay Area print artists and studios.
Meaning Maker American Citizenship Edition is included in the exhibition The Mythical State of Jefferson, May 6 to June 12 at the Schneider Museum of Art.
The Museum is on the Southern Oregon University Campus in Ashland, Oregon. The exhibition addresses a 1941 movement to create a new state, out of parts of Northern California and Southern Oregon, for the purpose of copper mining .
PreNeo Press launched a new Meaning Maker edition: Higher Education Edition at the annual Southern Graphics Council Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The conference was held in conjunction with a rich and expansive city-wide celebration of print art phenomena, the triennial Philagrafika.
While touring historical Philly, Meaning Maker American Citizenship Edition was inserted into all of The Great American Citizenship Quiz books in the gift shop of the Independence Visitors’ Center. This amazing information center is run by the National Parks Service. This public service action is also known as shopdropping.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. Presidential Elections Edition was on exhibit and take away in Vote your Subconscious at 
Nanette will be exhibiting a new augmented reality project, In Other Words, commissioned by TheatreWorks for their New Works Festival at Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, California, Aug. 10 – 18.
