Annual Showcase of Emerging Bay Area Artists
INTRO DUCT IONS 2026
AUGUST 5 – SEPTEMBER 19, 2026 JURORS Diedrick Brackens Artist and Educator Candace Huey Curator and Founder re.riddle Harriet Salmon Director, Art Partnerships, Creativity Explored
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EXHIBITION
kaory santillán bueno Robert Canali Vincent Chong Éamon McGivern Camila Michaliszyn Khadijah Morley Morgann Nieto evan pettiglio Alieh Rezaei Manuel Rodriguez Jasmine Narkita Wiley Seongmin Yoo
ARTISTS
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Installation shot of Introductions 2026
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INTROS 2026 Established in 2007, Introductions is one of the Bay Area's longestrunning survey exhibitions dedicated to emerging artists. This annual presentation showcases the work of twelve artists who are not yet represented by commercial galleries. Selected through a rigorous review process, these artists are recognized for the conceptual depth and formal strength of their practices. Spanning sculpture, photography, textiles, painting, installation, and interdisciplinary practices, the exhibition brings together diverse perspectives, highlighting the breadth of experimentation and critical inquiry shaping the region's contemporary art community.
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FROM THE
JURORS
CANDACE HUEY
Curator and Founder, re.riddle As a native San Franciscan, serving as a juror for the 2026 edition of Root Division’s Introductions was especially meaningful. The process offered a close view of the many talented and thoughtful artists shaping the Bay Area today, as well as the central questions, frameworks, methods, and experiences informing their practices. Across these varied bodies of work, there was a discernible through line in the register of intimacy. Broader histories, structures of power, cultural narratives, and social conditions were often approached through the scale of the personal: private rituals, bodily knowledge, familial relationships, familiar objects, proximity, attentiveness, and acts of devotion. Intimacy was also embedded in the articulation and handling of material, in the smallness of a gesture, the delicate mark, the intricate detail, the preciousness and precarity of a relationship, forms of personal notation, or the sharing of a private language. The artists poetically demonstrated how the scale of the intimate can operate as both a register and a material language through which broader, collective histories press themselves into view. Programs such as Introductions provide emerging artists with time, space, resources, and community in which to develop and sustain a practice. This support is especially critical at a moment when the conditions for making art in San Francisco have become increasingly difficult, with arts funding, nonprofit support, and arts education continuing to contract. Root Division has long occupied an important place within the local arts ecosystem by creating conditions in which artists can experiment, deepen their work, and develop the confidence and rigor necessary to enter a broader artistic conversation. In doing so, Root Division recognizes artistic development as a process that requires time, sustained attention, and meaningful exchange. That investment ultimately extends beyond any individual artist, contributing to the overall cultural health and wellness of the city by cultivating and ensuring that new voices have the conditions in which to emerge.
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HARRIET SALMON
Director, Art Partnerships, Creativity Explored Artist Khadijah Morley describes the figures in her work as “occupying an uncanny inbetween.” The artworks in this exhibition are an introduction to this in-between space; they offer a glimpse into an off-kilter, lush world where our foundations of understanding are in the act of collapsing, mutating, adapting and hybridizing; an unsettling state of swirling flux. The boundaries of the body blur. We each become avatars, alter egos, keepers of displaced and reshuffled archives. Previously inevitable identities suddenly fall away and we are given space to be partially everything: human/animal/machine, interior/ exterior, dreamer and the dreamed. This can leave our deconstructed bodies spinning anxiously as we try to define the lines between belonging and not belonging. Within this uncanny and expanding nebula, our storytelling becomes nonlinear. Time, which modern life speeds up exponentially in a crushing scramble towards productivity, can slow down to focus on minute moments and movements. These twitches and glitches bring us wonder and fear and we ask, are we witnessing the origins of new life or detecting signs of the system collapsing? Without answers, definitions, and delineations, the artists in this exhibition can only document this swirling moment. I’d like to thank them for their clear and honest investigations, thank Root Division for a platform from which to explore this uncanny space, and my fellow jurors for their time and care taken to look and listen.
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Detail shot of: evan pettiglio orchestra/like always, 2026 Water cast silver, silver chain, locket, distance Dimensions variable
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KAORY SANTILLÁN BUENO
kaory santillán bueno is an indigenous (wixarika and na’ayari) scholar and transdisciplinary artist. she was born in tepic, nayarit, mexico and migrated to los angeles as a young child. their art is informed by their cultural background and personal experiences. her work, research, and areas of study include identity formation, media representation, and environmentalism. their art incorporates traditional techniques mixed with modern thought and applications. they are a graduate of the university of california, berkeley completing dual degrees in media studies and art practice. their art has been exhibited nationally through berkeley art center (berkeley, ca.); marin museum of contemporary art (novato, ca.); palo alto art center (palo alto, ca.); amato studios (los angeles, ca.); and opalka gallery (albany, ny).
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tallerkupuri.org
'isarika (to weave) -- i-viii, 2025-2026 archival prints on canvas, chaquira (glass seed beads), embroidery thread 15 x 15 in (framed)
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Flora Study N.2, 2017 Partially Fixed Lumen Prints (continually sensitive) 80 x 96 in
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ROBERT CANALI
robertcanali.com
Robert Canali, a Canadian artist based in San Francisco, roots his practice in the reflective nature of photography. Canali operates as an interpreter and translator, exploring the mystery and beauty of everyday life. His work is a study in themes such as permanence, fragility, and individual perception/experience. His concepts are realized as large format analog photographs, sculptures, installations, and books – offering a complex query about time, recollection, and the rapid advancement of modern life. His work is exhibited internationally and resides in both private and public collections.
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VINCENT CHONG
Vincent Chong (莊志明) aka Crystal Monkey is a Queer mixed-race Chinese-American artist working in Chinese calligraphy, seal carving, painting, drawing, and performance. They are currently pursuing an MFA in Art Practice at Stanford University, and hold a BFA in fine art and a BA in mathematics from Cornell University. They are a student of Taipei-based calligrapher Wu Wensheng. Selected shows and performances include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seizan NYC, Ruth’s Table, and Skånes Konstförening. Residencies include ACRE, ISCP, The Center for Book Arts, and Fire Island Artist Residency.
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vincentchong.art
father figure, 2026 Oil and pollen on linen 60 x 48 in
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In the Sun Room at Laveta Terrace, circa 1980’s, 2025 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 in
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ÉAMON MCGIVERN
eamonmcgivern.com
Éamon McGivern graduated from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, in 2012, attaining a BFA with Honors in Painting. During his course of study at Pratt, he was one of two students selected to study traditional painting and printmaking techniques at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Japan, for six months. In 2016, he attained an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. He has been an artistin-residence at Residency 11:11 in London, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Nebraska, the Tom of Finland AiR program in Los Angeles, and the Root Division Studio Program in San Francisco. Éamon is currently based in the SF Bay Area, where he has been a two-time recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant, had solo shows with the GLBT Historical Society Museum and the Tenderloin museum, has been commissioned for public arts projects with the Castro Cultural District, and has been included in numerous group shows around the city including the De Young open. He is an active member of the Bay Area Arts community, working to uplift transgender voices in the arts by organizing panels and curating art shows of local and international transgender artists. 17
CAMILA MICHALISZYN
Camila Michaliszyn is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist based in San Francisco working across sculpture, movement, and installation. Her practice examines the relationships between humans and nature, focusing on how human, animal, plant, and mineral bodies interact and resist fixed systems of classification. Her work operates between physics and spirit, using kinetic sculpture, mimicry, and transformation to create interactive installations that appear responsive and alive.
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camilamichaliszyn.com
Dancers, 2026 Metal, rock, manzanita branches, ceramics, and assorted feathers Dimensions variable
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Untitled (series), 2026 Drypoint, etching, aquatint 18 x 14 in (framed)
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KHADIJAH MORLEY
khadijah-morley.format.com
Khadijah Morley (b.Toronto, Canada) is an artist and educator whose practice draws on Black feminist thought and her Jamaican heritage. Working primarily in printmaking, she blends personal narratives, Afro-Caribbean folklore and spiritual symbolism to create imagery where dreams, memory and magic converge. Her work becomes a form of wayfinding, mapping connections across the Black diaspora, lineage and imagination. By centering subjectivity as a counter-narrative, her process of world-building responds to the question of whose stories are preserved or erased. Khadijah holds a BFA from OCAD University, participating in residencies across North America and Japan, including the Banff Centre, Kala Art Institute and the Mokuhanga Innovation Lab. Her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, and has been featured on CBC Arts.
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MORGANN NIETO
Morgann Nieto is a visual artist based in Oakland, California. Her sculptural practice is concerned with how objects describe the precarity, infirmity, and interdependence of living systems. Made from repurposed refuse, hobbyist electronics, and organic materials, her pieces reframe automation through slowness, fragility, and an embrace of inherent needfulness and inevitable failure. She received a BFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art, and an MFA from San Francisco State University. Her work has been exhibited locally at Southern Exposure, Berkeley Art Center, Your Mood Projects, and 500 Capp St, and can be seen in various bedrooms, basements, and vacant lots across the eastern seaboard.
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morgannnieto.com
sea cucumbers and emperor shrimp (installation), 2025-2026 Arduino Uno, Arduino Nano, breadboards, jump wires, barrel chargers, Miuzei micro servos, PIR sensors, wire, tape, anchovies, olive oil, tomato sauce, wrapping paper, miniature dish washing glove, tinsel, band-aid box, cardboard, tissue paper, thread, artificial flower, plastic grass blade, aluminum foil, tin cans, beeswax, damar resin, dry pigment, plastic cup, plywood, aluminum cans, super glue, batteries, coins, 6V 8RPM mini worm gear box, 6V 5RPM gear motor, brass tacks, modified sweep code, electricity Dimensions variable
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accretion, 2026 Franciscan complex sand, hydrophobic iron filings, water 12 x 18 in
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EVAN PETTIGLIO
evanpettiglio.com
evan pettiglio is an interdisciplinary artist and writer working in California. Their work is occupied by the question of time. Their research-based sculpture practice is informed by geology, quantum physics, and zen buddhist theory and guided by interest in the interwoven nature of place and time. They earned an MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute. Their work has been exhibited at Minnesota Street Project, Your Mood Gallery, 100 Million Space, and 120710 Gallery. Their writing has been published in Spectra.
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ALIEH REZAEI
Alieh Rezaei is an Iranian visual artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Working primarily in drawing and fiber, she creates felt sculptures and installations that bring traditional craft into conversation with embodied experience and life between cultures. She received her MFA from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and holds an MA from Tehran University of Art. She has received fellowships and residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Her work has been exhibited nationally at institutions including Minnesota Street Project Foundation, the Triton Museum of Art, and the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in Maryland.
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aliehrezaei.com
Left Open (series), 2026 Organic and pre-dyed wool Dimensions variable
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Abel & Eli, 2023 Photography 36 x 24 inches
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MANUEL RODRIGUEZ
manuelremrodriguez.com
Manuel Rodriguez is a street and portrait photographer born and raised in Eastside San Jose. Manuel first used photography as a way to pay homage and document his Latino and Chicano culture and to immortalize the many things he felt were special of his heritage and family roots. He would capture moments and landscapes in his own neighborhood and his family town in Nayarit, Mexico. He also uses his lens to show the vulnerability of Latino men and change the machismo culture that has been rooted in Latino culture for years. Exhibiting here are two pieces of his Latino men project along with many photos taken at gatherings or celebrations of Mexican/Hispanic heritage or culture.
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JASMINE NARKITA WILEY
Jasmine Narkita Wiley is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and educator. Her exhibitions include presentations at SOMArts, ICA San Francisco, MCA Denver, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, College Art Association’s Art Journal Open, Surface Design Journal, and Rewind Review Respond. Wiley holds an MA in Arts Politics from the Department of Art & Public Policy, NYU Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA from the California College of the Arts.
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jasminenarkitawiley.com
Sorrows, 2026 Handwoven baskets hand-dyed in 30 gallon indigo vat, round reed, indigo, red acrylic yarn Dimensions variable
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The Flow of Displacement, 2025 Mixed-media installation Dimensions variable
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SEONGMIN YOO
seongminyoo.com
Seongmin Yoo is a California-based interdisciplinary artist working primarily in installation, sculpture, performance, and painting. Her practice explores the relationships between humans and nature, migration and belonging, environmental change, and the ways different beings coexist within shared spaces. Place and space are central to her work, as she creates environments that invite viewers not simply to observe but to physically enter and experience the work. Yoo received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Davis, following graduate study in Art Studio at California State University, Sacramento. Her work has been presented at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Holter Museum of Art, Corey Helford Gallery, Korea Magazine Museum’s M Gallery, and the John Natsoulas Center for the Arts. Across her practice, Yoo approaches installation as a form of spatial storytelling, creating environments in which viewers can move, encounter, and reconsider how humans, nature, and other forms of life might inhabit a world together.
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Installation view of Introductions 2026
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INTROS
kaory santillán bueno Robert Canali Vincent Chong Éamon McGivern Camila Michaliszyn Khadijah Morley Morgann Nieto evan pettiglio Alieh Rezaei Manuel Rodriguez Jasmine Narkita Wiley Seongmin Yoo
2026
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