Rea Lynn de Guzman

SOMCAN’s SoMa Slow Streets Ground Murals Project

Artists: Rea Lynn de Guzman, Kacy Jung, Cherisse Alcantara

Ribbon Cutting & Mural Unveiling: June 10, 2023, 10am-12pm

Part of the Be Free Festival

Come see the 8 ground murals we created for the SoMa Slow Streets Project!

My 2 designs include:

Gumamela (Hibiscus), 2023. 12 x 9 ft, Tandang Sora Street

Gumamela is a beautiful, cross-cultural, common flower in the Philippines. It evokes a personal childhood memory for me. My childhood friends and I created bubbles using gumamela juice mixed with soap. This mural celebrates curiosity, youth joy, and the creativity and resilience of children using natural materials to play.

Kalachuchi (Plumeria), 2023. 12 x 9 ft, Lapu Lapu Street

Kalachuchi is a popular flower in the Philippines, mainly offered to the dead. This mural is an homage to our ancestors and heroes, who came before us and fought for our freedom.

Collaborative Community Murals on Rizal Street:

Designs in collaboration with fellow mural artists Cherisse Alcantara & Kacy Jung

Santan (Jungle Geranium) Flowers on a Banana Leaf, 2023. 9 x 12 ft

Banana leaf, used for kamayan, represents community and togetherness. Santan flowers remind me of nostalgic childhood memories in the Philippines. It’s also one of Jose Rizal’s favorite flower! We arranged 8 santan flowers to symbolize the 8 ground murals we created for the community.

Koi Pond, 2023. 9 x 12 ft

This mural is a celebration of all our cultures together!

Reimagined Landscapes

Virtual Exhibition Dates: April 2023

North Fork Arts Projects’
The Refugee’s Art Gallery

Curated by: Eileen R. Tabios

With a special poem “Terraforming” by Luisa A. Igloria

Artwork info:

Overlaps, 2023. Acrylic and collage on paper, 12” x 9”

Horizons, 2023. Acrylic and collage on paper, 12” x 9”

Cloudscape 3, 2023. Acrylic and collage on paper, 12” x 9”

In my new Reimagined Landscapes series, I free myself to a more intuitive process of making art unbound by research and western-centric historical references. My art is a cathartic visual play and a poetic exploration of materials that go back and forth between my backgrounds in painting and print media. I am drawn to soothing colors, complex shapes, motions, and subtle textures inspired by memories and familiar natural spaces. I continue to explore inexplicable psychological liminal spaces, reflective of my experiences of movements and sudden shifts. I seek to balance these ruptures by reimagining spaces, creating a push and pull through additive and reductive processes in my work. I pull from found, everyday objects, and layer it with collage materials created from my personal painting ephemera.

Exhibition Dates: January 18 - April 16, 2023

Gallery Reception: Thursday, March 30, 2023, 6-8pm

The Katz Snyder Gallery, Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (JCCSF)

The immigrant, immortal, Wonder Woman embodies iconic feminine strength in the DC comic series. As an Amazonian-American fictional heroine, she blends into a foreign society to promote justice, peace, and truth. Correspondingly, many women of color artists with immigrant backgrounds evoke Wonder Woman-esque qualities in their contemporary artistic practices by addressing issues of immigration, misrepresentation, stereotypes, cultural conflict, and feelings of acceptance or intolerance with an honest voice to fight for equity.

Wander Woman 3, the third iteration of Wander Woman, features works by eight Bay Area women of color artists, whose works explore complex immigrant themes coming from diverse perspectives.

REIMAGINE FREEDOM
The JCCSF is proud to present this exhibition as a part of their Reimagine Freedom series, a collection of programming in celebration of Passover when we recount the story of the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt and subsequent decades-long wandering through the desert. Through storytelling, sharing meals and asking big questions about our world, the holiday challenges us to radically empathize and identify with those escaping dangerous and oppressive places, while also prompting us to reflect on what it takes to have freedom in our own lives and communities.

Exhibiting Artists: Cherisse Alcantara, Cynthia Brannvall, Kiana Honarmand, Kacy Jung, Cathy Lu, Joyce Nojima, Blanca Estela Rodríguez, Jenifer Wofford

Performance Artists: Pallavi Sharma, O.M. France Viana

Grow Our Souls

Exhibition Dates: April 30 - May 22, 2022

SOMArts Gallery
934 Brannan St. San Francisco, CA 94103

“If we can think of the work as the work that the artist does — and the love of the material and the vision that he or she has — instead of thinking of the way we have colonized material, we have colonized people, we have colonized the earth … the need to create an alternative that is more human is the kind of revolution we need to make … the need to grow our souls” (Grace Lee Boggs)

Inspired by Grace Lee Boggs, whose philosophical call-to-action urges us to think dialectically about working in the service of “a higher Humanity instead of [a] higher standard of living,” Grow Our Souls showcases twelve artists who are reimagining labor in an era of climate change and late-stage capitalism. 

Boggs’s framework for liberation stems from a legacy of solidarity with Black, Chicano and feminist movements in the U.S. — an invitation she extends to the rest of the world. Grow Our Souls expands our notions of labor by presenting interconnected, ancestral, spiritual and visionary alternatives. Instead of the death of our souls, these artists imagine ways to grow them — in a world where our planet’s growing inhabitability proves how we work and consume are no longer tenable.

Curated by:
Melissa Wang

Exhibiting Artists:
Rea Lynn de Guzman, Kacy Jung, Diana Li, Sheng Lor, Trinh Mai, Preetika Rajgariah, Nancy Sayavong, Cindy Shih, Jess X Snow, Astria Suparak, Monica Tie, Connie Zheng

Exhibition Photos: ©Diana Chen Photography / APICC

20 Year Anniversary Alumni Exhibition

Exhibition Dates: April 1 - 23, 2022

Root Division
1131 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103 

Join us as Root Division commemorates 20 years of cultivating community-minded artists and arts-minded community. To mark this historic milestone, the organization will present a variety of inclusive festivities and goods!

We have an exciting line-up of events and special projects starting with the 20-Year Anniversary Kick-Off Event on Saturday, April 9! This will include the public opening reception for the 20-Year Anniversary Alumni Exhibition featuring 20 alums from Root Division’s Studios Program. The exhibition includes an impressive selection of work in a variety of media including painting, photography, sculpture, installation, and more. The cohort of exhibiting artists represents the 20-Year history of Root Division as an incubator for emerging artists.

Curated by:
Tavarus Blackmon, Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen, Michelle Mansour

Incline Gallery 11th Anniversary Show & Grand Re-opening!

Exhibition Dates: November 6 - December 4, 2021

Incline Gallery
766 Valencia St. San Francisco, CA 94110

Join us on November 6, 2021, from 12 pm - 8 pm as we celebrate our grand re-opening after the fire our building suffered in 2019. We are excited to showcase 19 local artists’ work and feature a zine - “Stranger Romance, Lonely Strangers”, a project curated by Ariana Wolf, designed by Matthew Meikle, and produced by Flight Design Co. 

Featured Artists
Yoni Asega, Alyssa Aviles, Alexander Cheves, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Joe Ferriso, Walter Logue, Alan Miknis, Elaine Moreno, Erik Parra, Rachael Phillips, Darius Riley, Julio C. Rodriguez, Josue Rojas, Ebtihal Shedid, Sarah Smith, Jesse Walton, Ace West, Ximaps, Austen Zombres

Epekto Art Projects Presents:

Shape Shift

Exhibition Dates: November 5-27, 2021

RPS Collective Gallery
2120 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA

A group show featuring Filipina/o/x American artists in the Bay Area

Exhibiting Artists
Jose Johann Bitancor
Mike Carrion
Rea Lynn de Guzman
Nicole Gervacio
Michael Sacramento
Malaya Tuyay
Maria Fatima Urbi
Mel Vera Cruz
Pamela Ybañez

SCRAP SF presents:

RePurposeful, The Art of Collage & Assemblage

Exhibition Dates: October 1 - December 31, 2021

Randall Museum
199 Museum Way, San Francisco, CA 94114

After a year of social isolation, SCRAP and the Randall Museum are re-engaging with our local communities and exploring how cooperation has the power to effect change. RePurposeful, a juried exhibition of over 40 original collage and assemblage works by Bay Area artists, will inspire new ideas and approaches to sustainability. Join us as we re-open our minds to new and creative ways of re-using materials.

My piece, Cycles, 2021 (Collage with acrylic and gesso on paper, 12” x 9” framed - 20” x 16” - piece #15) is exhibited at RePurposeful, The Art of Collage & Assemblage, a juried exhibition for SCRAP in partnership with the Randall Museum.

My piece Hybrid, 2015 (Monoprint, sumi ink, & acrylic medium on Yupo paper, 35" x 23") is included in Liwanag Volume 3.

SOMA Pilipinas in collaboration with Kearny Street Workshop is proud to release the newest entry into the Liwanag series. As the original Liwanag (1975) and Liwanag 2 (1993) amplified the voices of local, Bay Area Pilipinx American artists of those time periods, Liwanag 3 showcases and reflects upon the evolution of the Pilipinx identity of today. Liwanag 3 features a wide range of genres in poetry, fiction, playwriting, comics and graphic novels; Visual arts include paintings, illustrations and photography.

Editors: Jason Bayani, Rachel Lastimosa

Order your copy from Arkipelago Books

SF Camerawork Online Event:

Artist Talk with Rea Lynn de Guzman

In conversation with Shirin Makaremi

May 26, 2021

Please join us on Wednesday, May 26th for an artist talk with Rea Lynn de Guzman. Rea will share her liminal art practice, conceptual and material explorations, as she moves through multiple series that form her work. She will also talk about her curatorial projects surrounding "Wander Woman," a group show series featuring Bay Area-based, immigrant, women artists of color. We welcome you to learn more about her work in a moderated conversation with curator and programming committee member Shirin Markaremi followed by audience Q&A. 

I’m excited to share that my painting, Self-Contained, 2009 (Oil on canvas over panel, 42” x 30” from my Duyan series) is on the cover of Eileen R. Tabios’ book PAGPAG: The Dictator’s Aftermath in the Diaspora. This painting is in the collection of North Fork Arts Projects.

Graphic design by C. Sophia Ibardaloza

Published by Paloma Press, San Mateo, CA

And check out this article on USA Inquirer by Walter Ang

I’m honored to have my artwork (Flashback, 2018, Image transfer on synthetic organza, 13” x 17” from my TL Dreams series) on the cover of Jason Bayani’s poetry book Locus

Graphic design by Gillian Olivia Blythe Hamel

Published by Omnidawn Publishing, Oakland, CA

Reconstructed Solo Show

Exhibition Dates: February 14 - March 9, 2019

Bindlestiff Studio
185 6th Street San Francisco, CA 94103

In tandem with The Love Edition: Falling Hard, Reconstructed: The Art of Rea Lynn de Guzman, is exhibited at the Bindlestiff Studio Gallery Space

Curated by: Melanie Rose Elvena

WANDER WOMAN: EVENING OF PERFORMANCE

Root Division will host a performance event during the closing reception on Saturday, February 9th from 7-10 pm. This one night only evening of performance complements the visual art exhibition, Wander Woman. Performance offers a unique communication tool and physical manifestation of the immigrant womxn body experience. In tandem with the exhibiting artwork, this evening of performance intends to transcend geographic boundaries by offering a variety of perspectives through diverse movement of how the body remains strong, resilient and individual despite outside forces and stigmas trying to strip the body down or push it to the margins.

Evening of Performance Schedule:

7:00-9:30pm: France Viana - "Ube Trade"

7:30-9:30pm: Christabel Soto - "Narcissus"

7:30pm: Takako Matoba & Minoosh Zomorodinia - "Two Rivers"

7:45pm: Reading by Trinidad Escobar - "Crushed"

8:00pm: Behnaz Khaleghi & Baharak Khaleghi - "Eternal Laughter"

8:15pm: Pallavi Sharma & Shailaja Dixit - "Sorry Not Sorry"

8:30pm: Greta Liz Anderson - "No Ma Dic" 

9:00pm: Sam Cortez - "Fallen Dreams"

Wander Woman
Curated by: Rea Lynn de Guzman

Exhibition Dates: January 9 - February 9, 2019

Root Division  1131 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103

The immigrant, immortal woman from the island of Themyscira, "Wonder Woman" embodies iconic feminine strength in the DC comic series. As an Amazonian-American fictional heroine, she blends into a foreign society to promote justice, peace, and truth. When describing her essence in short form, DC states, “Torn between a mission to promote peace and her own warrior upbringing, Wonder Woman fights evil while hoping to unlock the potential of a humanity she doesn’t always understand.” 

Correspondingly, many immigrant women artists of color evoke Wonder Woman-esque qualities in their contemporary artistic practices by addressing issues of immigration, misrepresentation, stereotypes, cultural conflict and feelings of acceptance or intolerance with an honest voice to fight for equality. Whether autobiographical or not, Wander Woman exhibiting artists' works present complex characters and narratives highlighting transcendent experiences, often derived from their own personal perspectives.

Wander Woman features works by Bay Area, first-generation immigrant women of color, who vary in professional backgrounds from emerging to established and have immigrated to the US from different parts of the world. Inspired by shared-yet-dissimilar psychological experiences of immigration and assimilation to the Bay Area, exhibiting artists present nuanced, intricate perspectives, and narratives that have developed beyond the initial concept of identity in their art practice. 

Exhibiting Artists
Indrani Ashe, Cynthia Brannvall, Irene Carvajal, Kristiana Chan with missTANGQ, Erika Gomez Henao, Pantea Karimi, Baharak Khaleghi and Behnaz Khaleghi, Charmaine Koh, Amanda Lee, M.O.B. / Mail Order Brides, Takako Matoba, Anoushka Mirchandani, Elena Patino, Pallavi Sharma, HuiMeng Wang

Consumed
Exhibition Dates: July 8 - 22, 2018

Pinto Art Museum  1 Sierra Madre St., Grand Heights Subdivision, Brgy. San Roque, Antipolo City, 1870, Philippines

Are we the consumer? Or are we the ones consumed? Seven talented artists weigh in and invite audiences to partake in the discussion through their group exhibition aptly titled, “Consumed.” The deeply engaging show offers a visually appetizing collection featuring elements from the artists, offering their unique and individual aesthetic perspectives coming from a variety of specializations. Together, they invite viewers to join the dialogue on modern consumerism, as they share their thoughts and personal reflections on the ethos that drives humanity to devour and the hunger for the intangible, which is expressed in our obsession with the tangible objects that fill the senses, yet keep  the soul malnourished. They look at the depletion of resources stemming from our demand of it, whether actively, passively and forcibly, not in an effort to focus on the negative. Rather, with an eye towards empowering people to take back the strength inherently within and remember that each and every person has a choice as to what, how much, when and in what manner to consume, both objects and experiences. Looking at the subject matter in the broader socio-economic contexts, the participating artists also explore how changing social norms, expectations and relationships mould individual choices, as they investigate its effects on the individual.   - Hannah Jo Uy

Exhibiting Artists
Elaine Jose Bobadilla, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Cristina De Torres, Leny Leonor, Steph Lopez, Valerie Luistro, Patria Regalario

Betweenscapes

Exhibition Dates: May 3 - 24, 2018

SOMArts  934 Brannan Street

Co-presented by Kearny Street Workshop and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, and curated by Kathy Zarur and Roula Seikaly, Betweenscapes interrogates the spaces between colonial power and indigenous resistance, diaspora and homeland, us and them, here and there. Betweenscapes presents the work of 14 artists that visualize the in-between as a site of criticality, addressing unresolved histories and posing questions about colonialism, migration, and transnational solidarity.

Exhibiting Artists
Michael Arcega, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Sarah Farahat, Henry Francisco, Anahita Hekmat, Robin Lasser + Adrienne Pao, Means of Exchange, Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, Bonny Nahmias, Eric Nodora, Susana Eslava Sáenz, Azin Seraj, Keyvan Shovir, Weston Teruya

Check out SF Weekly's review of our show here.

A Reckoning: Botanicals and Beyond

Exhibition Dates: March 2 - April 28, 2018 

Vessel Gallery 
471 25th Street, Oakland, California 94612

Exhibiting Artists
Cherisse Alcantara
Marilyn Bardet
Lauren Crew
Rea Lynn de Guzman
Edith Hillinger
Dave Young Kim
Christy Kovacs
Iris Polos

Sister City Prints
Exhibition Dates: March 15 - April 15, 2018

West Gallery Thebarton   
32 West Thebarton Rd. Thebarton, SA, 5031

The Sister City Prints project has taken a novel approach to art making and turned it into a show brimming with inspiring stories and exciting artworks, all with a printmaking flavour.

In the spirit of true global cooperation, Adelaide artist and curator Andrea Przygonski has brought together 11 contemporary Australian printmakers with 11 international artists and asked them to create something together. Artists from Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth were teamed with artists from Canada, Estonia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, and the U.S.  The catch: most had never met each other before.

Surpassing the boundaries of distance, age and vastly different degrees of commercial success these artists connected with each other to build relationships and create work that expresses their individual interests and concerns.

Exhibiting Artists
Amanda Lawler (Vic) & Traci Horgen (USA), Andrea Przygonski (SA) & Victoria May (USA), Glenda Orr (Qld) & Kathy Boyle (NZ), Hannah Williams (SA) & Rea Lynn de Guzman (USA), Jess Boyce (WA) & Kate Conlon (USA), Kate Zizys (Vic) & Tosh Ahkit (NZ), Loique Allain (Vic) & Rosie Teare (France), Lorelei Medcalf (SA) & Gwen Davies (Canada), Robyn Finlay (SA) & Ruth McEwan-Lyon (Ireland), Sandra Starkey Simon (SA) & Fanny Retsek (USA), Suzie Lockery (SA) & Kristina Paabus (USA/Estonia)

So excited to share my conversation with Rob Goodman from Making Ways, a weekly podcast exploring the unexpected paths to creative careers. This interview is in collaboration with Root Division, a visual arts non-profit that connects creativity and community through a dynamic ecosystem of arts education, exhibitions, and studios. I was a studio artist and a teaching fellow there for two and a half years. Hear all about my journey so far to life as an artist. Listen to the full episode on Making Ways' website, or tune in on iTunes, Spotify, or SoundCloud.

Illustration by Rob Goodman

"Designed in collaboration with Electric Works, Root Division presents a limited-edition box set of prints featuring 15 works by Root Division Alumni from around the globe. Each set in the edition of 50 will feature 15 11x14 in. prints including photography, silkscreen, letterpress, and digital prints inside a specialty archival box -- a Root Division collector’s dream! Printed by Electric Works, Forthrite Printing, and Western Editions."

Artists: Irene Carvajal, Elizabeth Cayne, Angie Crabtree, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Adam Friedman, Jon Gourley, Melissa Hutton, Rachel Jablo, Dennis McNulty, Mie Hørlyck Mogensen, Kelley O'Leary, Nicholas Price, Jenny Salomon, Lindsay Stripling, Brooke Westfall

Photo by Mido Lee

My piece "Imahe" got published on Listen to the Silence 2018 Immigration Narratives: Advancing Our Movement, an inaugural zine by Stanford University's Asian American Student Association, sponsored by Stanford Arts

Visit this link for more information

Cover art: Justin Pastores, "Fruits of Labor"

APAture 2017: Unravel

Kearny Street Workshop Co-presented by Asian American Women Artists Association

Exhibition Dates: September 30 - October 28, 2017

Arc Gallery: 1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco, California 94103

"APAture is Kearny Street Workshop’s annual multidisciplinary arts festival that presents and promotes art by local up-and-coming artists of Asian and/or Pacific Islander descent. For fourteen seasons, the festival has sparked dialogue around contemporary social issues, especially those that affect Asian and/or Pacific Islander communities, and inspired collaboration between artists and community members toward social action. This year, our theme is “Unravel.” Examining our stories, hxstories, narratives, beliefs-- what are the interconnected threads we wish to investigate and untangle? What is there to discover when we unravel?"

Featured Artist: Rea Lynn de Guzman
Showcase Artists: Anh Bui, Selena Ching, Maya Fuji, Nicole Gervacio, Kacy (Kuo-Chen) Jung, Yeji Jung, Anoushka Mirchandani, Rene Morrison, R.L. Muas, Webster Quoc Nguyen, Jerome Pansa, Sherwin Rio, Paolo Salazar, Rochelle Youk
Curated by: Kimberley Arteche, Anthony Bongco, Francis Calimlim, R.L. Muas

Press Links:

Interview with Kubo: The Pinay Millenial Artist Challenging Stereotypes and Gender Roles, October 24, 2017.

TV interview segment with NBC Bay Area: Rea Lynn de Guzman on Asian Pacific America with Robert Handa, October 8, 2017.

Interview with hella pinay: #PINAYCRUSH: INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST REA LYNN DE GUZMAN, September 29, 2017.

Interview and feature with the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGATE and The San Francisco Examiner. September 28-29, 2017.

(De)Centered     

Exhibition Dates: May 13 - June 25, 2017

WAS Gallery  5110 Ridgefield Road, Bethesda, MD 20816

Please join us for (De)Centered: An Exhibition of Filipino American Artists, co-curated by Isabel Manalo and Janna Añonuevo Langholz. The exhibition will also be the official book launch for the Fil/Am Artist Directory’s first publication. 

(De)Centered  includes artwork by 22 Filipino/a-American artists, who hail from across the United States. In their respective artworks, the artists show a connection to both the Philippines and the U.S. and their attempt to remain centered in both places. The work ranges from painting, drawing, and photography to installation and video.

Exhibiting Artists: Adrian Alarilla, Kimberley Acebo Arteche, Daniel Ballesteros, Bel Cuenca, Ulysses Duterte, Jana Ercilla, Alvin Pagdanganan Gregorio, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Janna Añonuevo Langholz, Isabel Manalo, Matt Manalo, Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza, Ged Merino, Kimo Nelson, Maia Cruz Palileo, Carlo Ricafort, Yumi Janairo Roth, Melanie Gritzka del Villar, Pamela Ybañez

"Exhibition to launch first directory of Fil-Am artists," INQUIRER, April 19, 2017.

New Growth 2017: EmPOWERing Peace, Justice & Love

Exhibition Dates: May 8 - May 19, 2017

Root Division: 1131 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103

"Root Division proudly presents New Growth 2017: EmPOWERing Peace, Justice & Love, our annual Youth Art Celebration & Exhibition, featuring hands-on family art-making activities alongside an exhibition of artwork made by students and instructors in Root Division’s free after school Youth Education Program (Bessie Carmichael Elementary, Buena Vista Child Care, Cesar Chavez Elementary, Community Housing Partnership, Filipino Education Center, Horace Mann Middle School, Larkin Street Youth Services, Mission Education Center, SF International High School and Southern Exposure and Root Division's 1:1 Teen Mentorship). Root Division’s Youth Education Program recruits, trains, and places our Studio Artists, volunteers and interns to teach free art classes in one of our nine partner sites, creating a link between practicing artists and the schools’ communities. All of Root Division’s programs serve a diverse group of students, most of which attend San Francisco Unified School District schools."

Artist-Instructors: Kimberley Arteche, Susan Birnbaum, Natasha Carlos, Alice Combs, Caroline Connelly, Susa Cortez, Christina Howard, Hunter Franks, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Shisi Huang, Claire R. Lynch, Joyce Nojima, Alejandra Perez, Centa Schumacher, Julia Shafer, Saree Silverman, Sofia Sinibaldi, Indira Urrutia, Xiao Wang

Exhibition Photos: Eda Li

May at RD: New Growth & Teaching Artist Fellows in the Frank-Ratchye Project Space, May 17, 2017

Excuse Me, Can I See Your ID?   

Exhibition Dates: April 7 - May 27, 2017

Vessel Gallery
471 25th Street, Oakland, California 94612
 

"The idea for this curated group show started with President Obama’s official declaration of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in May two years ago, and in honor of the designation, Vessel Gallery is dedicating two months for Excuse Me, Can I See Your ID? This show is an exploration of Asian American identity, in all of its complexities and nuances, through art and film."—Lonnie Lee, Director, Vessel Gallery

Exhibiting Artists: Cherisse Alcantara, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Dave Young Kim, Heyoung Kim, Kyong Ae Kim, Omid Mokri, Juan Santiago, Sanjay Vora, and Evan Yee

Press links: 

“Dismantling Stereotypes About Asian-American Identity Through Art," Huffington Post Arts & Culture, April 20, 2017,

"An Expanded Approach to Asian-Americannes at Vessel Gallery," KQED Arts, April 13, 2017.

TL Dreams

Exhibition Dates: January 12 - February 23, 2017

Tenderloin Museum, Co-presented by Root Division
398 Eddy St, San Francisco, California 94102

Rea Lynn de Guzman is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores psychological and socio-political themes surrounding liminal identity, cultural assimilation, and the Filipino/a diaspora, tempered by her experience as a Filipina immigrant living in the United States. At the age of fourteen, she emigrated from the Philippines to the United States with her single mother, settling eventually in San Francisco. She lived in the Tenderloin—on Turk Street between Taylor and Jones—during most of her formative years (circa 2000-2005).

TL Dreams parallels the idea of the “American dream,” inspired by memories shared with the artist's fellow Filipino/a immigrant friends who lived in the Tenderloin neighborhood. It explores the difficult, yet exciting and hopeful journey of finding oneself entangled in a web of changes, cultural confusions, and obstacles while coming of age. This exhibition features two bodies of work representing nuanced perspectives on distinct periods in the artist's life. In her early work, de Guzman presents hyper-colored and playful scenes of an imagined world in a state of flux from a young woman’s perspective. Now, sixteen years later, the artist reflects on these shadowy memories in muted monochromatic works indicative of her challenging and often painful experience.

Press links:

"New to America, Raised in the Tenderloin," KQED Arts, January 13, 2017

"TL Dreams - Exhibition and Artist Lecture," Emergent Art Space, March 16, 2017

I was featured for a cover story by Asian Journal Magazine. 

See the full article here: 

"Fil-Am artist Rea Lynn de Guzman: reconnecting with her heritage and history through art," published January 18, 2017.

 Burnt Rice

Exhibition Dates: January 6 - 26, 2017

Wailoa Arts & Cultural Center
200 Piopio Street Hilo, HI 94109

Exhibiting Artists: Kimberley Arteche, Lexygius Calip, Carla Catalina, Paul Escolar, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Jonel Carlo Jugueta, Janna Añonuevo Langholz, Topher Maka, Mona Marcos, Paolo Mejia, Marcius Noceda, Justin Pastores, Carlo Ricafort, Phil Sabado, Michael Sacramento, Juvana Soliven, Aljon Tacata, Maria Fatima Urbi, Mel Vera Cruz, Renee Visaya, Pamela Ybanez

Social Constructs

Exhibition Dates: October 6 - 28, 2016

LH Horton Jr Gallery, San Joaquin Delta College
5151 Pacific Avenue Stockton, CA 95207

Located on the campus of San Joaquin Delta College, Delta Center for the Arts LH Horton Jr Gallery presents Social Constructs, an Exhibition on Identity and Perception. Admission to the Gallery is free and open to the public.

The Social Constructs art exhibition questions common social and cultural identity assumptions. Themes include race, gender, nationality, socioeconomic status, and a shifting reality of what it means to live “The American Dream.” Artists’ works explore topics from their personal cultural heritage, and how socially constructed “realities” have shaped and often misinformed our perspective of the represented cultural groups. Other topics address global concerns such as the lack of affordable housing, health care, climate change, gun violence, and immigration. 

Exhibiting Artists
Jonah Amadeus
EfrenAve
Nancy Buchanan & Carolyn Potter
Gregg Deal
Rea Lynn de Guzman
Mac McCusker
Adrienne Pao
Julee Richardson
Tracey Snelling
Antoine Williams

Fabric Fragments Solo Show

Exhibition Dates: August 19 - October 10, 2016

SOMA Grand, Co-presented by Root Division
1160 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103

Rea Lynn de Guzman explores psychological and socio-political themes surrounding liminal identity, cultural assimilation, and the Filipino/a diaspora, tempered by her experience as a Filipina immigrant living in the United States. 

The Retaso Series references the iconography of “Maria Clara” (a mestiza character from Jose Rizal’s novel Noli me Tangere and metonym for a traditional dress woven from piña fiber and organza). Influenced by Spanish colonization, “Maria Clara” embodies Philippine ideals of female beauty equated with light skin, accompanied by stereotypes of chastity and demureness. Her work presents and challenges the displacement and inferiorization of native ideals by the colonizer, signified by clothing made from a foreign fruit. Through the process of repetitive layering and a palette evoking skin tones, de Guzman utilizes the tactility of specific materials such as image transfers on synthetic organza to extract and repudiate these imposed ideals and stereotypes—material remnants intertwined with cultural legacies.

Cut From The Same Cloth

Exhibition Dates: July 7 - 23, 2016

Root Division: 1131 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103

Presented as part of a two-month exploration into consumerism and cultural expression in the Bay Area, Root Division’s front gallery will feature a two-person show by Irene Carvajal & Rea Lynn de Guzman. Through parallel experiences originating on opposite sides of the world, these Bay Area artists confront universal themes of diaspora and concepts of femininity stemming from their Costa Rican and Filipina heritage. 

Cut From The Same Cloth combines installation, print, and sculptural media with an emphasis on fiber and textiles. Utilizing textiles as a metaphor for a colonized society, Carvajal and de Guzman explore themes of diaspora, hegemony, gender roles, labor, value, and their effects on our psyche.

Exhibition Photos: Mido Lee Productions, Opening Reception Photos: Lizzy Brooks

Press Link:

“Interview: Rea Lynn de Guzman,” Emergent Art Space, August 22, 2016

Remnants

Exhibition Dates: May 17 - July 25, 2016

Paolo Mejia Fine Arts & Design
Jack London Square Realty (Annex)
311 Oak Street, Suite 116 Oakland, CA 94607

In this solo show, San Francisco-based artist Rea Lynn de Guzman references the iconography of “Maria Clara” (a mestiza character from Jose Rizal’s novel Noli me Tangere and metonym for a traditional dress woven from piña fiber and organza). Influenced by Spanish colonization, “Maria Clara” embodies Philippine ideals of female beauty equated with light skin, accompanied by stereotypes of chastity and demureness. Through the process of repetitive layering and a palette evoking skin tones, de Guzman utilizes the tactility of specific materials such as image transfers on synthetic organza to extract and repudiate these imposed ideals and stereotypes—material remnants intertwined with cultural legacies.

Resistance

Exhibition Dates: May 6-27, 2016

SOMArts Co-presented by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center
934 Brannan Street, between 8th & 9th

The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) presents Resistance, a visual arts exhibition as part of the 19th annual United States of Asian America Festival. Curated by Pamela Ybañez, this group exhibition features multidisciplinary works of 10 Asian and Pacific Islander artists from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond exploring themes of gentrification, displacement, placemaking, and the artist’s role in the community through installation, performance, video, and more. Creating a space of expression, exploration, and reflection, the exhibition strives to engage community members to feel empowered and arts communities in San Francisco, Oakland, and elsewhere to intersect in order to present possible solutions around the complex issues of displacement that artists and a multitude of others currently face.

Exhibiting Artists: Rea Lynn de Guzman, Taro Hattori, Eryn Kimura, Bonnie Wai­Lee Kwong, Janna Añonuevo Langholz, Việt Lê, Marcius Noceda, Carlo Ricafort, Pallavi Sharma, HuiMeng Wang                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Exhibition Photos: Mido Lee Productions

New Growth 2016: Celebrating our Community

Exhibition Dates: May 11 - May 21, 2016

Root Division: 1131 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103

Root Division proudly presents New Growth 2016: Celebrating our Community, our annual Youth Art Celebration & Exhibition, featuring hands-on family art-making activities alongside an exhibition of artwork made by students and instructors in Root Division’s free after school Youth Education Program. Root Division’s Youth Education Program provides free art classes to seven after school programs in San Francisco (Bessie Carmichael Elementary, Buena Vista Child Care, Cesar Chavez Elementary, Community Housing Partnership, Horace Mann Middle School, Larkin Street Youth Services, Mission Education Center). In addition to training and placing our Studio Artists at partner sites, we recruit volunteers from the local community to help teach classes in drawing, painting, mixed media, photography, and other arts.

Artist-Instructors: Susan Birnbaum, Leigh Ann Coleman, Susa Cortez, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Kyong Ae Kim, Jessica Lanham, Eda Li, Claire R. Lynch, Kate Miller, Elena Patiño, Alejandra Perez, Blanca Rodríguez, William Tran, Stephanie Wu

Exhibition Photos: Mido Lee Productions

Translations Kolkata

Exhibition Dates: February 19 - 28, 2016

Nandalal Bose Gallery

Kolkata, India

"In line with Emergent Art Space’s mission of creating connections between artists from around the world, and fostering exchange and mutual understanding through art, the exhibition brought together and displayed side by side works by both international and Kolkata artists.

The theme had invited artists to reflect on the challenges, difficulties and possibilities inherent in the effort to translate and communicate, both literally and metaphorically, and to the large and small changes and transformations which are part of the human experience. It was fascinating to see how the concept ‘translation’ was differently interpreted and expanded by the artists who participated in the show, as well as by those who attended the two week workshop. 

‘Translations’ became a motivating, generative concept, full of potential for further expressive and intellectual developments, as it was well illustrated by the speakers who participated in the panel conversation on ‘Translating Culture’, the musicians who performed Hindu traditional music in the multimedia show ‘Translating Time’ at the opening ceremony, and the many visitors who were as well inspired by it."

For more information: emergentartspace.org/translations-kolkata

Press Link:

“Found in translation,” The Telegraph India, March 12, 2016.

Contexture

Exhibition Dates: November 14 – December 14, 2015

The Midway Gallery
900 Marin Street San Francisco, CA 94109

"The Midway is thrilled to present Contexture, a dynamic experimentation in perspective. This multimedia spectacle features the works of Sean Newport, Jeffrey Yip, James Tucker, Claire E. O’Connor, Rea de Guzman, Mona Marcos, Jason Vo, Jean Nagai, and Robin Birdd. These artists probe beyond their respective mediums—from paint to light to textile—illuminating the brilliant and intense tactility of perception. Saturating their art with geometric repetitions and complex designs inspired by the everyday, the artists of Contexture take us on a veritable odyssey of heightened aesthetics where static objects breathe and trances are turned to dreams."

Now is it

Exhibition Dates: October 1-29, 2015

Oakland Asian Cultural Center: 388 9th St., #290 Oakland, CA 94607
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 1-7pm, Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 9am-3pm

Exhibiting Artists: Kimberley Arteche, Carla Catalina, Reynaldo Cayetano Jr, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Trinidad Escobar, Topher Maka, Marcius Noceda, Justin Pastores, Carlo Ricafort, Melanie Sangalang, Maria Fatima Urbi, Mel Vera Cruz, Pamela Ybañez

APAture 2015: Future Tense

Exhibition Dates: October 2-17, 2015

Kearny Street Workshop Co-presented by: Asian American Women Artists Association
Arc Gallery: 1246 Folsom St. San Francisco, CA 94103

Featured Artist: Kimberley Arteche
Showcase Artists: Austin Boe, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Grace Kim, Kyong Ae Kim, Alan Khum, Hadar Kleiman & Xiao Wang, Jana & Lawrence, Topher Maka, Nicholas Oh, Sunshine Velasco, Jeremy Villaluz, Tianxing Wang

Curated by: Rea Lynn de Guzman, Dara Del Rosario, & Vincent Yin

Exhibition Photos: Rea Lynn de Guzman

14 Rapid: Transit and Transition

Exhibition Dates: August 8 - September 5, 2015

Citizen Fox Co-presented by Root Division
2293 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94110

"As Root Division prepares to open our new 13,000 square foot facility at 1131 Mission Street to the public in September--this month, we are presenting our August 2nd Saturday exhibition offsite in the heart of our old Mission District neighborhood. Mission Street is a main artery through a variety of the fastest evolving neighborhoods in San Francisco. In 14 Rapid: Transit and Transition, fourteen artists consider the #14 Bus line, and the evolution of Mission Street in a variety of media including performance, video, painting, sculpture and photography. The #14 Muni bus line runs from Daly City to SoMA and carries passengers representing the rich cultural diversity that San Francisco’s Crocker Amazon, Excelsior, Mission District and SoMA residents represent. While Root Division will no longer be located, “in The Mission,” our new building will be “on Mission.” Please join us in this time of organizational and city wide evolution, as we celebrate our old neighborhood, and look just down the street--only a few bus stops away--to our future home."

Exhibiting Artists: Holly Coley, Susa Cortez, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Jon Fischer, Eliza Gregory, Cayla Harris, Plinio Hernandez, Meredith Leich, Raphael Noz, Billy Ocallaghan, Blanca Estela Rodríguez, Julia Sackett, Emmanuel Sevilla, Rhonda Weppler

New Growth 2015: Heart of the City

Exhibition Dates: May 6 - 21, 2015

Root Division: 1131 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103

"Root Division proudly presents New Growth 2015: Heart of the City, our annual Youth Art Celebration & Exhibition, featuring hands-on family art-making activities alongside an exhibition of artwork made by students and instructors in Root Division’s free after school Youth Education Program (Buena Vista Child Care, Cesar Chavez Elementary, Horace Mann Middle School, Mission Education Center, Larkin Street Youth). The gallery exhibition on view features creative endeavors in painting, sculpture, drawing, and mixed media made by elementary school students in our Youth Education Program shown alongside the artwork of our artist-instructors."

Artist-Instructors: Ana Bedolla, Susa Cortez, Irene Carvajal, Holly Colley, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Cayla Harris, Carrie Leeb, Carmen Melendez, Lauren Melendez, Katherine Mergens, Vreni Michellini Castillo, Allegra Bick-Maurischat

Analog Digital

Southern Exposure

ARTISTS IN EDUCATION: 2014–2015 One-On-One Mentorship Program

Youth artists paired with professional artists in their medium of interest convene together each week at Southern Exposure, splitting into pairs and rejoining to collaborate as a group throughout the year. The mentees learn new skills, develop projects with their mentors, participate in group critiques and share their experiences.

This year, mentors and mentees collaboratively explore the differences between digital and analog technology – and the impact such technologies have on their daily lives. Working in painting and drawing, photography, sculpture, video, body painting and other media, this interdisciplinary group show presents the work of the accomplished artists from Southern Exposure’s year-long program.

Teaching Artist Mentors: Rea Lynn de Guzman, Eliza Gregory, Em Meine, Carissa Potter, Gabriel Schame, Sofia Sharpe, Lauren Taylor, Anna Wolf-Pauly
Youth Artist Mentees: Ali, Cameron, Gabe, Grace, Htay, Jen, Laura, Nelly