SOAD KADER
Working within the mediums of collage, painting, photography, printmaking and installation, I explore ideas of belonging, connection, empowerment and wholeness from the inside out. Informed by my ongoing journey of becoming more fully myself within my multiracial, multicultural, immigrant heritage living and learning on four continents, I encourage others to also step more fully into themselves. Inner worlds create outer worlds and integrity with oneself helps create the same in society. Transformation is not easy, but it is rewarding. My work invites us to appreciate the beauty of our inner treasures and tribulations to better align our pleasures, power and purpose.
Point of view and quality of attention affects what and how we see, feel, and understand about ourselves, each other and our environment as well as which choices we make affecting both mundane and profound outcomes. Seeing and feeling different types of environments, especially the change of perspective like looking down from a rooftop, mountain top or from an airplane create opportunities to practice being open to observe and learn before the filters of the mind decides it knows.
Growing up with my Egyptian Muslim scientist father and my Basque-Italian-American Catholic do-it-yourselfer maker mother, first in megacity Cairo, Egypt, and then in college town Davis, California was a colorful adventure of multilayered moving and contrasting parts - a living kaleidoscope. Navigating nuances of who I was and how I fit in as a seven year old newly arrived in the United States was awkward, confusing, painful. All of a sudden, everything I knew seemed wrong. Was I wrong? I dreaded the endless questioning “What are you?” “Where are you from?” or responding to my name at roll call. I sought the answers for acceptance and inclusion even if my answers were lies. I felt judged, rejected and excluded. In an effort for some ease I asked my parents, “Can I change my name to Susan?” They said no. Ever since I’ve been looking for the right answers and eventually I realized I had them as truth inside me.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Art, Art Studio, magna cum laude, 1990
University of California, Davis - Faculty: Squeak Carnwath, Roy De Forest, Mike Henderson,
David Hollowell, Manuel Neri, Roland Peterson, Lucy Puls, Cornelia Schulz, Wayne Thiebaud
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023 About Face, (opening April 15, 2023) Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA
2023 Invitational Group Exhibit 48 Pillars, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 Knowing Ourselves (solo exhibit) - China Basin, Lobby 1, KFF & UCSF Primary Care, San Francisco, CA
2022 Inner Worlds - Knowing Ourselves (solo exhibit) - China Basin, Lobby 6, UCSF Radiology, San Francisco, CA
2022 Pictures of People, digital exhibit with Alice Neel: People Come First, at de Young Museum
2022 A Window Through, Bioneers at The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
2022 Women Rising, Seven Eighty Valencia, San Francisco, CA
2022 Reassessing Values, City Hall, San Francisco, CA
2021 SPARCX, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2021 BASL, Voss Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2020 FourSquared, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2020 Women Rising, The Drawing Room, San Francisco, CA
2019 Carnaval San Francisco, 10 years creating and performing in an award winning contingent Latin Dance Grooves, Mission District, SF, CA
2019 Inner Worlds, China Basin, San Francisco, CA
2019 Time, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2019 Movers & Shakers, The Drawing Room, San Francisco, CA
2018 Art & Activism: Drawing the Line, Children's Museum of the Arts, New York, NY
2018 Diptychs, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2018 The Excitement of Suggestion, China Basin, San Francisco, CA
2018 ka'POW!, Heroic Women, Pacific Pinball Museum, Alameda, CA
2017 With Liberty and Justice for Some, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2017 Resistance, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017 Sanctuary City: With Liberty and Justice for Some, San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017 With Liberty and Justice for Some, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Identity Arc Gallery, San Francisco & Of Light & Color, PRF 711, San Francisco CA
2015 Artifacts, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA & Resolution, by ArtSpan Arc Gallery, San Francisco ,CA
2014 Periphery, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA & Salt Water Cures, Castro Wellness, SF, CA
2013 The Third Mind, Big Umbrella Studios, San Francisco, CA
2013 Memento, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Bs.As. SF, two cities, one spirit?, Misho Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Golden Gate, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 SoMa Artists at ArtHaus, San Francisco, CA
2011 San Francisco Summer, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 Freedom, Secession Art and Design, San Francisco, CA
2010 Pairs, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010 Ritual, Cara and Cabezas Contemporary, Kansas City, MO
2010 Be Present: Connect, Mamá Art Cafe, San Francisco, CA
AWARDS - HONORS - PRESS - RESIDENCIES
2023 Kala Art Institute, Artist-in-Residence, Berkeley, CA
2022 Meaning and Purpose: The Projects That Mattered - Meet Soad Kader (written interview)
2022 Licensed artwork to The C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco
2022 Received a Certificate of Honor from the City & County of San Francisco in recognition of my commitment to enriching lives through art.
2022 ArtSpan Reassessing Values interview with Soad Kader (video interview)
2021 ArtSpan "Campaign Collateral Competition:Top Winner" - "Inner Worlds" portraits promote SFOS on the guide cover, billboards, busses.
2017 Huffington Post Artists Mobilize: With Liberty and Justice for Some . . . An Exhibition Honoring Immigrants" Amy Pleasant, January 19, 2017
2017 KQED “Portraits of an Immigrant-Filled Nation at Walter Maciel Gallery” Sarah Hotchkiss & Kelly Whalen, 2/8/17 - Video here.
2015 Co-Chair for ArtSpan San Francisco Open Studios Committee
2014 ArtSpan Spotlight Artist for SFOS Guide - Theme: "Resilience"
2011 Served five years on ArtSpan San Francisco Open Studios Committee
2006 Fundación Valparaíso, Artist-in-Residence, Mojácar, Spain
COLLECTORS
In private and institutional collections nationally and internationally including in Argentina, Egypt, France, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Spain,
South Africa, Thailand, United States, and Venezuela.
MORE
Educator, Dancer, Lover of fútbol (soccer), world cultures and expression in adornment, arts, design, fashion, food, language, music, textiles, and travel. Forever working for social justice, personal freedom, cultural evolution and wellbeing for an egalitarian, inclusive and thriving society through personal growth, accountability, and joy. Let's go!