SOAD KADER

Working within the mediums of collage, painting, and printmaking I explore ideas of 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. How we see things also informs our choices 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 creates 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 inside me. When we belong to ourselves we can be anywhere with greater ease.

Welcome to StudioSoad!Find your art crush at StudioSoad. Contact artist Soad by email [email protected] to schedule a live or video studio visit. See, connect, choose your next artwork to enliven your space.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Art, Art Studio, magna cum laude, 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 FaceBedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA 

2023   Invitational Group Exhibit 48 PillarsArc 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 ThroughBioneers 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 - PRESENTATIONS

2023   de Young Museum guest educator, "Inside Out Self Portrait", San Francisco, CA

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!

 

 

 

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