SOAD KADER
I always want to be by the window. I love looking out - seeing and feeling different types of space, especially the change of perspective like looking down from a rooftop or from an airplane. I enjoy the ambiguity and call to look more closely, to delight in the details and abstract qualities of the moment. Noticing colors, lines, shapes, character of light or movement allowing me to linger, imagine, and connect. My work explores how point of view and quality of attention affects what and how we see, feel, and understand about our world.
I grew up with my Egyptian Muslim father and my Basque-Italian-American Catholic mother, first in Egypt, and then in California. The mix they created by coming together continues to inform my identity and influence my perspectives and explorations. Navigating nuances of cultural, racial and religious identities as an eight year old newly arrived in the United States was challenging. I dreaded the question “What are you?” or responding to my name at roll call. I wanted to belong. I asked my parents, “Can I change my name to Susan?” Thankfully they said no. Becoming comfortable with my multi-mixed heritage identities and experiences navigating outside the boxes gives me a unique vantage point and skillset to nurture a continual curiosity and openness for varied and multiple perspectives and ways of connecting and belonging to this wild wonderful world.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
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 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 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
2021 ArtSpan "Campaign Collateral Competition: Top Winner" - My "Inner Worlds" portraits promote Open Studios on the guide cover and on billboards!
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. Feb 8, 2017
2014 ArtSpan Spotlight Artist - Theme: "Resilience"
EDUCATION
BA, 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
GRANTS and RESIDENCIES
Fundación Valparaíso
Mojácar, Spain
COLLECTORS
Argentina, Egypt, France, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, United States, Venezuela