3RD ANNUAL BAY AREA ART STARS
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 5 - 7:30 PM
Connect with Art Stars from the Bay Area arts scene at NCWCA's third annual “Bay Area Art Stars Women’s Networking Event." Emerging women in the arts are invited to join us for a professional meet-up with established artists, gallerists, curators, and representatives from major arts organizations. This year's event will take place via Zoom.
2020 ART STAR BIOGRAPHIES
KAREN M. GUTFREUND, FEMINIST CURATOR & AUTHOR |
MICHELLE MANSOUR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ROOT DIVISION |
![]() Karen M. Gutfreund is an independent curator and artist. Actively promoting the work of activist and feminist artists with national touring exhibitions, she has produced over thirty-five to date, managing all aspects from curation, artist and project management along with installation. She has worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department at MoMA, the Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group, the John Berggruen Gallery, and is an art consultant to both corporations and individuals. Gutfreund served as the National Exhibitions Director for the Women’s Caucus for Art, is a member of ArtTable, the Northern California Representative for The Feminist Art Project (TFAP), and curator for UniteWomen.org. Upcoming exhibitions include “Agency: Feminist Art and Power” at the Museum of Sonoma County and “Deadlocked and Loaded: Disarming America” at ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse, NY. She just published a book “Not Normal: Art in the Age of Trump” and is currently writing a book on DIY Exhibitions.
PATRICIA A. MONTGOMERY, AWARD-WINNING TEXTILE AND INSTALLATION ARTIST![]() Patricia A. Montgomery was acknowledged by the Alliance for California Traditional Art’s Apprenticeship Program as a Master Quilting Artist. In 2013, she was awarded the Creative Work Fund Grant in Traditional Arts which supported new work and the collaboration with a nonprofit organization. Her historical story quilts transformed into a swing coat representing individuals from the Civil Rights Movement. These swing coats tell the stories of unknown heroines and their major contribution to the most important movement of the twentieth century. Montgomery has exhibited national and international. Her recent coat title "Wedding Coat: The Story About Domestic Violence" was awarded in 2018 Best of Show in the Wearable Art Competition at the Pacific International Quilt Festival. Last month, Montgomery did a Zoom Presentation on her Civil Rights Coats for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles with over 300+ participations.
Born in Biloxi, Mississippi and raised in Hempstead, New York until 1979. Montgomery earned a Master of Fine Art from John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Holy Names College. She currently resides in Oakland, California. ASHLEY L. VOSS, OWNER-DIRECTOR OF VOSS GALLERY![]() Ashley L. Voss is a gallerist and arts advocate based in San Francisco, CA. She is the owner/director of Voss Gallery, an art gallery dedicated to showcasing work by emerging and mid-career artists in both solo and thematically organized group shows with an emphasis in the New Contemporary. Most recently, she served as a member of the ArtSpan Outreach Committee and frequently participates as a gallerist reviewer for the SFAN portfolio review sessions. Her writing has been published in Pelican Bomb and Art Practical.
Ashley worked as the Gallery Manager for Art Attack SF (2017 – 2019) and Curatorial & Communications Manager for PARSE NOLA (2015 – 2017). She has held additional positions at a number of arts organizations, including Q Artists Cooperative and The Riverfront Arts Center in Stevens Point, WI and The Front, and Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. In 2014, she curated two exhibitions for the Chippewa Valley Cultural Association/Heyde Center for the Arts in Chippewa Falls, WI. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Management degree with an emphasis in Art History from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. |
![]() Michelle Mansour is an artist, educator, and curator as well as the current Executive Director of Root Division, a visual arts non-profit in San Francisco. Her work as been shown in a variety of non-profit and commercial venues such as Bedford Gallery, Southern Exposure, McLoughlin Gallery, Morris Graves Museum, and Minnesota Street Project, including solo exhibitions at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, RB Stevenson Gallery (La Jolla), Berkeley Art Center, and Latham Square via ProArts. Mansour has work in a variety of collections including Nordstroms, Hilton Hotels, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, and the El Camino Hospital. Mansour is the recipient of an Honorary Fellowship and multiple residencies from Djerassi Resident Artists Program and has had residencies at Cow House Studios (Ireland) and Casa Na Ilha (Brazil). She has also curated and co-curated several exhibitions including 2x2's at ProArts and Metaphysical Abstraction: Contemporary Approaches to Spiritual Content. Mansour received her MFA in Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received a BA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University and a Post Baccalaureate degree in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Mansour has given lectures and been on panels with the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts, The Lab, San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, University of San Francisco, and Sonoma State University.
CONNIE TELL, ARTS PROGRAMMING SPECIALIST, CHAIR OF THE FEMINIST ART PROJECT NATIONAL COMMITTEE![]() Connie Tell is a freelance arts programming specialist and curatorial advisor. She is the Chair of The Feminist Art Project National Committee, an active member of the CAA (College Art Association) Committee on Women in the Arts, and the former director and curator of the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities (CWAH) at Rutgers University. Tell is well known nationally for organizing The Feminist Art Project Day of Panels at CAA Annual Conferences. She has extensive experience creating and overseeing exhibitions, educational, interdisciplinary, scholarly, and public programs, as well as grant writing. As CWAH director and curator at Rutgers University, she was responsible for The Feminist Art Project, the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series (the longest continuously running exhibition program for women artists in the U.S), the Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist Program, the CWAH Visiting Scholars Program, and Feminist Art Online Education curricula. Tell has an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and BFA from the University of Massachusetts.
SANDRA YAGI, INTERNATIONALLY-KNOWN SURREALIST PAINTER![]() Sandra Yagi is a painter who lives and works in San Francisco, California. She is interested in the intersection between science and art, using themes of anatomy, genetic manipulation, evolution, and medical oddities as inpiration for the creation of intricate, small and medium scale paintings in traditional styles. These works depict strange worlds where flesh is malleable, and skeletons of conjoined twins at play.
She was raised in suburban Denver Colorado, and from an early age she loved science (especially biology) and drawing. Yagi’s parents instilled in her an ethic of getting a “useful” education because of their concern for monetary and domestic stability—a result of their internment with other Japanese-Americans during WWII. Yagi therefore put art aside, obtained a Masters in Business Administration, and worked in the corporate world, where she put in 27 years at major financial institutions. However, due to the pent-up need to create, she took up drawing and painting again at age 32, while still working in finance. She left the corporate life behind for good in 2008 and became a full time artist. Her works are in numerous private collections, including those of Axl Rose, Ben Stiller, Miley Cyrus, Chris Vroom (Co-Founder of Artspace), Paul Ruscha, and film director Lee Unkrich (director of Toy Story 3). Her work has been shown internationally, and may be viewed at Bert Green Fine Art in Chicago, IL, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, CA and at her website: http://sandrayagi.com/ |
GET TICKETS FOR THE 3RD ANNUAL BAY AREA ART STARS ZOOM EVENT
A limited number of tickets for this event are available through Eventbrite.