CURRENT EXHIBITION
SANA(A)
An Exhibition of Prints by Jessica Sabogal and Shanna Strauss
August 25–October 1, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, August 25, 6:30-8:30pm
Featured image: Healing of the Wound by Jessica Sabogal and Shanna Strauss
SANA(A) debuts the six-year collaboration between life partners and artistic duo Jessica Sabogal and Shanna Strauss. Together, they meticulously hand-print their individual and collaborative works on paper, encompassing an array of techniques, including photopolymer gravure, screenprint, and relief printmaking.
The theme at the heart of this exhibition is the healing of wounds, explored within various dimensions. Through their own personal journeys and their connections with other queer and trans women of color, both living and departed, they investigate how we mend individual, collective, and societal wounds, caused by grief, family dynamics, invisible labor, and migration.
The title of the exhibition itself carries a profound significance, blending the artists’ cultural backgrounds. “Sana” translates as a compelling command to “heal” in Spanish, while “sanaa” embodies the essence of “art” in Kiswahili, weaving together the roots of Sabogal’s Colombian background and Strauss’s Tanzanian heritage. They interweave elements of these legacies within their work by incorporating symbols, patterns and artifacts from their respective motherlands.
SANA(A) visually represents the artists’ dedication to depicting women of color existence, voices, tenderness, care-taking, and spaces–not as subjects, rather as centers. Each piece they create is a celebration of our differences and a symbol of our liberation.
About the Artists:
Jessica Sabogal and Shanna Strauss‘ collective studio is called Taller Sanaa, (TA – YER SAN- AR). Jessica is a cuir Colombian – American muralistx from San Francisco whose large-scale public artworks attempt to document and disrupt. Shanna is Tanzanian – American mixed media artist whose work centers on honoring and uplifting the oral traditions and stories of Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color. Together, their practice draws inspiration, connection, and influence from contemporary political and social movements. Their collaborative discipline is committed to uplifting the sacredness of women, people of color, the disabled, queer and trans folks, immigrants and the undocumented, and indigenous peoples, whom history perpetually renders as less than human. For the past six years, they have cultivated a new visual practice, encompassing muralism, printmaking, community engagement, and public art.
Their work has been collected and exhibited by various institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the PHI Foundation, the Library of Congress, The Obama Foundation Inaugural Summit, and Galería de la Raza. Together, they have been commissioned by the California Endowment, the University of California, San Francisco, and the Euphrat Museum to create public art installations. Notably, they have also received several awards including the Kala Art Institute Fellowship, Women’s Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant, and the Incahoots Full-Grant Residency. They reside together in Oakland, California/Huchiun, unceded Ohlone territory.
2023 Denbo Publishing Residency Print
The Defender
Photopolymer gravure and photo lithography with chine-collé
The Defender is the newly created print edition by Jessica Sabogal and Shanna Strauss completed in Pyramid’s studios during their Denbo Publishing Residency in August 2023 with technical support from Pyramid’s community of artists
In The Defender, Jessica and Shanna explore the importance of work done by queer, trans, and non-binary women of color within their communities that is often invisible and underappreciated. The figure is of Malaya Tuyay, a Filipinx artist, activist, and community organizer. This powerful portrait highlight’s Mayala’s strength and commitment to supporting indigenous activism in the Philippines through organizing networks in California, as well as her work preserving and studying the traditional Filipino martial artform Kali. The machete she holds was gifted by her own Kali teacher.
Jessica and Shanna printed this striking likeness using the photopolymer gravure technique on Hahnemuhle Copperplate paper. The colorful background incorporates not only traditional Filipinx design motifs to honor their subject, but also those from the artists’ own Colombian and Tanzanian heritages. The symbolic interweaving of these visual traditions creates a mandala-like halo of reverence that was printed using photolithography. Layers of colored ink were laid down on Japanese Kozo Shi paper. This tissue-thin paper was then adhered to the photopolymer gravure sheet using the pressure of the printing press in a process called chine-collé.
During their three week Denbo Publishing Residency, Jessica and Shanna created an edition of 25 of these meticulously crafted artworks, some of which are available for sale.
Exhibition Gallery:
The Denbo Publishing Residency is made possible in part by support of the family of artist Beverly Denbo. Pyramid is also grateful to Landex Development, which operates miXt Food Hall, Artisan 4100 and Studio 3807 in Brentwood, for providing housing during the artists’ stay in the Gateway Arts District.
Previous Galleries
- Jul 08 2023: BETWEEN TWO FIRES
- May 20 2023: OVER THE RAINBOW
- Apr 01 2023: MEMBERS MASHUP
- Feb 11 2023: A COLLABORATION OF CREATIVITY
- Dec 17 2022: PASTPORTS
- Nov 19 2022: 10x10 INVITATIONAL 2022
- Oct 15 2022: ALTERED ENVIRONMENTS
- Aug 20 2022: LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER
- Jun 17 2022: ARE WE THERE YET
- May 07 2022: LIFE AQUATIC
- Mar 11 2022: MEMBERS MASHUP 2022
- Jan 22 2022: EXPLORING DEAF GEOGRAPHIES
- Dec 4 2021: 10x10 INVITATIONAL 2021
- Sep 17 2021: REFLECTING BACK TO THE FUTURE
- Jul 24 2021: NINE ARTISTS
- May 29 2021: MAPS AND MAZES
- Apr 16 2021: NATURAL CONNECTIONS
- Feb 26 2021: RELIEF
- Nov 13 2020: 10x10 INVITATIONAL 2020
- Sep 26 2020: MASHUP 2020: ELECTION YEAR