December Exhibitions
Phygital Care
Curated by Judit Navratil
Phygital Care explores intangible care as a collective practice that moves in-between analog and digital spaces that are no longer divided. Artists of VR Art Camp, a social VR art residency have facilitated the integration and exchange of the impact of our phygital experiences; weaving social VR prompts with in-person participatory performances, ludic workshops, and discussions in nature. In the intersection of serious play, ritual, avatarism, and experimental IRL gaming, we aim to create a care-full campfire setting, sitting around, nearby and sharing those stories to be told.
This exhibition is a culmination of in person and online gatherings; an archive of VR Art Camp’s social VR spaces that are no longer accessible after Mozilla Hubs closed down in May 2024. Our Show and Tell events were special occasions where resident artists guided participants through our social VR spaces. Exploring these works together offered a different kind of attention and understanding of these VR translations of various art practices of womxn and underserved artists.
New Works
Organized by PJ Gubatina Policarpio and Vanessa Perez Winder
Root Division is proud to present New Works, a dynamic selection of artworks created by artists participating in our Studios Program. Featuring a range of approaches—including drawing, painting, sculpture, multimedia and photography—the show provides a glimpse into the creative energy cultivated in this unique environment.
Root Division’s Studios Program is central to our core mission of fostering creativity, community, and access to the arts. Designed as an incubator for emerging artists in the Bay Area, we offer discounted studio spaces at below market rates in exchange for community service; including gallery assistance, exhibition programming and installation, and teaching art classes to youth and adults. Root Division Studio Artists come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, each bringing a unique perspective to their craft. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, allowing us to support a rotating cohort of artists.
Through their time in the program, Studio Artists receive valuable resources to sustain and grow their art practice. Professional and creative development opportunities, exhibition platforms, and connections to Root Division’s network of peers, curators, collectors, and cultural workers empower artists to expand their practice in exciting ways and form long-lasting connections.
Chase Irvin: Asking for the mud to give way
Organized by Vanessa Perez Winder
The Frank-Ratchye Project Space is pleased to present Asking for the mud to give way, an exhibition by studio artist Alum Chase Irvin.
In Asking for the mud to give way, Chase Irvin looks to the complex processes of grief through the lens of self-portraiture. Exploring themes of temporality, disembodiment, and impermanence using new mediums and an abstracted visual language, these new paintings channel the interior, transitory nature of loss.
Materiality and process play a central role in this exhibition, mirroring the fluidity and mutability of mourning. In Acts of Impermanence I-II , Irvin practices the labor of letting go and relinquishing control. Layering sensitive materials on top of clay and allowing them to interact and resist, she harnesses their spontaneous reactions. In contrast, her ethereal treatment of light, shadow, and perspective in the Mud series renders them as elusive, fragmented reflections of the self.
Asking for the mud to give way makes space for viewers to linger in the ambiguity of grief—not as an ending, but as an unfolding. Irvin offers a meditation on grief as a generative force, illustrating how surrendering to change can foster deep personal and artistic evolution.