Explore Panels By Creative Discipline

Silhouette of a microphone.
Black background with a large white music note symbol on the left, and five horizontal white lines on the right, representing a musical staff.
Icon of a camera with a black outline on a white background.
Icon of a mountain and sun on an orange background, representing outdoor landscape or nature.

Visual Art

Icon of a video camera with a lens on the right side and two circles representing the camera's body and lens on the left side, all in black and white.
Icon of a paint roller and a paintbrush crossed together, representing painting tools.
Black and white icon of a person's foot with a dashed circular arrow around it, indicating walking or movement.

Previous Visual Art Panelists

A pie chart with a large blue section and smaller black and gray sections, representing different data proportions.
Black and white portrait of a woman with long, curly hair, smiling and looking at the camera.

  • 2025 Panelist
    Narges Poursadeqi, born and raised in Tehran, Iran, began her artistic journey in photography and video at the Iranian Youth Cinema Society before studying Fine Art at UC Berkeley and California College of the Arts. Her work explores culture, memory, and narrative, drawing on political events, cultural history, and religion. Through archived media, Poursadeqi creates pieces reflecting political movements, cultural shifts, and religious discourse. Poursadeqi's pieces have been exhibited at venues such as Hamzianpour & Kia Gallery, Artists' Television Access, and Kala Art Gallery. She is a recipient of the Artist Residence Award at the Kala Art Institute and the Alumnx Residency at California College of the Arts

Narges Poursadequi

A person with short black hair, wearing gray-rimmed glasses, a blue striped shirt, and a dark green sweater, standing in front of colorful abstract artwork.

  • 2025 Panelist
    Fred Noland is a visual storyteller and Adjunct Professor in the Comics Program at CCA. His comics have appeared in The New Yorker, and he created San Francisco Black History, a public art series for the San Francisco Arts Commission. His memoir comics collection, Steady Rollin', was released in 2023. He is currently working on Major Taylor, a biographical comic about the first Black World Champion in road cycling. Noland lives in Oakland, California, and is an avid cyclist.

Simon Tran

Digital illustration of a man with dark skin, wearing a black cap, large black glasses, and a green jacket with a yellow pin featuring a lightning bolt. The background is textured in tan color.

Frederick Noland

  • 2024, 2025 Panelist
    Simon is a visual artist and educator who manages the Artists in Education program at Southern Exposure, an artist centered non-profit, in San Francisco, CA. He works with Bay Area youth and teaching artists to create exhibitions for Southern Exposure through various art enrichment programing. Simon is also on the Berkeley Art Center program committee. He has created large scale painted murals and installations for Meta, Chapter 510, and Montage Health.

Smiling man with glasses and beard in a room with wooden walls and large window.

  • 2024, 2025 Panelist
    Lawrence Rinder has been an educator at MoMA, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Walker Art Center, and curator and director at BAMPFA. He previously served as Dean of the College at the California College of the Arts. Lawrence is currently working independently as a curator and writer, exploring his own creativity by working on several novels.

Lawrence Rinder

Digital illustration of a man with glasses, a beard, and a bald head wearing a light blue shirt, set against a yellow background.

Kota Ezawa

  • 2025 Panelist
    Kota Ezawa visually transforms imagery he mines from the news, the history of art, photography, film, and popular culture in his acclaimed video animations, lightboxes, murals, sculptures, watercolors, and other artworks. By translating iconic images from one visual form to another, his work invites both the artist and viewers to reflect on how images shape our cultural consciousness.

A woman with long dark hair wearing a blue top standing outdoors.

  • 2025 Panelist
    Daisy Nam is a curator, writer and lecturer. Currently serving as the Director and Chief Curator of The Wattis Institute at CCA, she has over 15 years of experience organizing exhibitions and programs for arts institutions and universities including Ballroom Marfa; the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard; the New Museum; and Columbia University. She holds an M.A. in Modern Art Curatorial and Critical Studies from Columbia University and a B.A. in Art History with a Cinema Studies minor from New York University.

Daisy Nam

A woman with light skin and blue eyes smiling slightly, wearing a yellow shirt with white and orange flowers, and blue hoop earrings, standing in front of a colorful mural.

  • 2024 Panelist
    Annie makes paintings and ceramic sculptures that explore femininity, symbolism, and art historical references. She received a BA from Vassar College in 2019 and an MFA from California College of the Arts in 2023. Leaning into her affinity for collecting, sorting, and obsessing over objects, her work finds humor, heartbreak, joy, and meaning in the jumbled world we inhabit.

Annie Duncan

A close-up portrait of a smiling woman with short curly hair against an orange background.

  • 2024 Panelist
    Adrianne is an independent curator who has organized exhibitions and programming for Berkeley Art Center, Root Division, and USC Roski Galleries, and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of GIRLS. She holds both a B.A. in Art History and an M.A. in Curatorial Practices from the University of Southern California. Adrianne's recent achievements include being a 2023 Alternative Exposure Grantee (GIRLS); the Inaugural Artist Power Center Artist of the Month (July 2022); and a 2020 YBCA 100 Honoree.

Adrianne Ramsey

A smiling man with dark, curly hair and a goatee, wearing a blue collared shirt, in front of a beige background.

  • 2024 Panelist
    Demetri is the Senior Director of Education at Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, CA. He is also an independent curator and practicing artist, and his artwork has been exhibited internationally and most recently at the de Young Museum, Crocker Art Museum and Art Gallery of Alberta. Demetri's artwork is held in several private and public collections and was recently acquired by the Monterey Art Museum, the de Young Museum, and Crocker Art Museum. He is represented by Patricia Sweetow Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

Demetri Broxton

A woman with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a white knitted sweater and gold earrings, smiling indoors with a blurred background of plants and white walls.

  • 2024 Panelist
    Kathryn is the Director of Artist Relations at Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. In her former role as assistant curator at the San José Museum of Art (SJMA), she organized Hito Steyerl: Factory of the Sun; Jean Conner: Collage; as well as solo exhibitions of artists including Sonya Rapoport, Jay DeFeo, Catherine Wagner, and Louise Nevelson. Kathryn was the author of SJMA’s digital collection catalogue 50x50: Stories of Visionary Artists from the Collection. She has worked for private collections in San Francisco and curated exhibitions for the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. She earned an MA in Curatorial Practice at California College of the Arts and BA at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.

Kathryn Wade

Smiling woman with long, light brown hair, wearing a black top and layered gold necklaces, against a dark background.

  • 2023 Panelist
    Lani Rovzar has a long career in Bay Area arts administration, branded enviroments and a personal fine arts practice. Passionate about supporting local artists and community, she founded 42 Degrees Arts Agency and has served on the advisory board of the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. She has a BFA in Fibers and produces fine art photography through Lani Rovzar Studio.

Lani Rovzar

A man with short brown hair and a black shirt sitting in front of a wooden background.

  • 2023 Panelist
    Nathan Lynch is a sculptor, performance artist, and is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Ceramics Program at California College of the Arts. His work has been shown at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Gallery 16, San Francisco; the Exploratorium, San Francisco. He has a permant installation at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito and is the design lead for habitat restoration projects for endagered seabirds in the Pacific.

Nathan Lynch

A woman with shoulder-length light brown hair wearing a black and white vertically striped shirt standing outside in front of a metallic wall with circular decorations.

  • 2023 Panelist
    Chris Thorson is an artist and the Dean of Arts Practice, Painting at the Oxbow School in Napa. She has exhibited nationally in such shows as Managing Object Expectations at the Hessel Museum, Bard College; Uncanny at Des Lee Gallery at Washington University in St. Louis, and Im(material) at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA; and at galleries in New York, San Diego, and San Francisco.

Chris Thorson

A woman with long, wavy auburn hair wearing a yellow top and smiling at the camera.

  • 2022, 2023 Panelist
    Tova Lobatz has produced over 100 art installations nationwide and successfully launched two public art projects. She advises artists, collectors, architects, designers, and brands on creating environments that inspire them by connecting them with the right artist and delivering a seamless project from start to finish. As Director of Heron Arts, Tova emphasizes programming that reflects the community, is inclusive, and responsive to the needs of the diverse, emerging Bay Area art scene.

Tova Lobatz

Black-and-white portrait of a bald man with a neutral expression, wearing a bandana around his neck, against a plain background.

  • 2023 Panelist
    Brian Singer, also known as Someguy, is a San Francisco based fine artist whose studio practice and large-scale public projects address a variety of social justice issues. With a meticulous rigor and legibility informed by his experience as a graphic designer and visual communicator, Singer’s work invites critical engagement through surprising juxtapositions of media and wordplay.

Brian Singer

A woman with long black hair wearing a white shirt, standing in front of a colorful background with rainbow-colored lights or reflections.

  • 2023 Panelist
    Haoyun Erin Zhao is a multidisciplinary artist based in San Francisco, California, working in printmaking, painting, sculpture, and installation. She has been published in various magazines and exhibited in museums, galleries, and art fairs such as the de Young Museum, Exploratorium Museum, Art Santa Fe Contemporary Art Fair, International Print Center New York, Galerie Kuchling Berlin, Root Division SF, Heron Arts, Sanchez Art Center, Glass Rice Gallery.

Haoyun Erin Zhao

A woman with light brown, wavy hair, smiling outdoors with a blurred green background.

  • 2022 Panelist
    Lourdes Alba has been working in film since 1993, when she got her start in location scouting for film, TV, and documentary projects. She has worked on a number of Pixar's Academy Award winning films, including Ratatouille, Up, Toy Story 3, and others, including 2020's SOUL. Lourdes is currently an associate producer on "Luck," an upcoming film for Skydance Animation.

Lourdes Alba

A man with short brown hair and light skin, wearing an olive green button-up shirt, standing in front of a colorful artistic mural with abstract shapes and bright colors.

  • 2022 Panelist
    Facundo Argañaraz founded 1599fdT and Et al. Gallery in San Francisco. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Sonoma. His current work is aimed at confronting characteristics of Modern constructs, the erosion of content through time, and the problems of originality in a thoroughly commodified world.

Facundo Argañaraz

A woman with shoulder-length dark hair smiling at the camera, wearing a dark top and earrings, standing in front of a dark background.

  • 2021, 2022 Panelist
    Lisa Jones founded MASTERWORKS KIDS' FINE ART STUDIO in 1997 to encourage children and their parents to explore the universal experience of communicating ideas through visual media. She created a small business, Urban Canvas USA, to facilitate one-day street painting events promoting art to a broad range of people. Lisa is dedicated to enchancing art in communities.

Lisa Jones

Black-and-white professional headshot of a man with short, dark hair, wearing a dark collared shirt, looking at the camera with a neutral expression.

  • 2022 Panelist
    Cy Wagoner has a background in arts and activism that has always been rooted in a communities expression of visual arts and storytelling. His early background as a teacher informs his continued dedication to engaging youth in building their voice and skills to continue to fight for a better future. Cy believes it is our responsibility to support the youth in creatively expressing their vision of a just and healthy world.

Cy Wagoner

A woman with short black hair smiling in front of a blurry, warm-toned background.

  • 2021 Panelist
    Bryn Imagire has worked at Pixar Animation Studios for 26 years. She initially served as a digital painter on "A Bug's Life" and was later promoted to Shading Art Director for "Toy Story 2." Bryn has worked on many movies, including "The Incredibles," "Monsters, Inc." and "Coco." The advice she gives to students currently pursuing art is to work really hard, and to look at all sorts of architecture and design, and art history to absorb as much knowledge as possible.

Bryn Imagire