Menschenmenge (Crowd) No 5, 2021

Watercolor on paper, 17.5" x 22.75"

Courtesy of the artist, Framing courtesy of Eric Rose Art Services

Kota Ezawa is a Japanese-German American artist and arts educator. His artwork usually responds to current events from sources in the news, pop culture, and art history. Ever since his debut 2002 video animation of The Simpson Verdict, Ezawa has been known for his flattened style in works on paper, light-boxes, and videos. By flattening his pieces into more two-dimensional figures, he creates more focus on the re-contextualized historical events in his pieces.

His work has been showcased at many museums including the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, CA; SITE Santa Fe, NM; Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA; Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; St. Louis Art Museum, MO; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, IL and among many others.

Submit your pre-bids for live auction items to ellen@kala.org by 12PM / noon PST on Saturday May 13, 2023. You can also call or text Ellen at 510-520-6438 during the process.

UFO, 2007

Color softground and spitbite aquatint etching with glitter Somerset white, edition of 25, Image: 7" x 9", Paper: 14.5" x 16", Framed

Courtesy of Paulson Fontaine Press, Framing courtesy of Sterling Art Services

David Huffman's paintings stage allegories of the black American experience. His paintings depict stereotypical signifiers of this history. Landscapes of futuristic dreams or nightmares are always handled with humor. His abstract narratives are layered with references to music, politics, and art history.

His work has been included in many exhibitions including the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; de Young Museum, SF, CA; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SF, CA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, SF, CA; and among others.

Submit your pre-bids for live auction items to ellen@kala.org by 12PM / noon PST on Saturday May 13, 2023. You can also call or text Ellen at 510-520-6438 during the process.

Rice Bowl Brand, 2003

Color lithograph with chinecolle on coventry paper, 33" x 47", Framed

Courtesy Hung Liu Estate, Framing courtesy of Sterling Art Services

Hung Liu, known as the greatest Chinese painter in America, was also a prodigious print maker, experimenting in all media, from resin & ink to lithography to hand made paper. She won a Lifetime Achievement in Printmaking Award, Southern Graphics Council International, Statesboro, Georgia.

Liu's works have been exhibited extensively and collected by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art and The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Los Angeles County Museum, among others.

Submit your pre-bids for live auction items to ellen@kala.org by 12PM / noon PST on Saturday May 13, 2023. You can also call or text Ellen at 510-520-6438 during the process.

Seeing It Said #10, 2021

Broken and glazed porcelain, 11.75" x 11.75"

Courtesy of the artist

Jim Melchert has been at the center of the Bay Area's artistic growth and served as Visual Arts head at the NEA and Director of the American Academy at Rome. His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the University Art Museum at UC Berkeley. Melchert has worked in a variety of media, including drawing, film, and ceramics. The path of his artistic development is conceptual, and his ideas led him to a unique process involving ceramic tiles: breaking them, drawing on them, reassembling them and painting the new constructions with glaze.

Submit your pre-bids for live auction items to ellen@kala.org by 12PM / noon PST on Saturday May 13, 2023. You can also call or text Ellen at 510-520-6438 during the process.

Plasterwall Ghost, 2017

Etching, AP, Framed
Paper: 14.75 x 11", Frame: 18.75 x 15.25"

Courtesy of the artist, Framing courtesy of Small Works

Masako Miki (b. 1973 Osaka, Japan) is a multimedia artist whose work ranges from installation and large-scale sculpture, printmaking, watercolor and felting. A native of Japan, she now lives and works in Berkeley, CA. Strongly influenced by craft and folk art of different cultures, Masako remains close to her ancestral traditions, especially those that arise from her association with Buddhist and Shinto beliefs and practices, as well as traditional Japanese folklore.

She printed this etching piece during her fellowship at Kala in 2017.

Submit your pre-bids for live auction items to ellen@kala.org by 12PM / noon PST on Saturday May 13, 2023. You can also call or text Ellen at 510-520-6438 during the process.

Go Green, 2017

Hand-cut vinyl on panel, 20" x 16"

Courtesy of the artists

t.w.five is an international artist duo based in San Francisco, California. They work with one material - adhesive backed vinyl - and focus largely on process. All shapes are hand-cut into strips from larger rolls of solid color vinyl and then carefully applied to the surface of the work. They usually create massive scale installations and integrate the gallery space with their art. Their mural works are installed throughout the city of San Francisco and in Silicon Valley, for companies such as Google, Facebook, GoDaddy, Adobe, Hotel SLO and Hotel CitizenM. For the UCSF Mission Bay Hospital, they designed floor installation for 6 floors in linoleum, and also created two massive lobby pieces made in hand-cut adhesive vinyl.

Submit your pre-bids for live auction items to ellen@kala.org by 12PM / noon PST on Saturday May 13, 2023. You can also call or text Ellen at 510-520-6438 during the process.

The Blues, 2023

Acrylic, pigmented Ink, gouache, absorbent ground on wood panel, 30" x 24", Unframed

Courtesy of the artist

Developing a historical imagination and fondness for drawing stories, Gregory Rick collapses history while confronting personal trauma. His works exist as reflections of his personal experience, while in dialogue with the wider world. Gregory has received SF MOMA's SECA award in 2022, Kala's Veterans Artist Residency in 2017, the Hamaguchi printmaking award, the Nathan Oliviera fellowship, and the Jack K. and Gertrude Murphy Award and has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States.

About his piece in Art Kala 2023, he described "Music, anchored in misery becoming an outpouring of joy providing buttress for the soul."

Submit your pre-bids for live auction items to ellen@kala.org by 12PM / noon PST on Saturday May 13, 2023. You can also call or text Ellen at 510-520-6438 during the process.