It’s mid-2026, and the industrialized world is absorbing almost daily shocks from the hyper-speed of AI development. It’s the latest epochal change in work since the internet got real for everyone. This is perhaps why the exhibition of photographs about work, unveiled April 3rd at Oakland Photo Workshop, seems to reach backwards almost farther than nostalgia. It features industry still literally beyond the reach of automation, highlighting what must be done by hand. But for many viewers it...

Vincent Valdez's Historical Truth When Vincent Valdez was  app r oached in 2023 by Arion Press to  imagine h i s next project, the publisher and the artist were actual l y  continu i ng  an ongoing conversation ,  one  that led to his selection as Arian's first King  Residency a r t i st i n residence .  The project they picked for the residency? Kurt Vonnegut ' s meditation on the catastrophic impact of war, Slaughterhouse-Five. The core  of  Va l dez ' s oe u v r e  i s  hi s m i...

March 2026 The storefront entrance to The Grand Gallery in Oakland’s Jack London Square features a display space having a character somewhat like an amphitheater. And in the current exhibit held by it, the effect is especially apropos as its featured works restage the early 1960’s East Bay of the critical protest period of the Free Speech Movement and more. At The Grand Gallery These are classic black-and-white photographs laid out in three sections. The left section powerfully iterates...