Vallejo exhibit to spotlight Indigenous artists

Indigenous artists from Vallejo and other parts of the Bay Area will be showcasing their work at a Saturday exhibition.

The exhibit, titled Reflective Art of an Indigenous People, will feature art in mediums including acrylic, watercolor, ceramic and metal. A reception will take place 5 p.m.–8 p.m. at the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum, located at 734 Marin St., and the pieces will continue to be on display through Aug. 19.

Curator Askari Sowonde said she hopes the art show shines a light on the talent of the Bay’s Indigenous communities.

“I’m a cultural individual,” she said. “I always believed it was important to make sure that all cultures are identified. Not just talked about, but identified and showcased.”

Sowonde said she is particularly grateful for the artists who agreed to participate in the exhibition — people like Alicia Gomez, a Vallejo resident who draws her designs by hand on scrap metal before cutting them out with a plasma cutter.

Gomez said she began working with metal after she broke an earring in 2017 and took a welding class to learn how to fix it. She told her teacher that she was studying welding not as a trade, but to “put things together, like art.”

That’s when he showed her his plasma cutter.

“In that moment, my inspiration for it was, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to start drawing on the metal and I’m going to start cutting the metal!’” Gomez said.

The Mare Island exhibit is the first time Gomez’s art will be in a museum.

“I’m really, really, really excited,” she said. “I didn’t believe it, that this happened.”

Sowonde said she is thrilled with all of the art that will be on display.

“All of it is just so beautiful, and I’m so proud,” she said.

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