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© 2024 • DEMO Art & Books2211 16th St. Sacrmento CA. 95818
JOY AS RESISTANCE
curated by Lina Barham
featuring:
JADA HAYNES (they/them)
Jada is a Black nonbinary post-disciplinary artist, memory worker, and curator based in the Bay Area and Northern California. They are primarily a fiber and materials sculptor that collects organic materials; discarded or secondhand textiles; and uses knots, weaving, and interlocking of these materials to express the density of grief, memory, security, and desire. Haynes believes the vessels and objects they create are like abstracted self-portraits, memory-keepers, talismans, proof of life in a world sinister to Black and gender nonconforming bodies. They consider their position as an archivist a merging of their interests in art and memory work, focusing on how archives can better preserve diverse bodies, objects, and experiences.
They earned a dual Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Design from the University of California, Davis. During their time at UC Davis, Jada served as Lead Director of the Basement Gallery and completed an independent honors thesis under the mentorship of Azin Seraj and Darrin Martin. They have designed for The California Studio, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Harvard Business Publishing and their work has been exhibited at notable venues such as the Afrofuturist Center, Minnesota Street Project, Mercury20, Root Division, The San Francisco Gallery, and the Textile Arts Center.
JOHA HARRISON
Joha is a multidisciplinary artist working across abstract collage, photography, public art, and film, with over 25 years of creative practice and six years as a professional abstract artist. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and based in Sacramento, California, his work explores materiality, historical memory, and storytelling through handmade paper, layered textures, bold color, and photographic sensibility. Harrison’s practice bridges intimate works on paper and large-scale murals, translating lived experience into emotionally resonant visual language that fosters reflection, optimism, and community connection. His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Design Center, Crocker Art Museum, UC Davis Health Art Collection, The National Building Museum, Kaiser Permanente, and The Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, among others. He has completed numerous public art commissions and institutional collaborations and was awarded the Vantage Art Flats Residency (2023), Rooting a Deeper Connection Residency at Allerton Park (2025), and is currently a fellow in the Sacramento Creative Growth Fellowship Program.
ALIYAH SIDQE
Aliyah is a Sacramento-born fine artist and muralist whose work centers the intimate, unfiltered narratives of modern Black womanhood. Working primarily in painting, her practice blends figurative expression, autobiographical storytelling, and richly layered color palettes to honor the everyday rituals, emotional landscapes, and generational connections within her community. Her paintings often depict tender domestic scenes or women caring for themselves in moments of quiet resilience. These works elevate ordinary routines into sacred acts, revealing beauty in the overlooked. Through expressive brushwork, warm skin tones, and a palette that vibrates with pinks, greens, and blues, Aliyah captures the softness, strength, and complexity of the women in her world. Aliyah’s work has been exhibited throughout Sacramento, including her acclaimed solo exhibition The Babymama Effect at Sacramento State University. This body of work explored motherhood, identity, and the cultural weight carried by Black women, blending personal narrative with collective experience. In addition to her studio practice, Aliyah has painted murals across the city—from schools to public spaces—continuing her mission to make art that is accessible, reflective, and community-rooted. Whether on canvas or on a large-scale wall, her work celebrates authenticity, storytelling, and the power of seeing everyday life as art.
TANER PAŞAMEHMETOĞLU
Taner is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose work explores consumerism, conservation, and his own cultural hybridity, often approaching heavy subjects with humor. Working primarily in acrylic and oil painting, his practice has recently expanded to include mixed-media sculpture. His process frequently incorporates upcycled materials, repurposed packaging, and natural elements, blurring the lines between artist and environment, and between process and product.
Born in the United States to parents from Türkiye, Paşamehmetoğlu grew up in a household where art was part of everyday life. Drawing, painting, and photography became early tools for exploring identity and documenting the world around him. After earning a degree in Strategic Communication from the University of Utah, he built a career in advertising while also working as a freelance photographer before turning his focus toward a more personal studio practice. His experiences working within consumer-driven industries continue to inform his examination of the American Dream, cultural hybridity, and the environmental consequences of over-consumption.
His work has been exhibited throughout California and Utah, including the Axis Gallery National Juried Exhibition and the Magnum Opus Juried Exhibition at Sacramento Fine Arts Center, where he received second place for his painting “Photosynthesis”. His painting “The American Dream” has also been incorporated into curriculum at the University of California, Berkeley.
Paşamehmetoğlu lives and works in Sacramento, California, and is a member artist at Axis Gallery and Atrium 916.
ALMA DESIGN STUDIO
Alejandra and Luis Magaña, are a husband and wife collaboration called ALMa design studio where they bring to life ceramic objects that are both functional and artistic. They design and manufacture handmade ceramic objects-such as dinnerware and décor. Their influence stems from a curiosity about working together as a married couple and as partners who create functional art that references an ancient language. Their work bridges the past and present, drawing from material and histories to create objects that embody the layers that shape them. As a married couple and creative partners, their work is a direct exploration of shared journeys-the curiosities of collaborating in life and art.
Photo by Angie Wei
JAMIE PESQUIZA CARDENAS
Jamie Pesquiza Cardenas is an Ilokana multidisciplinary artist, cultural worker, medicine maker and weaver of Inabel. She believes how we adorn ourselves is a celebration of who we are and where we come from and that clothing is a form of spiritual second skin and protection. Jamie's focus has been on the Itneg and Ilokano weaving Motif, Kusikus - which represents a spiral or whirlpool. Its design is believed to dizzy away malevolent spirits. Daughter of Jaime Galinato Cardenas and Angelita Pesquiza Cardenas - She comes from a line of stewards of the land, healers, weavers and storytellers. Jamie is also the heart and hands behind Magpie Alchemy - an herbal apothecary and natural dye studio. She shares their gift of plant magic from their Grandmother's ancestral knowledge and prayers of supporting their community by helping them to stay in touch with their body and senses with the magic of plants in either cloth or medicinal forms. With the art of transformation at the core of all that she creates with her hands, Jamie is also rooted in their connection to plants and textiles as a bridge to their ancestors.
REN ALLATHKANI
Ren is a multidisciplinary artist based in Northern California whose practice centers on acrylic painting and tatreez embroidery to recontextualize Palestinian motifs onto canvas. Drawing from historical archives, contemporary imagery, and personal memory, Allathkani constructs visual timelines that examine exile, enforced separation from homeland, genocide, and the persistence of cultural identity.
Their work engages tatreez not only as a traditional form, but as a living archive- threaded into painted surfaces as an act of preservation and resistance. By layering inherited symbols with present-day references, Allathkani interrogates how history is documented, erased, and reclaimed.
In 2024, Allathkani collaborated with artist Sun Young Kang on The Passport of Witness, a commissioned project highlighting the ongoing struggles and longings of Palestinians in exile. The work is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Harvard University, and Stanford University. Their work Within Our Lifetime (2024) was exhibited at SOMArts Gallery. Allathkani has participated in artist residencies at Pine Meadow Ranch in Sisters, Oregon, and Château d’Orquevaux in France.
MERCH