200 Second Street, Oakland, CA 94607

Swarm Gallery proudly launches new residency program in Jack London neighborhood!

OAKLAND, Calif. - June 2009 - Oakland's Swarm Gallery is pleased to announce the launch of a new collaboration with partners Metrovation Development and New York's Mixed Greens Gallery. The Nest is an artist residency in the heart of the Ironworks District, a historic manufacturing area close to Oakland's Jack London Square. Located at 200 Second Street, the Nest is an emerging locale for contemporary art that engages with site, architecture, and the concerns of public and private spheres.

During the residency at the Nest, artists will be living and working inside of a street-level live-work unit at Metrovation's recently developed building at 200 Second Street. Metrovation has been partnering with Swarm and other Ironworks businesses for years, to establish a lively art corridor that has enriched the neighborhood tremendously. David Baker's airy modern architecture provides a versatile environment that will be activated both inside and outside by the resident artists' projects. The Nest will host an ongoing program of 1-2 month residencies, with curatorial support from partnering galleries.

Metrovation has already commissioned two Swarm artists, Casey Jex Smith and Andrew Schoultz, to create permanent installations in the building's lobby. The Nest deepens this relationship between art, architecture and urban planning, by offering artists an immersive live-work experience tied to the neighborhood's history and community. Like many cities in the midst of significant revitalization efforts, Oakland is feeling the effects of economic slowdown. The Nest artists help the Ironworks neighborhood by attracting interest, investment, and creative energy while engaging both aesthetically and socially with their surroundings.

New York's Mixed Greens Gallery is the first national gallery to collaborate with Swarm on artist nominations for The Nest.

SARAH KABOT JUNE 2009	ADIA MILLETT JULY/AUGUST 2009	AMY RATHBONE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009

Swarm Gallery is thrilled to be presenting this program with curatorial support from Mixed Greens Gallery, New York

      

Mixed Greens Gallery was founded as a place to give emerging artists a wider audience. Through its website, printed catalog, gallery exhibitions and traveling shows, Mixed Greens has exposed a larger community to the engaging and thought-provoking work of dozens of artists. Currently, the gallery represents twenty-two artists, who are now at varying stages in their careers. The mission is to show work that is not only of contemporary interest, but will be of lasting art historical significance.