Andrea Guskin: Signals Beneath The Surface

The networks beneath our forest floors—where tree roots and mycorrhizal fungi share sustenance and signals through intertwined subterranean paths—served as a source of inspiration for Andrea Guskin’s exhibition, Signals Beneath the Surface. This new work continues her exploration of scientific discovery as a metaphor, using metal paintings and photographic processes to investigate themes of ancestry, memory, and interconnection. Thread, found objects, and imprints of Guskin’s body on the metal paintings translate concealed activity into form, mapping the connections that sustain life below ground and above it. Within this exhibition, she presents work from her recent project Local Roots, a photo-based community arts project centered on ancestral relationships to herbs and spices, and a new site-specific collaborative installation created with local artists Courtney Griffith and Yaminah Abdur-Rahim. Bio: Andrea Guskin is a San Francisco Bay Area based artist working across the disciplines of photography, sculpture, and painting. She began drawing by pillaging her father’s office supplies for fine-tipped pens and yellow legal pads, filling them with figures while lounging on a 1970s shag carpet in Kenosha, Wisconsin. After studying painting at Antioch College in Ohio, Guskin moved to New York City and became a part of the arts community on the Lower East Side. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2003, she has exhibited her work throughout the state, including at the Richmond Art Center, BerkeleyArt Center, and Red Poppy Art House.She graduated with an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Mills College at Northeastern University in April of 2023. Guskin lives in San Leandro with her husband and two sons. Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment) Artists’ Reception: Saturday, April 11, 3 – 5 pm Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: Friday, April 3, May 1, 5 – 9 pm Join Andrea Guskin in a participatory activity centered around ancestry on First Friday, April 3, 6:30-7:30 pm Image: Andrea Guskin, “Radial Expansion,” Acrylic paint on Cinefoil, 2026, photo courtesy of the artist