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Mary Curtis Ratcliff | In The Backroom
Donald (Aldo) Farnsworth – Hands of the Maker: A Show of Hands
This event is over, it happened on
August 6, 2026 at Transmission Gallery Oakland in Oakland, CA
770 W Grand Ave Suite A, Oakland, CA 94612
Donald (Aldo) Farnsworth – Hands of the Maker: A Show of Hands
August 6 – September 19, 2026
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 12 -5 pm
Artist’s Reception
Saturday, August 15th from 2-5 pm
Artist’s Talk
Saturday, September 12th, starting at 2 pm
Hands of the Maker: A Show of Hands presents twelve drawings by Aldo Farnsworth, made with graphite, quarried chalk, and colored pigments on linen and hemp paper.
The works focus on the hands of makers captured with close attention to intimate details: the nuance of gesture, the particular way they hold a pencil or object, often with glasses at hand. These quiet arrangements suggest drawing, seeing, measuring, and making—the physical evidence of each subject’s creative work and daily life.
The handmade paper, with its deckle edges and distinctive felt-hair texture associated with Renaissance papers, layers another history into these contemporary portraits. Farnsworth makes the paper himself, raising worms to compost the linen, beating the hemp fibers, and forming each unique sheet, connecting the hands depicted in the drawings to his own hand through the material. The paper carries the physical presence of the artist who made it, just as the drawings carry the physical presence of the people they portray.
Artists and makers represented in the drawings include Timothy Berry, David Best, Squeak Carnwath, Guy Diehl, Guillermo Galindo, Mildred Howard, Peter Koch, Jerry Lin-Hsien Kung, Kiki Smith, Michael Wild, Andrew Williams, and Xiaoze Xie. The show is, in a literal sense, a show of hands—but also a portrait of artists through the things their hands reveal.
These works were made possible by Magnolia Editions and the Magnolia Paper Lab with the assistance of Max Thill, Tallulah Terryll, Nicholas Price, Alyssa Minadeo, and Era Farnsworth.
Please join us for the Artist’s Reception, Saturday, August 15th, 2-5 pm. Greet the artist and enjoy the lively conversations and light refreshments while you check out the work in concurrent solo shows at Transmission Gallery. Also, mark your calendar for the Artist’s Talk starting at 2 pm on Saturday, September 12th, when Aldo will discuss his explorations in paper making and portraiture, with a focus on this series of hands.
Date:
August 6, 2026
Time:
12:00 PM
5:00 PM
Event website: https://oaklandartmurmur.org/event/donald-aldo-farnsworth-hands-of-the-maker-a-show-of-hands/
Event type:
Art and Culture
Transmission Gallery is a small contemporary art space on the second floor of a building along West Grand in Oakland, in the stretch of galleries tied into the Oakland Art Murmur scene. Visitors enter from street level and head up a flight of stairs to the gallery. The space is straightforward and focused on the work on the walls and in the showroom, with a mix of paintings, sculpture and mixed media that tends to lean toward figurative and concept driven pieces. more...
