Jaeme Bereal

I'm an Oakland, CA based painter and hair stylist, the latter of which provided the supports and independence to cultivate my art over the last 25 years.

Music, politics and people are integral aspects to my work. Music elicits powerful visuals, politics and social issues offer opportunities to challenge and illuminate, and people's faces are multi-colored landscapes etched in a tangle of emotion and experience.

My goal is to offer substance and context that bring people closer to real issues that affect us all. I regularly feature people of color, and my hope is to empower those who feel marginalized or somehow short-changed.

I grew up amid the tumultuous 1970s in south central Los Angeles. Luckily, with excellent grades and scholarships, I attended UC Berkeley in 1981 for Fine Art, studying under the renowned ceramic innovator Peter Voulkos.

However, due to a period of disillusionment, both politically and artistically, I dropped art completely for eight years. Upon my return in 1989, I dove in with a renewed appetite to explore past my limits. I even built an art studio and gallery inside my hair salon.

At 40, I matriculated in a commercial art school, thinking to become a 3D illustrator. But it didn't take lo...

Illustration B.A.
Academy of Art University
San Francisco, CA 2003
Professors: Kazo Sano, Chuck Pyle

Fine Art B.A.
University at California Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 1981
Professors: Peter Volkous, Elmer Bischof, Karl Kasten

"In Her Hands, the Story of Sculptor Augusta Savage" Composed 45 illustrations
Lee and Low Books Publisher, 2008
Included in Smithsonian's Notable Children's Books in 2009

"Space Between the Stars"
Illustrated book cover for the Memoirs of Deborah Santana
Publisher Santana Management, 2004

Oakland Art Association
At John Muir Hospital
Walnut Creek, CA 2009

Sargent Johnson Gallery
The African American Art & Culture Complex
San Francisco, CA 2007

"Art of Living Black"
Richmond Art Center
2003-2021 - First place winner in 2007

"Crossing Bridges"
Open Studio
On CBS Marketwatch.com
San Francisco, CA 2003

Academy of Art University Spring Show
First Place, Category: Conceptual
San Francisco, CA 2000

International Arts Festival
Southern Exposure Gallery
"Nuclear Rape" 1982

Art Installation: Ceramic mural
Under Peter Voulkos
Women's Center Theological Union
University of California Berkeley 1981