Public Art Advisory Committee Member Bios
Left to Right: Nia Jacobs, Sarita Schreiber, Sarah Miller, Eric Murphy, Marcus Guillard, Kaitlin Kushner, Katerina Leventi, Mario Hernandez, Sabina Kariat, Mario Navasero
Marcus Guillard is a multimedia artist who uses photography, sculpture, and design to create immersive experiences. He initially pursued photography in New York City during the 1990s before relocating to San Francisco to construct large-scale artworks that have been displayed at festivals and in private and public spaces worldwide. In 2008, he founded One Hat One Hand, a design and fabrication studio that produces public art and workplace designs for companies such as Google, Apple, and SFMOMA. In 2021, he expanded into the metaverse through the induction Archai Virtualis, a virtual art museum that showcases the work of over 20 artists. In 2022, he established LMNL Omni Spatial Design Studio, which focuses on creating hospitality spaces, public art for cities, corporate spaces, and placemaking in urban centers. Marcus brings over 25 years of industry experience as a creative director and producer, with a decade spent as a commercial photographer and 15 years in design-build.
Mario Hernandez is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Mills College at Northeastern University. Dr. Hernandez is an urban sociologist who specializes in the study of gentrification. His research examines the role of art and artists in the revitalization of cities. His most recent book, Bushwick’s Bohemia: Art and Revitalization in Gentrifying Brooklyn examines the proliferation of the creative art scene in the neighborhood or Bushwick in Brooklyn. His current research focuses on community centered planning and development in West Oakland.
Nia Jacobs is a former communications specialist and costume designer born and raised in Oakland, CA. Previous roles for the Laurel District, Montclair Village, and Temescal Telegraph Business Districts found her assisting with event organizing and beautification projects around Oakland. Previous theatre work found her designing costumes for both new works and classics for theatre companies throughout the Bay Area, including the African American Shakespeare Company, New Conservatory Theatre Center, and Playground SF. Used to wearing many hats, Nia strives for streamlined processes and operational efficiency, leading the way for fearless creativity.
Sabina Shanti Kariat (she/they) is a Bay Area-based Indian-American animator, muralist, and cultural worker. Sabina creates animations for documentary films about diasporic narratives and historical activist movements that remain relevant today. She has worked as a teaching artist throughout San Francisco and Oakland, and has led co-creation workshops in Jharkhand, India, as a Brown University Social Innovation Fellow, and Turkey as a Fulbright Independent Research Fellow. Her work explores placemaking, collective memory, and the radical visibility offered by nonfiction storytelling. She currently manages public arts programs at ARTogether, an Oakland-based organization that creates arts-based support systems for immigrant and refugee communities. She is currently leading the creation of a South Asian Women’s History mural at Vik’s Chaat in Berkeley, and animating for Zenon, a documentary supported by Firelight Media and PBS. You can find some of her work at sabinakariatart.com
Kaitlin Kushner is a preparator at the Oakland Museum of California specializing in framing, painting, creating unique objects, installing, assembling, and preparing objects and spaces for exhibitions. She also works closely with the conservation team and plans on entering graduate school for museum conservation focusing on textiles, wooden objects, and natural history. Her background is in illustration and before working in museums she worked at Communication Arts Magazine for several years and then transitioned into visual merchandising working at Anthropologie, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Macy’s.
Katerina Leventi holds a master’s in architecture from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and a certificate in Sustainable Design from UC Berkeley Extension. She has worked for prominent Architecture firms in New York City; Galveston, Texas; Athens, Greece; and the Bay Area including Mark Cavagnero Associates in San Francisco. Her project design experience spans from Cultural Buildings and Schools to Historic Preservation. She is currently an independent consultant, and an artist working in mixed media and sculpture. She is a long-time Oakland resident advocating for local artists.
Sarah Miller is an art historian specializing in public art and monuments, visual arts and architecture of the United States, modern art, and photography. She is a professor at Mills College at Northeastern University. Her recent book Documentary in Dispute: The Original Manuscript of Changing New York by Berenice Abbott and Elizabeth McCausland was awarded CAA's Alfred H. Barr Jr. prize in 2022. Other writings have appeared in Aperture, Artforum, Critical Inquiry, Études photographiques, History of Photography, Photography & Culture, caa.reviews, and in publications of the Harvard Art Museums, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Zimmerli Museum at Rutgers, the Ryerson Image Centre, and SF Camerawork.
Mario Navasero is a visual artist/painter, Studio Manager at Faultline Artspace in Oakland, Custom framer and art materials and project fabricator, art installer, guest gallery curator and heavily involved in the Bay Area art scene.
Sarita Schreiber is an Oakland-based artist and manager of public art for Hood Design Studio. Schreiber’s practice provokes different ways to relate to the designed world. Twisting traditional motif, the work complicates material histories and looks to generate new modes of construction. Sarita Schreiber joined Hood Design Studio in October 2019. She holds a BA from University of California Los Angeles in Fine Arts, where she graduated as the commencement speaker. Prior to Hood Design Studio, she worked as a fabricator and sculpture / architecture conservation technician. At Hood, Sarita’s diverse expertise serves all aspects of the artwork lifespan- from concept through installation and beyond. As the Art Fabrication Practice Project Manager, her projects range from museum exhibitions, temporary outdoor interventions, permanent public art installations, to memorial sculptures. On project teams, Sarita brings a strong sculptural and material awareness paired with thoughtful technical implementation, allowing for gestural form to reflect and make visible the hidden social and cultural histories specific to each site.