Eva + Jonas Nakas
Project Directors, Craft Collective
Eva Grello-Nakas grew up in Ontario, California and is an illustrator, printmaker and art educator. With concern for social equity within the arts, Eva focuses on producing illustration & retail art products in a way that makes them available for anyone and everyone. Her work is a reflection of the many delights of life, both big and small. It is bright, mischievous, and unendingly cute. With early experience as a children’s art instructor for various non-profits, and a passion for art education, she is currently fulfilling a personal goal of teaching at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Long Beach, with a focus on Illustration and Foundations. She graduated with both her MFA and BFA in Illustration from Cal State Long Beach.
Jonas Nakas grew up swimming and surfing the shore of Lake Michigan. His love of the outdoors and interest in photography drove him West to CSULB, to study Art and find adventure. With a BFA in Photography, he has worked for brands including Surfer Magazine, and Makita USA. Independently he has a love for experimental analog photography. While enjoying work as a freelancer, he has devoted many of his spare hours to developing new skills in design and fabrication. Jonas has enjoyed the privilege of sharing art with young people through various after-school programs and non-profits like Venice Arts, Creative World Art Center, and others.
While vending their own products at art market events across Southern California, Eva and Jonas connected with a vast and diverse network of artist-vendors; highly motivated, tenacious, and prolific makers. Sharing the personal dream of having a brick-and-mortar shop to sell their goods someday, Jonas and Eva are extremely grateful to recently become the recipients of the Retail Pop-up Program, offered by the Economic Development Department of Ontario. Now they have a 2,000 sq ft space–on Euclid Ave. in Downtown Ontario–to share with the creative community, and hopefully foster the continued growth of artist participation in the local economy. This project is called Craft Collective: a family-friendly retail marketplace for artist vendors of the Inland Empire and Southern California to sell their unique fine art gifts and handmade products.
Craft Collective is a fiscally sponsored project of The Arts Area.