Body as Agent: Changing Fashion Art is an exhibition in response to the 1983 landmark showing of wearable art the Richmond Art Center, Poetry for the Body: Clothing for the Spirit. Body as Agent: Changing Fashion Art updates that exhibition, displaying many of the original artists and adding new artists and new notions, with more than 30 artists participating.
The field of wearable art has expanded and grown. Wearable art still features chic clothing and accessories but has the added vibrations of upcycling – the use of castoff or reused elements and materials – enhancing the visual vocabulary of the artists. This exhibition of California artists further expands notions of clothing to include works of art with garment forms serving as metaphors for social, political and cultural issues as found in painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. An accompanying catalog will be produced for the exhibition.
Public Programs:
Opening Reception: Sat, Sep 12, 5 – 7 pm, free
Sewing in the Gallery with Ellen Hauptli and Chere Mah: Sun, Sep 13, 1:30 – 3 pm, free
Expect an exhilarating arrangement of artwork, media, and styles in our annual, nonjuried members show. Nearly 200 pieces of artwork will be showcased, including works by spotlight artists Edythe Bresnahan, Jan Martin, and David Yoas who were recognized for their ingenuity and visual voice at last year’s annual members show. This year’s show will also include a selection of works by our former Studio Art Director Kato Jaworski.
This annual exhibition showcases and celebrates the diverse work being created in the Art Center’s traveling Art in the Community program, which brings our teaching artists and after-school art programs to middle and elementary schools, community centers and the Richmond Public library.
Please join us at our special reception on Saturday, May 9 from 3 to 5 pm for the families of the 1,200 students we’ve taught this past year. The reception will start with musical performances by Downer and Grant Elementary students. Refreshments will be served. The reception is free and open to the public.
The West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) Student Art Show is an annual collaboration between the school district and the Richmond Art Center and this year we are celebrating a milestone 50 years. The exhibit features work by more than 200 students, illustrating their diverse visions and individual creative voices. These works are not only testament to the creative talent of each student, but also showcase the artistic and educational excellence that WCCUSD art teachers continue to uphold. Over the years many of these students have carve a productive creative professional career honing their creative thinking skills that are instilled in the arts.
A historical component of this exhibition, open through May 24, will showcase ephemera and works by former students who became well-known artists or art teachers.
As part of the 50th Anniversary, the Art Center is proud to exhibit a sampling of the artwork of past and current art teachers and students, many who have proudly extended the creative practice into their adulthood, which will be open through May 24. For this showcase, we have selected former students who either have furthered their artistic career or who have or are currently teaching art in the school district. Former students who have contributed to the artistic profession, include: Dennis Oppenheim, John Toki, Jared Gutierrez and Steve McMillan. Past Teachers like Kim Wong, Susan Wehrle and Mario Ferrari have left their mark on hundreds of students while current art teachers, Daphne Schrampf, Jan Barzottini, Steve Mainini and Jun SoYoung, continue to inspire hundreds of students to take risks and explore their imagination through art making.
Also on display are children’s art dating before the Art Center’s collaboration with the School District back to the 1940s and 1950s, which are on loan from the Richmond History Museum. These exquisite tempera paintings represent the importance of art education in everyone’s life no matter at what age. Arts education provides the critical thinking, communications and creativity skills essential to 21st century success.
The Richmond Art Center is proud to have hosted this exhibition for five decades. We continue to maintain our vision that arts education is a crucial component in the creation of a thriving and robust society.
Over the course of four decades, Mildred Howard has created rich and evocative work by taking common objects of daily life and infusing them with the spark of meaning to illuminate the underlying significance and historical weight of cultural form. In free-standing sculpture, in wall-mounted musings, in graphic explorations and in representations of shelter, Howard has developed a language to address racism, injustice, need and compassion.
Mildred Howard: Spirit and Matter will showcase a selection of works that present some of the artist’s most iconic sculptures as well as graphic works never before exhibited. Long admired for her direct and forthright reflections on society, Howard will be exhibiting work which incorporates her own image, popular images and anonymous photography. Whether taking found objects for use in assemblage or layering complex collaged works on paper, Howard imbues her artwork with the spirit of personal and community history as she reveals the matter at hand in the materiality of the object. Guest curated by Jan Wurm.
Mildred Howard: Spirit and Matter showcased a selection of works that presented some of the artist’s most iconic sculptures as well as graphic works never before exhibited.
Video 1: Life and Work of Mildred Howard.
Curator Jan Wurm introduces us to the life and work of Mildred Howard. Video 2: A Conversation with Mildred Howard.
Over the course of four decades, Mildred Howard has created rich and evocative work by taking common objects of daily life and infusing them with the spark of meaning to illuminate the underlying significance and historical weight of cultural form. In free-standing sculpture, in wall-mounted musings, in graphic explorations and in representations of shelter, Howard has developed a language to address racism, injustice, need and compassion. Video 3: Mildred Howard’s Safe House Installation.
Curator Jan Wurm explores Safe House, one of Mildred Howard’s installations. Video 4: Elements in Mildred Howard’s Assemblages.
Curator Jan Wurm analyzes the elements in some of Mildred Howard’s assemblages. Video 5: Mildred Howard’s Collages.
Curator Jan Wurm discusses some of Mildred Howard’s collages.
Yisrael K. Feldsott: Annunciating Obscurities brings together works from the 1970s to the present that showcase the artist’s exploration of the formal potentials of disparate materials to articulate what he calls “…the pool of collective memories that we share as human beings. These memories tend to be symbolic, and exist cross-culturally. These don’t belong to one group of people; they’re shared amongst all of us.”
While in his early 20s, Feldsott attracted the attention of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator Rolando Castellon, and became one of the youngest artists featured at that institution in 1979. Feldsott then turned his back on the art world and went on a spiritual quest that led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, to Guatemala, and to the Amazon in Brazil.
Feldsott immersed himself in the traditions of indigenous communities in Central and South America, championed environmental issues and studied with indigenous people for over 20 years. He became a student of traditional medicine, a teacher, healer and most of all a visual allegorist. In 2002, Feldsott reevaluated the importance of showing his work — how sharing his visual enunciations creates a cultural dialogue — and resumed exhibiting his work.
The Richmond Art Center is proud to host the only annual exhibition in the Bay Area to exclusively feature regional artists of African descent. This year’s exhibition will feature over 75 local artists, including work by the 2014 Jan Hart-Schuyers Award winners: Yolanda Holley, Atiba Sylvia Thomas and Lawrence Buford.
The Art of Living Black was founded 19 years ago by the late sculptor Jan Hart-Schuyers and late painter Rae Louise Hayward after their realization that black artists were not being represented by galleries in any significant way. This year’s exhibition will showcase a broad range of works by more than 75 artists from throughout the Bay Area.
Artist Talks Sat, Feb 7 , noon – 1:30 pm
Artists: Valerie Brown-Troutt, Will Johnson, Karen Oyekanmi, Atiba Sylvia Thomas and Jim Dennis. Moderated by Stephen Bruce.
Artist Talks Sat, Feb 14, noon – 1:30 pm
Artists: Dania Frink, Alix Magloire, James Knox, Julee Richardson, Hilda Robinson, Arthur Norcome. Moderated by Raymond L. Haywood
The Art of Living Black Open Studio Sat, Mar 7, 11 am – 5 pm
A unique opportunity to meet a selection of artists and purchase their work in our main gallery.
Artists featured in the 19th Annual The Art of Living Black: Latisha Baker, Doug Blanc, Timothy Bluitt, Lorraine Bonner, Cedric Brown, Marguerite T. Browne, Stephen Bruce, Lawrence Buford, Melanin Buford, Sydney “Sage” Cain, Claude Lockhart Clark, Duane M. Conliffe, Courageous, Kelvin Curry, Bill Dallas, Paula de Joie, Jim Dennis, Cheryl Patrice Derricotte, Gene Dominique, Ann Edwards, Jimi Evins, Dania W. Frink, Anjuelle D. Floyd, Naomi Floyd, Donna Gatson, Delores Gray, Renata E. Gray, Nannette Y. Harris-Jones, Idris Hassan, Raymond L. Haywood, Karla E. Higgins, Rutlandra K. Hodges, Saida Hogan-Nassirruddin, Yolanda Holley, Rae Louise Hayward Hopkins, Will Johnson, Virginia Jourdan, Dana King, James Knox, Grason Littles, Howard Mackey, Gale Madyun, Alix J. Magloire, Cheryl Mitchell, Khaleedah & Ansar Muhammad, Arthur Norcome, Karen Oyekanmi, Patricia Patterson, Marcus Lorenzo Penn, Patricia Perry, Raife & Margree Pickett, Damon Powell, Leslie Printis, Gwendolyn Reed, Ashlei Reign, Justice Renaissance, Julee Richardson, Bernadette Robertson, Hilda C. Robinson, Joseph Robinson, Jan Hart Schuyers, Malik Seneferu. Angela D. Allen Simms, Bertrell Smith, Douglas Stewart, Atiba Sylvia Thomas, Bryan K. Thomas, Tomye, Milton Tuitt, LaQuita Tummings, Karin Turner, Valerie Brown-Troutt, Orlanda Uffre, Paula Vaughan, Nile J. Washington, Thearthur Wright, Shante Young
California Now showcases 85 contemporary and innovative works in clay, glass and enamel art that are being created today by California artists. The exhibition will include functional and non-functional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional works that illustrate a wide scope of artwork. The artwork was selected by preeminent jurors Beth Ann Gerstein, Mary Bayard White and Deborah Lozier. Work was chosen for its melding of technical excellence and content and for daring to push boundaries. Sponsored by the Center for Enamel Art and the Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California.
Jurors
Beth Ann Gerstein (clay) is the new Executive Director of the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California. She also serves on the Board of Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine. She was the Executive Director of The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, a former member of the Collections Committee of the Fuller Craft Museum and former Board member of the Glass Art Society. She has been a juror for a number of shows including the American Craft Council, Bellevue Craft Show and the Smithsonian Craft Show and was a juror for state arts council grant programs in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Illinois. MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from Edinboro University.
Mary Bayard White (glass) is a Bay Area sculptor and adjunct instructor at St. Marys College. She is currently Chair of the Women Environmental Artists Directory. She has served as head of the Glass Area of the San Jose State University Spatial Arts/Glass Program, was a visiting Fulbright Scholar and Lecturer at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. MFA and BFA California College of the Arts.
Deborah Lozier (enamel) is an internationally known metalsmith and enamelist residing in Oakland, California. Lozier is noted for her innovative use of enamel on organic copper forms. Her jewelry and sculpture can be seen in the pages of numerous books and magazines. She is a past president of the San Francisco Bay Area Metal Arts Guild and a former chair of the Public Art Advisory Committee for the City of Oakland. Along with many private collections, her work is also included in the permanent collection of the Oakland Museum of California. BFA Arizona State University, magna cum laude. Adjunct professor at California College of the Art since 1994.
Artists featured in California Now: Melinda Alexander, Julie Alland, Barbara Andino-Stevenson, Susana Arias, Curtis Arima, Brooke Battles, Dale Beevers, Bonnie Randall Boller, Elin Christopherson, Ilana Crispi, Nick Dong, Craig Easter, Kathleen Elliot, Nina Else, Frances Elson, Christine Finch, Doris Fischer-Colbrie, Duane Fitzgerald, James Friedberg, Eileen P. Goldenberg, Mark Goudy, Margaret Grisz-Dow, Sharon Hardy, Maru Hoeber, Erika Island, Victoria Jang, George Jercich, CJ Jilek, Marnia Johnston, Caroline P. M. Jones, Carol Koffel, Ed Lay, John Lennertz, Zackary Tyler Lindemann, Sarah Logan, Sam Lopez, Evelyn Markasky, Devon Matlock, Nicholas McCullough, Catherine Merrill, Victoria Montgomery, Gordon Morris, Malcom Nicoll, Shoshana Parry, Janice Peacock, Hannah Pierce, Bruce Pizzichillo, Susan Press, Margaret Realica, Gail Reid, Mary Catherine Richardson, Liza Riddle, Gail Ritchie, Emelie Rogers, Orly Ruaimi, Adrian Sandstrom, Tiffany Schmierer, William Schwob, Olivia Shih, Treg Silkwood, Arthur Stern, Judy Stone, Kana Tanaka, Kent Tool, Bambi Waterman, Emil Yanos, Zhou Yuan.
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