Califas: Art of the US-Mexico Borderlands / El Arte de la Zona Fronteriza México-Estados Unidos explores representations of the US-Mexico ‘borderlands’ in contemporary art, with a special emphasis on the Bay Area.
This exhibition comes at a moment when the current nationwide immigration crisis has once again focused attention on the border between Mexico and the United States. Californian communities, activists, politicians, and artists have been especially vocal in this crisis.
Featuring works by 21 contemporary artists and collaborative groups, Califas explores the origins of migrant memory, the consequences of boundary line fortifications, the mixing of border cultures, responses to injustice and inequality, and solutions to advance the borderlands and its peoples.
The exhibition adopts a unique lens to re-examine the past, grapple with understanding the present, and connect with the future of a distinct cross-border culture. The name Califas is commonly used to refer to California by Chicanos wishing to emphasize the deep histories, memories, and identities that existed in the state long before the international boundary was created in 1848. Adapted for use in this exhibition, Califas provides new ways of seeing California and Baja California – as borderlands before walls, when people understood the border as a connecting tissue not a line of separation.
Featured Artists: AGENCY (Ersela Kripa & Stephen Mueller), Chester Arnold, Jesus Barraza, Enrique Chagoya, CRO studio (Adriana Cuellar & Marcel Sánchez), Ana Teresa Fernández, Nathan Friedman, Guillermo Galindo, Rebeca García-González, Andrea Carrillo Iglesias, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Richard Misrach, Alejandro Luperca Morales, Julio César Morales, Postcommodity, Rael San Fratello (Ronald Rael & Virginia San Fratello), Fernando Reyes, Favianna Rodriguez, Stephanie Syjuco, David Taylor, Judi Werthein, Rio Yañez
Califas is guest co-curated by UC Berkeley professors Michael Dear, author of Why Walls Won’t Work, and Ronald Rael, author of Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary.
The exhibition is made possible with support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Susan Chamberlin, Matt and Margaret Jacobson, and anonymous donors.
Image: Julio César Morales, Day Dreaming Series (detail), 2018. Courtesy of the Artist and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco
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Califas: el Arte de la Zona Fronteriza México-Estados Unidos
Galería: Galería Principal y Galería Oeste Fechas de la Exposición: 11 de septiembre – 16 de noviembre de 2018 Inauguración: sábado, 8 de septiembre, de 5:00 a 7:00 p.m. Califas: el Arte de la Zona Fronteriza de México-Estados Unidos explora las representaciones de las “zonas fronterizas” de México y Estados Unidos en el arte contemporáneo, con un énfasis especial en El Área de la Bahía.
Esta exposición se produce en un momento en que la actual crisis de inmigración nacional ha vuelto a centrar la atención en la frontera entre México y los Estados Unidos. Las comunidades, los activistas, los políticos y los artistas de California han sido especialmente activos en esta crisis. Con obras de 21 artistas contemporáneos y grupos colaborativos, Califas explora los orígenes de la memoria migratoria, las consecuencias de las fortificaciones fronterizas, la mezcla de culturas fronterizas, las respuestas a la injusticia y la desigualdad, y las soluciones para avanzar en las fronteras y sus pueblos. La exhibición adopta una lente única para reexaminar el pasado, lidiar con la comprensión del presente y conectarse con el futuro de una cultura transfronteriza diferente. El nombre Califas se usa comúnmente para referirse a California por los Chicanos que desean enfatizar las profundas historias, memorias e identidades que existían en el estado mucho antes de que se creara el límite internacional en 1848. Adaptado para su uso en esta exposición, Califas ofrece nuevas formas de ver a California y Baja California, como fronteras antes que los muros existieran, cuando la gente entendía el límite como un tejido que conecta, no como una línea de separación. Artistas destacados: AGENCIA (Ersela Kripa y Stephen Mueller), Chester Arnold, Jesús Barraza, Enrique Chagoya, estudio CRO (Adriana Cuellar y Marcel Sánchez), Ana Teresa Fernández, Nathan Friedman, Guillermo Galindo, Rebeca García-González, Amalia Mesa-Bains , Richard Misrach, Alejandro ‘Luperca’ Morales, Julio César Morales, Postcommodity, Rael San Fratello, Fernando Reyes, Favianna Rodríguez, Stephanie Syjuco, David Taylor, Judi Werthein, Rio Yañez Califas es comisariada por los profesores de UC Berkeley Michael Dear, autor de Why Walls Won’t Work (Por Qué los Muros No Funcionarán), y Ronald Rael, autor de Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the US-Mexico Boundary (Muro Fronterizo como Arquitectura: un Manifiesto para el Límite Entre Estados Unidos y México). La exposición es posible gracias al apoyo de la Fundación de la Familia Zellerbach, Susan Chamberlin, Matt y Margaret Jacobson, y donadores anónimos. Imagen: Julio César Morales, Day Dreaming Series (detalle), 2018. Cortesía del artista y la galería Wendi Norris, San Francisco
Strange Forest presents contemporary drawings devoted to abstract and surreal dimensions of the natural world. Utilizing techniques of botanical and scientific illustration, six Bay Area artists – Leo Bersamina, John Casey, Masako Miki, Nora Pauwels, Lela Shields and Elizabeth Sims – take on the role of experimental naturalists. Through processes such as painstaking delineation, classification, and focus on the lifecycle, the artists express a deep respect for the flora and fauna of our planet, while at the same time reimagining it.
Looking for encounters that move her, Elizabeth Sims starts with a close observation of nature – a Bristlecone pine and a piece of obsidian – to create large scale drawings that are part realism, part invention. The titles of her work reference artists and fictional characters who have disappeared into the wilderness.
Using an unlikely mix of sea salt, quartz and glitter, Lela Shields creates surfaces on which to depict detailed botanical scenes using gouache, pencil and gold leaf. The uneven and unstable base for the imagery prevents Shields from working perfectly, and represents a kind of metamorphosis as the fragile work is always susceptible to change.
Nora Pauwels’ work focuses on the flora that spreads unchecked around her semi-industrial Emeryville neighborhood. It does not matter what the species of plant is – Pauwels often gathers weeds – rather the leaves, flowers and twigs are collected for their aesthetic subtleties and as markers of the places they determinedly grow.
Inspired by Shinto traditions, Masako Miki’s animals and abstracted scenes represent a space in-between the material and spiritual worlds. Using a palette of primarily blue and white, these colors can be interpreted as symbolic of the known and unknown.
Flowers are a metaphor for growth in John Casey’s drawings. On the surface they represent beauty, love and purity. Yet when the flower becomes an appendage growing from one of Casey’s creatures it takes on darker meanings; beauty through unnatural mutation, as well as the ability to persist and thrive in spite of a cancer-like growth.
Leo Bersamina studies nature for its patterns and textures. These elements are simplified and somewhat abstracted in his work, yet at the same time amplified. River rocks become repeating ovals of negative space on a field of black charcoal, the layered forms cannily mimic the rippling of shadows underwater.
Delineating a rock, a weed, a feather; the artists in Strange Forest share an affinity for the natural world. Taking a microscope to nature, their chosen subjects become microcosms for exploring the state of the earth and our place within it.
Extraño Bosque Extraño Bosque presenta dibujos contemporáneos dedicados a dimensiones abstractas y surrealistas del mundo natural. Utilizando técnicas de ilustraciones científicas y de botánica, seis artistas de la Bay Area (Leo Bersamina, John Casey, Masako Miki, Nora Pauwels, Lela Shields y Elizabeth Sims) asumen el papel de naturalistas experimentales. A través de procesos tales como delineación minuciosa, clasificación y enfoque en el ciclo de la vida, los artistas expresan un profundo respeto por la flora y la fauna de nuestro planeta, mientras que al mismo tiempo lo reinventan. Buscando encuentros que la emocionen, Elizabeth Sims empieza con una observación cercana de la naturaleza, un pino Bristlecone y un pedazo de obsidiana, para crear dibujos a gran escala que son parte real y parte invención. Los títulos de su obra hacen referencia a artistas y personajes de ficción que han desaparecido en el desierto. Usando una mezcla poco común de sal marina, cuarzo y purpurina, Lela Shields crea superficies en las que se representan escenas botánicas detalladas con gouache, lápiz y pan de oro. La base desigual e inestable de las imágenes impide que Shields funcione a la perfección, y representa una especie de metamorfosis ya que el trabajo frágil está siempre susceptible de cambio. El trabajo de Nora Pauwels se centra en la flora que se extiende sin control alrededor de su barrio semi-industrial de Emeryville. No importa cuál sea la especie de planta – Pauwels frecuentemente recolecta malas hierbas – hojas, flores y ramas también son recolectadas debido a su sutileza estética y también porque son demarcadores de los lugares que ellas están determinadas a crecer. Inspirados en las tradiciones sintoístas, los animales y las escenas abstractas de Masako Miki representan un espacio intermedio entre el mundo material y el espiritual. Utilizando una paleta de colores enfocada en azul y blanco, estos colores se pueden interpretar como símbolos de lo conocido y lo desconocido. Las flores son una metáfora del crecimiento en los dibujos de John Casey. En la superficie, representan la belleza, el amor y la pureza. Sin embargo, cuando la flor se convierte en una adición que crece de una de las criaturas de Casey, se adquiere significados más oscuros; belleza a través de una mutación antinatural, así como la capacidad de persistir y prosperar a pesar de un crecimiento similar al cáncer. Leo Bersamina estudia la naturaleza por sus patrones y texturas. Estos elementos son simplificados y algo abstraídos en su trabajo, pero al mismo tiempo amplificados. Las rocas de los ríos se convierten en óvalos repetitivos de espacio negativo en un campo de carbón negro, las formas estratificadas pueden imitar el ondulado de las sombras bajo el agua. Delineando una roca, una hierba, una pluma; los artistas de Extraño Bosque comparten una afinidad por el mundo natural. Tomando un microscopio para mirar la naturaleza, sus temas elegidos se convierten en microcosmos para explorar el estado de la tierra y nuestro lugar dentro de ella.
Small Works: Selections by Phil Linhares features original small works of art (up to 14 inches) by California artists, representing a wide range of media, artistic styles and topics. Total cash awards of $1,000.
Juror’s Statement:
“As juror for the Small Works exhibition I was very pleased by the quality of the work submitted. Approximately 60 works were ultimately selected, the number limited by the available gallery space; more works could have easily qualified otherwise.
Artists often ask exhibition jurors “What are you looking for?” as if the juror is seeking a particular form of expression to make a larger point. My response would be “looking for very good work in any form”; the artworks here illustrate that view.
I want to thank all the artists who submitted work for consideration, and also thank the staff of the Richmond Art Center for their gracious cooperation on every phase of the exhibition.” Phil Linhares Small Works Juror
About the Juror: Former Chief Curator of the Oakland Museum of California, Philip Linhares has organized numerous exhibitions on contemporary art, including solo exhibitions of the work of Leon Golub, Joan Brown, Jim Nutt, Bruce Nauman, and Ruth Asawa. In the Oakland Museum of California’s recent gallery transformation and reinstallation, Linhares directed the installation on Folk Art and Counter Culture including works by Peter Mason Bond and Martin Ramirez (Folk Art) and Wally Hedrick, Jay DeFeo and Bruce Conner (Counter Culture).
Image:
Gina Golledge, Visceral Motion, 2017, linen, upcycled wool, silk, and cotton, silk and wool thread
Each year, the Richmond Art Center invites our members to participate in our Annual Members’ Show, which is showcased in our Main and West Galleries. This year’s featured Member Spotlight Artists are John Friedman, Ed Lay, Hilda Robinson, and Sandy Walker.
Please be sure to join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, June 9, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Our Members’ Artist Talk will take place on Saturday, June 16 at 11:00 am.
Artists exhibiting: Tarnel Abbott, Bill Abright, Cassandra Adams, Cristina Alvarez Magliano, Peter Baczek, Donna Barati, Debra Barnes, Kirsten Barrere, Wallace Bastein, Benjamin Beede, Joseph Bellacera, Paula Bellacera, Dave Benoit, Mira Benoni, David Bernard, Jim Billy, Andi Biren, Priscilla Birge, Stephen Bischoff, Ruth Block, Bonnie Randall Boller, Lorraine Bonner, Claire Bowman, Linda Lee Boyd, Jennie Braman, Susan Brand, Stella Breslin, Edythe Bresnahan , Clair Brown, Jayma Brown, Walter Bruszewski, Sheila Cain, Lois Cantor, Donna Caplin, Suzanne Carey, Cherie Carter, Suzanne Cerny, Mari Chovan-Upton, Will Clipson, Kay Coffee, Lorna Cogen, Mort Cohn, Sas Colby, Robin Cooper, Edmund Coppinger, Hélène Paulette Côté, Larry Craighill, Cheryl Crane, Tara Daly, Barbara Daniell, Riti Dhesi, Deb Dyer, Gene Erickson, Danielle Fafchamps, Claudine Feibusch, Donna Fenstermaker, Lorrie Fink, Carole Fitzgerald, Duane Fitzgerald, Mary Fong, Thomas Franco, Nancy Freeman, John Friedman, Kathleen Gadway, Rita Gardner, Marilyn Gee-Cartwright, Carla Gelbaum, Elaine Gerber, Regina Gilligan, Kate Godfrey, Alisa Golden, Edith Goldstein, Sally Goldstein, Kathy Grady, Goodman Gries, Vicki Gunter, Patricia Guthrie, Annie Hallatt, Victoria Hamlin, Colleen Haraden-Gorski, Bryan Harris, Bea Hartman, Larry Hatfield, Ellen Hauptli, Karl Hauser, Katie Hawkinson, Heidi Headapohl, Will Headapohl, Bill Helsel, Jeanne Hendrickson, Marilyn Hill, Susie Hodges, Susan Hybloom, Lisa Jacobs, Carol Jenkins, Carol Jenkins, Dale Johnson, Bill Johnston Jr., Jessica Jordao, Sharon Jue, Myoung Kang, Kristen George Kavanagh, Betsy Kellas, Betsy Kendall, Holly King, Fred Kling, Elisabeth Koss, Lisa Krepela, Doris Kretschmer, Carol Ladewig, Eloise Larson, Allen Lavee, Diana Lawrence , Robbin Légère Henderson, Ed Lay, Sue Levin, Linna Lippke, Malcolm Lubliner, Lynn Maack, Barbara Maricle, Michael Maszk, Vicky McAdams, Erin McCluskey Wheeler, Susan Meinke, Kat Mill, Donovan Miller, Judy Miller, David Mintim, Steven Morales, Gordon Morris, Claire Murphy, Dawn Nakashima, Irene Nelson, Bernadette Ngai, Shamy Noily, Stephen Nomura, Fletcher Oakes, Owen Oakley, Karen Ondracek, Elmarise Owens, Anne Meade Paden, Rachel Padilla, Shirley Parini, Javier Perez, Heli Perrett, Lucy Phenix, Rich Quade, Lynda Reed, Jimmy Reina, Virginia Rigney, Solveig Roberts, Hilda Robinson, Joseph Rogers, Mark Rosenthal, Brian Rothstein, Linda Ruiz-Lozito, Elke Savala, Jabali Sawicki, Victoria Sawicki, Susan Schneider, Karen Schwartz, Stephanie Scott, Andrea Segall, Joani Share, James Shefik, Michael Shemchuk, Amrita Singhal, Allison Skidgel, Joseph Slusky, Bertrell Smith, Maryly Snow, Sophie Stathakos, Larry Stefl, John Steinberg, Jan Stevenson, Bethia Stone, Lynn Sullivan, Ruth Tabancay, Phoebe Tanner, Claudia Tarantino, Leitha Thrall, Pam Stefl Toki, George Tomberlin, Toby Tover, Susan Tureck, Sandy Walker, Catherine Waller, Marlene Walters, Wei-Jing Wan, John Wehrle, Susan Wehrle, Eleanor Day West, Marcy Wheeler, Heather Wilson, Albert Wong, Danielle Wright, Jan Wurm, Dave Yoas, Clarie Young, Susan Zimmerman
Richmond Creates: The 6th Annual Art in the Community Show brings a portion of the work created this year in our off-site satellite classes here to the Richmond Art Center. The artists shown here range from ages 5 to 85 and were all participants in 6-10 week art classes held at local school and community centers. This exhibition showcases work made in a variety of media – printmaking, sculpture, metals, book arts, public art, weaving, painting, ceramics and mixed media. The talented teaching artists facilitating these classes are dedicated to sharing the joy and power of the creative process in service to learning and well-being.
This year, AIC offered a total of 38 classes and one school-wide residency, engaging over 1500 students. In collaboration with the WCCUSD office of expanded learning, we provided after-school art classes in 6 elementary schools, one middle and one high school. In its third year, our school-wide spring residency at Washington elementary focused on printmaking, ceramics and book arts. Half of our partnerships occur in non-traditional learning spaces which include local non profits, City of Richmond community centers, the E.M. Downer YMCA, and housing-affiliated community centers. This year Art Center staff and teaching artists shared strategies for artmaking with 45 elementary school teachers and 20 after school group leaders through the Bring Art to Your Classroom professional development workshop series.
In collaboration with the West Contra Costa School District (WCCUSD), the Richmond Art Center will present the annual West Contra Costa Unified School District Art Show in its Community Gallery.
The Richmond Art Center has a prosperous and long-standing 53-year partnership with the WCCUSD, and this year there are over 300 works of various media and subject matter on display representing the creative artistic talents of students from middle and high schools throughout the school district. The Art Center and WCCUSD share an ongoing vision that art education is a crucial component of a thriving and productive society.
There will be a special reception honoring the students and art teachers on Tuesday, April 17 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm, which will be free and open to the public.
In addition, numerous art awards will be given out by the Richmond Art Center, the El Sobrante Art Guild, and other community members for the students’ artistic talent and originality.
The West Contra Costa Unified School District has generously sponsored the annual student exhibition.
The student show coincides with the Art Center’s featured exhibitions: Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth and Selections from the Betty Ann and Raymond Barnett Collection.
Face Forward: Self-image & Self-Worth Artists Panel Discussion: Saturday, April 7, 2-4pm
The group exhibition, Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth, includes artists working across many platforms to address issues of identity, race, gender, status and societal values. Painting, photography, sculpture, and video present the variety of ways in which artists situate themselves in life.
Over the centuries artists from Rembrandt to Warhol have used the self-portrait as a vehicle to investigate aging, wealth and poverty, social position and social non-conformity. The contemporary artists gathered together in this exhibition use the self-portrait in these and other explorations to reflect contemporary life. In these times of diversity and multicultural experience, the artist’s image is both a cypher for the human condition as well as the foundation for complex iconography in which the cultural object stands to reflect the impact of societal norms on the individual.
From the groundbreaking feminist work of Judy Dater in her personifications of societal expectations, to the deceptively bright scenes of Allan deSouza’s collaged alter-ego responding to racism, these artworks all bring pause. The underlying values of contemporary society are brought forward for reflection and response.
Other artists participating in Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth include Mildred Howard, Judith Linhares, Abel Rodriguez, Nyé Lyn Tho, Lava Thomas, Cate White, and Vanessa Woods. Using brush or camera, these artists bring humor, persistence, and intimacy to life.
Image:
Abel Rodriguez Self-Portrait in Green with My Hair Pulled Back 2006
Oil on panel
16” x 12”
Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth (Mire Adelante: Autoimagen & Autoestima) Galería: Main Gallery Fechas de la Exposición: 27 de Marzo – 19 de Mayo de 2018 Inauguración: Sábado, 24 de Marzo, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
La exposición colectiva, Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Wort (Mire Adelante: Autoimagen & Autoestima), incluye artistas que trabajan en diversas plataformas que abordan cuestiones de identidad, raza, género, estado y valores sociales. Pintura, fotografía, escultura y video presentan la variedad de las formas en que los artistas se sitúan en la vida.
A lo largo de los siglos, artistas desde el Rembrandt al Warhol han utilizado el autorretrato como vehículo para investigar el envejecimiento, la riqueza y la pobreza, la posición social y la inconformidad social. Los artistas contemporáneos reunidos en esta exposición usan el autorretrato en estas y otras exploraciones para reflejar acerca de la vida contemporánea. En estos tiempos de diversidad y experiencia multicultural, la imagen del artista es tanto un código para la condición humana como la base para una iconografía compleja en la que el objeto cultural puede reflejar el impacto de las normas sociales en el individuo.
Desde el innovador trabajo feminista de Judy Dater en sus personificaciones de las expectativas de la sociedad, hasta las escenas engañosamente brillantes del alter ego de Allan deSouza que responde al racismo, estas obras de arte provocan una pausa. Los valores subyacentes de la sociedad contemporánea se presentan para la reflexión y para la respuesta.
Otros artistas que participan en Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth(Mire Adelante: Autoimagen & Autoestima)incluyen a Mildred Howard, Judith Linhares, Abel Rodríguez, Nyé Lyn Tho, Lava Thomas, Cate White y Vanessa Woods. Usando un pincel o una cámara, estos artistas dan vida al humor, la persistencia y la intimidad.
Imagen:
Abel Rodriguez
Autorretrato en verde con mi cabello al lado.
2006
Óleo sobre tabla
16 “x 12”
The century of collage that began with George Braque and Pablo Picasso taking wallpaper or newspaper directly to drawing or painting opened a floodgate of exploration and expression making use of diverse materials in concert. Of today’s moment, the seven artists in The Cutting Edge exhibition sharpen their vision employing scissors and wit, glue and gumption. John Hundt, David Jones, Diana Krevsky, Sherry Parker, Kim Smith, Livia Stein, and Shayna Yasuhara each pursue a different vein of inquiry to touch upon the dream, the dreaded, the seductive, and the puzzling. Riotous color, cool text, and fanciful imaginings all call for visual discovery.
Heir to this lineage, John Hundt makes use of vintage printed images to reconfigure the erotic body, to relocate the physical landscape, and to disorient the conventional thought. In the hands of Sherry Parker, the diverse elements seek to coalesce in a bitter-sweet scene of poignancy. And with yet another inflection, one tinged with nostalgia as well as irony, Kim Smith glues and writes to ask directly what is missing, what is lost, and how do we manage to make things whole again.
It is with the bits and pieces from her own drawings and paintings that Diana Krevsky re-imagines psychological landscapes. This transcends a recycling of materials and images to a discovery of new voices in the re-assembled. The taking of an element from previous work to propel a new vision is also common to Livia Stein as seen in etchings re-incorporated in larger compositions.
Livia Stein opens her work to the culture of India where she has had artist’s residencies: the intensity of color, the sensuality of cloth, and the impulse of ornamentation all propel these complex compositions into an abundance of energy and movement. Similarly, Shayna Yasuhara takes on a visual language of a specific culture – but here it is popular culture: the visual language of animé, the sensibility of cute, and the flat, close values of a palette orchestrated in a muted register.
The specificity of palette, the convention of drawing style, and the open expansiveness of space also figure in the work of David Jones. Lending a sense of nostalgia to the found images that are interrupted by the mixing of puzzles, the inconsistent visual narratives themselves take on a dreamlike disorientation so that even in a seemingly completed construction – the scene, the story, the meaning – remain puzzling.
The Art of Living Black, now in its 22nd year, speaks to a long history of social struggles, cultural affirmation, and art making as a transformative practice. As a preview exhibition and self-guided open studio art tour that recognizes Bay Area artists of African American descent, the exhibition contains a vast range of artistic endeavors, styles and media that references forgotten cultural histories, struggles and personal identity. Here, it is the artists’ ability to construct meaning for themselves and others that defines the significance of the work.
This year also recognizes the creative talents of Kelvin Curry and Damon Powell, who were awarded the 22nd Annual Spotlight Artists Award.
The Richmond Art Center would like to express it gratitude and appreciation to the supporters of The Art of Living Black and Steven Hopkins and Henri Schuyers, whose efforts have contributed to the success of the annual Art of Living Black exhibition and the Artists’ Open Studios.
Invented during the birth of the industrial revolution, photography continues to be a critical element of our cultural lifestyle. Its ability to capture time, construct history, and illustrate or manipulate truth and identity helped it climb the ladder of importance in the art world. The evolution of photography is indeed as interesting as the evolution of art itself; with its exciting discoveries and technical progress coinciding with and reinforcing current artistic streams, and social, economic, technological and political events in society.
In the current age of digital manipulation, photography’s once sole aim to represent reality as truth has become optional and even immaterial. It once required technical expertise, specialized equipment and time to create an image. Now it takes less than a second with a mobile phone.
The juried exhibition In Focus on display, provides a diverse selection of 37 insightful and at times emotional images created by California-based artists, reflecting today’s ever-changing society. The selections were made by nationally known Bay Area photographer Judy Dater, who will have a major solo exhibition of her work, titled Only Human, at the DeYoung Museum from April 7 through September 16, 2018.
Juror’s Statement: Judy Dater
Everyone who has ever judged a contest is always faced with his or her own personal taste and biases. Mine range from being more interested in emotionally charged photographs as opposed to abstraction. I also prefer “straight” photography to “manipulated” pictures. This accounts to some degree for the choices I have made. I respond to photographs that speak to me on a visceral level. In the end, I tried to pick images that would represent the best of what was submitted, and that hopefully would make an interesting exhibition. No two people would make the same choices.
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In Focus: Current Photography (En Foco: Fotografía Actual) Galería: South Gallery Fechas de la Exposición: 16 de Enero – 19 de Mayo de 2018 Inauguración: 3 de Febrero de 2018 Inventado durante el nacimiento de la revolución industrial, la fotografía continúa siendo un elemento crítico de nuestro estilo de vida cultural. Su capacidad de capturar el tiempo, construir historia e ilustrar o manipular la verdad y la identidad le ayudó a aumentar su importancia en el mundo del arte. La evolución de la fotografía es tan interesante como la evolución del proprio arte; con sus descubrimientos emocionantes y progreso técnico coincidiendo y reforzando corrientes artísticas actuales, y eventos sociales, económicos, tecnológicos y políticos en la sociedad.
En la era actual de la manipulación digital, el único objetivo de la fotografía de representar la realidad como verdad se ha convertido en algo opcional e incluso inmaterial. En un determinado momento, se requirió experiencia técnica, equipo especializado y tiempo para crear una imagen. En contrapartida, actualmente se lo lleva menos de un segundo con un teléfono móvil.
La exhibición jurada In Focus (En Foco) presentada, ofrece una selección diversa de 37 imágenes perspicaces y en ocasiones emocionales creadas por artistas basados en California, que reflejan la sociedad actual que está en constante cambio. Las selecciones fueron hechas por la fotógrafa de la Bay Area nacionalmente conocida, Judy Dater, que tendrá una gran exposición individual de su obra, titulada Only Human (Solamente Humano), en el Museo DeYoung desde el 7 de abril hasta el 16 de septiembre de 2018.
DECLARACIÓN DEL JURADO: JURY DATER Todos los que alguna vez han juzgado un concurso siempre se enfrentan a sus propios gustos y prejuicios personales. Los míos oscilan entre mi interés por las fotografías que tienen una carga más emocional en vez de las fotografías abstractas. También prefiero a la fotografía “directa” a las imágenes “manipuladas”. Esto explica en cierta medida las elecciones que hice. Respondo a las fotografías que me hablan a nivel visceral. Al final, traté de elegir imágenes que representaran lo mejor de lo que se me fue enviado, y así espero haber creado una exposición interesante. No hay dos personas que tomarían las mismas decisiones.
